PS2 Portable Assorted Issues

[MRKane]

I should be onto my second PS2 portable by now, but couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to open up the first one I had made and do some improvements. First up: a much better frankencase, second: a better audio amp so the sound wasn't so scratchy.

Thing is that now I just cannot get sound out of the unit and I'm amiss as to why. I know the audio setup works as that's testable, but cannot seem to get anything out of the console so figured it had to be wired up wrong.

Broad View, she's a donkeys breakfast as I'm still modelling the case to properly fit the unit, so nothing is "tidied" down. The board has been trimmed along the edges but not the ends, and was working before re-assembly.

Closer to AV area. Please excuse the insulation tape and shoddy workmanship, this was supposed to be quick

AV port. Audio ground (orange - could be any ground but I was testing things) right (green) left (singed white...). I don't have any way that I can think of to test if there's audio coming out in any way aside from knowing that the amp works, so I figure it has to be upstream of that.

Also: Did you know that araldite is conductive? I decided to re-enforce the SD card adaptor that I was using for this and found that out the hard way too.

 

[Stitches]

I should be onto my second PS2 portable by now, but couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to open up the first one I had made and do some improvements. First up: a much better frankencase, second: a better audio amp so the sound wasn't so scratchy.

Thing is that now I just cannot get sound out of the unit and I'm amiss as to why. I know the audio setup works as that's testable, but cannot seem to get anything out of the console so figured it had to be wired up wrong.

Broad View, she's a donkeys breakfast as I'm still modelling the case to properly fit the unit, so nothing is "tidied" down. The board has been trimmed along the edges but not the ends, and was working before re-assembly.

Closer to AV area. Please excuse the insulation tape and shoddy workmanship, this was supposed to be quick

AV port. Audio ground (orange - could be any ground but I was testing things) right (green) left (singed white...). I don't have any way that I can think of to test if there's audio coming out in any way aside from knowing that the amp works, so I figure it has to be upstream of that.

Also: Did you know that araldite is conductive? I decided to re-enforce the SD card adaptor that I was using for this and found that out the hard way too.

Conductive? I've been using it to cover wiring for ages. What kind did you use, I might have unknowingly killed a cube or two back in the day :O

As for the audio issues, can you show us a closeup of the amp itself and the wiring to the PS2?

 

[MRKane]

I figured it wasn't either, but as fate would have it when I covered the fragile SD card to USB adapter with it I was getting just enough conductance across the pins on it to cause the console to lock up. Removing the component seemed to fix the issue and it now at least starts up.
I was using the crystal clear araldite which was all I could actually purchase at the local hardware store so it could have something to do with that, but it really wasn't what I expected. Now this was at the 4-hour mark, and again at the 10 hour mark, but I might do an assessment on it as the days go by to see if the curing process makes it less conductive over time as I know it can continue to cure for days.

 

[MRKane]

Well I've tried another audio amp and haven't much got any sound out of this unit, leading me to conclude that it's probably dead despite no obvious reason why. I'm open to suggestions! Is the playstation audio horribly quiet or something?

I'll have to see about purchasing another one - and cross fingers at that as I've found that two thirds of the boards seem to be badly corroded.

 

[Stitches]

Well I've tried another audio amp and haven't much got any sound out of this unit, leading me to conclude that it's probably dead despite no obvious reason why. I'm open to suggestions! Is the playstation audio horribly quiet or something?

I'll have to see about purchasing another one - and cross fingers at that as I've found that two thirds of the boards seem to be badly corroded.

Do you have a multimeter? If you don't, go get one. If you do, check for continuity across all the AV out pins. It's possible that there's a short there somewhere. Also visually inspect the legs of all the chips on the board for solder balls or other potential metallic shorting debris.

I also noticed that your wires carrying the audio aren't shielded and go right against some voltage wires. You should look at replacing those with shielded wire to prevent interference.

 

[MRKane]

Checking for continuity was about the third thing I did here, I'm not reading any shorts but they are a little ragged as I've been messing with them. Oddly enough the wires were salvaged off of an audio extension so I figured they'd not be prone to interference but at worst that'd create excess noise. Good suggestions however!

I can't think of any way to really test this within my capacity here. I don't even have a computer to wire up a 3.5mm jack to :/

 

[Stitches]

It's entirely possible that your board is fuk.

 

[MRKane]

I've purchased another one off the NZ version of ebay so will roll the dice and see how it goes. They're all getting pretty shot nowdays and it's unusual to see a board that doesn't have at least a little bit of rot in it - people just don't look after their stuff

I was also wondering if there were some system settings that needed to be done to get audio back (like having to set the clock after cutting the board for instance).

 

[Crazzyleprechaun]

I don't think any system settings need to be changed its probably a short on your board or bad wiring. Also did you check to see if you have 5v coming out of the regulator next to the audio

 

[MRKane]

I've wired the regulator up using the hailraiser mod, or was there another one you were talking about?
I've been wondering if one of the components died or got detached somewhere (there's a little rot on the underside of the board which could be the cause of the issue), but don't really have a schematic of the 7900X board to trace the audio back to any chip. I figured it's the combined chip on the bottom of the board that it sources from (like any DAC) but don't have much to go off.

 

[Stitches]

I've wired the regulator up using the hailraiser mod

What's that?

 

[Crazzyleprechaun]

Check if Blue has 7v or whatever your input voltage is and then check if green has 5v and black is ground
Audio will only work if that regulator is outputting 5v

Also the hailraizer mod is replacing the default 5v regulator with a more efficient regulator iirc

 

[MRKane]

Yes, hailraizer is a bypass of that component. I'm using a DC-DC converter which is significantly more efficient, and the unit is powered by two 26650 cells. Now thinking about your numbers there I'm wondering if it's a current issue as I'm also using the line to power the audio amp, fan, and USB side of the PS2 board (there's another similar regulator on the back side).

But if anything those numbers you've given me give me something to test against and follow up! Thank you so much!!!

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

Yes, hailraizer is a bypass of that component. I'm using a DC-DC converter which is significantly more efficient, and the unit is powered by two 26650 cells. Now thinking about your numbers there I'm wondering if it's a current issue as I'm also using the line to power the audio amp, fan, and USB side of the PS2 board (there's another similar regulator on the back side).

But if anything those numbers you've given me give me something to test against and follow up! Thank you so much!!!

Aren't those batteries only rated for 2A discharge? The PS2 requires at least 3.5A to run on it's own. Let alone with a screen, audio amp, etc.

Have you tried using 18650 cells? They're cheap and are rated between 5A and 10A.

 

[MRKane]

Good idea, but easy to check as I've wired this to run off of mains also and it's still having the same issue. According to the manufacturer specs the batteries are 5C 4000 mAh which should do the trick, but it's something sure to watch out for down the road. Fortunately the cheap clock (which it's made out of) will be easily modified to take 18650s

I've re-wired the hailraizer mod with some mentally over-spec wire and it's still giving me the silent treatment. Does this thing have some sort of funny pre-amp chip or something on it? I've had a look under the microscope and it still looks to be in order. I'll see about stripping another unit down over the weekend and see if I can troubleshoot as I go there. It's annoying to find the issue at THIS stage of assembly! lol

 

[Stitches]

Good idea, but easy to check as I've wired this to run off of mains also and it's still having the same issue. According to the manufacturer specs the batteries are 5C 4000 mAh which should do the trick, but it's something sure to watch out for down the road. Fortunately the cheap clock (which it's made out of) will be easily modified to take 18650s

I've re-wired the hailraizer mod with some mentally over-spec wire and it's still giving me the silent treatment. Does this thing have some sort of funny pre-amp chip or something on it? I've had a look under the microscope and it still looks to be in order. I'll see about stripping another unit down over the weekend and see if I can troubleshoot as I go there. It's annoying to find the issue at THIS stage of assembly! lol

So if you connect some other source of audio to the amp you have in there, it produces sound as expected?

 

[MRKane]

Enigmatically, yes it does. I'm at a loss to figure out what's gone wrong here but it'd seem it has to do with the PS2 board itself.

I should provide a little background to myself here, but should have done earlier. I'm a hobbyist electrical guy specialising in Nintendo 64s and Raspberry Pis. I've been at it a few years and was taught by an army electrician, which I guess combines the best of good habits and not caring at the same time (as should be obvious lol). That out of the way I'm also poor so have only the basic gear to do this with.

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

Bunch of questions- Are you using a game to test with? Is the board trimmed? Is the system clock set? Is there any dust under the CPU shorting/causing problems?

Follow the traces to just before the filter caps by the AV port to check they're working as expected. They can be bypassed/removed without issue.

 

[MRKane]

I have been testing with a couple of games because the opening "swoosh" is very quiet, and also came across setting the system clock in another forum

My board trim is a little more aggressive than the usual one as I figured the "left" side was handling the disc drive, but didn't know much about the right so just left it with a light trim as indicated in red:

I should also add that I'm in PAL region so the board could be a spot different. But things I didn't think of were: dust under the CPU or tracing the lines back, however I've got this rotten board so should be able to follow that up without making things worse Is there any log somewhere pertaining to the removal of these caps?

Thanks so much!

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

The trim should be fine, definitely sanded the edges smooth so there's no shorts between layers?

I'm PAL too, no logs on those caps for PS2 yet but they function the same as the filter caps on the Wii and there's plenty of docs on those.