First off, this whole thing belongs in a "hardware dev" forum, but seeing as how there really ISNT any such section *ahem-MODS?* Ill post it here...
Ok, I know I havent posted in a while and there are probably some people out there wondering "what ever happened to that 'Ultimate mod' Guy?"
Well let me tell you; got divorced, lost my house, lost my kids, lost my money... all of it... had to deal with the humiliation of moveing back into the basement of 'mommies house', had to resurect my entire network from scratch-which is only running at 75% now thanks to the ex takeing some of my hardware in the divorce, and let me tell you its not easy assembleing my setup in the space I have alotted to me-I can go on, but it depresses me...
Anyway, I had promised to keep everyone up to date on my progress and so here it is:
For those unfamilliar with the project in which I speak: I am the guy that whinned about an internal hard drive in the gp2x (along with some other little gadgets), I was told I should do it myself... so I am. B)
on the hardware side, I have space to work on this little jem, but for the sake of some of the mods I wish to build, and due to the condition of my localle (IE: a musty and dust riddled basement), some additional hardware not normally used will be needed; a micro clean room.
I need to create a chamber I can work on this in, this will allow me to eliminate as much dust and debris from the work environment as possible. particularly with the screen modifications. is there anyone with ANY expertise/ideas for how I can do this? I had originally thought to use an old discarded neonatel unit from the local hospital untill I found out they crush them and when I approached the admin for the possibility of buying one PRE-crushed they refused, but offered to give me a contact name to buy one ($4000 US)... rude. :angry:
basically I can do this with simple angle brackets, plexiglass (AKA cheep clear sheets of plastic) or acryllic, and a hell of a lot of caulk. the problem area is how to get the hardware into and out of the chamber w/o getting dust in too... Ideas?
for those that only read books with pictures (
) the final device will look something like this:
http://dailydffr.dyndns.org/gallery/misc/gp2xredis.PNG
Note the "old busted" on the left and the "new hotness" on the right. (forgive the gratuitous MIB2 referance)
Ultimately the final "contraption" will NOT be as thick as shown, reason: I planned for an extra 2 milimeters arround every component and circuit board addition, this space will ultimately be unnecessary and removed bit by bit, the overall thickness added in the image is about 8 mm greater than the original. That will probably be shaved down to 4 or 3mm in the end as I will ALSO be removeing some superflous components from the motherboard (the entire battery subsystem will be partially obsolete as the NEW battery system will be basically 2 PAIRS of AA batteries in paralell as apposed to the original single tandem set. running AA batteries in paralell hoops the amperage up to between 4800mAh and 5000mAh maintaining the 3v power. MORE than enough to power everything in the kit for a sufficient period of time (though I cant test it, I suspect I can easily squeze 4 hours out of this configuration.) and for those electricians out there, as far as I can tell this baby does not complain at all at haveing all that extra power at its disposal (yes I have built this particular part of the mod and it APPEARS to work fine (though suggestions for preventative measures would be appreciated)
Next: I will ahve to sacrifice the ext. port, the USB functionality is stolen from the ext port. I suspect this may cause adverse affect if a bob is used, untill I can test this further, I just wont use it.
for the plastics, I am going to do a vacuume forming method similar to what this guy used:
http://retroactive.be/l64/
BTW: It is HELA tempting to use his PS1 LCD delie and combine that into my mod makeing a Supra-Sweet little media player, but I have this feeling that it would inhibit gameing if not Bulkify the beast WAY too much.
a final checklist of what is going into the mod:
60GB HDD
additional/moved battery bays
4cell battery charger (so I can charge my batteries w/o takeing them out!)
ZIF to USB HDD carrier component
Dpad mod (face it, the "stick" sucks, plain and simple)
itrip fm audio broadcast device
2 port usb hub w/ 2 external type B ports (use your imagination)
so now, all there is to do is wait, I have everything I need except for the "micro clean room" and the actual hard drive.
suggestions on that clean room?
Ok, I know I havent posted in a while and there are probably some people out there wondering "what ever happened to that 'Ultimate mod' Guy?"
Well let me tell you; got divorced, lost my house, lost my kids, lost my money... all of it... had to deal with the humiliation of moveing back into the basement of 'mommies house', had to resurect my entire network from scratch-which is only running at 75% now thanks to the ex takeing some of my hardware in the divorce, and let me tell you its not easy assembleing my setup in the space I have alotted to me-I can go on, but it depresses me...
Anyway, I had promised to keep everyone up to date on my progress and so here it is:
For those unfamilliar with the project in which I speak: I am the guy that whinned about an internal hard drive in the gp2x (along with some other little gadgets), I was told I should do it myself... so I am. B)
on the hardware side, I have space to work on this little jem, but for the sake of some of the mods I wish to build, and due to the condition of my localle (IE: a musty and dust riddled basement), some additional hardware not normally used will be needed; a micro clean room.
I need to create a chamber I can work on this in, this will allow me to eliminate as much dust and debris from the work environment as possible. particularly with the screen modifications. is there anyone with ANY expertise/ideas for how I can do this? I had originally thought to use an old discarded neonatel unit from the local hospital untill I found out they crush them and when I approached the admin for the possibility of buying one PRE-crushed they refused, but offered to give me a contact name to buy one ($4000 US)... rude. :angry:
basically I can do this with simple angle brackets, plexiglass (AKA cheep clear sheets of plastic) or acryllic, and a hell of a lot of caulk. the problem area is how to get the hardware into and out of the chamber w/o getting dust in too... Ideas?
for those that only read books with pictures (
) the final device will look something like this:http://dailydffr.dyndns.org/gallery/misc/gp2xredis.PNG
Note the "old busted" on the left and the "new hotness" on the right. (forgive the gratuitous MIB2 referance)
Ultimately the final "contraption" will NOT be as thick as shown, reason: I planned for an extra 2 milimeters arround every component and circuit board addition, this space will ultimately be unnecessary and removed bit by bit, the overall thickness added in the image is about 8 mm greater than the original. That will probably be shaved down to 4 or 3mm in the end as I will ALSO be removeing some superflous components from the motherboard (the entire battery subsystem will be partially obsolete as the NEW battery system will be basically 2 PAIRS of AA batteries in paralell as apposed to the original single tandem set. running AA batteries in paralell hoops the amperage up to between 4800mAh and 5000mAh maintaining the 3v power. MORE than enough to power everything in the kit for a sufficient period of time (though I cant test it, I suspect I can easily squeze 4 hours out of this configuration.) and for those electricians out there, as far as I can tell this baby does not complain at all at haveing all that extra power at its disposal (yes I have built this particular part of the mod and it APPEARS to work fine (though suggestions for preventative measures would be appreciated)
Next: I will ahve to sacrifice the ext. port, the USB functionality is stolen from the ext port. I suspect this may cause adverse affect if a bob is used, untill I can test this further, I just wont use it.
for the plastics, I am going to do a vacuume forming method similar to what this guy used:
http://retroactive.be/l64/
BTW: It is HELA tempting to use his PS1 LCD delie and combine that into my mod makeing a Supra-Sweet little media player, but I have this feeling that it would inhibit gameing if not Bulkify the beast WAY too much.
a final checklist of what is going into the mod:
60GB HDD
additional/moved battery bays
4cell battery charger (so I can charge my batteries w/o takeing them out!
) ZIF to USB HDD carrier component
Dpad mod
(face it, the "stick" sucks, plain and simple)itrip fm audio broadcast device
2 port usb hub w/ 2 external type B ports (use your imagination
)so now, all there is to do is wait, I have everything I need except for the "micro clean room" and the actual hard drive.
suggestions on that clean room?
