PSPi Version 2.0 - Raspberry Pi Zero in a PSP - Project is Now Complete!

adamspc

@pimpmaul69
A broken PSP doesn't play any games at all. This takes a broken PSP and turns in into something new. The case it perfect for this project. The 4.3 inch LCD is far better for playing games than any Gameboy screen. The only purpose the PSP serves it to hold the components. This is more than just a game emulator too...its a computer. Anyone else wanna chime in?

glennlake

@pimpmaul69 You are assuming these PSPs are alive and working . Last I looked on eBay you can get a dead one for 3 bucks. If the case is in one piece it golden. Plus the satisfaction of building something of your own creation! My hat's off to all the hacker/builders here! I see adamspc is of the same mind.

moosepr

Yeah, it doesn't matter if it can't play PSP games, is just impressive you can shoehorn it all inside the casing! Do you have anything between the pi and the audio bits? I know you can reassign the gpio to get the audio signal, but does the amp act as the filtering circuit, or am i jumping a few steps?

glennlake

@moosepr Adafruit has an amp the takes the digital audio and converts it to analog. https://www.adafruit.com/products/3006. I haven't tried it yet but it's on order.

adamspc

@glennlake
I will have to look into this. If it doesn't take the pins I'm going to use for the joystick or controls then this might work pretty well. It looks like it could be using GPIO pins 18 and 13, which are the ones used for audio on the Pi. The price is definitely reasonable. the only down side is that it is mono and not stereo.

adamspc

@moosepr
The amp I'm using can be driven directly from the GPIO, but there is a little buzz in the speakers. I've wired capacitors between the GPIO and the amp and it cuts down on the buzzing substantially, but it also lowers the volume a little. Not too much of an issue since the volume level is still fine. I'm still tinkering with a filter and I'll post my results when I begin wiring the audio on this one.

adamspc

The post has been updated. Also, I moved all the pictures and most of the tutorial to Google Docs to reduce clutter on the forum. I hope everyone is happy with this change. The pics in Google Docs have also been resized because they were taking a while to load. 10 megapixel was a bit much, so they have been lowered to 1 megapixel.

Feedback (or criticism) is welcome. Thanks guys.

pau

im little bit confused with the buttons
how do you power the buttons.

i can only see which wire is for up, down, left.... but i cannt see which wire from the fpc is for ground and power/vcc
how do you connect the the buttons to the gpio. with pinouts

thank you :)

markyh444

@adamspc I am following this really closely now because my next project was going to be a handheld, though with a 3d printed case. This is probably going to be more cost effective and with better controls and potential features. I've got a broken PSP on its way to me from eBay, and I'm going to tear it down next week.

adamspc

@pau
The internal GPIO resistors are pulled up to 3.3v using software. When the GPIO pin is connected to ground, the voltage drops. This drop is detected by the software and a keypress is issued. One side of the button is conencted to the GPIO and the other is connected to ground. When a button is pressed, the connection to ground is made.

As for the pinouts, there are a bunch of ground wires on the FPC.
Check out the pinouts here, and look at the FPC connector. The ones labeled GND are all hooked to ground. All of them need to be hooked up because they go to different areas.

@markyh444
I'm happy to have inspired the change in direction. Looking forward to seeing your finished product.

adcraggles

@adamspc

Hi there,

This is simply amazing!!!!! Excellent work!!!! I also thought the psp would be great for this project, unfortunately my understanding of electronics is lacking. Do you plan on doing a more detailed tutorial at all, I really hope so.

Thanks
Adam

adamspc

@adcraggles
I'm happy to be more detailed on any portion of this. If there is something you don't understand just let me know and I'll explain it. I'm actually setting up a website I'll use for more specific tutorials on things like GPIO buttons and electrical schematics, so input from everyone on difficult areas is welcome.

adcraggles

@adamspc
Excellent thank you,

I'm gonna order the psp and get stuck in!!!

glennlake

@adamspc Good news! I will be patitulillary interested in how to use the GPIO pins for a game controller. I don't like the idea of gutting a usb game controller to put into a portable game player.

Pifan

Brilliant work @adamspc ! It is really useful to have all your documentation available to learn from. I have been wanting to implement the soft button power switch on my next build but I couldn't really understand existing examples I have found online. Having the step by step photos really helps and I think I will give it a go now.

Cheers!

adamspc

@glennlake
I've got a GPIO guide coming together at http://othermod.com/gpio-buttons/

@Pifan
Here is one for the power switch circuit. If anyone has trouble following it please tell me. I'm attempting to make this easy to duplicate.
http://othermod.com/raspberry-pi-soft-onoff-circuit/

markyh444

@adamspc Just been doing a bit of googling myself and wonder if this is of any use for your project? http://mc.pp.se/psp/phones.xhtml

It's the pin out for the headphone jack on the PSP. I want to use this on my PSP build as well, but since you're way ahead of me thought you may want to revisit it if you're not too far gone currently.

Adrian.antoniw

@adamspc How did you attach your screen to your pi zero ?

adamspc

@Adrian.antoniw
It is a composite LCD, so all that is needed is a composite video wire run from the Pi composite output pin to the input on the LCD driver. It does require a small amount of software configuration to set the correct resolution, but it's a fairly straightforward process.

Check out my build progress to see images of the LCD being connected and soldered.

Adrian.antoniw

@adamspc do you have a link were to buy the Lcd and driver ?