So I've been reading around and educating myself on my pic projects I want to do. I started reading about psx and PSone modchips. Here is where things start to get confusing . There are so many kinds that advertise certain features. Mostly the MM3 (tho from my readings is not completely stealth?) The onechip (PSone slim model only and completely defeats all disc checks) a Gary opa hex of some sort (have not found much information on this) some Mayumi hex, there are quite a few and I have read a lot of conflicting information about the MM3 chip as well. Now modchip store wise I ran across a stealth iv ( http://www.mod-chip.net/8wire.htm ) I have one of these installed in my PSone for and it does load everything I throw at it from mochip.CA when it was around....however hex and diy wise I see nowhere to download it and flash to the chip....nor have I seen any documentation as to what chip to flash it to. Is this possibly just some other hex titled as the stealth iv? Can anyone shed some light on all these hexs as to what does exactly what and what would be a well rounded chipping solution that defeats all security checks? I have even read that the onechip (PSone PAL only if I recall correctly?) Is the ONLY chip that defeats all checks. Is this accurate?
Over the years, there have been a huge number of different modchips, and the code for most of them is now lost. For the ones you mentioned: GaryOpa - this is a port of the MM3 code to a different chip, and is functionally identical to the original '508 MM3. The special feature of the OneChip is that it includes a ROM patch that will force a PAL PSone into NTSC mode, which has the side effect of disabling the territory check. Note that this doesn't work on Japanese consoles (since they are already NTSC), is unnecessary for PAL consoles other than the PSone (since they didn't have a disc check), and also unnecessary for any NTSC:U/C console (since none of them ever had that check). There are various versions of Mayumi chips, but the latest (and the best for any console with a PU-18 or later board) is Mayumi 4.0. From the look of it, the chip you got as a "Stealth IV" is in fact Mayumi 4.0 - in any case, the both the feature list and the connections are identical. That doesn't have the boot ROM patch, but as I mentioned that's only an issue if you have a PAL PSone. Any of these chips will work OK in the later consoles (I.E. SCPH-55xx and later) - in the earlier models (SCPH-100x, SCPH-3000 (JP only), SCPH-5000 (JP only)), MM3 will still work in non-stealth mode, but Mayumi probably won't (these old consoles used a 4MHz clock on the mechacon CPU, and Mayumi 4.0 is written based on the 4.2336MHz clock the later ones used, which results in the chip emitting data at the wrong rate). MM3 and OneChip use the internal oscillator, so they don't care what clock the mechacon CPU was set up to use. Just make sure your programmer saves this value (some of the low cost ones don't do a good job of this, and the chip ends up running at the wrong speed). Another thing that's worth looking at is the modifications that rama3 made to the PsNee modchip code - this uses a different method to identify when to inject the protection symbols (basically, it monitors the subcode coming from the CD DSP), but runs on Arduinos and the ATTiny rather than PICs. It's being discussed here, although unfortunately the thread is a bit of a mix of installation help and design discussions: http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=1262&start=280
Ya I was skimming threw that I know what an audreno is but am completely unaware of what an ATTiny I'm assuming it's another development board? Seems that approach is going the direction of an actual 4th Gen ps2 modchip with an actual processor and code going into it rather than let's say a hex for a pic/ic. I'm really curious about that stealth chip and if it is a Mayumi 4.0 or n it's something else or a modified version even.....can the code/hex be stripped from the 9 and looked at to be compared with a pic programmer? I really wish I knew how to read the hex and code for these things being as old as well as really well documented ( I've been reading threw parts of this and I understand a lot and a lot is Spanish as well http://problemkaputt.de/psx-spx.htm#cdromprotectionchiplessmodchips ) I'd really like to make sense of all of this and learn how to implement my own hex or strings of code or different approach at all of this By the way thanks for taking the time to put this information in one spot that seems to be scattered everywhere in bits and pieces and some your not even sure what to believe as its very contradicting sometimes
You can learn a lot by reading the Arduino code in my modified PsNee. It is written in C and easier to understand than the PIC assembly. Here is a nice GitHub repository for it: https://github.com/kalymos/PsNee/blob/master/PsNee.ino I recommend you drop all the old modchip variations and install this instead. The problem with all the old chips is that they inject symbols without knowing precisely when they should do it. This makes them require more wires, has bad side effects (MM3 for example permanently weakens the laser tracking ability), and it can still fail. Also, Arduinos are cheap (Ebay) and easy to use. The best thing is that they have their programmer built in!
I will for sure have a look threw it all according to your thread post on the PsNee it has a lot of side notes and such so I'm sure it will be of some sort of help understanding all of this Ya I have also read somewhere (don't recall where) that some hex's can be console damaging, tho I do not know why or the root of the problem (that was never gone into detail really) or why no one has attempted to fix the issue Arduinos can be cheap (I've seen them on amazon fo about $30) but in the end I would have to order more to make more where as with the pic solution it's burn and use no real wait for anything. I also feel that this would be great if it were to have a "final design" where only the needed components can be fitted to a pcb like a traditional modchip it would minimize room for error for people who are unskilled that would like a modified system as well as be marketable. The programmer part really is not an issue for me as I do want to learn to do cartridge repros as well as plan on making a few of the aladdin mod mod chips that bennydiamon released here as well....also part of the reason I was looking at pic based modchip options for the ps1. I do have an audreno mega laying around new even as far as an uno or ATTiny I do not have any of those available at this moment. Long story short I will probably try this method as I am curious as bout it as well and would really like to see how it works.
The ATTiny is a low pin count Atmel MCU - it's basically the Atmel equivalent of the 8 pin PICs, but with a different processor core. The reason it's being used in this case is that it has the same basic processor architecture as the MCU on the Arduino board, so it's easy to port Arduino code to it. You could try reading it, but those devices have a code protection fuse specifically designed to stop people from easily dumping the code from them. It's not impossible to dump a code-protected chip, but it involves decapping the chip (I.E. removing all the plastic from it) and equipment the typical home user won't have access to like a microprobe station or a focussed ion beam machine. The easiest way to see if it's really a Mayumi 4.0 without dumping it is to get another Mayumi chip, common up the power and all the input wires and then use a logic analyzer or storage scope to see if the signals on the outputs are the same between the two chips - if they are, it's a pretty good bet it's the same chip.
I will have to look into this if it's that small perhaps it would be more cost effective for larger quantities at this rate EDIT: I pulled up the ATTiny on amazon...that is very interesting that it's a pic all by its self it's not terribly expencive either......do I need to get the actual programmer for it or can I use other pic programmers? I'm willing to bet that it most likely is the same I'm mostly just curious for purposes of knowing if the chip was simply renamed and marketed or not.
The AVR series devices needs their own specialized programmer - but if you already have an Arduino, then you can use that (the AVR programmer sketch is one of the samples in the Arduino IDE). There are also some low-cost stand-alone programmers - try searching for "USBASP" on ebay.
Thanks again for pointing me in a direction I will look into this as well as standard hex file programing as not mater what I do I'm still going to need a pic programmer for reproduction cartridges that I would like to learn to make as well
