Worklog A Study in Product Sourcing

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Hey everybody, been a little while, and I thought it was about time I posted what I've been up to lately, but rather than saying, I thought I'd let you all guess, so I'll just leave these here:

View attachment 22030View attachment 22031View attachment 22032View attachment 22035View attachment 22034View attachment 22033View attachment 22036View attachment 22037View attachment 22038

I credit @Mister M for inspiring me
How cool bro. Good luck and success with your project.
 
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Hey everybody, been a little while, and I thought it was about time I posted what I've been up to lately, but rather than saying, I thought I'd let you all guess, so I'll just leave these here:

View attachment 22030View attachment 22031View attachment 22032View attachment 22035View attachment 22034View attachment 22033View attachment 22036View attachment 22037View attachment 22038

I credit @Mister M for inspiring me
damn, that's a sight you don't see too much nowadays! New chips for a custom mobo perhaps?
 
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damn, that's a sight you don't see too much nowadays! New chips for a custom mobo perhaps?
DING DING DING!! That's right!! I'll post a preview of the work I've done so far soon, but my trial of DipTrace has once again expired, so I'll need to reinstall Windows before I can do anymore work on it. (And before all you KiCad and EasyEDA and Altium etc. users start telling me how silly this is... I know... darn it I know.... But I REALLLLLLY like DipTrace lol)
 
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DING DING DING!! That's right!! I'll post a preview of the work I've done so far soon, but my trial of DipTrace has once again expired, so I'll need to reinstall Windows before I can do anymore work on it. (And before all you KiCad and EasyEDA and Altium etc. users start telling me how silly this is... I know... darn it I know.... But I REALLLLLLY like DipTrace lol)
Aha! This is great!
 
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Well here is the result of a little over a month's work. There's still a fair bit of place holding going on, but the majority of the core I/O has been routed. What I'm currently figuring out is power domains, which regulators to use, what base voltage to run at, etc. Since there really isn't any need for 8.5 volts, I may just have 4 1865 cells drop down to 5 volts at 5 or 6 amps, and then distribute that among the several other voltage domains needed, but I'm still deciding.
Front preview.png
Back preview.png
The HDD adapter board will be connected through the mezzanine at the top right corner, not unlike the original network adapter funnily enough, and the HDMI encoder will be another board connected through the mezzanine on the left side. The modular design will allow for the use of different adapters, like if I wanted to try a direct LCD connection, or a MIPI screen, or whatever comes next.

I've also applied this design to the controller and FMCB card. I'd like to make use of any open source controllers that crop up in future, so that too will be a separate component. There is also a small mezzanine for my clone of a Modbo 5.0 chip, I can't well deprive myself of those lovely little features.

The only component which will be harvested from an original PS2 board will be the BIOS chip on the back, since it's the only piece I have yet to be able to source, and I doubt I'd be able to properly flash the BIOS to a blank chip anyway. I'm also toying with making this component modular, as it would seem the most likely to fail, despite being essentially read only.

That's all for now

Ohh wait here's as specific question: Can one use an FPGA to flip the order of a bunch of traces? Say 24 data lines..
 
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I’m still amazed on how you were able to find all the needed components, this is going to be easier than having to remove them from ps2 and then transfer to your new board great work.
 
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Well here is the result of a little over a month's work. There's still a fair bit of place holding going on, but the majority of the core I/O has been routed. What I'm currently figuring out is power domains, which regulators to use, what base voltage to run at, etc. Since there really isn't any need for 8.5 volts, I may just have 4 1865 cells drop down to 5 volts at 5 or 6 amps, and then distribute that among the several other voltage domains needed, but I'm still deciding.
View attachment 22081
View attachment 22082
The HDD adapter board will be connected through the mezzanine at the top right corner, not unlike the original network adapter funnily enough, and the HDMI encoder will be another board connected through the mezzanine on the left side. The modular design will allow for the use of different adapters, like if I wanted to try a direct LCD connection, or a MIPI screen, or whatever comes next.

I've also applied this design to the controller and FMCB card. I'd like to make use of any open source controllers that crop up in future, so that too will be a separate component. There is also a small mezzanine for my clone of a Modbo 5.0 chip, I can't well deprive myself of those lovely little features.

The only component which will be harvested from an original PS2 board will be the BIOS chip on the back, since it's the only piece I have yet to be able to source, and I doubt I'd be able to properly flash the BIOS to a blank chip anyway. I'm also toying with making this component modular, as it would seem the most likely to fail, despite being essentially read only.

That's all for now

Ohh wait here's as specific question: Can one use an FPGA to flip the order of a bunch of traces? Say 24 data lines..
IMG_20220424_174200.jpg

IMG_20220424_174151.jpg

Bro, amazing project, I want to give you a tip about something that worries me, pay attention to these trails, I believe they can't be straight but in these formats.
 
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@Mister M You're absolutely right!! I will need to length match the traces for the RAM chip bus. Thanks for making sure I knew about that. I probably would have run into some pretty nasty performance issues otherwise. You're the best!
 
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May I present, the network adapter and SATA bridge chip board:

HDD Board preview.png

I am still trying to figure out if the CXD9731AGP chip will even work without the Ethernet chip attached, and whether i should ground the inputs, or leave them floating, or pull them high, or pull them low... It's a real quandery... But anyway, here's where I am, next will be the HDMI board
 
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This is amazing man. The HDMI card you are referring to is the one that will take the RGB bus and transform it into HDMI, did you test it with that card from Aliexpress?
 
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May I present, the network adapter and SATA bridge chip board:

View attachment 22227

I am still trying to figure out if the CXD9731AGP chip will even work without the Ethernet chip attached, and whether i should ground the inputs, or leave them floating, or pull them high, or pull them low... It's a real quandery... But anyway, here's where I am, next will be the HDMI board
BEAUTIFUL !!!!!
 
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The only component which will be harvested from an original PS2 board will be the BIOS chip on the back, since it's the only piece I have yet to be able to source, and I doubt I'd be able to properly flash the BIOS to a blank chip anyway. I'm also toying with making this component modular, as it would seem the most likely to fail, despite being essentially read only.
I believe the BIOS is attached to MECHACON, from what i read they have some kind of regional check, i found a post when i was collecting data about SCPH-50009 in some chinese forums, i didn't find the link to the post but copied the author's text (The original text was in Chinese, translation may have errors):
“I don't have the 50009 chip of this model, so I replaced it with the 50007 chip CXD706080, and found that the host model 50009 became a model 50007! Haha, but the host BIOS chip doesn't recognize the area code after the change, so I changed the BIOS chip from 50009 to 50007. As a result, the host computer reads the disk normally without any problem, and even the CD-ROM games can be read! Haha”
 
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So... If I'm understanding this... I should be okay as long as I use a MechaCon with the correct date code.

Well it's actually funny you should bring this up (and fortunate), because I noticed a few weeks back that the MechaCons in the pictures in the title post, are actually the wrong date code :blush:.

I think they're for the next PS2 version up, but either way, I swiftly found a few chips with the correct date code 102GG I believe, whereas the ones pictured above are 104GG.

It should be noted though, with this project I'm taking a bit of an Elon Musk in the early post-PayPal days attitude, and that I see a very small chance that this will actually work, but it's insights and tips like this that dramatically increase the chances for success. So thank you very much @LeoQeep for bringing this to my attention, you're a real mensch
 
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