Thankfully it’s not the kind of trip that Google maps gave me for driving directions! It’ll be more along the lines of my “drawn in” flight line. Should be an awesome time though and I’m really excited to see where this leads! I’ll be posting pics and updates probably on Saturday but most definitely by Sunday!
Archive for the ‘Current Project’ Category
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The PlayStation 2 Advance Completed
Posted: 10/18/2013 in Current Project, General NewsTags: CNC Case Mod, Cross Plane, Downing, Made-By-Bacteria Forums, Modding, PlayStation 2
One of the fastest projects I’ve been able to design, cut, assemble and test, the PS2 Advance is a simple but cool looking mod that goes along the lines of the original Cross Plane and makes use of its Breakout Box. Not a portable, but just a dedicated controller with Audio/Video capabilities.
Basically this mod was done as a side project as I was waiting on parts for the N64 project as well as the Cross Plane commission that I’ve taken on. Honestly though, I did this just because I wanted to use up a bunch of loose parts I had laying around the shop and since I’d never done anything with a Sony product outside of the control pak for the Cross Plane, I thought this would be fun.
The build consisted of two AG-85’s from Poly Case. Though originally I planned to use the case as it was, I found that it was very thick and wasn’t all that comfortable to hold. So then I got to wondering, what if I could use two back halves of the case? Well, giving that a shot I found that yes, it would work and felt very comfortable and natural in the process.
A main issue I had to fix though was the top panel that holds the two halves together. I ended up having to mill out my top and I was extremely pleased with how well that fit together. Also, because the back halves were meant to have the screws just slide in and screw into the front half, I had to ditch the screws that came with it mill out a hex slot for an Acorn nut to fit into. This allowed me to use 4 #6-32 x 1.25″ pan head screws painted black to hold the two halves together nice and secure.
As mentioned before, this was just a mod made of parts I already had, with the exception of:
RDC’s PS2miniDS2 Controller Board
Which is a freaking amazing piece of modding technology. The controller board is an alternative to using the real PS2 controller board, which is beneficial as a space saver and is designed for modding situations. Because most controller layouts don’t work for 90% of the modding projects we do, we always end up just running wires to the controller and use a variety of tact switches or custom PCBs anyway, so stripping away all that from the board and replacing them with test points saves a great deal of space. The only downside is the boards need to populated with the original controller components, which can be a bit tricky as it involves hot air rework and a fair amount of time to swap them over correctly.
All in all though, I’m very happy with how this came out and in such a short amount of time. Now that this is cleared off my work bench, I can concentrate on the N64 as well as the Cross Plane commission I took on and am waiting on parts for.
The whole unemployed thing sucks like you wouldn’t believe, but if I look at it on the bright side, it has given me a chance to pursue what I love at the same time while I wait.
Anyway, here is a video of the build process and a demo of the handheld in action. Hope you enjoy!
New Projects Underway
Posted: 10/09/2013 in Current Project, General NewsTags: commissions, Cross Plane, Job, Life, MBB, Nimbus III, PlayStation 2, Portable N64
On the heels of the Cross Plane KickStarter, I’ve been hard at work on a couple of side projects that of course have been taking up a lot of the down time that I’ve currently had while waiting for a few new job opportunities to come through.
The Nimbus III
My first portable N64 since 2011’s Nimbus II portable. This one is nice because it takes a lot of the design and 3D printing knowledge I received from doing the Cross Plane project. The casing is all 3D printed, complete with screw holes in the back and the face was CNC’d to compensate of the somewhat irregular holes the 3D printer can make. What’s unique about this build as well is that it will have the option for a wireless Audio/Video transmission to the TV. The back half of the casing just came in today so in the next couple of weeks I’ll start the painting and assembly process of the main unit.
Pictured below is the receiver unit for the N64 as well as the three play plug in so up to 4 players can be playing off the portable at any given time. Two USB ports on the bottom of the Nimbus allow for a quick connection to the receiver unit if multi-player is wanted. There is a work log on MBB started for this for more info.
The AG-85 PlayStation 2 A/V Controller
This was a side project to my side project as I had to wait a fair bit of time for the back half of the N64. But no worries, this was just as fun. This is essentially the same thing as my SNES-001 Advance II that I built last year, only of course, for PlayStation 2 and One. This is fully wired and connects to the same breakout box that the original Cross Plane (Cross Plane Retro) used. This is about 90% complete and I ran into some issue yesterday while testing so I’m not sure exactly when this is going to be finished. But all this was made up of parts I already had lying around. The only thing I had to buy were the speakers. Again though, this has been a fun project and I hope I can get it working before too long! Again, a build log for more info!
The Cross Plane: A One-Off Commission
That’s right, one more Cross Plane is being built at the moment for a customer who really really wanted one! This is going to be a far superior to our prototypes as I’ve made adjustments to both the casing and location of the HDMI receiver as well as to the internal circuit boards and just general location of things. It should be pretty cool to find out just “how” superior to the prototype it will be but just tackling some of the key issues of the CP’s first run, I think this is going to be leaps above the first version.
Right now I’m just waiting for parts to roll in and will be making a post on MBB for an actual work log. I think people will love to see what goes into making one of these and since we aren’t going to produce it, might as well show it off!
So stay tuned, there will be more to come in the future here very shortly and I’ll keep you updated as frequently as I can!
After nearly two years of planning, designing, building and rebuilding, The Cross Plane WVI (Wireless Video Interface) has made its debut on KickStarter!
For those of you who may not know, KickStarter is a “Crowed Funding” website which allows project creators to post projects such as ours to a mass market of potential customers and/or willing supporters. Supporters are given the opportunity to see presentation videos of the project and read the project story and so forth to see if this is in fact a project they would like to fund.
What makes KickStarter unique though is that it is an “all or nothing” platform where the projects funding goal must be met, or no funds at all are transferred. This helps protect both the project host and those funding the project. Supports though, should the campaign be successful, are given rewards that based on their pledge amounts called “tiers”. These are set by the project creator so for example in our project, $10 or more (up to the next tier) get’s you a Cross Plane Key Chain. Then if you pledge $50 or more you get a signed T-Shirt and Poster or things of that nature. It’s a really neat set-up and one that has helped thousands of people bring their projects to life!
So please, check out the link (the big picture at the top will take you there) and give the page a look. If you like what you see and want to help bring this to the market, make a pledge and bring my dream into reality! We can’t do this without you and need your help!
“The Cross Plane” Has Been Leaked
Posted: 08/29/2013 in Current Project, General NewsTags: KickStarter, The Cross Plane
With everything in place for the reveal, we decided it was time for The Cross Plane to surface! With almost two years into this project, I can’t describe how excited I am to see this live! Our prototypes work, and our videos to compliment the KickStarter are all ready to go.
With that said, we are just waiting on the approval from the KickStarter crew to bring this project main stream and see if we can soon make a go at producing these. These have been an exciting past couple of weeks and I can’t wait to see what this does once we let it go into the wild! Fingers crossed as we need every bit of luck we can get but things are looking good!
We’re just waiting on the last draft of the video and putting on the finishing touches of the KickStarter page and we’ll soon enough be ready to show off what we’ve been working on so hard and for so long now! Keep it tuned here in the next week or so I’ll have the link to the KickStarter page and we’ll hit the ground running!
Downing's Basement 