Case Mod - In Progress Project PC3 - Updated 20th Feb

Sorry but how is that pico PSU connected to the wall socket?

 

Via an AC-DC adapter which, unfortunately, is still on it's way to me

 

PicoPSU! Great decision IMO. Can't wait to see more updates.

 

Thanks kureshii

 

After this what is the next thing lined up , also any change in the plans as of now ?
I am liking this Pico psu they are so practical and tiney but have a good enough rating.

 

Hopefully no changes after this. I just want to put it together and fire it up!

I might end up modding the PS3 card reader to work with USB and _try_ to do the same with the PS3 power/eject board, but right now both endeavors are looking bleak as I can't figure out how the damned power/eject PCB works, and I don't have access to a soldering station anyway.

 

It's sort of a shame you couldn't / didn't use the PS3's inbuilt HDD slot.

 

I know, that was part of the very first idea but the PS3 HDD slides into (onto?) the motherboard, so without the motherboard, there's really nothing to hold one in place. Would have been cool to have a hot-swap HDD though

 

Here's a quick teaser to show that this project is not dead. I'm a day or two from wrapping up, but in moving from Univ to home, I've lost the PS3 HDD cover. I'm on the hunt for one of those now.

 

For about three months I walked around with a folded 17cm x 17cm piece of paper in my wallet, just incase I was out shopping one day and I came across a box or some sort of case that looked big enough to house a mITX board. Got a lot of strange looks from workers in the charity shops and thrift stores!

 

What kind of video card will you be using?

 

I forgot to ask this the first time I saw it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's no ordinary switch assembly is it? For starters I don't see mechanical switches on it. Does it use touch sensors?

Loving this project so far, I love the idea of things like games consoles being turned into computers

BTW, is it just me, or does the "Playstation 3" text look like the "Spiderman 3" text

 

Onboard nVidia 9300. This isn't going to be used for anything more than 1080p and blu-ray playback.

That's the switch assembly from the PS3, and yes, it does appear that it uses touch sensors. It's sad that I have to abandon it though, because I can't find any way to make it work with a PC
I've cannibalized a switch assembly from an old case I had laying around instead.

EDIT: Now that you mention it, the similarity between the playstation font and the spiderman font is remarkable!

 

I've had a good long hard look around the internetwebs looking for some sort of data sheet or circuit pinout for the touch sensor, but came up with nothing
It's be sooo good if it could be used, seems noone's tried it before. At least noone on the internet has tried it.
What are the numbers on the big chip in the centre of the board? I can try find a data sheet for you?

 

It's the middle of the night here. Can't go opening doors and such just yet but if you can hang on, I'll have those numbers for you by tomorrow!

 

No rush, not rush!
Being something of an electronics nut, searching for chip part numbers and the like is somewhat second nature to me
Unless Sony use a proprietary chip (wouldn't put it past em) In which case I'd probably have more chance finding a long lost Shakespearean sonnet in my sock drawer

 

There's a bunch of little ICs on the PCB. Do you want me to list all of them? Not sure how that would be helpful though, because you probably don't know what's connected to what :/

When I get my camera back, I'll shoot a picture for you in hi-res macro and label the ICs.

Anyway, we're cocked, locked and ready to rock... or so I thought.

It's up, it's running (Windows 7) but the freaking thing refuses to connect to the internet. The onboard Realtek LAN doesn't seem to have the right drivers and neither the mobo driver CD nor the latest **** from the Zotac site have helped. The little Wifi dongle powers up and gets detected in Windows, but then refuses to connect to my home network.

Anyway, pics for you good folks while I get these issues wrapped up:







Apologies for the quality, these are quick 'n' dirty.


If anyone has any help to offer regarding connecting this sucker to a network, I'm all ears.

 

This is looking good !

Good job man !!

 

I got a feeling the big chip in the center's gonna be the touch sensor one, and if it's an off-the-shelf component you might be able to trace the pins out to that ribbon cable connector. I dunno what the smaller black chip is for, might be part of the sensor also, in which case if you gimme the numbers of both of them, or better yet a macro photo, I'll see if I can find a data sheet.
Sucks that you can't get the internet to work, you kinda need that in order to download updated drivers so you can go on the internet... And round and round in a horrific vicious circle.

PS, you need a stronger password than that dude

 

Azayles, there are chips on both sides of the PCB - more trouble, eh? I'll get your pics tomorrow.

In other news, I figured out my problems.

First, I got the Wifi working (LAN was still refusing to work) and connected up to the web. Then I tried to auto-update drivers for everything. Window 7 told me everything was as it should be. "Bull***t", says I. "The OS isn't even showing me my hardware under the Device Manager!"

Yep, the GPU, Ethernet adapter and sound hardware wasn't even listed. So after tearing my hair out over everything, I just scratched Win7 and popped in XP. Bam, everything works fine. So now I'm wondering, am I the only one who's tried Win7 with this board? Or am I the only one who's had this problem?

I really want to use Win7 over XP because my folks are used to it and, well, because I like the eye-candy