It's dead, Jim. RIP 10/05/05

             ~  Radica to portable Genesis conversion project.
                                                (I couldn't think of a better name...Google "PortaGen")
  • When?
    • Now.

       10/05/05 - Killed off this project because of: http://www.gpx2.com also http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3697 Mmmmm.....


      6/10/05 - Scrapped building a voltage regulator circuit and just got a clearanced $20 7.2v rechargable battery pack from Target. Cheap and works great! The LCD screen works just fine, oh and the battery seems to be a little thinner too, so thats good. Pics to come.


      6/09/05 - It's 10pm and I decided to build the Voltage Regulator. I'm kind of worried because my battery pack is rated at 9.6V and 2000mAh and the PSone screen needs 7.5V and 3A...so we'll see. I had to search a couple of places to get the right calculation for getting 7.5V out of th NTE970 (LM350K compatible) Voltage Regulator. The equation seems to be 1.25(1+R2/R1) which would put me at 1.25(1+600/120) if I wanted to get 7.5V out of this thing ( I hope I'm not missing something here). But anyway, since there are NO 600ohm resistors I have to combine some. I found some 560ohm and 680ohm resistors but that won't do. So I decided to combine resistors and found that 330ohm+120ohm+150ohm equals a perfect 600ohms! Sicne the resistors will be in a series, the combined resistance will simply be a sum of their values...mmmmmmm! Oh yeah, color codes: 330ohm is Orange/Orange/Brown/Gold, 120ohm is Brown/Red/Brown/Gold, and 150ohm is Brown/Green/Brown/Gold. Now why am I documenting these silly little details? So that I don't forget them. I'm not a certified "electronics guru"....so I learn as I go along and I don't want to forget this stuff. You can get all these resistors and more in a huge pack at *GASP* Radio Shack.


      6/06/05 - Disassembled the PSone screen today, it was a BITCH to rip apart...the case is basically junk now...never to be reused again (wasn't planning on it anyway). The first step was to get a little screw driver into these little notches in between the front and back covers...that was easy...then I had to BREAK OFF the speaker mountings because I didn't think to remove the speaker mesh covers and unscrew the speakers..oh well, everything that's needed is intact. Put on the protective LCD clear sheet onto the PCB. Test fit of screen into case is successful...VERY tight fit on the edges...and it will be a tight fit for the portable power pack/Radica board...

Pics:

Pic of the PSone screen and the portable powerpack naked. With the lid on the height of the pack is 1" while without the lid the height is 0.7", so another 0.3" of space saving goodness...I'll use this to put some kind of shielding between the PSone screen and the battery pack.
The side shot is to give an idea of what can and can't fit.


Junked PSone case...kinda sexy looking actually... what a waste.



Some PCB edge connectors I picked up at an electronics surplus shop. These ones are 2x34/2x36/2x40 pin connectors...NOT the 2x32 connector that the Genesis uses. Oh well, as you can see the Cartridge PCB fits just right...with a little dremeling so will the whole cart. The pin spacings (.001") are perfect for all the edge connectors I bought. I'll probably be using the white connector for the project as it has wire solder points and will be easier to deal with (I hope).

    Whats left to do? Well the variable voltage regulator needs a circuit built to drop the voltage from 9.6V to 7.5V. I got a pic of the voltage regulator (and the violated Radica) below. The voltage regulator I got is an NTE970 (from Fry's Electronics... freakin' $10!). This part is an equivelant to an LM350(K?) and is good for up to 35V and 3A output...yippy! Now to actually do the circuitry.

      6/05/05 - Progress is slow. Bought an adjustable Voltage Regulator in order to drop the 9.6V from the portable battery pack to 7.5V. Also bought a case to put everything into...pictures soon to come. Oh, the battery pack has a security bit so I was unable to open it untill I went to OSH and bought a security HEX bit.
Pic of the VR (and a Radica) and the Security Hex bit:
 
 


      6/01/05 - Bought Energizer portable DVD power pack. It's $49.99 and 9.6V. I already have the Radica and I'm going to use a PSone screen for the display (PSone screen is ~$40 at ToysRUs at the moment, I picked up three). The DVD power pack is 9.6v while the PSone screen is 7.6v. Just for the heck of it, i plugged the battery pack into the LCD screen and turned it on with the radica attached...funny thing happend..it worked...but with a weird white glow to everything. SO it's getting too much power. Oh well. Cutting down 9.6v to 7.6v won't be hard
    I'm going to be modifying the Radica to use one 9v battery instead of 4 AA's like it currently does, this will need some voltage conversion again, but thats trivial. I'm going to try my hand at some PCB making with one of those laser printer etching things.


Created 05/31/05
By: roto/mozy

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