Sam's PCP2

[samjc3]

Screen came a day early. Picture quality is amazing, touchscreen works quite well. However, things that are pure white turn pinkish. Its perfect right up until pure white, and then it jumps to pink, with fuzzy edges. It strikes me as interference (my wires are long and unshielded), but it seems odd that it would happen on a singular color. Everything else looks great.

White is all the colors, so depending on how the signal works, its either the max or minimum signal. Probably interference, thats just my idea as to why it happens with white. Are you using VGA or DVI/HDMI?

Hmm. That does make sense. I'll be rewiring everything much cleaner tomorrow. I'll switch to much shorter shielded wire. Hopefully it helps.

Thats my first attempt at picturing the screen. Quite interesting, no?

Yep. Looks better on video than desktop. not bad at all though for desktop.

Short video:


I apologize for the monkeycam. Ima go set up nice so I dont have to hold the camera and take a new video. Hopefully less ass.

Pre post edit: Large video uploading.

 

[zeturi]

Kewl. I wish I had something more interesting to say.

 

[samjc3]

Shows lots of the pink issue. (Vga, by the way) Also, it should be noted that that game letterboxes; the screen is really 4, and you cannot see the grid of the touchscreen with your eyes.

Yep. I'll probably rewire and decide on batteries today.

 

[Kyosho]

Very nice looking screen there. Have you gotten the pinkness figured out? Looking at the video, it's a very odd issue. It's not like everything has slightly shifted red, but that pure white just magically becomes pink. So weird. If you think interference is a problem, have you tried the twisted pair thing? Twist the red wire with the red ground wire (typically with VGA, each color has its own ground, specifically for shielding purposes). It might help. But I'm not sure really.

 

[samjc3]

No, havent really worked on the video. Been working on case and controls. Im just hoping when I rewire video my problems just... go away. If they dont, then I shall investigate further.

Now, my concept case:

Dont worry, Im just using the psone LCD as a stand-in, as my other is all wired up. And the xbox style buttons probably wont be used. It will probably end up being Custom buttons of the unmarked, solid black variety. And playstation dpad. Case dimensions are 5 1/4"x7"x1.5", assuming my batteries are the size I think they are. We shall see what happens.

 

[bud]

Sexy

 

[Kyosho]

Nice. This thing is going to be awesome. I like the idea of the black buttons. The colored buttons sorta stick out funny on a black case. Even with my blue case they still look a little silly.

 

[samjc3]

So Ive decided I am going to use batteries that I have, as the cost of this project is astronomical already. However, Batteries (18650s) and charger that I have would be 14.8v. My screen max input voltage is +15, and my mobo is simply spec'd for 12v. 14.8v lithium runs at about ~17v fully charged. So I need an efficient, small, high amperage (3), preferable low heat method of dropping my voltage to +12 or something in that range.

 

[Kyosho]

I don't know about heat, but this is the only thing I could find. You need Low Dropout regulators for something so close in voltage. Do your system and screen together only draw 3 amps? That is fricken amazing if true. If it turns out that you do need more amps, you can in fact run regulators like this in parallel with some extra stuff.

 

[XCVG]

TI is your friend: http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/p ... 8020h.html and http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/p ... 8020w.html

The dropouts are pretty high at 3 and 2 volts respectively, but with some searching you might be able to find something better. The advantage of these cards is that they are high current and switching for better efficiency.

 

[samjc3]

My biggest problem with those is the sheer size. I dont have room in my case design. Something closer to 3a would be roughly half the size, right?

 

[grossaffe]

just started following your project, Sam. Have you looked into a switching regulator to drop the voltage? Switching regulators tend to put out less heat and get better efficiency than resistance-based regulators.

Perhaps this will do the trick: http://elcodis.com/component.php?c=7399 ... 1111ANZ-12

They don't seem to have a price on there, but on another site I saw that in bulk they were going for a bit under $2.50 each or something, so if they do sell singular units or do samples or something, perhaps it won't be too expensive.

edit:
also, how much does this project cost getting parts like this rather than ordering, say, a Lenovo X120e or HP DM1z and popping the components out and building a case around them?

 

[vskid3]

also, how much does this project cost getting parts like this rather than ordering, say, a Lenovo X120e or HP DM1z and popping the components out and building a case around them?

The X120e's motherboard is quite a bit bigger than the one he got. Unfortunately, laptop motherboards are usually sprawled across as much of a laptop as possible, the X120e is no exception.

 

[samjc3]

also, how much does this project cost getting parts like this rather than ordering, say, a Lenovo X120e or HP DM1z and popping the components out and building a case around them?

The X120e's motherboard is quite a bit bigger than the one he got. Unfortunately, laptop motherboards are usually sprawled across as much of a laptop as possible, the X120e is no exception.

Very much this. Even the smallest laptops, like my EEE 701 are considerably bigger. On the financial side, this costs way more. But the price includes the rather optional $300 SSD and batteries dont need to be uber spendy. Also screen. I bet you could build one of these for $500. Mine is touching $800 at the moment, and I need more parts.

That switching reg only has a 200mah output, which is far too low. And Ive decided I shall just buy a full setup for 11.1v.

 

[grossaffe]

I didn't see a listed current output on that (also, wouldn't that be mA rather than mAh?)

oh well.

edit:
ooh, try this link. input your parameters and it should find you some regulators that fit your needs

http://www.linear.com/products/switching_regulator

 

[Mako321]

also, how much does this project cost getting parts like this rather than ordering, say, a Lenovo X120e or HP DM1z and popping the components out and building a case around them?

The X120e's motherboard is quite a bit bigger than the one he got. Unfortunately, laptop motherboards are usually sprawled across as much of a laptop as possible, the X120e is no exception.

If there are 2 laptops that don't do that, they're the Macbook Air and Macbook Pro. The motherboards take up a small portion of the case.(So does the heatsink )

 

[samjc3]

Macbooks have really thin wide motherboards though. If you were sick enough to try something like this on mac hardware, it would be like 2x10".

 

[DK]

Macbooks have really thin wide motherboards though. If you were sick enough to try something like this on mac hardware, it would be like 2x10".

And would be useless for gaming

 

[samjc3]

Macbooks have really thin wide motherboards though. If you were sick enough to try something like this on mac hardware, it would be like 2x10".

And would be useless for gaming

I got that covered.

 

[TechSteve]

I will also be making a Pcp im super stoked to see how this turns out!
Also,http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/...-AMD-Fusion-AMD-APU-12-12CM-SO-DIMM-DDR3.html
AND will you test fable 3 on this?