Behaviour of the Chinese clone SATA Network Adaptor from Deal Extreme

As I've posted on PSX-scene: http://psx-scene.com/forums/f98/beh...work-adaptor-deal-extreme-113322/#post1055327

I thought that I should post here as well, to get more input. :love-struck:

Thank you all!

 

Photographs of the board itself

Some photographs of the board itself:










EDIT: Forgot to mention that the board on the left is from a genuine Sony SCPH-10281.

As for the visible chips on it, we have:
JMicron JM20330
XILINX XC3S50AN

The Xilinx seems to be the one in charge on the entire PCB. The JMicron chip is a 1.5Gbps SATA 1.0-compliant controller.

There are two unfilled connectors on the board: One 10-pin connector near the SATA ribbon cable connector and one 4-pin connector above it.

I'm no expert on this, but it seems as if the 10-pin connector is connected to the Xilinx's JTAG pins...

 

Maybe jtag and a ttl serial port?

ttl serial is usually 4 pins (vcc, gnd, tx, rx)

 

Most likely.

But I think that the 4-pin socket only has 3 pins connected to things. Pin 1 is obviously ground since it's connected to the bulk of the board, while pin 2 seems to be isolated. Pins 3 and 4 seem to be connected to a configuation or I/O pin on the chip, as the manual says that those pins have dual modes... but I might be wrong here as I can't actually trace connections well. >_>

 

VCC often isnt needed, its when you are powering a MAX232 from the device. USB TTL converters are self powered, so you dont need to connect it.

Maybe why only 3 are connected.

 

That's true: I've seen the robots at the robotics club at my secondary school using only 3 lines for communication with the host: Rx Tx and Ground.

On a side note, I should probably also mention that this device seems to have 0xFFs for all its version registers... at least (I can't check all registers from here). The ident tool I have is showing 0xFFs for a lot of its registers, including the retrieved MAC address (So it doesn't have a valid MAC address) that is (supposed to be) stored in its EEPROM.

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http://psx-scene.com/forums/f98/beh...work-adaptor-deal-extreme-113322/#post1055366

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On a side note, I found that if I were to connect my network adaptor to the console after it's already powered-up (with the Sony adaptor connected to it up to this point), it functions like yours (even after many resets, until the console is switched off for real). D:
Even the fan speed control works right!

But when the OSD starts, it seems to only power the network adaptor for a second (even before the disk finishes spinning up) before switching off the interface. :/
Does yours do that too?

It seems as if the console's SSBUSC is confused by this network adaptor.

It's a pity that I don't have another console to test this on. This SCPH-39006 seems to have newer parts than other SCPH-39000 series units; even the i.Link hardware doesn't seem to have the speed bug that occurs when the console is the root node. D:

 

Here are the pics of a chinese network adapter with eth port. pictures are not great, hope they will do the job.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49362080/DSCN0912.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49362080/DSCN0913.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49362080/DSCN0914.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49362080/DSCN0917.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/49362080/DSCN0918.JPG

 

I thought that you said that yours has a SATA port? Or was I misled? :S

But this doesn't look like a Chinese adaptor to me anyway. The markings on the board look like the markings on my SCPH-10281's board, except for the board number. They even got the factory name right: "Made in China" and "FXN" (Foxconn).

My Chinese adaptor has "Made in China" and "SKD", which makes no sense because the Kisarazu plant is in Japan, not China.

So how do you know that this is a Chinese adaptor? Or are fakes now really so good that this is really a fake adaptor? D:

Thanks for taking the trouble to dismantle your adaptor and taking some photographs! :love_heart:

 

That looks like a real Sony adapter that happens to have been made in China. The ones they are talking about in this thread are the cloned ones, which seem to be generally made using an off the shelf FPGA rather than the custom silicon that's in the Sony one.

 

Actually, he wrote that he has a clone adaptor which has a working Ethernet port and SATA interface, hence why I asked him for photographs of the board:

 

oops, sorry for the confusion. the guy i bought said it was a fake one, at least i remember so, so that is not true i guess.

and about the sata/ide thing, i thought it was SATA, i removed the hdd only once before so i remembered it wrong. i will edit my previous posts.

 

Ah, that makes sense now.

It's a bummer that there isn't a working SATA adaptor that has a working Ethernet port. :/

The Chinese have definitely proven that it's doable without the Sony proprietary chips, and I would be willing to buy one!

On a side note, even if your adaptor was indeed not made by Sony, the chips certainly were as there are no known clone versions of any of those Sony SPEED chips.

My Chinese SATA adaptor might actually not be a dud. As I wrote on PSX-scene, helping the adaptor to "hijack" the console after the console has been started up with a Sony adaptor connected and power-cycled, it works right (at least, the console has working power management after that).

Unfortunately, I don't have another console that has a different SSBUSC chip to test with. :/
(My SCPH-10000 can't be used for this, for obvious reasons)

I was also thinking of connecting the device via it's JTAG interface to dump its firmware (and to modify it if modifications would help to improve it)... but I don't think that I can do that as I'm not trained for hardware hacking. D:

 

you can always buy an extra ps2 as they are going really cheap now. or you can send the adapter back to dx and ask them to send a new one.

 

Not in here. :/
(Look at this one lol: http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/Playstat...7?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_216&hash=item27d205ed5b)

But actually, it's more of because I'm not working yet and I don't have the space here for an extra console, especially for one that is mass-produced.

I saw another PS2 at the local Cash Converters outlet that was going for $69, but it was yet another SCPH-39006. D:

As for sending it back, I'm just lazy at the moment to do that. Especially since I don't want to learn that the replacement does exactly the same thing (meaning that it was just a hardware compatibility issue). D:

 

Hey guys,

I realized that there are two versions of the SATA adaptor. I seem to have the crappier one, which has a fixed serial number of "2303893". The makers obviously did not know the meaning of the "SKD" icon on the adaptor (Sony KohDa), that the serial number of the adaptor is repeated within the code that exists above the barcode, and that the warning sign above the IDE power Molex connector was really just a caution sign for the user (they didn't move it). =_=

I have this one, so the photographs that I took were of this cursed model.

On the other hand, there is one more with a different PCB layout, with a fixed serial number of "2644195", as you can see here: http://psx-scene.com/forums/f98/beh...r-deal-extreme-113322/index2.html#post1055428

Just look at it: they removed the "SKD" marking, the serial number matches the code above the bar code, and they even moved the caution sign to be right above the SATA power connector.

This one was reported to be working fine with the SSBUS, without the weird power management problems that I had described before. Unfortunately, it seems to be very, very rare. D:

It seems to be the one with the one-piece PCB. It still doesn't have a working network port, however.

 

Seems that there are three versions of the adapter. Today I received mine from Dealextreme (on sale for 21.34$). This is built with two boards and has de Ethernet port.
I will test this night but seems promising.

 

Well, no joy this time.

This adapter only works with HDLoader (and openPS2loader maybe). I tested the adapter with two hard disk with the same result.

I also installed two PSNBB hdd images from theisozone and both hang while booting. The etherport doesn't work also. I don't have more time so I'll do more test next week. BTW I am returnig to the original Sony adapter.

 

I wonder why you guys keep wasting your time with that Chinese trash. They won't do the network part of the hardware ever. And the moment OPL need to be changed for whatever reason that break these trash network adapters we will hear a avalanche of unfair complaints. Honestly stop giving money to these sharks. >.>

 

Their attempts to create a clone adaptor that supports SATA is interesting and unique. If a better vendor comes along and makes a better product, I will certainly support them.

I don't know about you, but ATA disks are rare and expensive here. SATA disks are far more economically viable.

@Titox: thanks for sharing. How did you test whether the network port worked or not?

 

I tested with HDDump_server and your HDLoader installer. Anyway the leds don't blink with my Gigabit switch, the software started OK. I'm out of home till Sunday evening so no more test this week. On sunday/monday I will test with an standard 10/100 switch and different hdd.

Oh, I loaded the Sony Network Disc also but still the leds don't blink.