Finalman's Sony PlayStation 2 SLIM in a PC Case Mod

 THE IDEA

This mod is to develop a PS2 SLIM motherboard adapter plate and wiring adapters that are able to be transplanted between different PC cases.

NOTE: Will support motherboard revisions GH-032 to GH-035.

REASONS

1. Use a PS2 motherboard that has no case or missing case parts
2. Allow the motherboard exposure to more air rather than being in a confined space
3. Motherboard steel classis's rust and the rust particles fall on to the motherboard and cause shorts.
4. Easily change the internal motherboard clock battery.

PERCENT COMPLETE

90%

TASKS

Complete:

Create the PS2 motherboard adapter plate

Create the PS2 to PC case On button and LEDs wiring hardware

Create the Processor/s heat sink adapter hardware

Create the fan cable adapter

Create the VRM heat sink hardware

Create the Hard Disk Drive adapter mounting hardware

Adapt the power supply

Not Complete:

Create the Rear IO port adapter

Extras: (Not important so I might do later on)

PS2 MOTHERBOARD

Dimensions:

The PS2 motherboards GH-032 to GH-035 measure about:

Width = 140mm
Length = 205mm

ADAPTER PLATE

The purpose of the adapter plate is to combine the standoff holes from the PS2 motherboard and PC case onto the one plate.

Details:
The PS2 motherboard is to be mounted onto a custom made ATX aluminium adapter plate measuring 244mm x 244mm x 2mm thick which is the same size as a PC micro ATX motherboard.

Design:

I have designed hardware to work between the the PS2 motherboard and adapter plate.

Orientation:
The PS2 motherboard will be oriented so that the controller and memory card ports will be accessible through the PC case rear IO port area and the rear ports on the PS2 motherboard will be facing toward the front of the PC case.

Orientation.


Procedure:

I used the PS2 and PC motherboards as templates to drill the standoff adapter plate holes depending on the motherboard version. The basic process is as follows:

1. Clean the aluminium plate edges of any burs
2. Clamp the motherboard in place
3. Use a bench drill-press to lightly mark the standoff holes using the following drill sizes:

   3.0mm - PS2

   4mm - PC

4. Remove the clamps and motherboard

5. Drill the marked holes all of the way through using the following drill sizes:

    

   2.5mm PS2

   4mm - PC

6. Remove the burs from the drill holes

Example PS2 slim.

HINT: For the most accurate standoff hole locations in the adapter plate get faulty PS2 and PC motherboards. Then grind the motherboard bottom till all of the SMD components and protruding through hole component legs are gone and the motherboard bottom surface is flat. 

WARNING: YOU SHOULD WEAR A FACE MASK TO STOP INHALING PARTICLES THAT MIGHT CAUSE INJURY OR ILLNESS.

Grinded PS2 SLIM motherboard.

Grinded PC motherboard.

PS2 MOTHERBOARD

COOLING:

CPU - GPU - RAM HEATSINK:

I have used a 100x100x3mm thick copper plate and cut it to form the perfect shape for the heat sink base and I then soldered a heat pipe heat sink directly to it. The shape that you see is so that it does not collide with any surface mount components. Will fit both GH-032 and GH-035 motherboards.

Copper Baseplate.

Final heat sink.

NOTE: Due to the location of a voltage regulator module (VRM) on GH-035 motherboards the heatsink base-plate must sit on at least 3mm high standoffs above the motherboard to prevent a collision between the two.

NOTE: To prevent the motherboard bending under the pressure of the thermal pads / putty and stressing the solder joints I will hot glue 10mm (H) x 5mm (W) nylon spacers under the centre of the CPU and GPU.

HEATSINK FAN:

I made the following adapter from a PS2 fan and a PC motherboard fan connector.

MOTHERBOARD VOLTAGE REGULATOR:

I have created a small heat sink to go onto the voltage regulator that normally sinks heat into the motherboards steel chassis. It is basically a 1mm copper plate in an "L" shape to avoid nearby components with a small copper heat sink soldered to it.

NOTE: GH-032 motherboards only have one whereas GH-035 have two voltage regulator chips that require cooling. One of the GH-035 regulators will sink the heat directly into the heatsink base-plate through a thermal pad or thermal putty.

GH-032 location.

GH-035 location.

NOTE: Due to the location of a voltage regulator module (VRM) on GH-035 motherboards the heatsink base-plate must sit on at least 3mm high standoffs above the motherboard to prevent a collision between the two.

PC CASE

Although my mod is not specific to an individual PC case I have chosen to use the....

POWERING:

Will be powered by the PS2 power supply placed inside of a PC power supply. The PS2 power supply has be removed from it's plastic case beforehand.

PORTS

Controllers and Memory Cards:

Accessible through the rear IO port area. To make the ports perfectly centred within the IO port area it will be sitting on ...mm standoffs.

AV:

Optical Audio:
I will be able to use the following Optical adapter to suit. The PCI bracket cut-out was done by myself. This will be attached to one of the PCI slots.

HARD DISK DRIVE:

I designed the following adapter and wired it up to the PS2 motherboard. What you are seeing is the wiring which taps directly into the PS2s onboard IDE/PATA HDD solder points.

 NETWORK:

I have then custom made an Ethernet PCI port bracket. I pulled the RJ45 port from an old laptop, cut the square hole out of a PCI bracket blank and soldered the port to the PCI bracket. I then soldered an Ethernet cable to the RJ45 port pins. This will be attached to one of the PCI slots.

BUTTONS AND LEDS

PS2 Power Button and Power LED to PC Case:

I made the following custom circuit board.

PS2 HDD LED to PC Case:

MEASUREMENTS:

Just some measurements for my memory and also might might help someone else out.

• Motherboard thickness 1.25mm

• GPU height above the motherboard on GH-032 motherboards = 2.25mm

• CPU height above the motherboard on GH-032 motherboards = 1.5mm

More to come....

PS2 BIOS Chip Swapping

As the blog title says this blog gives info on swapping BIOS chips between different PS2 motherboard revisions.

TOOL:

I didn't want to use a heat gun on the motherboard so I built my own tool to heat up both sides of the BIOS chip legs at the same time. It consists of a broom handle end, two small copper squares, a bolt and a few nuts. I flooded the bios chip legs both sides with solder. Heated my tool on the gas stove then placed my tool on the BIOS chip then dragged it off.

RESULTS

Confirmed Working: 

1. Putting a BIOS chip from a SCPH-79002 motherboard with a date code of 7D onto a non-FMCB exploitable SCPH-90002 with a date code of 8D to enable FMCB functionality.
2. Putting a BIOS chip from a SCPH-90002 motherboard with a date code of 8B onto a non-FMCB exploitable SCPH-90002 motherboard with a date code of 0C to enable FMCB functionality.
3. Putting a BIOS chip from a SCPH-90002 motherboard with a date code of 8D onto SCPH-90002 motherboard with a date code of 8C.
4. Putting a BIOS chip from a SCPH-90002 motherboard with a date code of 8? onto SCPH-79002 motherboard with a date code of 7C.

Partially Working - With Issues: 

1. Putting a BIOS chip from a fat SCPH-50002 model GH-026 motherboard onto a slim PS2 SCPH-70002 GH-032 motherboard to enable FHDB functionality on a soldered IDE modded PS2. The PS2 can boot FHDB prepared HDDs without the need of FMCB prepared memory cards. Untested but discs might not be discover-able. See note below.
   
2. Putting a BIOS chip from a PAL SCPH-50002 GH-026 motherboard onto NTSC-J SCPH-50000 GH-029 motherboard with a date code of 8C. Changes the language selection options to the PAL ones meaning returns X and O buttons to their common actions, X=enter, O=back. Issue breaks dvd player.
3. Putting a BIOS chip from a PAL SCPH-70002 GH-032 motherboard onto NTSC-J SCPH-70000 GH-035 motherboard. Changes the language selection options to the PAL ones meaning returns X and O buttons to their common actions, X=enter, O=back. Even though GH-035 motherboards have a few extra voltages due to the combined EE+GS, GH-032 motherboards BIOS still have that data to output those voltages which still allows the PS2 to run.

NOTE: Swapping BIOS chips between different PS2 models may result in discs not reading because of firmware differences between the BIOS and the mechacon IC.

NOTE: Swapping BIOS chips between different region PS2s does not get around the game discs region lock as that is enforced by the firmware inside the mechacon IC.

Not Working:

1. Putting a BIOS chip from a fat SCPH-50002 model GH-026 motherboard onto a slim PS2 SCPH-70002 with a GH-035 motherboard. Boots to a black screen only