For PlayStation 5 players, they may want to buy Sony’s latest PS Portal controller to play PS5 games remotely. However, PS Portal can only stream PS5 games and has no other functions. It does not support Bluetooth. It costs 199 US dollars. The somewhat expensive price still makes people think twice, but the homemade PS Portal handle recently shared by Chinese female channel host Xiao Ningzi is easier to use than the official Sony one, costs only half, and even supports Bluetooth. It feels like Making your own seems to be a good choice.
A Chinese female channel owner uses ChatGPT to make her own PS Portal controller, which is not only half the price, but also more powerful than the Sony version (it can also play Steam games)
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Since Sony released the PS Portal controller, many people have cut the DualSense in half and added a flat plate in the middle. It really looks like this. Chinese YouTube channel Xiao Ningzi has always liked making things with her hands, and after seeing these comments, she decided to make her own. But of course it is not as simple as what is said on the Internet. After cutting the DualSense in the middle, the circuit board inside is also broken in half, making it completely unusable. So she had to redesign a separate PCB:
However, she had no relevant knowledge at all, so she had to start from scratch, starting with a breadboard. She used this board to familiarize herself with the circuit, and then designed a new PCB:
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As for the handle, she originally wanted to make a DualSense handle with a telescopic middle so that a tablet could be sandwiched in the middle, but she ultimately failed because this method was not feasible:
In the end, I started with the original DualSense handle, but I bought the case directly online for only 60 RMB (approximately NT$270). Slowly cut from the edge and disassemble the unnecessary parts, and finally get the rocker separated on both sides:
As for the handle chip, of course, Sony cannot use its own self-developed chip. She switched to ESP32, which is not only powerful, but only costs a few RMB 10, and supports Bluetooth function:
According to her explanation, when studying circuit boards, she always relies on ChatGPT to solve problems. ChatGPT can help when encountering any situation, such as asking what are the pins of the chip used for? Not only that, most of the subsequent programming is done by ChatGPT. Give it a demonstration and tell it the requirements. For example, if you want to call the Bluetooth module, ChatGPT can give the answer, and then check the result. If there is an error, ask it to change it. That’s it. Keep iterating until complete. So if you want to rely on ChatGPT to write programs, you still have to know what each code is used for, otherwise it may answer questions randomly:
In addition, her mother happens to be an engineer, so she helps check whether the final circuit diagram is feasible:
Once you’ve got it all done and tested that each button works properly, it’s time to assemble it:
Different from Sony, she uses a tablet, not a simple screen, but the specifications are the same 8-inch 1920×1080 resolution, equipped with Android operating system, so what Android can do, this self-made PS Portal can do it, and its functions are better than those of Sony The version is even more powerful:
The final product is complete! Of course, the connection part with PS5 is achieved through PS Remote Play App. According to her, the game played very smoothly, with almost no lag at all:
Not only streaming PS5 games, but also streaming Steam games:
The final cost was 730 yuan, about NT$3,200, only half of Sony (US$199):
Although strictly speaking, this is an Android tablet with an external DualSense controller, but when turned into a handheld device, it still feels quite interesting to play, just like PS Portal. However, I guess the connection quality and stability will be worse than PS Portal, after all, it is streaming through the App.
Full video:
