new project

[Modded Matt]

ok guys, I am new to the PSP completely, to be honest I have only played with it for like 10 hrs total. but I am not new to electronics or modding. anyway, I got this psp from my brother in law, (in bad shape) you guys told me where to get the parts, I got everything from coolmods.uk ...great shop, quick shipping 8 days to get to me state side... now I have just a few questions. I am filling this claer case with blue 603 led's (its been done over and over but whatever, I dont think he would like all the other colors) I see where I want to put them all, I am looking at around 15-20. I want some to be sound reactive, and some to be solid, each controlled independently. so, I use the hold switch for the ground of the solid leds, and the wifi switch for the ground of the SR led's correct? and I am putting some led's in the umd door. and I would like to do a duel nub mod, and a usb charge, that yellow plug in my clear case is ugly. I am going to try and cove the green 'on' led so its not blinding when playing also. I will break out my questions below now that I have explained what I want to do, can someone address each question, and voice any objections please.

1) SR LED's I saw the tut on direct contact first, why use the lm chip? is there a difference? can i use the power from the speaker and the ground from the wifi switch to control these?

2) regular led's, what is the best +V for them, and to use the hold function to turn them on/off, do I have to cut the trace so my hold dont work anymore?

3) led's in the umd door, how to bring the knar wire through?? will it clear though the left (open side) hinge leg of the door?

4) I am replacing the original nub with a new one (the old is wore out) thats easy, I want to add one for the other side, I see how to do it, but where do I get it from? can I use two original ones or will it not fit? I have a razor board that came with my clear case, but dont know what to do with it.

5) usb charge. does this work..properly? any problems? its just one wire? seems all too easy??? why this not be a stock deal?? it just seems so practical, then the ps3 can charge the psp?? duh, why didnt sony think of this?

6) last but not least, whats all this Pandora’s battery all about? homebrew games. pros and cons?? what is this new chicken v2 thing on the news page about.

I got the psp broke all the way down (without breaking anything) and am ready to start fitting leds into the back and re assembling it.

alot of this is tough to get too and I wont know if alot of it works until I put it back together. I test all leds before they go in to make sure they light with another power source.

sorry some of  this is noobish, I admitted, I dont know anything about this PSP. I am just trying to do something nice for a kid that means alot to me, so any help would greatly be appreciated. his birthday is the 9th of june, he will be 13. so I dont have a lot of time

[GhoSt]

1.) the reason for using the chip is it increases the brightness of the leds and I belive it increases how many can run off that one circut, although many belive it is not reactive enough. Also if you plan to solder to the hold/wifi, you cannot do direct contact.

2.) any voltage is fine, as long as you can caculate resistors. As for the hold function, it will still work if you don't cut the trace, but that means when you want those leds on you won't be able to use any buttons so if you cut the trace it disables the hold function.

3.) There are some pefect little holes and notches on the bottom of the UMD drive which wires can be brought through, if that is not enough you could probably cut/drill something to your standards.

4.)ok, the second nub needs to act as 4 digital switches, this is done by added a razor board which basicaly means when you push the analog eg. right it will make contact between ground and the square(? or circle dnt remember which is which) pad therfor creating a switch. No you cannot use a regular analog nub is it cannot switch the /\[]OX. Plus the razor is the only way you can fit it in the case.

5.)Usb charge works fine, the problem is the USB from a pc ect takes much to long to charge the psp. I recomend modding the psp power supply to USB so you can charge full speed. There are a few tuts for that here.

6.)Pandoras battery is the outright winner of most used "mod" world wide, it allows you to get custom firmware on your psp which unlocks a whole new world. Pretty much leaving your psp open to a whole lot of stuff, eg. ISO cough, custom flashed themes, homebrew games/applications, litteraly loads of stuff.

Hope this helps out, it should be alright you are experienced with the iron. Just have fun rought althat wire. Also have you considered swaping the stock leds, thats alwats abit of fun.

[Modded Matt]

1.) the reason for using the chip is it increases the brightness of the leds and I belive it increases how many can run off that one circut, although many belive it is not reactive enough. Also if you plan to solder to the hold/wifi, you cannot do direct contact.

how do you switch it on and off if you cant use the hold/wifi?? so to use the stock switch, I must use the lm chip?? where am I going to stick that? any ideas?

2.) any voltage is fine, as long as you can caculate resistors. As for the hold function, it will still work if you don't cut the trace, but that means when you want those leds on you won't be able to use any buttons so if you cut the trace it disables the hold function.

ok got it, cut the trace. need to be able to turn volume up/down, and change tracks, with leds lighting.

3.) There are some pefect little holes and notches on the bottom of the UMD drive which wires can be brought through, if that is not enough you could probably cut/drill something to your standards.

yea, I will mod the case as needed

4.)ok, the second nub needs to act as 4 digital switches, this is done by added a razor board which basicaly means when you push the analog eg. right it will make contact between ground and the square(? or circle dnt remember which is which) pad therfor creating a switch. No you cannot use a regular analog nub is it cannot switch the /\[]OX. Plus the razor is the only way you can fit it in the case.

I have a small flat razor board from coolmods, came with my case, but it is just a flat circut board with a few traces and contacts. I dont know how to make it into a nub, I saw a ruberband, or ballon tut, but it seems kind of cheap..(no offence,  I can spend the money to buy a proper part.)

5.)Usb charge works fine, the problem is the USB from a pc ect takes much to long to charge the psp. I recomend modding the psp power supply to USB so you can charge full speed. There are a few tuts for that here.

I saw, I think it was your tut to do that. this wont overload the mobo, that is only designed to take in 5v?? and there is only the one power wire to do this correct? I think it was a tut by robin I saw on it, but the pic was not entierly clear.

6.)Pandoras battery is the outright winner of most used "mod" world wide, it allows you to get custom firmware on your psp which unlocks a whole new world. Pretty much leaving your psp open to a whole lot of stuff, eg. ISO cough, custom flashed themes, homebrew games/applications, litteraly loads of stuff.

but will this limit you in anyway? like, will he still be able to play syphon filter online multi player?? I know on xbox that is a nono??

Hope this helps out, it should be alright you are experienced with the iron. Just have fun rought althat wire. Also have you considered swaping the stock leds, thats alwats abit of fun.

thanks ghost. the soldering is not an issue. I got short fat fingers, but they are steady. I am just not familiar with this device, and only have a month to get this done. so I have to learn it as I go. thanks for all your help.

[rceckspurt13]

Ok there is space for the chip on the back left of the psp(looking at it from the front). Oposite side ofthe psp from the battery. That's where the wifi board is located and behind it there is a space where the chip should fit fine.

To amke the full razor hub, you will need to start with a regular analog stick like the stock one on the left. You take off the stock analog board by unclippin the metal piece that holds it in place. Then replace the razor board where the analog one once was. Then put the metal piece back on. It's really that simple I believe. You will then need to solder the razor nub to the /\ O [ ] and X buttons.

Yep the USB mod really is that simple. One of the easiest to do. Simply solder one wire from the farthest left pin on the USB connector to the left pin where the yellow charge adaptor plugs into the motherboard. That's all that's needed: one wire. It will not overload the mobo since USB is only 5 Volts and that's all the psp uses to charge anyway. I don't know why sony didn't make it stock that way. Maybe they just wanted to leave somthing for us to figure out?

Nope there is nothing to lose from software modding the psp. Nobody will ever find out unless you specifically tell them. There are oh so many benefits from it though. I would do it for the sole reason of copying my games to play without umd. Some of those custom xmb themes are pretty pimp too though.

Yeah those 0603 LEDs will be the most difficult thing to solder. I'm so glad that I've now mastered the art of soldering. It so far expanded my capabilities with electronics. I remember when I first joined this site I didn't know how. I hate shaky hands when I'm working on my psp though. I just redid my USB charge yesterday.

[GhoSt]

how do you switch it on and off if you cant use the hold/wifi?? so to use the stock switch, I must use the lm chip?? where am I going to stick that? any ideas?

I saw, I think it was your tut to do that. this wont overload the mobo, that is only designed to take in 5v?? and there is only the one power wire to do this correct? I think it was a tut by robin I saw on it, but the pic was not entierly clear.
 
but will this limit you in anyway? like, will he still be able to play syphon filter online multi player?? I know on xbox that is a nono?? thanks ghost. the soldering is not an issue. I got short fat fingers, but they are steady. I am just not familiar with this device, and only have a month to get this done. so I have to learn it as I go. thanks for all your help.

1.)you can fit the chip behind the wifi board, just remove the legs of the which overhang the chip and solder the resistors around it, lots of width space but height is limited.

Nope USB has a standard voltage of 5v, its just a lower current than psp charger so thats why it charges slowly.

nah, Im pretty sure they can't detect the firmware, but the if the game is ripped and you play online that is more likely but I highly doupt it, never heard of it happening. It can do all the same things as a stock psp remember. But again I havn't dwelled in psp software for along time so I wouldn't be the best person to ask

also, rceckspurt is completly wrong, you dont remove the old board and slap on a new one. You remove the old board and all the contact peices, so its down to the top peice the nubby bit and the spring, then you tin the razor pads, and try centre the spring on and clip the razor on the bottom. So that the spring is used as a contact peice between the razor pads. No ruber bands needed, as long as you don't bend the spring, be carefull its delicate.

Remember alot of the tutorials for this are floating around. The best dual nub tut is by that hardcore french modder (forgot his name starts with A?). But there is one here, Im sure you can do a much better job though. https://www.acidmods.com/forum/index.php?topic=26291.0

[rceckspurt13]

Oops my bad. I've never used a razor before. I was going from what I could gather from other posts and what not on here. Sorry for any confusion.

[Modded Matt]

thanks for all your help guys, I am on my way, and will report back with progress and any more questions. I got the umd door wired up, and I got the shel painted last night, it came out better than I expected.

you know where the battery sits, most clear cases you see this big black battery on one side and open circutry and memory card on the other, I am a man of ballance..LOL I painted a battery inside the case on the other side, it matches great. I also used some letters and put his name in the paint, when I pealed the letters off, it left his name clear and looks like a battery on both sides, I am going to back light his name with an led or two. I have not seen this done, and its hard to describe, will post pics when I get it back together,

I found the best tut on the duel nub, it is for a slim, not the phat. and not a very good one, I ordered a few extra nubs (4 total) incase I have a problem with the spring. I will make a proper fat tut in my progress so the site has it.

[GhoSt]

cool a full picture tut will be great. here is the one I think is the best (may want to translate with somthing)

Fisrt part
Second part
third part

[Modded Matt]

ok, that was wierd?? I got a report about this thread, then it was gone..are we discussion something wrong here??

anyway, yea that tut would be great, if I could read any of it. LOL Acidmods should have a full pic tut also, I hate and try to discourage our guys from sending members to other sites. If you ask around acidmods.com is known for "hardmods" we have alot of great info, but we are lacking on this topic. I have found alot of p[osts about it, but never a proper tut. we will fix that!! We need to do this to keep people here, now I am off topic. but you know what I mean.

thanks again

[Jumbo]

Slim Hacker reported for ISO chat.

For future refrence!-

ISO chat is FINE, as long as you DONT post where to find them!!!!!!!

Good luck and if you need something ill TRY to help..

[robin1989]

yeh i just deleted the report as it was ok