nitussi Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I got the idea of a versus tabletop that is portable a while ago. The idea stemmed from me wanting a 'Coleco head-to-head basketball handheld' from back in day. This tabletop I want to take anywhere and play for several hours without the need of a power cord plugged into the wall. I guess I could get a older, cheaper laptop and do this and run most mame and 16 bit systems, but the only problem with that is, I wouldn't be able to run my favorite FE which is hyperspin. Hyperspin requires a more powerful-more expensive laptop, and I don't want to break down my new expensive notebook to do that. Plus the run time from the battery wouldn't be like I want, which is several hours of intense game playing. I just want to start from scratch and build it from the ground up. I am going to try and make this cab the most power efficient and lowest cost as I possibly can. So I need a powerful cpu that does not demand a lot of power.. I chose the Intel Atom D2700; 2.13ghz dual core with hyperthreading; fabricated on 22nm and TDP is 10 watts. Found a mini itx mobo that happens to fit that bill; Foxconn d270s has the cpu embedded on board for $50. Next up is the monitor. I chose the Hannspree hl161abb; 16 inch LED that consumes only 12 watts and picked it up for $60. Already have a few sticks of ddr 3 memory laying around and I'm gonna say about $20 for the memory. The mobo/cpu and the monitor will consume the most power and until I run some test I am assuming about 40 watts total consumption including hard drive or usb 3.0 flash drive for the OS/hyperspin files. Yeah I could either use a thumb drive or an HD based on how big my hyperspin folder is and power consumption. My choice is between a 32GB 3.0 flash drive $19, a $50 500GB laptop HD, or even a 32GB SSD for $40. With that in mind, power consumption takes preference over size and since I have those three items in my possession, I will run amperage tests with all three. To change 12 volts into atx power I picked up a 90 watt dc-dc to atx converter for $24. Now to the juice of the project ..POWER. I have about fifty 3.7 volt li-ion batteries(18650) from messing around and other projects. These batteries are small and light weight and are the same batteries that are in cordless lithium drills and laptops. Of course I am not going to use fifty batteries, but I am going to use 12 ..and put together in the right configuration I should get 11.1 volts(11-13 volts) at 8800mah or 8.8 amps ..and also assuming current consumption of the project of 40 watts (3.3 amps), I would say that's plenty of juice for 4 or 5 hours of game play. If not I will use more. Or I may use 16 at 14.8 volts if I want even longer play times. What I have so far.. CPU/motherboard $50 16" LED monitor $60 DDR 3 memory $20 ATX converter $24 Protection board for batteries $5 5 amp power supply(charging) $12 Storage space; roughly $50 Logitech usb speakers z120 $10 12 Batteries I already have. 18650's can run as much as $10 a piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 Received the CPU/mobo yesterday and ran a few test to see power consumption. This is not the monitor I will be using for the project. The first test is the OS and hyperspin running off a usb flash drive. The meter shows how much current is being drawn while sitting at the bios and then with hyperspin running. The usb powered speakers are on also, at max volume and they do sound good. The second test is the same as the first, but with hard drive instead of the usb flash drive. USB powered speaker volume all the way up. Memory and performance in task manager. Hyperthreading lets this little dual core display as four cores. Test results are better than I thought it would be and it is pretty safe to say that the cpu/mobo/hd will not be drawing anymore than 1.4 amps, about 16.7 watts. The LED monitor I will be using is out for delivery, so I should be receiving it sometime today. I will post more test to show current drain with the LED on as well. But based on these initial test results, I may be looking to upgrade to a larger monitor. Also hyperspin runs smooth as butter by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markelhombre Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 What are you gonna do to reduce the weight? Are you gonna use wood/mdf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 What are you gonna do to reduce the weight? Are you gonna use wood/mdf? This is essentially a portable tabletop. The single most heavy item will be the 12 Li-ion batteries, they weigh only as much as 12 AA batteries. Not really concerned with weight and it's not going to be that heavy when finished. I guess probably only about 20 - 30 lbs. I will be using both 1/2 inch mdf and 1/2 plywood. Received the LED monitor, and it seems to weighs less than a pound. More amperage test with cpu/mobo, monitor, hard drive, and usb powered speakers..all coming from one single 12 volt source. Only thing missing as far as current drain would be a 80mm fan. Ok, guess It's safe to say that this system will not sucking more than 2000 mA. 2 amps x 12 volts is 24 watts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyperion Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 For those who are curious.. Li-ion batteries all seem to be around 3.7volts respectively for a single cell. Whether it's in your cell phone, your computer CMOS battery, or the more than 6000 of them powering a Tesla roadster. The difference between sizes is the mAh. 3.7volts is not enough for what I am doing, I need 12volts. So I decided to use 12 batteries and make a pack. 4 in parallel and then 3 in series ..3S/4P. These can be kinda dangerous if you don't know what you doing, because li-ion batteries have an high density energy discharge. Which means FIRE! Each battery needs protection from overcharge, over discharging, short circuit and over heating. This is just a test pack. The batteries I will be using are 18650 Sony 2400 mAh. Weighs about 1.5 ounces each. Yep over 6000 of these 18650's powers the tesla roadster. Connecting 4 in parallel gives me the same 3.7volts(over 4volts fully charged) but combines the milliamp hours. Hot glued and soldered together at the poles on both side. Here I have one cell of 4 batteries --3.7volts at 9600 mAh. Here I have three of those on top of each other.. this is three cells connected in series(positive into negative). When connected in series the voltage is added together but not the mAh--total voltage of 11.1(over 12volts fully charged). This is a unprotected pack, I will be monitoring it during this test. This pack is 12volts at 9600 mAh. I could could jump start my car with this! TEST RESULTS: I was able to get about 4 hours of hyperspin running continuously with this pack. Hyperspin works the cpu the most, more than any emulator I will be running on this project. This system needs 12volts at about 1.7 amps to run. At the three and a half hour mark, voltage was at 10volts and going down fast. At the same time, amps drawn were going up fast. The system was compensating for the lack of voltage by consuming more current. At four hours, voltage was at 8 volts and the system current well over 2 amps. I shut it down because the batteries will go bad if voltage goes to low ..about 2.5 volts per cell is the safe discharge voltage. The battery pack protection circuit will take care of this once put together. I can add more play time because I have more batteries ..15 batteries will get me about 5 hours by giving me 12,000 mAh which allows me to stay near the 12 volt mark for a longer time, or I could add another cell in series for 14.8 volts(16volts fully charged) and a dc-dc regulator to drop it down to 12 volts.. maybe I'll see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumpstile Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Love this project... - J* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman7793 Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Can i ask do those li-ion batteries need a balancing board like a lipo or what? Cause i see you said they cant be over charged, over discharged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 Can i ask do those li-ion batteries need a balancing board like a lipo or what? Cause i see you said they cant be over charged, over discharged. Yeh you are right. Just like Lipo's, each battery should be balanced. It extends the life of the battery pack.. by how much I don't know. Balancing makes sure that each battery is at the same exact voltage while charging before it is ready to be used. For something like this, I am not gonna worry about balancing each battery. I'm using three cells in series to get the 12v I need and the protection circuit will protect each cell from overcharge and low discharge. When charging reaches about 4.2v for any given cell, the protection board cuts charging power to all cells. It also protects it from more than 6 amp drain and since I'm only drawing less than 2 amps no worries there. You can buy these with protection in each battery and I think balancing too, but they are more expensive for name brand batteries, like sony, panasonic, samsung, sanyo, LG... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 27, 2013 Author Share Posted April 27, 2013 parts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 28, 2013 Author Share Posted April 28, 2013 It's simple, I know.. but it's still a Work In Progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 artwork for both control panels. I cluttered the art for the cp since there will not be any side art or a marquee on this build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted April 30, 2013 Author Share Posted April 30, 2013 little more progress. I may go with red Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangangsta101 Posted April 30, 2013 Share Posted April 30, 2013 ...not sure about pictures of Lee from The Walking Dead and Halo artwork on an arcade bartop... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 in this particular situation, the artwork represents a variety of video game history in general and not this bartop. Spawn, Issac from dead space, Cratos of GOW, Fenix of GOW, Kid Icarus, wonder woman, Cloud... among the many that didn't make it. And since this is for my brother and he mostly plays Halo and CoD ..it's appropriate. and as far as LEE ..I like the character! Needed something quick and simple to do.. I just hacked this original MvC that i got off the internet and that I used on several build before. But kinda tired of the MvC theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 I decided on these sony 3000mAh and 6 of them in the right config gives me 12.6 v at 6000mAh. If I'm using 2000mA an hour, theoretically this will give me 3 hours of game play without being plugged into the wall. that's good enough for my brother. the pcm protects against overcharge, over discharge, short... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted May 8, 2013 Author Share Posted May 8, 2013 In the wood shop I need to finnish the fan hole, speaker holes, charge plug, on/off switch, volume control and monitor bezel. Then I'll be moving on to the electrical bench to do the internals and software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nitussi Posted May 17, 2013 Author Share Posted May 17, 2013 Working on two at a time and building one for a friend's son. It's a little bit smaller. Here is the megaman artwork for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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