The actual device seen in real life really looks a lot cooler than what you can see in the pics. Its more impressive too becuase you can see the careful soldering and patience that went into it.
My first mod was the adapter for my PlayStation and PlayStation2 consoles. Mainly used on the big grey PlayStation, but made for the PS2 in this contest.
I started off by ripping out the PSone screen's AV Out board. In case you don't know what it is, its a board that's inside the PSone screen by Sony that connects to the Psone, but also allows another AV Cable to go to the TV too. This board contains all kinds of stuff. It has a headphone plug, and an AV "in" plug. The plugs do not work directly with the board. The plugs need to go through the PSone screen via many wires first before they go back out to the headphones or in from AV "in".
Anyway. I re-directed the headphone and AV "in" plugs directly to the board. Now, you can just pop in headphones or an AV device and use it without going through anything else, like the PSone screen.
I also added a switch to turn just headphones on or normal TV audio on. Why? Becuase I found out that when headphones are plugged in, it cuts off current to the TV for uudio. I figured a switch would be a better approach. But there's a problem with the board. I accidently bridged the left and right audio points. Now, even if you plug both left and right in, it still only plays in mono. I may buy a cheap broken Psone screen just for the board and re-do it.
But wait! Could I have added an LED that lights up when in headphones mode? Yes! And thats what I did. The LED's ground goes directly to the board. When you plug the board into the PlayStation, the grounds connect from the board to the PlayStation's board and grounds the LED. So now I don't have to have 2 wires running into the PlayStation. But, the power for the LED may have to run via one wire into the PlayStation. Or does it? The pic shows the LED power wire just hooked up to it's power source for now to show it works.
I thought about modding one of the pins inside the PlayStation to send the 5v required for the LED through the board, then to the LED, BUT the 5v current would also go to the TV. No, wait. It wouldn't. The Sony AV Cable I have only has pins for left and right audio, and a video pin. As long as I use a pin that doesn't use one of those, I'm safe.
But wait again, something weird happened. I was just messing around touching the LED pos. (+) wire on the adapter board with the PlayStation on, and it plugged in when the LED came on. I went, "What the f...?" So I started touching the area of pins that lit it up, and sure enough, there's already a power current going through the AV Out on the PlayStation that can power the LED! No special pin just wired up for that. Yes! All I had to do was solder the pos. connection of LED to that pin according to the set-up of the switch too, easy.
This board is completely portable, and ready for use on any PlayStation or PlayStation2 console. Complete with headphone mode LED and everything! So, here's the summary of this mod...
1. Portable board that contains many usable items for PlayStation(2)
2. Headphones -no amp yet
3. AV "in" using 1/8 in. male conector
4. Headphones / TV audio mode switch to change between each mode
5. System powered LED that lights up when in headphones only mode -no external wire to connect to the PlayStaion(2) for power. Plug-and-play you could say...
6. Completely portable, and ready-for-use on any PlayStation or PlayStation2 console.
Drawrbacks...
1. The board is completely in mono due to some bad soldering.
2. The board is not covered up with a case, but still looks cool, and high-tech, sort-of
3. THE BOARDS IN MONO!!! EVERYTHING!!! I can't stress this one enough. I plan to do this again if I ever get my hands on a broken PSone screen, this time, completely stereo for headphones, AV "in", and out to TV. Complete with an amp too.
