In order to power the playstation controllers, I needed to build a power supply unit. This unit will supply the needed 3.5V and 7.6V to the playstation pad.

 

Firstly I needed a design schematic to work on. I decided to use two LM317T variable voltage regulators to provide the necessary voltages for the pads. They are driven from the 12V from your PCs PSU.

 

I built the power supply on a piece of breadboard, as shown.

This is the Power Supply. Click for a larger image.

Firstly, I cut a piece of breadboard 7.5cm x 4.5cm. I cut a notch in the top right hand side to aid in orientation. Secondly, I worked out where the components should go, then drilled the tracks. To drill the tracks, I used a 0.5 cm drill bit and a cordless drill. DON'T drill all the way through the board, just drill enough so that it breaks the line of copper. DON'T use much pressure or the board will shatter. See the image below for directions on what tracks to drill. There were only 3 drills on the whole board.

Underside of PS. Click for a larger image.

 

The voltage regulators needed to be mounted on their heatsinks before soldering. This is done in the following way:

If mounted correctly, there should be no electrical contact between the metal lug of the LM317T and the heatsink/screw. You can see the white bush, and just see the pinkish mica pad between blobs of thermal paste. Before the thermal paste is applied, the mica pads are transparent.

 

After drilling the appropriate tracks and mounting the voltage regulators on their heatsinks, we are ready to place the components and solder them into positions. I have made the following guide:

Pics of PS. Click for a larger image.

Be careful to mount the diode with the white band on the switch side, as you can see in the pictures above. In the far right picture, the white wire goes to the switch, and the black wire comes back from the switch.

Also, you should use the PC Pins to attach any wires. You can see how I have done this with the Orange and Red wires (LED), and the switch wires etc. PC Pins aid in mechanical strength and also look more professional.

You may notice that the resistor for the LED (560R) is not on the circuit board. This is because I mounted it with the LED, similar to the picture below. Note that the LEDs have one long lead, and one short lead. The resistor should be soldered to the long lead.

 

Firstly, before hooking the power supply up to 12V, CHECK EVERYTHING.

- Check orientation of diode. The white band should be closest to the switch connection.
- Check orientation of voltage regulators. Make sure that the pins are aligned correctly. On my board, the front of the regulators is towards the notch.
- DOUBLE CHECK the orientation of the capacitor. If it is put in reverse it will explode. Most electrolytic capacitors have a negative stripe down one side to denote the negative pin. This pin should be soldered to the ground. See the yellow capacitor in the middle in the picture below..

Capacitors. Click for a larger image.

Once you are absolutely sure that the components are placed correctly, make sure the switch is OFF and hook up your power supply unit to 12V. Make sure that the circuit board is not resting on anything conductive when you do this :). Turn the switch on and the LED should light. If you can smell anything frying, then turn it off. Next, turn your multimeter onto VDC and check the outputs. They should be at 7.6V and 3.5V with a tolerance of +/- 0.25V, however if you have built the circuit correctly, it should not be out by much.

 

Now the power supply is working, we can move on to building the interface.

 

Back to the beginning - Next part: Building the Interface