PS1 Chinese lasers - what are they exactly?

Can anyone say with confidence whether someone in China really managed to clone the original laser assembly, or if these are just refurbished used original laser blocks?

The only thing that seems for sure is that people have widely different experiences with them. I used one of these to replace a dead laser in a 5552, and here the only issue is that it takes more pressure to insert a disk, causing the spindle to get stuck unlike on the original units. It can take a few tries, but when getting it right I've had zero issues using Sony CD-Rs, no stuttering FMVs unlike what is often claimed.

 

While dealing with these knockoff drives, I found that different models have different issues when putting in a game. The KSM-440ADMs (at least the ones I've seen) have a detachable spindle which pretty much requires taking it off every time and applying the right amount of pressure while putting in the CD for the spindle to not get stuck. On the KSM-440ACMs the spindle isn't detachable, but the disc touches the drive (or console?) plastic while spinning, which could potentially lead to some really nasty scratches. To fix that the disc itself needs to be bent slightly upwards each time after putting it in.

YMMV, but with how subpar the spindle part on these is designed I really prefer using only CD-Rs on these Chinese drives, so I don't need to worry about scratching up an original copy. Of course it's always worth trying to clean and calibrate the original lasers, but in some used consoles they are just mangled beyond repair after years of playing low quality media.

 

The Chinese laser you speak of, they go well with both backup and with regular game copies, it is true comes off the disc holder, the rest is the exact copy of the original machines laser identical size for width and depth and height reading.
I do not think when compared with each other for accurate results test machines.
Do not damage the disk, if damage is incorrect mounting position of the laser itself.

 

A while back I bought one of these KSM-440BAM's off ebay: http://imgur.com/a/JRMI9
I used it breifly with two different PSOne (SCPH-102) units of mine and it did get to work without any issues, but do take that with a grain of slat as i can't say how it would behave if used for longer time periods.
For the few times i did use is it though, all i had to do is pretty much just pop it into a unit and it pretty much worked out of the box, didn't have to adjust the laser POT or anything.

Sometime further in the past, i also bought a KSM-440AEM for a third SCPH-9001 unit that i also had laying around. It needed a few adjustments as the top lid was scratcing the disc while it was spinning, which i did by swapping its cover with the one from the original broken assembly that came with that unit.
I also discovered that the spindle is a lot more fragile than the one on the 440BAM's, as i ended up breaking it in half once when attempting to raise it a little in order to have the disc avoid getting scratched occasionally, so do be careful if you touch the "stock" ones. After getting a proper replacement though (which btw seemed identical to the spindles found on the chinese 440BAM assembly i mentioned earlier), that 440AEM started working fine and served its pourpse well since, while having only minor hickups here and there.
The only weird issue i noticed with it recetnly is that there was this one specific game that didn't boot at first, but otherwise worked fine on both an emulator and on my other PSone unit. But after messing around with the entire thing a few times it did start working eventually.

 

What drive model are you referring to? "Incorrect mounting position of the laser itself?" So you fix this by reassembling the drive?

And no, as I said, on the KSM-440ACM knockoffs the spindle doesn't come off. If you try to raise it with enough force it will break into pieces.

 

Thanks for having mentioned, no exact translation aside, I do not think you've got the message, I have not noticed any difference with the standard laser exchange with Chinese groups, the result is the same. Unless you're just talking about the laser and not the total optical unit, I apologize ..and you're right, I have not made any assemblage to 50% .. the Chinese clone mounted for as sold works fine.

 

Here's a little detail I noticed about the clone units, make of that what you will:

[GALLERY=media, 1608]Original KSM-440ADM by Xan01 posted Oct 1, 2016 at 8:56 AM[/GALLERY][GALLERY=media, 1609]Clone KSM-440ADM by Xan01 posted Oct 1, 2016 at 8:58 AM[/GALLERY]

Some other easy clues for identifying the aftermarket drives are the missing vibration dampers on ADMs and the sticker on the back which has different colors on the original drives depending on model (cf. http://wiki.psxdev.ru/index.php/CD-ROM), but so far seems to be white on all knockoff units.

 

Top motor is a Mabuchi - they were, by far, the most common supplier for these small CD motors in the time period the PlayStation was being made. They have discontinued pretty much the whole 300 series now (just a couple of models used in car CD players are left).

I don't recognize the second one - it's presumably one of the many companies that have started making these motors since Mabuchi left that sector of the market.

The spindle motor that Sony originally used was a RF-300PA-11400

R = Round
F = Composite precious metal brushes
3 = Code for diameter
0 = Code for length
0 = 3 poles
P = Anisotropic magnet
A = Variant (A = Base model)
11 = Armature is wound with 0.11mm wire
400 = Each armature segment is wound with 400 turns

 

Yeah, can't find any info on that company, but for what it's worth they certainly made sure to rip off that Mabuchi logo.