PS2 Comsoft v4 Fix Confirmed.

[HaloSlayer255]

Hello again everyone,

Sorry for the absense. I've been organizing around the house a little, and finally have my vette hooked up with a trickle charger.

I've also been practicing my soldering skills, as well as lifting ic pins. Link to my Dropbox folder:

Soldering Practice

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

I finally purchased a caliper so I can get precise measurements to start drafting these qsbs.

I might make two that will use both K signal locations, the resistor and ic leg. Points A B G H I K Y will be broken out to pads similar to how the wii modchips had before the clips.

First qsb will probably connect a pic chip to points J, K, 5v, and GND. If comsoft v4 is wished to be used I'll make a breakout point for locations L1 and L2 which will follow to the second qsb.

Second qsb will be the resistor location for point K, then the Subzero fix leading to the power location and points L1 and L2.

Thinking of where I can put some castellated edges to help with securing these to the mainboard.

Will try to start a design tomorrow.

Hope everyone is safe and staying healthy and the weather is staying decent.

HaloSlayer255

 

[DobaMuffin]

I know this is a fairly old thread, but I do have some observations to make about the subzero mod on my V9 and V10 consoles. I managed to mod them, and it seems to have been successful, but I do have an issue with the laser when the console is turned on or off. It seems with point k connected to the capacitor, the laser decided to bottom out at bootup leading to an audible click noise as the laser lens hits as far down as it possibly can. This is nerve wracking for me, and I am wondering if the Comsoft V4 mod also does the same thing to the laser.

@HaloSlayer255 how have your modded v9 and v10 consoles held up with the comsoft mod installed?

 

[HaloSlayer255]

Hello DobaMuffin,

Unfortunately Ive removed the comsoft fixes from my attempts. Tried making the romeo mod more solid and ended up breaking the 12v supply pin on as few of those la6508s. I have replacement parts and also a few replacement boards that I'm starting to modify, with the Romeo mod as a bare minimum laserfix.

My results from before though were the following: v9 consoles fan spun at maximum speed and only way to turn off was from the psu switch.

V10 console DVDs worked with the comsoft fix and blue test led was working. Cds when loaded in tray caused a shutdown.

I've reprogrammed the 12f508 ics with the matrix pic laserfix file but am going to try verifying those ebay boards first.

Still trying to figure out a way to mount these so their chance of moving is minimal. I have a v9 that shorted out I've been using for practice. Will edit this post to show my little draft placement.

 

[DobaMuffin]

Hello DobaMuffin,

Unfortunately Ive removed the comsoft fixes from my attempts. Tried making the romeo mod more solid and ended up breaking the 12v supply pin on as few of those la6508s. I have replacement parts and also a few replacement boards that I'm starting to modify, with the Romeo mod as a bare minimum laserfix.

My results from before though were the following: v9 consoles fan spun at maximum speed and only way to turn off was from the psu switch.

V10 console DVDs worked with the comsoft fix and blue test led was working. Cds when loaded in tray caused a shutdown.

I've reprogrammed the 12f508 ics with the matrix pic laserfix file but am going to try verifying those ebay boards first.

Still trying to figure out a way to mount these so their chance of moving is minimal. I have a v9 that shorted out I've been using for practice. Will edit this post to show my little draft placement.

Would the comsoft v4 boards work without point j connected? That way it would be exactly like the subzero mod. The subzero mod and the comsoft v4 mods should have the same behaviour with the muting of the laser coild circuit. I just didn't like the startup and shutdown behaviour of the subzero mod with the laser clicking on startup and shutdown. I did manage to isolate the root cause to the capacitor when the console is turned on, and to the capacitor + resistor when the console is turned off.

 

[HaloSlayer255]

Point J not being connected will leave the system on and the comsoft fix should still work. As I understand it mutes the optical drive then waits for a moment to monitor for any mechacon crashes, if it's still crashed then it turns off the console with the J connection.

I found another schematic file that I know I didn't create/edit and it has the capacitor value at 100 microfarads for the comsoft fix. Will have to find that file and see if it's in my zip archive.

Have a good evening,
HaloSlayer255

 

[DobaMuffin]

Point J not being connected will leave the system on and the comsoft fix should still work. As I understand it mutes the optical drive then waits for a moment to monitor for any mechacon crashes, if it's still crashed then it turns off the console with the J connection.

I found another schematic file that I know I didn't create/edit and it has the capacitor value at 100 microfarads for the comsoft fix. Will have to find that file and see if it's in my zip archive.

Have a good evening,
HaloSlayer255

Good to know. I am thinking of making a similar mod using an arduino pro mini running at 3.3v. From what I gather, it shouldn't be difficult to recreate the mod. Monitor point K and when it goes low, wait about 45 milliseconds and then bring the mute pin low. Could probably be done through interrupts.

Edit: Actually I've decided to use a XenoGC clone and reprogram it for my needs.

 

[DobaMuffin]

I'd say this seems like a reasonable response time. In between the ComsoftV4 and Subzero mod. Still relatively quickly. Didn't implement shutdown though and still have to test in console.

 

[Modzvilleusa]

Hey duder!
Thanks for all the work and research that's been done here!
I went ahead and tested a straight PICFIX on a v9 last night and everything appears to be working properly.
I initially had a sporadic issue when the console was plugged in that resulted in the fans spinning up and getting no standby led for an inconsistant amount of time. Once it came on the console would work perfectly.
Fenriswolfretro advised me to try increasing the resistor value.
I upped the resistor value to 2.2k and it appears to be working flawlessly.
I went ahead and made an edit of the original Picfix diagram with the help from the pics in the Zip file here.
I need to get my hands on a V10 and I'll do some testing and make a diagram for that as well.
Hope this helps someone out there and thanks again for this thread! It's super hard finding good information on Ps2 laser mods these days.
I've tried the Romeo mod before and in my experience all it seems to do is make the laser suck
Picfix is da way

Can't figure out how to attach a file but here's an image link

v9-picfix-diagram

Image v9-picfix-diagram hosted in ImgBB

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