PlayStation Development Network

rama3 wrote:Let me suggest you just buy a working console. This is clearly not your thing ;p

well if it's a 1001, then okay, but what do you mean it's not my thing

StevieGoodwin wrote:

rama3 wrote:Let me suggest you just buy a working console. This is clearly not your thing ;p

but what do you mean it's not my thing

He means you clearly don't grasp how to perform the required task

You don't need to solder a multimeter. You touch the probes to the point of contact you'd like to reference from. If you're going to continue, be extremely mindful of the power supply. It's going to be live and you'll be working with two hands, so watch your fingers and where you lay your wrists, especially on the 1000 series because the test points are right next to the power supply

I'd seriously suggest just buying another console. From the sounds of it, you shouldn't take the risk if you don't know what you're doing.

Agreed, without proper electronics training, what you're doing can be very dangerous. This is more than just simply swapping out parts at this point...

I know how to look out for the power supply, and i'm referring to the video where he solders a wire:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wCKui1zaBY[/youtube]

Thanks everyone for phrasing the important message:
StevieGoodwin: You lack the understanding to follow our instructions.
For you own safety, please step back from your PSX 1001 project.
Just get a working console from Ebay, which will suffice for now.

sorry guys. forgive me

He soldered wires because:

1) It made it easier for him to adjust (because he couldn't test probe with a disc in) and
2) He wanted to calibrate it properly using an oscilloscope to verify the eye test pattern is in phase, but he couldn't because his scope (looks like one of those generic USB digital scopes) couldn't do ghosting/delaying (persistency).

Calibrating by voltage reference isn't the best method (it's not accurate). The best way is by calibrating by the eye test pattern. You need an analog scope like he said in the video. Digital ones do work, but they really suck.

Here's what it looks like on a digital scope (see my previous post for the analog comparison here):


With the old lasers, you've also got to be weary of the drives physical state. The spindle motors do go bad, and the sled assembly does wear. They are finicky and overall just cheaply designed. Compare the drive assembly from a SEGA Saturn, and you'll know the difference in quality immediately. This is why PSIO was invented.

Best thing to do is find someone who owns an analog scope or ask a friend who might have one and send your PlayStation to them. Otherwise, you'll have to find or buy an analog scope. I'd offer to do it for you, but I don't have an analog scope anymore. I need to get another one

StevieGoodwin wrote:sorry guys. forgive me

No need to apologize, we just don't want to see you get hurt is all. No worries.

Good news guys, I got an 1001 going with the Mulitmeter and KSM-440-BAM pulled from a PSone. It made it better. Is 18.57 or higher good enough?

StevieGoodwin wrote:Good news guys, I got an 1001 going with the Mulitmeter and KSM-440-BAM pulled from a PSone. It made it better. Is 18.57 or higher good enough?

The voltage will vary from model to model. This is why the eye test pattern is the correct way to adjust because you just don't know if it's in phase or not from a voltage reading. Best thing you can do is just tune it while playing an STR video from an original pressed CD-ROM (reason being is that CD-R's require a slight voltage increase for the eye pattern to be in phase).

And oh, sometimes i have to reset it if it doesn't read first try

I have set the laser intensity to 1.5 MV on a BAM laser and it's reading pefectly. Thank you guys for helping me on my 1001 project. Is 1.5 MV good enough?

1.5 million volt is probably enough, yes.

Listen to the sound it makes when reading a disc. Don't turn it up so high that it starts to chirp or whine.

Thanks for helping me on my 1001 project. And also, check out my Soundscope post as i'm a huge fan of the PS1 and always visit here. http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=1284

Today i bought another SCPH-1001 made August 1996 and i noticed it has the more reliable metal KSM-440-ACM lens assembly instead of plastic since it doesn't sit lower. Is the metal ACM reliable the same way as the BAM?

StevieGoodwin wrote:Today i bought another SCPH-1001 made August 1996 and i noticed it has the more reliable metal KSM-440-ACM lens assembly instead of plastic since it doesn't sit lower. Is the metal ACM reliable the same way as the BAM?

The specific problem with the plastic frame wearing was fixed on those ACMs with the diecast metal frame, and mechanically they are as robust as the later pickups. However, an old -ACM out of a SCPH-100x is likely to have a lot more operating hours on it.

The two things that are primarily affected by increased operating hours are the spindle motor and the laser diode. The spindle motor is fairly obvious, since it's a mechanical part, but a laser diode is a component with a finite life too. Typically it's stated as something like 10,000 hours, but they generally last a lot longer than that.

What happens is that as the laser diode ages the optical output power drops. Since the laser diode has an automatic power control circuit you initially don't notice this because the APC increases the laser diode current to maintain the same output power. Eventually, the output drops to the point where the APC can't compensate anymore, the beam power drops and with it the amplitude of the recovered signal.

Note that the metal read heads only helped with the problem, they didn't fully fix it.
The read head now glides on 2 soft plastic standofs that wear down and on the other rail, it is metal gliding on plastic, wearing down the plastic.
You've got to inspect the 2 plastic standofs and the general condition of the plastic frame.
If they're very visibly worn, they won't work well anymore.

Note also that out of maybe 50 consoles I had, only 2 had a spent laser diode.
Most often, when a drive is bad, it is the motors and gunk from the old grease, mixed with plastic remnants.

Okay, I think that would be good enough. Having the metal KSM-440-ACM lens.

TriMesh wrote:

StevieGoodwin wrote:Today i bought another SCPH-1001 made August 1996 and i noticed it has the more reliable metal KSM-440-ACM lens assembly instead of plastic since it doesn't sit lower. Is the metal ACM reliable the same way as the BAM?

The specific problem with the plastic frame wearing was fixed on those ACMs with the diecast metal frame, and mechanically they are as robust as the later pickups. However, an old -ACM out of a SCPH-100x is likely to have a lot more operating hours on it.

The two things that are primarily affected by increased operating hours are the spindle motor and the laser diode. The spindle motor is fairly obvious, since it's a mechanical part, but a laser diode is a component with a finite life too. Typically it's stated as something like 10,000 hours, but they generally last a lot longer than that.

What happens is that as the laser diode ages the optical output power drops. Since the laser diode has an automatic power control circuit you initially don't notice this because the APC increases the laser diode current to maintain the same output power. Eventually, the output drops to the point where the APC can't compensate anymore, the beam power drops and with it the amplitude of the recovered signal.

So basically i have a good SCPH-1001 then? If propely taken care of it would last a long time. Also would clean discs (No scratches/ clean like a mirror when brand new? Would lubrucation also improve the metal ACM i have? So robust means more reliable?

StevieGoodwin wrote:

TriMesh wrote:

StevieGoodwin wrote:Today i bought another SCPH-1001 made August 1996 and i noticed it has the more reliable metal KSM-440-ACM lens assembly instead of plastic since it doesn't sit lower. Is the metal ACM reliable the same way as the BAM?

The specific problem with the plastic frame wearing was fixed on those ACMs with the diecast metal frame, and mechanically they are as robust as the later pickups. However, an old -ACM out of a SCPH-100x is likely to have a lot more operating hours on it.

The two things that are primarily affected by increased operating hours are the spindle motor and the laser diode. The spindle motor is fairly obvious, since it's a mechanical part, but a laser diode is a component with a finite life too. Typically it's stated as something like 10,000 hours, but they generally last a lot longer than that.

What happens is that as the laser diode ages the optical output power drops. Since the laser diode has an automatic power control circuit you initially don't notice this because the APC increases the laser diode current to maintain the same output power. Eventually, the output drops to the point where the APC can't compensate anymore, the beam power drops and with it the amplitude of the recovered signal.

So basically i have a good SCPH-1001 then? If propely taken care of it would last a long time. Also would clean discs (No scratches/ clean like a mirror when brand new? Would lubrucation also improve the metal ACM i have? So robust means more reliable?

In this case, robust means that it shouldn't suffer from mechanical failure in normal use like the -AAM and early -ACM pickups with the plastic body. How good that specific one is will depend heavily on how much it was used before you got it.

With those later design pickups, I wouldn't worry too much about media condition - the issue with the old ones was that bad media may force the drive to do read retries and this increased the wear on the fragile drive mechanics. That isn't an issue with those metal framed pickups.

If the drive assembly looks clean, then I would just leave it. The only time it's worth cleaning and re-lubricating those drives is if they are contaminated and don't move smoothly.