Codename: Mulder's Nipples Part III

[tibia_mod]

This is the latest teaser image.  The quote's from 5X09: Schizogeny.  It's one of the eps that takes place in Michigan, too.  Mulder's climbing a tree, and Scully's just ignoring him by that point.  All the parts I was waiting for came in yesterday, and last night was spent soldering and trying to figure out how it's all going to work.  Pics and more lackwit commentary under the cut.


The first thing to show up was the Pulse chips.  These get wired in so that LEDs will flash in sync with audio.  I got so frustrated trying to build my own circuit to do this, so I bought these.  They ran $10 each.  I'll probably only use one in this.  They're a LOT smaller than I was thinking they'd be, and they do a LOT more, too.  I can set it to a fading sequence or dim on when the console is turned off.


Here's everything that arrived yesterday: 15' of green EL wire with a 3V inverter, some 9mm bullet shells, and the Pulse chips.  I only opened one.  The EL inverter looks huge, but I've already stripped and gutted it.  It's now about one third the size in this picture.


Stripped down, it fits in the empty shell pretty well.  That's likely to be a different story as I'm putting the controller guts back in, but I've got some tricks ready.  I did a test fit to see how the bullet shells will work, and they look fantastic!  I just didn't have the lights on because it was too damn hot.  Better pictures will be forthcoming.


Here's what I've gotten wired up so far.  The really dark bit is the regular PS1 power board.  Immediately to the right of that, on the metal, is a 5V Motorola cell phone charger.  That's wired right to the main power jack, and it will power the Pulse chip and the lights hooked up to it.  To the right of that, on the far edge, is the 9V inverter for the EL panel that goes in the lid.  That part will actually be mounted in the top half of the console shell.  Down on the bottom is the Pulse chip, with some mini boards added to it.  The wire I had laying around my house is too large to easily connect more than one to the chip, so I used some scrap bits of circuit board to make my multiple connections.  I will probably have three, maybe four more of those little boards, but they'll all be secured, so it will be fine.


I'm pushing to finish the console itself first.  I'm not quite sure what some of the controller functions are supposed to be, the one I haven't ripped apart is doing some very odd things.  If the one I did rip apart is similarly borked, I can try to make a working one from the two.  If that doesn't work, I've got three or four more crap controllers, or a pair of extra DualShocks.  I'll figure something out.  I need the console complete so I can test the controller, though.  I started working on the controller, getting ready to change the LEDs to green.  The Storm Chaser is a fucking mess.  Hot glue and wires EVERYWHERE.  I broke wires and components trying to get to the damn LEDs, and I couldn't figure it out to fix it.  The workmanship on this is absolutely horrid, I have no idea how much more I'll break trying to make it pretty.


I decided to give up on the Chaser and use a MadCatz.  It's still the translucent shell, so I can still cram it full of LEDs.  I am going to forget about EL wire in the controller cord, though.  This one's transparent, with braided shielding, and looks pretty sexy as it is.


So far, all I've done is take it apart, sand off the paint, and start using the glass frosting to hide the sanding.  The existing LEDs are so easy to get to, changing them to green will be a breeze.  I was originally intending to file down the existing buttons, and stuff them in the bullet shells, but I'm now thinking it would just be far easier to cut the shells shorter, and fill them with something else.  A LOT less time consuming than filing and carving down solid plastic.  It is looking good so far, though.


I built the LED light bar that will be sound-activated.  Five lights, all green.


They're glued into the PlayStation now, and the new power unit is working beautifully.  I've even got it figured out to the point where the lights fade on and off when the console is off, and react to sound when the console is on.  I'm getting so close to finishing the console, but I keep hitting big road blocks.


I've given up on trying to build my own EL inverters.  High voltage + high frequency isn't simple, and I'm having one hell of a time finding the proper parts without going through a big distributor.  I found a different site than where I'd been getting my supplies.  They only sell EL wire, but the inverters they sell are small, and most of them are always-on.  That's exactly what I want.  I'll probably still buy my panels and stuff from the guy I found on e-Bay, but I'll definitely be using this new site for inverters.  Since I'm now waiting for that, I've moved on to the controller for a bit.  It is so much nicer looking than the damn Storm Chaser.



Everthing is neat and orderly, the wires are as long as they need to be, no excess coiled up.  Not a drop of hot glue in sight.  So I set the guts aside and started in on the bullet casings.  I've trimmed them to the height of the old buttons and glued wood dowels inside them. 


Once I finished that, I went down to the shop and used my dremel to cut into them.  Round buttons in round holes won't stay when the controller is turned upside down, and they can spin in the holes.  Both are bad.  Most people who do this use part of the old button, but I didn't want to file them, so I did something else.  Little teeny screws.


I can't test them thoroughly until I'm done with painting the buttons I am reusing and getting ready to put the controller back together.  I'm hoping soon.  I've filled in the markings on the buttons and put the first coat of paint on them tonight.  I'll need more sanding and more painting, but I might just put it together quickly to test.  I switched the LEDs to green, and I want to add more.  The only other thing I've done is start securing the wires for all the lighting.  Some of it can't be done until I get the inverter, but I'm done wiring stuff to the main power supply, so I started there.  I get pissed when I see peope do this half-assed, which most of them do. 



The wires are tied down out of the way so the board fits down in the unit exactly like it did before I added the wires.  They don't move, they aren't in the way of anything, they won't ever touch anything they shouldn't, and it took all of something like a second to do.  I don't get why a lot of people into this stuff can't be arsed. 


And that brings me up to July 13.  I'm getting there.