Monthly Archives: October 2004

journal

PS2 Adventures

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As I write this, I have attached 16 of 17 wires to my PS2, and am waiting on the Fed-Ex truck to deliver my mod-chip… but more about that in later posts.

I decided to hide this from the prying eyes of search engine spiders and whatever anonymous folk that might decide to look up some dirt on people who mod their PS2. (I definitely don’t want to get any certified letters from Sony lawyers).

I had heard that PS2 mod chip installations were really hard, and only to be attempted by practiced, competent solderers, so I looked up the prices for having my mod chip installed. Most places that sell the chips online also offer installation services for a fee. The $60 cost plus shipping of the ps2 (you ship the unit to them, they mod it and ship it back) was prohibitive. I also solicited installation information on the git.ads newsgroup.
The one response I got back was from an EE undergrad who offered to install it for $45 and would ‘guarantee his work’. The chip itself cost me $48, so I wasn’t all that eager to make arrangements. I decided that if some EE undergrad could do it then I should be able to do it too. I did a bunch of online searching and came across a web page that listed all of the materials + general instructions needed to do the job.

My friend with the modified PS2 (who happens to be a EE with a grad degree) kept trying to dissuade me from doing it myself, warning me that I was going to fry my PS2, but I had made up my mind. I was concerned about my relative lack of soldering station experience (approx 10 times in my life, nothing much more difficult than wire splices), so i decided to practice on some broken computer equipment that I had laying around.

Ironically enough, the supplies that I bought ended up costing me about $40. Here is a list of what I bought:

  • 30awg kynar wire (100ft) – $3.25 – Very thin wire, even thinner than cat5 conductor strands.
    The doofuses working at Fry’s had no idea what this was. One guy claimed to have had gotten an EE degree back in the 70’s but hadn’t ever heard of it.
  • Wire strippers – $7.99 – Had to hunt a little bit to find a pair that would strip 30 awg wire
    I usually use nail clippers or a pocket knife to strip wires, but the 30awg kynar was too thin for that to work.
  • Solder paste flux (non acidic) – $2.99 – Used to help solder flow in the desired direction
    I didn’t have any clue how to use this stuff. It took a combination of advice of IRC and trial-and-error for me to figure it out. It is handy, but has its limitations.
  • 0.32 dia Rosin core solder – ~$4 – The solder I’d already had was too thick.
  • 15W Soldering Iron – $8.30 – Ripped off! Radio Shack blows!
    None of the irons at Fry’s had the conical tip I needed, and they were out of replacement tips for their irons below 40W. Radio Shack had the only appropriate one I could find.
  • Solvent Cleaner – $3.99 – A volatile aromatic, by the smell of it. I *think* this is supposed to help clean off/dissolve the thin plastic coating put on to circuit boards & connections.
    I wiped it over the solder points, but I have my doubts as to how effective it was. A quick perusal of the label says ethanol, petroleum solvent and other hydrocarbons.
  • The best safety razor + blue tack – ~$5.00 – The razor blades are used to shield the point on the board you are workign with from other points. The blue tack (putty) holds the blade in place to keep your hands free.
    This was really helpful. It allowed me to focus on not letting the solder go in one particular direction while acting as a physical shield and heat shield for parts in the other direction. Even if you have a surgeon’s steadiness, i’d reccomend it as an added precautionary measure.

So, doing the installation by myself wasn’t that money-saving a deal. I saved about $5 and had to risk messing up the PS2 without any kind of guarantee in case of an error. Nevertheless, by doing so I will end up with left-over materials and skills that I can loan, lease, or sell to others if I am so inclined…. though I am very hesitant to attempt another mod chip installation.
After I obtained all of the materials, I ventured out on to IRC for some first-hand advice from people who had performed PS2 mod chip installations. I spent most of my time in #ps2 on EFNET. Pretty much EVERYONE told me that I had no business opening up a PS2 if I didn’t have decent above-average soldering skills, but I did get some helpful advice. It was after that that I decided to take a practice run on a broken ISA 3Com 3c509B network card.

More to come…..

General

Matrix Infinity: Re-mod’ed

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I meant to post about this earlier, but procrastinatory obligations kept me from writing anything until now 😉 . About 1 week ago, a friend of mine with a modified PS2 got a dual-layer DVD burner. For the uninitiated:


PS2 games come on dvd discs. Even though the game data can be copied onto recordable dvd’s, the game dvds and PS2s have built in security measures to prevent these copied games from working on the PS2. This measure is used to protect their copyright.
This same security measure is also (intentionally) used to prevent games from different countries/zones from working on PS2’s from different countries/zones. This method is used to control the market of PS2 games, including controlling prices and restraining availability in different zones/markets.

PS2’s can be modified to ignore the built-in security measures that keep them from playing copied games and imported games. The most ambitious way to to do this is to add a ‘mod chip’ micro-chip to the PS2 and integrate it within the circuits on the Ps2’s main board. A similar exploit existed for the original Playstation(which played games on CD), but both the PS2’s inner workings and security system are far more intricate, thusly the mod chip and integration for the PS2 are decidedly more complicated. The first-generation mod chip for the PS2 required the microchip to be integrated at 41 seperate nodes, compared to 4 or 5 nodes for the first-generation Playstation mod chip. 3 years later down the line to today, current PS2 mod chips function with only 17 connections to the main board. These connections are made by soldering wires to specific locations along the appropriate circuit node.

My friend also told me that he had figured out how to use his new burner to make copies which should (in theory) work with his mod chip. In college, a friend of ours had had his Playstation modified, and was able to use it to play games he downloaded from the internet and burned onto CDs. After buying my PS2 about 1.5 years back (on a whim), I’d briefly thought about trying to find a way to have it modified, but never really pursued it because of the difficulties involved with not knowning who/where to look, not having a way to produce dvds. There was also the prospect downloading LARGE 2-3 GB dvd images… a hassle to say the least. Also, my friend with the modified PS2 lost contact with the person who helped him his, so it seemed like a lot of trouble/risk with little potential reward. As a result I didn’t look into it at all.

To make a long story short, my friend’s news about his new toy have changed my perspective.


Obtaining a chip is easy enough, but the installation/integration is harrying, meticulous, and notoriously difficult. All attempts at this kind of modification automatically voids Sony’s warranty and obligation/willingness to repair a PS2. Too much heat or solder in the wrong spot during installation of a chip can break the PS2 badly enough to not function at all. So making a mistake might mean shelling out another $100-$150 for a used-new replacement PS2, which is why a small service-industry of mod-chip installers has cropped up… but installation is expensive. It is typically at least as expensive as a high price mod chip, which doubles (or triples) the cost of modification. The average total cost of modifying a PS2 is around$100, which is enough to buy 5 new, bargain-priced (older) games, or a used PS2

After a bit of research and reading, I have a Matrix Infinity chip on order. I will write about more my PS2 adventures in my (very unused, but passworded) journals category. (E-mail me if you need the password).

General

Time to hunker down

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Shame on me for not checking my mail. I ended up wasting a GT homecoming football ticket because I couldn’t see the letter containing the ticket which my friend, Josh had sent to me. It might have helped to know ahead of time that it was being sent, but those are moot points (he said that he might or might not send it, but never followed up). Besides the unused (and still unopened) football-ticket-letter, I got 2 flush letters from companies I vaguely remember sending resumes too. I didn’t open them, I just scanned them through the envelope by holding them up to a bright light.

My URL-mate Beth sent me two preparation CD’s for the GRE, all the way from Savannah! Hooray! Thanks, Beth. I can now add it to the list of productive activities to do while in the house (which I am much of the time). This past week i’ve been doing a mediocre job of sending off resumes, so I need to get on it this coming week.

I’ve recently changed up my studying-japanese routine. Instead of translating short paragraphs from the Asahi Sinbum Jingo Tensei for myself (and then comparing them with their english versions, I have been translating jokes from english into japanese and sending them to a person from friendster whom I’ve never met. She is from Japan, so maybe I can get some feedback on my work (its slooow going, 1 joke probably takes me 3 cumulative hours, depending on the length).

Today, I got to Northpoint early in order to see one of my students (from tumbling class) sing in Kidstuff, a church service for children at Northpoint. I went in expecting it to be something of a show, but I was still suprised by how much of a production it was. My student was one of the ~dozen or so kids on stage singing and dancing during the introduction and finale. I was impressed. I’ve put a picture of the stage below (small photo that i had to steal and photoshop-together off the website, hence the wierd perspective/artifacts).

The rest of my day was spent at the gym doing one lesson and covering for yet someone else who was out. I’m trying to save up money to pay for rent during december and january, when the gym will be closed for about 3.5 weeks. Wish me luck!


General

“More of the same”

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Although that is actually a quote from the presidential & vice-presidential candidate debates, its also and apt description of what I’ve been up to as of late. I missed church this past weekend because I was asked to help cover a practice/shift for a friend who is out of the country. Another friend is sick, so I ended up going in last week Wednesday as well… but speaking of going out of the country… I have found awebsite forum [www.ithinkimlost.com] that has lots of stories and posts by people in the JET program [www.jetprogramme.org]. Since I’m thinking about going over, (barring my finding a new job/going to grad school) this will be a very handy source of information. The forum doesn’t seem to be as active as other message forums, but I guess those folks are busy trying to make their way in a foreign country and such!

More later today

-Edit-
They ended up asking me to go in to work. Two people were out today, so I ended up with the shorter stick as far as covering classes. Also, the little tykes in the first class I covered decided to hide my sneakers from me by kicking and stuffing them under the coil spring floor. As the temperature has dropped to the mid 50’s due to the rain and change of season…. I ended up going to the supermarket and then home with very cold, wet socks and feet.

I have half a mind to go in on this coming wednesday just to make them condition as retribution, but alas I’m a softy and probably won’t even be upset about the whole thing by tomorrow.

General

Looks like i won’t be voting this election…

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Admittedly, if I hadn’t procrastinated as long as I did then I wouldn’t be in this situation, but….
On October 4 (yesterday, a Monday) I dropped by the post office before work in order to pick up a voter-registration form. The forms were due in that day (so, it had to be filled out and dropped in the mail/postmarked by 5pm). I had been told (by a source who shall remain nameless) that I could pick them up there. I budgeted about half an hour for filling it out and getting it off in the mail. Much to my chagrin, the post office had no such forms. A quick inquiry revealed that the closest place to pick them up was the Buford Library… a library whose exact location I not only didn’t know… but was probably at least a 15 minute drive away through metro-Atlanta rush hour (15 min there, 15 min back = the only 30 min I had).

A quick google search reveals little about buford library’s location, except that it is within 3 miles of the Mall of Georgia, putting it at least 20 minutes away. So, it seems that I won’t be casting my vote in the upcoming presidential election. Pity. Maybe my favored candidate will win. I’ll give you a hint which it is: not Mr. Bush. It will be interesting to see if he ends up carrying this state, though.

In other news, my life as-of-late has been filled with all sorts of nonsense. I got some index cards to start memorizing some GRE words (why not, though if experience is any judge… studying these words will help me on maybe 2-3 word problems/analogies that i would have had to guess on). I’ve been playing NFL Street, a PS2 game that i bought used from blockbuster. I’m not usually a fan of sports games, but 7-on-7 football is tolerable enough for me to enjoy playing. I wish the computer didn’t cheat like a $%#$ all the time, though. There’s always work, applying to jobs (I just got dissed by Hansgrohe, I applied for an intern/part-time engineer spot and they just sent me a letter saying that they’re going with a different candidate… I didn’t even interview for the position at all). Just one step closer to teaching-english-in-japan, or grad school, i suppose.

Speaking of japan, one of my students from the gym is going to Tokyo this coming week (she is half japanese). Also, my friend Dave Lo was just there on a job interview (3d modelling/CGI stuff). Seems to be the hot spot to visit nowadays!

Speaking of the gym, there is a new guy working there. His name is Al. I haven’t talked with him much, though.

I hurt my knee a little doing punch front-fulls onto a folded-up crash mat (to make it softer). No video of it. I’ll try to get Ryan to record one on Friday for you guys.

Sorry about the slim pickings as far as entries.

-kevin