Worklog Lightning's PS2, years in the making

[Lightning]

So I'll skip the introduction, I'm sure it's all been said a million times, but as the title suggests I've been working on a PS2 portable for about as long as I can remeber, probably coming up on about 8 years at this point, and through that time I've leaned countless things about design, engineering and electronics, all of which I intend to showcase here.

Here's a brief list of parts to give an idea of my design

PS2 70011 - for HDD loading
EJ080NA 04C 8" LCD

The rest of my parts are still in the design phase, but many of them are clone boards I've designed myself in DipTrace, a few of which I'll show renderings of here:

This is the SATA to PATA and CMOS combo board (designed from ground up, chip is on the back):

The board will use the original DVD drive mounts and accommodate a Samsung SSD (without housing). I'm still waiting on the soft PCBs from this kit, I need to trace their pin-outs : http://www.maxdiypower.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=80


Next there is a 3-in-1 board, my FREEmcBOOT, Controller, and LCD driver clone board:

This one actually started as 3 separate boards, but once I started getting into relocating components on the motherboard I began to dance with a sort of AIO solution. It sits on the back of the 70011 lining up with the USB and controller/memory card ports, and has cutouts for some of the nesesary I/O, such as the raw sound data near the top.

Obviously neither of them are complete yet (although were it not for a failed Windows 10 upgrade and subsequent loss of all hard drive data they would be), but I wanted to give some idea of what I'm working on. I still have to remake my HDMI board, Modbo 5.0 clone, and battery/power board

More updates to come!!

 

[stuckpixel]

Looks awesome! What CAD package are you using to make those PCBs? Looks pretty nice. Can't wait for more

- merged posts -

Can't edit my previous post, for some reason. Anyway, those flat flex look pretty simple and they have high res photos of them, is there something I'm missing that prevents you from pinning them out?

 

[Lightning]

CAD package? And I actually have one of them done based on the photos, but I can't see enough of the other side of the denser one to tell where each trace terminates

 

[Ikeprodigy]

Coool!

 

[Matthew]

What CAD package are you using to make those PCBs

many of them are clone boards I've designed myself in DipTrace

 

[stuckpixel]

How did I miss this

Thanks

 

[Lightning]

So I just wanna say right off the bat that this thread will not just be images of PCBs that I want to make, I'll have a few actual photos to post of my progress quite soon as I just sent this one off to the print shop.

Its another of the clone boards I mentioned, and this one funnily enough is a clone of a clone. Its a MODBO 5.0 chip that I've adapted to a mezzanine interface thats present in every PS2. It doesn't always have the same pin-out, but it's essentially a backdoor to the BIOS, that's why all PS2 mod chips (can) connect to it. The reason I went with this chip for my build originally was for it's USB boot function, but now I want to expand on this architecture. Some of my old research into the 79001 board showed me that the PS2 loads game data from the same BUS as the BIOS, so knowing this it should be possible to construct a device capable of not only injecting a customized BIOS (as PS2 mod chips already do), but one capable of injecting the game data as it would be fed from the IOP into the north bridge (this is broadly how the HD PRO works), and loading said data from a hard drive or SD card. All completely speculative I know, but if it works it would be very similar to the Wii-key mod for GameCube, and would work for all versions, including 79001.

Anyway, here's the board I designed. I'd also like to get some input on the logo I drew on the top silk screen, I'm thinking about using it as a signature for all my boards

You can see the mezzanine footprint on the bottom side

 

[KarlslandOtaku]

I'm definitely excited to see if this works out. W^_^W
If it does work then I'm going to have to force myself to get back into soldering! (Even so this site is inspiring me to do so anyway)
Good luck with this ode, digital output from the EE&GS (from your modretro work log) and your whole portable project in general!

Also don't feel obligated to answer this (I'm just curious) ; if you end up getting working boards from the ode or digital output schematics are you planing on selling any diy kits for either of them? Either way thank you for making my day today even better than it already is.

 

[Lightning]

First a question for you if I may, what Anime is that in your avatar?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you refer to the 'ode', and I think you're referring to alternate video output boards with the 'digital output from EEGS', like the one Gman posted. Anyway to answer your question, if I'm actually successful in creating devices that output in HDMI and/or load games at full speed through the BIOS interface, I would certainly be open to making them available to anyone who wants them (although exactly how this would be done I haven't the faintest).

To that end, I'm posting a picture of this mystery BUS that I've gotten so excited about (for a second time), because despite knowing what it does, I haven't the faintest what it is, or rather what its called. If any learned individuals can identify this BUS based on the names of the pins, it would clear what is at this time a massive roadblock

And for those who are maybe interested, the MODBO chip (and indeed all PS2 modchips) injects it's code through SD 0-7, SRD_A, and CS2 (though this one is just for device selection, not data transmission)

 

[KarlslandOtaku]

Hi, I'm sorry if I confused you. By "ode" I meant a optical drive replacement (such as a wiikey fusion for wii/gc or rhea/phoebe for saturn) & was referring to your post just above mine about the possibility of loading custom bios &/or game code through an hdd or sd card. I must have the terminology mixed up. W^_^W

Edit: No problem Her name is Erica Hartmann from Strike Witches.
She happens to be my favorite character in anime & it's her Birthday today too btw W^_^W

 

[Lightning]

I'll be sure to check it out!!

And by way of 'Optical Drive Replacement, yes this device would fit into the same category, it emulates the processed data from the optical drive and sends it to the main processor(s). Truth be told I didn't even know there was a terminology for devices like this lol

 

[KarlslandOtaku]

It's an awesome alt history WWII series. There is a great story under all of the fanservice! W^_^W Enjoy!

I thought so. no problem.

 

[cheese]

What all is connected to that bus? It looks like there may be a few things on that bus judging from the multiple CS lines... And did you get those pin names from the leaked schematics for the PS2? If not, where you got the pin names from would probably help figuring out what it is

Also if you haven't you should totally check out Nichijou, it's one of my favorites

 

[Lightning]

Yes I got them from the 70000 series service manual, and I don't know who the hell leaked that thing, but its about as close to a god send as it gets. Anyway that bus is what connects the boot ROM, DVD drive, and network adapter to the I/O processor (north bridge), that's why I think there's so much potential here.

 

[Aurelio]

That looks to me like a pretty standard parallel interface, nothing fancy

 

[cheese]

I don't know who the hell leaked that thing

For sure someone who was promptly fired and potentially sued

That bus is making me think PCI, but it could also be a custom bus with a similar design

 

[Lightning]

That looks to me like a pretty standard parallel interface, nothing fancy

Dude, I think that might be it!! This is the part where I need to get an oscilloscope isn't it lol

I also noticed that it has the same number of data pins as an IDE hard drive, times two!!

 

[Lightning]

Aaaaaaand.... Now I'm 99% sure, and the reason is the modchips, they use data 0-7, and after researching the original Matrix Infinity, and DMS4, both of which are based on the Actel APA075, which in those circumstances are outputting in parallel, there is little doubt left.

So yea, its a dual 16 bit parallel bus, presumably one for sending, and one for receiving data. The only thing I can't figure out is why the output bus has to be as wide as the input bus, surely the audio doesn't need that much to make it back to the network interface chip. I'm wondering if perhaps they aren't all always used, maybe some games don't need the full range of data transmission lines. Definitely need that oscilloscope

 

[cheese]

Definitely need that oscilloscope

It may be a better idea to get a logic analyzer, it will give you 1 or 0 readings for each line, and they usually have many more channels for the same price. I got a 36 channel one for about the same price as a 2 channel oscilloscope, and it's super handy for busses since it reads all the lines at once

 

[stuckpixel]

It may be a better idea to get a logic analyzer, it will give you 1 or 0 readings for each line, and they usually have many more channels for the same price. I got a 36 channel one for about the same price as a 2 channel oscilloscope, and it's super handy for busses since it reads all the lines at once

+1

viewing things in a digital sense is nice, not to mention usually cheaper than a scope