Super Gp2x Mod Project Underway

[bacteria]

Who knows, let's wait for the next chilling episode...

--------------------

Anyway, wasted half a day of my life I won't get back again!

Got all the contacts working with hot-glue, but some of the button contacts were a little tempremental. This isn't good enough, no point sealing everything up to find that you can't press one/more of the buttons. When the glue sets, it does not set completely rigid, this caused me the problems.

At least with hot glue, you can pry it up with your fingernail. I removed all the hot-glue contacts I had made (quite a bit of glue I must say, fortunately I didn't get any over the transisters, so I got away with it). The GP2x booted fine again, so all is still fine. Project is still going, as I didn't brick the GP2x (at least, so far...)

I will have to make a special trip into town and buy some flux, as Vimacs suggested. I clearly have to solder the joints to get the right result, however I may use some hot glue to strengthen the joints afterwards.

This is proving to be a very involving project, I hope the ends justify the means!

 

[BenScar]

however I may use some hot glue to strengthen the joints afterwards.

That sounds like a very good idea, something I'll be doing when I work on my next project.

 

[bacteria]

Ok, I knew this would happen - which is why I was keen to persue the hot-glue idea to make the contacts work for the buttons.

Had a go with solder, managed to drop a small blob of solder onto two sets of button connections, and soldered wires to one of them ok. As I was starting to do the same for the second button, one of the soldered wires broke free (before I could hot-glue it) and moved onto the capacitors, the screen went black, although the green light was still on. I rebooted the GP2x, the screen momentarily shows white (as normal) but went black and stayed black then, didn't go into boot. Looks like I short-circuited the GP2x. I said my soldering skills were not great! Sod it.

Therefore, unfortunately (after this stage I was going to be on the home run - just a question of assembling everything make and connecting them to the wires) the project is dead, as my old GP2x died. I have a MKII GP2x now (bought off the marketplace on the forum recently), I am going to keep it as it is! (My wife will not be pleased if I ruined that one too!)

The only problem I had in the project was connecting wires to the buttons on the GP2x, everything else was no problem, just time consuming. Unfortunately, this was the stage which killed my old GP2x.

Sorry guys, due to this, PROJECT DEAD. (unless someone wants to donate a working GP2x to me for free or very cheaply, so I can continue the project, which is highly unlikely!).

I may as well show the pic of the case front, all the parts were positioned in places which seemed natural to use them. The slightly shiny parts are where the paint (I put on about 5 coats) are finishing drying, the surface is quite smooth. I had black buttons for the B, A, Centre-push; green for X, Y, Select; red for Start; black square buttons for Vol+ and Vol- and red square buttons for the shoulder buttons. All buttons fitted tightly in position, the D-pad top was from the N64 and the hole for the joystick was a perfect fit. Sod it, so much time wasted - project dead. It would have been a nice project to finish. Pic before doesn't do justice especially, it looks nicer with the buttons in place, but hay-ho. The paint in the holes would have been removed as the buttons, etc were inserted in place, in case you think they look "rough", it doesn't matter at this stage, (and even less so now).

 

[Epicenter]

There's the possibility you didn't actually fry the machine, and your firmware is just destroyed. What you described doesn't sound like something that'd destroy the MMSP2, and I couldn't see why it'd destroy most of the supporting components either. I'd take a look at it with JTAG before you toss it. I must've shorted my GP2X's power over 10 times now, it just crashed and rebooted everytime. Often with some pretty NES-crash style graphics.

 

[Dimacus]

Bad luck
However it might not be completely toasted.

Aside from that it might just have crashed as epicenter said, you might also have fried the voltage regulator, or some capacitator.

Try to turn it on using batteries if you where using an adaptor before, or an adaptor if you where using batteries (if memory serves me right, i think they used different components to supply the gp with power).

Also, could you post a hi-res picture of the PCB and point out what capacitors it touched?

 

[fluffyhamster]

that things a beast!

 

[bacteria]

There's the possibility you didn't actually fry the machine, and your firmware is just destroyed. What you described doesn't sound like something that'd destroy the MMSP2, and I couldn't see why it'd destroy most of the supporting components either. I'd take a look at it with JTAG before you toss it. I must've shorted my GP2X's power over 10 times now, it just crashed and rebooted everytime. Often with some pretty NES-crash style graphics.

The blob of solder was about 2mm in size, it moved (on the wire) onto the bank of capacitors in the pic (this pic is not mine, it was from an archive (EvilDragon's possibly); screen flickered, solder wire hit the area again (while I was trying to stop it), then screen died. When I rebooted (I only use batteries), I got an initial white screen for a fraction of a second, then black screen and nothing - no bootup or anything. Changed batteries, no difference.

I don't have a JTAG, or know how to use one. I guess something must have shorted; there is nothing I can do now, unless some bright spark has any good ideas. Oh well. Wife not happy, ho hum; good thing I have a MKII to play with still! When the joystick fails (as it will no doubt at some point, as the joystick is not exactly built for long life) on my MKII model, I will reserect this project - decided to keep everything I have done so far "just in case".

 

[moz]

Dammit

 

[DBH]

Gpengu weeps

 

[Dimacus]

bacteria: you would not happen to have a larger picture?

 

[fluffyhamster]

Try using a power adaptor

 

[bacteria]

Try using a power adaptor

Thanks guys for your comments and support.

The GP2x green light remained on whilst the screen was black, which indicates that power was being supplied to the unit, so using a power adaptor is unlikely to make any odds (am I right? I don't want to throw more money at this unless it would make a difference. Presumably if this did work, I could only use a power adaptor again with this GP2x and not batteries?

The irony is that I had considered using sticky foam pads to connect the wires to the button contacts, then hot-glue the wires to the motherboard to keep them in place. I figured that it would be a little more awkward repositioning them if I needed to (removing the residue) and would have to be careful if removing one near electronics parts. In principle, this would have worked fine though. Sounds naff, but would have worked. Instead I took the advice of soldering when my attempt of hot-gluing proved tempremental - boom, project dead. Oh well, shit happens.

The case may look a little large, but isn't too bad; 240mmx170mm - the GP2x after all is 140x85mm. This size is needed though to accomodate everything which needs to go in it. I did a diagram to illustrate this below. Most of it fits quite snugly. I was going to make the extra left and B buttons on the sides for pinball games (especially Psycho Pinball, which I love).

When my MKII's joystick fails (eventually) I will reserect this mod and this topic again, although this may take a while (unless someone has a real desire to see this project fulfil quicker, in which case please feel free to post me a free one, or please feel free to offer me a very cheap one ( :blink: )). (being cheeky here) - free GP2x's are/were, I believe given out to some software developers, any chance of a free donated one for this hardware mod, CraigiX? (begging ends!) - if you don't ask, you don't get, as the saying goes!

My old GP2x I deemed was pretty useless, you could only hit the direction you wanted about 20% of the time, with the MKII it is closer to 80% (guesswork figures), which is acceptable - not great, but acceptable. This is why I started to mod my old GP2x a while back, with many D-pad mods, then with this newer one - no real option, nothing to lose.

? When I am ready to mod my MKII in the future, can I simply replace the MKII screen with my old one, or are they incompatible?

If anyone needs a free set of GP2x buttons (all/any of them), for example if yours have worn down and you can't see the letters on the keys anymore, let me know - I could post them anywhere in the UK to you (2nd class stamp) - if you need them, PM me. They aren't any use to me anymore!!

 

[Epicenter]

Definitely work on soldering. I've tried hot-gluing down wires-- it will invariably flow under your wires and keep them from making contact to the board. Then you'll just have a big mess. I wouldn't advise soldering to those carbon pads anyway, trace the leads back to a convenient point. Use a continuity checker mode on a multimeter to ensure the points connect. If you lack this, set any decent multimeter to Resistance and put a probe on both points. If the resistance is closer to 0 and not Infinite or exceedingly high, you should be good-- connect to that real solder point.

Also try, instead of solder with rosin flux in it already, plain solder and liquid flux. Put the flux lightly on the point to solder and to the stripped-off portion of your (hopefully neatly twisted and tinned) wire. Then apply your solder, wire and iron to the point (some of those 'helping hands' tools with the alligator clips helps to hold things steady.) Melt the solder there and it should flow to mix with the flux wherever you put it, forming a clean joint. Don't let the solder stay hot too long or you'll get a dry solder joint and poor conduction, also a brittle, easy-to-break connection (it'll be a dry sandy color instead of a nice shine.) When done, clean your connections carefully with a wire brush and some 100%-or-very-close rubbing alcohol, and let it dry thoroughly before operating anything.

 

[bacteria]

Definitely work on soldering. I've tried hot-gluing down wires-- it will invariably flow under your wires and keep them from making contact to the board. Then you'll just have a big mess. I wouldn't advise soldering to those carbon pads anyway, trace the leads back to a convenient point. Use a continuity checker mode on a multimeter to ensure the points connect. If you lack this, set any decent multimeter to Resistance and put a probe on both points. If the resistance is closer to 0 and not Infinite or exceedingly high, you should be good-- connect to that real solder point.

Also try, instead of solder with rosin flux in it already, plain solder and liquid flux. Put the flux lightly on the point to solder and to the stripped-off portion of your (hopefully neatly twisted and tinned) wire. Then apply your solder, wire and iron to the point (some of those 'helping hands' tools with the alligator clips helps to hold things steady.) Melt the solder there and it should flow to mix with the flux wherever you put it, forming a clean joint. Don't let the solder stay hot too long or you'll get a dry solder joint and poor conduction, also a brittle, easy-to-break connection (it'll be a dry sandy color instead of a nice shine.) When done, clean your connections carefully with a wire brush and some 100%-or-very-close rubbing alcohol, and let it dry thoroughly before operating anything.

*low flying aircraft*. It's all Greek to me! Electronics is not my bag, and my soldering is poor. Thanks for the comments, but I am none the wiser for it. To test the connections worked, I had the GP2x on, and simply put a wire onto point A and the other end on point B (in T-mode on the GP2x) - if there was a connection, the light went black on the GP2x and I knew it was ok!

My electronics knowledge is close to zero and my soldering knowledge is close to this too. I am however very good at making and inventing. At home, for example, I have built an office and hobby room with desking and storage facilities, freestanding, out of 18mm MDF, finished it off nicely. Very strong and atractive. In the lounge, I have made a long unit to house a large LCD television, compartments and speaker system integrated; with a 80Kg tv on top - it is very attractive and very stong, all designed and built by myself. Give me a project to build and I am very capable, give me an electronics job and I am crap. I was hoping I could have managed to hook up some wires to the GP2x (and was managing to, before calamity happened); the rest was plain sailing for me - home ground. Bugger it.

Soldering wires to the back of the joystick doesn't need any skill; nice big gaps, pins to solder to, easy. I just had to find out what connected to what, which I did months ago by finding a .pdf from the internet which showed this information. Problem with soldering to button connections is that the motherboard is non-stick (can be scraped though) and the connections are extremely thin and close together. The tracer wires are even thinner. If I had been a little more careful, I think I would have got away with my soldering though, I just got unlucky. Next time, I will have learnt from my mistake and hot-glued the wires before soldering them, so the wires could not have gone awal.

 

[fluffyhamster]

Try using a power adaptor

Thanks guys for your comments and support.

The GP2x green light remained on whilst the screen was black, which indicates that power was being supplied to the unit, so using a power adaptor is unlikely to make any odds (am I right? I don't want to throw more money at this unless it would make a difference. Presumably if this did work, I could only use a power adaptor again with this GP2x and not batteries?

I asked because i fried my LTSK(it think that's what ED called it), it's the power regulator. And you can't use batterys for a long period of time or at all, but you can use a power adaptor.

 

[bacteria]

Try using a power adaptor

Thanks guys for your comments and support.

The GP2x green light remained on whilst the screen was black, which indicates that power was being supplied to the unit, so using a power adaptor is unlikely to make any odds (am I right? I don't want to throw more money at this unless it would make a difference. Presumably if this did work, I could only use a power adaptor again with this GP2x and not batteries?

I asked because i fried my LTSK(it think that's what ED called it), it's the power regulator. And you can't use batterys for a long period of time or at all, but you can use a power adaptor.

So is the LTSK (whatever that is) the parts shown by the arrow on the photo in post #87, because that is what the soldered wire touched (twice) - first hit, the screen flickered, second hit the screen flickered more, then went black. Green light stays on, when you boot the screen goes white for a brief moment then black, no boot process.

 

[IcantDeleteThisAccount]

Damn.. I was reading through all of this and was getting excited. You had quite a good run too and was curious as to see where this was heading.

 

[thumpgun]

if van helsing seen that he would kill it...

 

[P-J]

if van helsing seen that he would kill it...

Stop gravedigging!

 

[coldfish]

Try 4.5V instead of 3V.

Project resurrected?