Hi, Is it posible to replace the psx laser diode with one taken from a cd rom? Where can i find the pinout for the psx diode?
Do you mean PSX, as in -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX_(DVR) or as in -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation ? If the latter, there was a recent discussion about replacing the laser units (depending on model) here -> http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21674 If the former, then I'm also looking for a replacement laser (for a DESR-7700) & if anyone happens to know of a source, I'd love to know it too! Not that I've ever tried, but I suspect attempting to swap just the diode on it's own with one from an unrelated drive probably wouldn't work & would be a fiddly pain to attempt.
I mean the standard psx. And it's not that hard (actualy quite easy) to replace just the diode, but i don't know the pinout of the psx diode and if it will work if i replace it with one from a cd-rom.
Sorry for the 1-year bump, but it is done to help... ... here you go http://www.haunted360.com/development-playstationadvanced.html
Err ... LS stands to "Limit Switch", not "Lid Switch".... TAK + and - is the tracking coil. E and F correspond for the E and F photodiode outputs which are used to read the edge of the grooves for tracking (so the laser beam can follow the groove) and wooble decoding purposes. VC is the return of the photodiode that's used for thermal calibration and gain control of the laser diode. And no, you can't use an standard photodiode on the PS1 because the four main photodiodes are pre amplified by an IC which is integrated to the photodiodes die. That's why you don't see A,B,C and D signals on the flatcable. It's a custom circuit.
Actually MI is the photo diode return (for laser control) and VC is an 1.7v reference line for the amplifier inside the laser module die. My bad for swapping them around. But again I don't think it's useful to make that pinout out ... :lol: It's not likely a vector of attack for making a drive emulator. NOT EVEN CLOSE to feasible.
Absolutely. And an Chinese clone do exist, but again it only works for the PS1. I don't even know if it's still being manufactured. I can say that the original no longer is, though. And SONY also scrapped the optical pickup on a chip thing. The guy who invented it even tried to sue his former company but lost the cause about a year and half ago. You probably remember that. Chinese PS2 laser clones (KHS-400Q) use standard DVD pickup photodiodes and an custom translator chip. Photo:
Would it be possible to make a circuit to replicate the pre amplification IC in the photodiodes die? Or is is basically impossible??
For us, yes. For the Chinese, I don't think so ... (If they see a possible money maker they're likely to do it ... see the botleg laser for PS2... It actually works !)
Seconded. I actually thought about doing something like that for a PS2 laser assembly: emulating the whole drive hardware, including the laser pickup, and just connecting the emulator like the real drive would have been connected. I discarded the idea mainly because I wasn't able to think of a way to generate necessary analog signals. High-speed DACs and FPGAs are expensive, and designing such a board from scratch is damn-near impossible for someone without a solid background in electrical engineering and HF. Let alone to design and build the system, you would need to know what signals to generate first, so you would need corresponding equipment (that costs a fortune) to analyze the analog circuitry first.
