PSCD32 Development Diary

I need a cool logo

I don't have a name yet. 'PlayStation 2 to CD32' sounds way too plain... and risky. I picked out some nice synonyms and some letters and mushed them together. The last thing I invented like this was called MegaBoard. Because it was for the Mega Drive. And I was really bored at the time. What does PSCD32 stand for, anyway? Is it 'just letters'? • Conversion Device 32 • Pad Synthesizer Conversion Device 32 • Peripheral S------ Conversion Device 32 • Peripheral Subtending Conversion Device 32 • Peripheral Sigma Conversion Device 32 • PSigma Conversion Device • Peripheral Signal Conversion Device 32 (well that's what it is... *thinking face emoji*) Miraculously, the acronym isn't taken. It's officially (unregisteredly) a ™ Mathew Carr now, hurrah. I grew fond of the Totally Not Trademark-Infringing Two-Handed Game Controller icon, similar to the emoji 🎮. I drew this thing, which is supposed to be Generic Controller™ beside a CD32 console. But it seems so damned familiar. What could it be? An investigation tracked it down most likely to an image I'd seen in the background of a Playstation emulator, which in turn was based off a common original Playstation marketing image. Or it could've been one of those big high-res console images that you see on Wikipedia, like this one. A man, a plan, Macromedia Flash MX, Panama. Shown against green, since it'll be silkscreened onto a PCB. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself. Well, it'll do. DONE. Make sure to double check everything looks like how it's supposed to. If it doesn't match your hand-drawn diagrams, something weird has gone on. Trust the tools and the checkers! I imported the logos using the import-bmp script in EAGLE. Here's a Sparkfun tutorial. These thumbnails are showing up on screen as roughly actual size, heh. And when I've actually had some sleep I can make a proper decision on whether I'm going to spend £27.63 on two PS2 extension leads, two serial cables, a sack of components and a possibly-really-awful Chinese PCB run.

The Price of Stuff

It took a while. I'm pricing up how much I'd need to finish a single board, and then multiple boards. I have to order the PCBs in multiples of 5 since ordering just one or two would be really ridiculously expensive considering they're being shipped from the other side of the planet. I've decided to buy enough to finish N boards, and then add one of everything in case one of the components arrives broken or I damage with my blobby cat-paw soldering techniques. I also have to be aware of the minimum order and lot sizes from the supplier. This is all being very optimistic in that my choices of components will work at all - it's possible I'll have to change the current-limiting resistors or the pull-up resistors, and I've got nothing to put in their place if my choices are incorrect. The only components I have spare are a bunch of Micrel LDO regulators I got as a sample and a couple of tantalum capacitors I over-ordered for the Ocelot since I had to get them as a special order from Farnell (since at the time I couldn't see them on my first choice supplier bitsbox.co.uk). I don't have a big box of resistors or capacitors or anything like that. On top of what I'm listing in this big table, I'm also ordering a couple of 9-pin PC serial extension leads and 9-pin Playstation controller extension leads. :) Did you wonder how I was going to connect everything up? I'm going to slice these cables in half and solder the exposed leads onto the sides of the PSCD32. I could have soldered on a 9-pin connector for the CD32 side, but then I'd have some kind of gizmo hanging out the back of the Amiga, applying force to the joystick ports. Anything other than the narrowest possible device would never have fit, and it would've been rubbish. A professionally manufactured cable end and few inches of insulated lead running into the PSCD32 is miles better than anything cobbled together. The same for the PS2 side - with the obvious bonus that finding a Playstation connector would have been a lot of money and fuss, whereas extension leads are incredibly easy to find, and, like the clone pads, are still manufactured to this day. Finally, I'm going to order a bunch of red LEDs so I can solder them into the CD32 side directly and use them as a simple indicator interface while I'm getting the PS2 side working. I hope I haven't forgotten anything.