Thanks for the comments. Keep them flowing please!
People come up with great ideas sometimes, and it is good to hear quality viewpoints.
I will pop into Maplins tommorrow and look at their cases. I looked at some on their site, they are too small (not even the size of the GP2x ones), however I think I will end up getting a pre-made plastic boxes from a discount shop/department store.
Going to a college, etc for moulding is not practical - they will be unlikely to want to help (why should they), it would takes a long time finding a suitable one and trying to find the right person to speak to, etc, etc. Vacuum moulding is interesting, and I could mock up a gizmo to do this, but it is considerable hassle and would be expensive as it would take a while to make enough moulds to get successful plastic mould to do the vacuum moulding, and it would take many attempts to get this right. Buy pre-made plastic containers and you know their rigidity, strength, size, etc as you buy the final result - and they are cheap. The insides of the containers can be reinforced if needed, by shafts quite easily, thus giving a firm and solid case. The cases are nicely rounded at the sides and corners, it is just a case of cutting each box bottom the the right height, making internal slots, gluing it all together, sanding the final product to be nice and smooth and lovely, then priming with plastic primer paint and spray painting (many layers, and sanding each layer). Job done, little hassle, little cost. I like nice simple solutions which get the same results as long-drawn complex ones! :lol:
Will stay with existing GP2x screen, there are lots of things to go wrong, lots more wiring, more batteries (I don't want to use the mains, I like a portable unit) which means more weight and, of course, tv/out is far from perfect anyway, so on balance, better to stay with the current screen - it is fine - after all, Nintendo use much smaller screens on their handhelds, and that isn't an issue. If someone develops a nice, good quality, flat LCD/TFT screen, 5", plug-and-play in the GP2x, battery powered, I may well buy one and make a new case to accomodate it!
Update on project:
GameCube joystick:
I thought I had the perfect solution with the GameCube joystick - I seemed to be able to solder wires to the underside of the pins and get directions working - worked fine for one of the black connectors, the other one didn't want to play ball, so it meant I had to do some modding after all.
Snapped off the black connectors, and removed the two screws securing the motherboard to the joystick.
The insides of the controller are very similar to the N64 one, only very small, too small to do anything with; but the horseshoe bits (see previous posts) are exposed to the outside of the joystick addembly. They are too small to connect to anything, but I managed to bend nails (for hanging pictures on the wall) with a pair of pliers, and heated them over a gas flame (cooker in our kitchen, don't have a blowtorch!) until red hot, then pressed it onto the ends of the horseshoes. Basically, when you move the joystick in a direction, it moves the horseshoes accordingly; the nails are secured to these (melted onto it), so then in turn, move. You have to be careful - insert them too far into the joystick (as I did on my first attempt) and you melt the pastic inside the casing and the joystick doesn't work! You also need to ensure the nail doesn't pertrude much, or you can't use the joystick cap from the GameCube properly - it is a dome shape, and moves quite close to the joystick casing.
Anyway, managed it.
Two pics to show the result - I popped the joystick back onto the motherboard (having cut it down a bit) and re-secured the joystick onto the motherboard with its screws, which I had removed earlier:
Principal is that when you move in one direction, the nails move. All you need to do is solder one wire (eg the red/orange one from my "how to Guide before) onto it, and make an assembly for the nail to move into and make contact (aluminium foil). This joystick is true 8 way, no bias, by 4 ordials (ie exactly the same as a D-pad). Best of both worlds.
This assembly is smaller than the N64. Both systems have their merits, the N64 one can be true 8 way and easier to mount in a casing but is bigger, the GameCube one is 4 way (8 inc diagonals) and smaller, slightly harder to mount. The N64 one is solid and won't fail; the GameCube one relies on the bond (2mm) of melted plastic on a metal nail. It might be strong enough, time will tell. I have a bit of a quandry! D cell batteries are big, so in principle could take either joystick.
Next step will be to trim the nails to a suitable size, and get the connections working. I may well try and get the GameCube one working first, if it proves strong enough, may use it; if not, I have the N64 one to use instead (I know this one is solid!). Views, anyone? :huh: