chipped PS1 and PS2 consoles for sale via minifree.org (and PS1 PSIO installs)

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retroleah
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chipped PS1 and PS2 consoles for sale via minifree.org (and PS1 PSIO installs)

Post by retroleah » February 7th, 2020, 9:22 pm

HI everyone,

I'm relatively new to the scene. Recently I've been modding PS1s and PS2s

I sell them here:

https://minifree.org/consoles/

PS2s have the modbo4 modchip allowing to play burned CD-R/DVD-R games

PS1s have the 8wire MM3 modchip aswell as: CSYNC mod, dual PAL/NTSC oscillators for correct PAL/NTSC vsync timings

All consoles come with RGB SCART cable, controller, memory card and power cable. I also do general refurbishments; e.g. replace broken fuses, broken caps etc. I also clean the DVD/CD laser and adjust trimpot so that they read discs again like new.

"CSYNC" (composite sync) replaces composite video and luma (so composite video and svideo won't work anymore). Composite Sync is what's used to sync the display so that you get a stable image. Normally it's extracted from either the luma or composite video channel, but with some interference issues. It's used on RGB SCART output.

RGB SCART cables usually get sync from luma or composite video, so what I've done is:
hooked up a 470ohm resistor and 220uF capacitor in series to pin 156 of the GPU which is TTL csync. the resistor and cap attenuates it so that it's at 75ohm transmission level, ready for common TVs/upscalers. No sync stripper required!

RGB with pure csync is the best way to get the best possible picture quality. You wouldn't really notice any issues on a CRT TV without the csync mod, but on flat screen TVs using an upscaler you'd notice serious interference issues in the video output. With the csync mod, modern HDTVs look great on PS1 games.

For PS2 I don't really bother with CSYNC that much. sync on luma still looks great and the PS2 also supports Sync on Green, which some upscalers (e.g. OSSC) support and you can use Component Video cables on PS2 which look great.

As for the dual PAL/NTSC oscillator:
These are PAL PS1s, which have the 53.2mhz oscillator by default. This is correct for PAL and feeds into the GPU's PAL clock input (pin 192). However, it's also hooked up to pin 196 (NTSC clock input). I cut the trace leading to pin 196 and connect a 53.69mhz oscillator instead. Without this mod, NTSC games would have vsync of about 59.3hz which is off-spec. With this mod, they are closer to 59.9hz which fixes game compatibility and also fixes compatibility with certain upscalers e.g. framemeister

Here are two YouTube videos I did, showing how I do the mods.

PS1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=618PsJKPxLI

PS2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZxDqfPERw

I ship worldwide from my lab in the UK.
Last edited by retroleah on February 8th, 2020, 6:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by Shadow » February 8th, 2020, 1:20 am

No one really uses modchips on PS1's anymore. Everyone uses PSIO these days. The dual-oscillator mod is very useful though when not using RGB :)
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

retroleah
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Post by retroleah » February 8th, 2020, 2:26 am

I can also do PSIO installs.... though there will be a delay because now I have to order some from australia :)
also the PSIO doesn't work on all PS1s. only the ones with the parallel slot.
i've been interested in researching the ps1 hardware and to find a way to get something like psio on later models. for instance, something simply that plugs into the cd drive ribbon cable slot and just acts as a cd drive. i've seen this for PCs before, where it plugs in on usb and it's usb mass storage but actually emulates a cd drive like for legacy OS that didn't support USB

I didn't realize the PSIO board was so popular

btw my consoles only do RGB. svideo and composite video are disabled due to the csync mod. i do the oscillator fix for game compatibility and upscaler compatibility, not for non-rgb use case scenario

The dual oscillator mod isn't only useful for RGB. Sure, it fixes the colour subcarrier so that NTSC works properly on composite video or svideo... but there are a few games that don't work without the fix (i forget the names, just look it up)

also, speedrunning is impossible without the mod. now speedrunners can use the console properly

certain scalers don't work correctly without the mod either, e.g. on framemeister you get a lot of stuttering if vsync is 59.3hz


...

me personally i'm oldschool. i still play games burned to CD/DVD. is that a crime!? :P
though i do have OPL on one of my memcards somewhere for ps2. i was actually using it to boot games from HDD

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Post by retroleah » February 8th, 2020, 2:36 am

i find the homepage of psio really annoying though. right now it says:

PSIO is a Flash Cartridge that plugs into your PlayStation’s Parallel I/O Port. It allows you to instantly see your games running from an SD Card on real hardware making it the only way to genuinely play backups on your console.

that is not true at all. you have to solder a switchboard on the mainboard first

my other pet peeve is that they don't share source code for the firmware running on the device. this means that when they get bored and shut down, we're screwed. i'm somewhat of a hardware preservationist. it would be nice to be able to, in the future, keep using PS1s and rig up our own PSIO boards. this is actually why i want to make something like it myself... though i won't sell it. i'll just put it on github lol

... well ok i've added PSIO service

https://minifree.org/product/psio-install-for-ps1/

Now I do PSIO installs

retroleah
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Post by retroleah » February 8th, 2020, 8:50 am

oh btw i made a separate thread in the hardware section detailing how I do these mods:

http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=3554

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Dedok179
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Post by Dedok179 » February 8th, 2020, 6:30 pm

retroleah wrote: February 8th, 2020, 2:36 am i find the homepage of psio really annoying though. right now it says:

PSIO is a Flash Cartridge that plugs into your PlayStation’s Parallel I/O Port. It allows you to instantly see your games running from an SD Card on real hardware making it the only way to genuinely play backups on your console.

that is not true at all. you have to solder a switchboard on the mainboard first

my other pet peeve is that they don't share source code for the firmware running on the device. this means that when they get bored and shut down, we're screwed. i'm somewhat of a hardware preservationist. it would be nice to be able to, in the future, keep using PS1s and rig up our own PSIO boards. this is actually why i want to make something like it myself... though i won't sell it. i'll just put it on github lol

... well ok i've added PSIO service

https://minifree.org/product/psio-install-for-ps1/

Now I do PSIO installs
Apparently the Chinese somehow took their firmware
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retroleah
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Post by retroleah » February 8th, 2020, 9:11 pm

well that can only be a good thing, if it brings the price down.

actually, i totally forgot that i ordered one ages ago. when tidying, i found the sheet for the customs charge... for a purchase from cybdyne systems :S

so im going to my local depot to collect my PSIO today. i'll probably do a video on it

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Post by Shadow » February 9th, 2020, 8:25 pm

The clones are not cheaper and they cannot be updated. Not worth it at all :lol:
Check out their info about it: https://ps-io.com/genuine-products/
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

retroleah
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Post by retroleah » February 10th, 2020, 10:55 am

I see.

So it's just a bunch of pricks ripping people off.

I'd stick with the official PSIO product anyway. While I have some dislikes of the author (judging from the tone of some of the things he writes on his website), the PSIO is *awesome*

BTW, I actually ordered a PSIO but forgot. It arrived a few days ago. I installed it yesterday and did a video. The video is currently transcoding, ready for YouTube. I'll upload it in a while.

I sell PSIO installs here:
https://minifree.org/product/psio-install-for-ps1/

Have a look at this pic. It shows the exact PSIO switch board that I have installed, which I installed myself (this console is for sale btw. I'll later make a special page for it on minifree.org):

Image

(the switch board is what enables the PSIO cartridge to work. It's just a simple 4066 IC which acts as a bilateral switch for the buses pertaining to CD drive operation, allowing the PSIO to take them over while still enabling CDs to boot)

EDIT:
Hey guys my PSIO is installed and I did a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5NFeHQo2lo

I made a new thread promoting my PSIO-modded PS1:
http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=3556

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