first off, i wanted to say hello, my names pvp from acidmods.com. the acidmods modding team has modded nearly every console out there and we've decided to start working on consoles that noone(or at least few) has done any hardware modifications to. and after some researching, we've decided the gp2x was worth a shot at. from what i gather only about 2-3 (correct me if im wrong) hardware mods have been done.

now ive searched your forums for about a week now, and i have got to say it's quite confusing with so many topics jumbled. so im going to ask some questions, if you know the answer or got any opinions by all means jump right in.

-first off other than touchscreen and dpad what are the differences between a f100 and f200? i mean like software compatibility between the two. is the latest fw of the f100 better than the f200. which one has better features.
-ive read that the f100 has usb wifi capabilities while the f200 does not because of hardware limitations. any news on that at all or is it still stuck at that?
-how do you feel about the size of the gp2x? do you feel that its unusually light for its size? would you prefer a thinner shell? (we might be working on a prototype shell thats thinner)
-has anyone wired a battery (other than the AA) to the gp2x?
-for overclocking, what is the fastest you can get the f100 and f200 to go? which one is more stable at higher clock speeds?
-would you prefer the f100 or the f200? big question here. this will determine which console we will be modding. please give us as MUCH details as humanly possible


we'd like to do some serious modding and if you guys would like to check out our work on handhelds, by all means go to our forums at www.acidmods.com
we're just trying to jump into unconquered handhelds and in the process if it helps you get the gp2x name out there and get more people involved then we're all for it.

for all of you that are interested in what we plan to do, here is a small list of mods that we have wired up and prepared for the arrival of the gp2xs.

-razor nubs wired to dpad and facebuttons (razor nub is our codeword for taking the psp analog stick and making it digital) they will be placed where the speakers are located
-relocation of the speakers
-sound activated rumble (small rumble motors wired thru IC to your speaker ports to emulate rumble at certain tones of sounds)
-rechargeable psp battery interfaced to the power input (will charge it if plugged in)
-internal hdd (will use the usb host mod but making it internal)
-internal tv/audio output plugs (plugs will be integrated into gp2x's shell
all these mods have been done to other handhelds and have been proven successful, so we are 100% sure they will transfer over to this console.

admins if you could PM me, maybe we could setup some type of networking between our 2 sites since we have just set up a gp2x board in our site.

and thats basically it, just wanted to say hi and ask some questions and get to know people. im going to be at acidmods very often but will try and stop by here as much as i can. if you have any opinions, by all means, say them as they will help out in our modding design of the gp2x. thanks!

If you look you will see my various D-pad mods that I have done. I even have posted my CAD files for all PCBs and d-pad data on the F100. I have also posted a pic of a real d-pad mod for the F200. That would save some time.


D-pad mods are a legend around here. That is because the joystick on the F100 is utter crap.
The F200 is better but the goofballs in charge put in 4 separate buttons rather than a real d-pad. A mod for that would be nice too if could be done in mass. My mod is ok but I can't produce and sell them as it is too much work.

http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showt...mp;#entry577623

ill research some more into your mods. right now im just trying to get a baseline of whether telling the team to get a f100 or f200 based on the info that we need.

You can relay to your team (via direct satellite linkup, I'm guessing), that way more than 2-3 mods have been done.

what r the mods? curious. i kno theres usb host port. wireless wifi (im guessing for f100), dpad mod, LEDs?

Well the F100 is not made anymore but there are alot more sold.

The F200 is made now but there not as many out as it is relatively new. For those reasons you may want one of each.

The main difference is that the F100 has a stick, The F200 has 4 button "pad" plus a touchscreen. The F100 has USB host, the F200 card reader chip that mostly effects developers.

Other than that they are the same with the same CPU and run the same software.

yea thats what worries me is the usb host. one of the primary mods is internal usb hdd. could you go more into depth on why the f200 doesnt have usb host? i thought it had an EXT port that allowed it to? ive also read that the chip for the host was removed and a reader was placed in on the f200s.

hey pvp! I am impressed with that psp internal hdd mod you did. Nice stuff. People have dreamt of an internal hdd in the gp2x since it was released and as far as I know noone ever really attempted it. I'd like to know how you are planning to do this if you can somehow get usb-host working.

What kind of a harddrive would you use and how would you supply power?

well since i got the wiring diagram for the BoB (just the usb connections) i was thinking of doing sprites usb mod but instead of wiring it to a female usb port, wire it to a usb hdd. you guys have come up with a program to access and load stuff off of a usb hdd from EXT port am i correct?

well, the f100 used to be able to communicate with usb hdds after some tweaking. If you were able to provide power for the hdd yourself you could connect a hdd through an "ext -> usb" adapter. At least that's what I remember... never did it myself but others have done it to test psx games and stuff.

see thats the thing like i need to know for sure that you can connect a usb hdd thru a usb/EXT adapter for the f200. im pretty sure ive heard of ppl putting a powered external hdd for the f100. powering the hdd wont be too hard, i plan to remove the battery compartment and replace it with a modified psp battery that will power the gp2x and the hdd. maybe even use 2 psp batteries.

I am trying to find information on that but can't. Suffering from severe sleep dep ^^.

Some more info you might be interested in:
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Modification_List List of mods
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Category:Hardware_Hacking Some nice hardware information

Most of the stuff seems to be for F100, can't confirm that the usb-host stuff will work on F200 but I would assume not.

EDIT: Found something on the wiki:
link

im guessing since the f200 only came out about 2ish month ago theres not a lot of discovery compared to the f100 right? do u think i should buy a f200 or go with the f100 to make sure it has usbhost capabilities?

There was word that F100s actually has a touchscreen unit but it wasn't wired up..??
Now that would be a useful F100 mod if it's just a case of connecting the screen to the wm9711 as I think (looking at 4.0 kernel source) it's done in the F200 and hacking/copying the kernel driver...

An F200 mod that allows network connection (over usb as per F100) for telnet as I think that's not currently possible...?

Well... I would try to get an F100 if I was you pvp.
1. You will definately be able to use usb-host
2. You can do a load of troubleshooting over usb-networking. Easier this way I would think.

well u see thats the thing about the f200 since its so new, no major stuff has happened to it so there could be usb storage in the near future from the devs. but the fact is i need usb storage now for this but only want to buy one. and i dont want to buy a f100 and then a month later usb storage came out on f200 u kno what im saying? i mean im alittle curious on y the f200 doesnt have usb storage? i mean doesnt it have EXT port that supports usb devices (thru BoB)? or has noone tried it yet?

Havent a clue what all these big words are lol but just wanted to say 'Hi'

Hello,

Well, someone more competent will probably answer to this question later, but I don't think that there is more problem with wifi on F200 than on F100.

It is network over USB which does not work, that is basically using the USB cable for network connection without any additional network device. This is something completely different.

The fact that you can get network on F200 with an usb/ethernet adapter seems to support this hypothesis.

Please someone confirm this.

so the usb port (slave) of the gp2x isnt too complient with protocols? y does that affect the EXT port which is using usb port (host) to connect to usb client devices.

EDIT
ok totally confused now. for the f200, are you talking about the slave port usb thats having problems being with usb storage or are you talking about the EXT port with EXT cradle and hooking up a usb flash drive that doesnt work?

the ext port should still work (otherwise whats the point) the mini usb on the side is the one thats crap for networking (cant make it work on my f100) its the same deal with sd card reading, its not very good via the gp2x/usb connection (with the f100, the f200 might have this fixed but i doubt it).

I was under the impression that its just the chip that operates the little usb port on the side of the unit has been changed, so it now no longer supports usb networking... I pretty sure the ext port has the same function (i.e. the BoB just breaks out the usb connector from the ext port), and usb devices work off the bob (of course).

Anyway, welcome to the community. I look forward to seeing your developments... of course, as a F100 owner I would love you to work on this (a dpad mod would be good!), but if you are planning on buying new, only F200s are made now. Still, as both units are almost identical, I hope anything you work on can be easily cross compatible!

oh, and check out: http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Main_Page if you haven't already

The F200 has the same usb host through the ext port as the F100 does. Ignore anyone who says it doesn't, because they're talking out of their arse and they actually mean the mini usb doesn't support usb networking anymore (which is something completely different and still uses the mini usb as a slave device).

Didn't acid mods do a Snes controller mod gor the GP32?

That was pretty cool...

Maybe this will help

Both the F100 and the F200 have the EXT port with the same USB host lines. You can use sprites mod like you said earlier to route something inside the case. (Your big problem here is going to be power, will the gp2x be able to drive enough current to power a hdd? Unless you route a 5V supply from somwhere else, which is what the BOB/Cradle does)

The usb slave port is different between the F100 and F200. The F100 has a netchip, whereas the F200 has a card reader chip. The F100 netchip would give it network ability so you can run things such as Samba, Telnet, basically anything that needs network. The F200 chip just acts a card reader for the SD card in the SD slot, many see this as complete waste.

So you can see the USB slave and the USB host are completly different and are not related to each other in anyway.

Yes, if I remember rightly it was done by foo Foo

see thats exactly what i wanted to hear. i thought when people were talking about usb networking, it was about the usb host port so i got alittle confused. but has it been verified that you can launch programs from the EXT port via EXT cradle hooked up to a usb mass storage for the f200?

yes am did release a gp32 to snes controller mod.

I was hoping someone might respond with a F200. It does work with a F100, i cant see it not working on a F200.

thats what im thinking too because if it works on f100 and they both have the same hardware other than the touchscreen,usb slave chip and dpad it should work. but i need to be absolutely sure that someone with a f200 has done it before i tell the team to buy one. what concerns me is that the usb host port is 1.0 which is what 12mbps transfer rate.

Isn't there also a difference between the hardware for the sound? That's the culprit for the sampling frequency incompatibilities in a few of the programs, when running in the F-200, right?

EDIT: Also, the F-200 no longer has the battery LED.

yea the sound on the f200 is better tahn the f100. the battery led shouldnt be a problem

In short...all the differences that was just listed are the only differences between the too.

Craigx, MWeston and ED could confirm the current thought of the F200 more Accurately.


*.......whats for them to pop up........


But yeah it should work

The hardware could be a newer version of the mp2520..?
Or it could be an update to the drivers (in 4.0.0) that's caused the 'issue'...

well my question is is it worth it to get a f200 or f100? i mean other than usb slave networking/ts/dpad is it worth it to go with the newer f200. thats the debate most ppl over at the psp forums were having. current psp owners love their psp and dont really want to upgrade to a slimmer version with tvout. new comers usually want the newest thing.

You could get a F100 cheaper than F200. Other than the issues you know, I think theres any difference.

It would be nice to see some new modding with the F200, no one has really done anything with it.

yea im shocked for something being so open like this theres really no hardware mods done

Well there more to the story. First many users like myself already have a F100, just for the touchscreen and dpad im not going to get a F200.

Plus theres is the Pandora. This is handheld being dev's by some the community. Its basically going to blow away anything the GP32 and GP2X can do. Many are waiting for this, first run expected some time this summer.
Personally thats what im waiting for, until then ive live happily with my F100.

Sorry for digging up an already old thread. I'm just curious if anything serious has happened in the meanwhile.

My 2 cents on the story:

I've opened up my F200 a few times and I think an internal hdd is not possible without serious case modding. It simply won't fit. But I wonder if there's any use for it, unless you use a 80Gb hdd or something. I mean, with SD cards of 8 and 16Gb becoming available at low prices, I think it's far more interesting to install an internal 16Gb SD card, keeping the SD slot available and working.

I've also been looking at the PSP battery because I wanted to install it in the battery room without any case modding, but it would only be possible with certain fake batteries when you dismantle them. But I'm still looking around for suitable batteries, maybe a camera model would fit better. The point is, as soon as you dismantle a battery you can't use the original charger anymore so it would only work with the proposed internal charging mod. So if anyone on am has come up with something usable, it would be nice.

Another interesting "mounting point" for mods would be the (unused?) pins on the GPIO, the chip could be used to drive several "unsupported" peripherals. What I'm mainly thinking about is using an universal wifi chip, like the ones used in PSP/DS or in USB sticks and install them internally in the 2x. And connect it on the i/o pins, because anything else in the 2x seems to be designed NOT to operate wifi components.