Portable Bob Mockup

[triton]

its just a mockup at this point, just started building it today, it consists of a 4AA holder from radioshack cut in half, a 4port portable usb hub from officemax(10$ on sale) modified with a nintendo AV connector the AAs are for powering the hub and whatever is attached to it and the av thing is obviously for tv out, i should have it semi working after i get the resistors i need for usb filtering and make sure that usb and AV can share a ground (i only have 8 pins for my connector) here is a pic of it just sitting on my 2x in peices

sorry for my horrible punctuation! just FYI this is a very quick and dirty mockup just to give you the idea of what it will look like, final one should be MUCH cleaner looking
EDIT: replaced bad pic with much less ugly one

 

[sam fisher]

Remind me of some of your portables cases JK

Looks pretty good.

 

[triton]

like i said mockup lol, all the parts arent connected and its just sittin there at the moment, it will look pretty decent when its done, gotta get it workin first lol. i do need to know ONE thing can the AV out and usb host share a common ground? if they can all i need to do is find a few caps and resistors and wire it up and test it. ill keep you all posted

 

[PokeParadox]

far as I know... ground is as you say common... so there should be no problem.

I bundled all my grounds together on my TV-out cable, composite/USB host mod

 

[triton]

ok awesome, that means i have enough pins for usb host and AV/sound out

 

[Loubear]

ok awesome, that means i have enough pins for usb host and AV/sound out

Once that final product comes out, I'd so buy that off you... :lol:


...No, seriously, I would.

 

[triton]

if i could get a good cheap supply of these usb things and cables with enough pins i would sell em mebe about 20-30$ in parts including battery boxes and cables etc plus a little profit on my part lol

 

[triton]

got the design basically finalized i think. the usb and av ports will be at the top of the unit above the battery bulge, the unit will slide down the back of the GP2X and be held on by channel type things on both outside edges, i'll get a pic of what i mean later if it isnt obvious, it about doubles the thickness of the 2x but it fits pretty darn nice lol

 

[Javacat]

It reminds me of the old game gear battery pack. It would be cool if you could wire up a wifi stick, so it is hidden inside the BoB and has an on/off switch. A built in space for a laptop hard drive would be pritty spiffing aswell

Good luck with it all!

 

[Vimacs]

common ground should work, however it could lower the signal quality.

 

[Loubear]

It reminds me of the old game gear battery pack. It would be cool if you could wire up a wifi stick, so it is hidden inside the BoB and has an on/off switch. A built in space for a laptop hard drive would be pritty spiffing aswell

Good luck with it all!

Laptop harddrives won't fit, they are big and heavy. Well..for a small system like the gp2x. I'd say the hard drive would be about the size of the gp2x itself, maybe a little smaller length-wise. But the usb thing should make up for it, as you can connect hard drives to it. Lucky me, I have a battery powered hdd, so its anime on the road for me.

 

[Javacat]

Not really..

If it really is too big you could use a 1.8" drive. I've just done a quick search and found a 40GB one for £83.

 

[Loubear]

Not really..

If it really is too big you could use a 1.8" drive. I've just done a quick search and found a 40GB one for £83.

But where are you going to put it? Note you have to put everything else too. And you're going to need a container for it...a power supply, and its going to screw up the weight distribution. The top will be heavier than the bottom.

 

[Javacat]

1. It could use the power supplied by the batteries already on the BoB triton has already designed (although the power usage would be quite high)
2. Put it in the middle, over the batteries
3. They hardly weigh anything (the 1.8" drive is 60 grams)
4. Note the smiley I put in my original comment with regards to the hard drive

 

[Loubear]

1. It could use the power supplied by the batteries already on the BoB triton has already designed (although the power usage would be quite high)
2. Put it in the middle, over the batteries
3. They hardly weigh anything (the 1.8" drive is 60 grams)
4. Note the smiley I put in my original comment with regards to the hard drive

Hey, I'd love a portable hard drive too, but mounting it might not be the best idea.

1.As you said, there are battery powered portable cases available though. I can give you the link if you want it.
2.For a 1.8 drive yes. For a 2.5, maybe (2 batteries=60g). I don't know how it feels so I can't really say anything.
3. With everything else, it might add up...
4. Ya I saw it.

 

[triton]

if somebody wants to send me a laptop harddrive and a usb connector for it i would gladly test it out i'm fairly sure a 2.5" drive would run a while on the 2500mah AAs that my BoB would use and it wouldnt be super hard to add a bracket for one to the back, i do have a laptop harddrive but its at a friends and he is in college now so i cant really get it (and the dead laptop its in) back untill he comes back for a while.

 

[Alvin]

A quick google of "small hard drive" gave me this:
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/04/28/small_is_beautiful_uk/

 

[triton]

more progress! keep in mind this is still a very rough mockup and is held together with masking tape, i manufactured a bracket/case of sorts for the batteries and to hold the whole shebang to the back of my 2x, even now it feels very durable and holds on very good! it pretty much doubles the thickness of the 2x but its not too bad to hold, here are the pics

pretty soon i am going to solder the metal parts together and glue the battery boxes in place, i think i will get some of that tool handle ruberizer for the grip edges on the front, I'm off to a good start.

 

[i_am_a_noob]

Why do all the good mods come out when i'm saving for a computer ?

 

[triton]

if you think thats good have a look at the progress i made from the last post, no tape anymore! soldered together