Finalman's Console Mods: April 2023

I am designing afew a printed circuit boards to restore hard drive IDE connector on the rear of v12-v13 slim PlayStation 2's.

Will work on all SCPH-700xx model PS2 slims.

Will not work on SCPH-750xx, SCPH-770xx, SCPH-790xx or SCPH-900xx model PS2 slims due to no longer having the IDE solder points on the PS2 motherboard.

The advantage of this doing it this way over soldering SATA \ SD to IDE adapters is that if those adapter fail you have to de-solder the 30 plus adapter wires and then replace the adapter or if using maxdiypower's PS2 HD connect and the adapter board fails you cannot replace it because it is now discontinued.

On my IDE adapter boards, SATA / SD hard drive to IDE adapters will be quickly swap-able.

The disc drive will need to be removed from the PS2. Not really a big deal though cause the HDD will be faster and lasers wear out requiring disassembly of the console to replace.

Top.

Bottom.

PROS:

Faster Load Times

SATA HDD, SD to IDE adapters easily swap-able

CONS:

29 Wires require soldering

Requires Housing Modifications

Requires Chassis Modifications

No disc drive

Cannot mount a screen to the PS2 rear.

TUTORIAL

PREPERATION:

If the two pads in the following picture have solder on them, use a de-soldering braid to remove the solder so that the adapter PCB sits perfectly flat on the PS2 motherboard.

MOUNTING:

With the head of a 3mm bolt facing the floor put it through each of the two holes shown in red in the following picture. Then mount the adapter PCB so that all three of it's and the PS2 motherboard holes line up. Finally install the 3mm nut onto the bolt and tighten.

SOLDERING

PS2 Solder Points

All credit goes to AUTOMAN for discovering the solder points.

NOTE: Rather than soldering to all 8 GND IDE pins my IDE adapter board only requires you to solder to a single GND pin. Use a thicker insulated wire for this.

PCB Top Side:

Solder a wire between the resistor bank leg and the corresponding square pad on the adapter PCB. You should bend the wire up in a L shape basically because the wire shouldn't be a straight line between the two points. To take into account the thermal expansion so that components\pads aren't torn off during heating/cooling cycles.

I soldered to the point on the resistor bank then placed a drill bit in and bent the wire over it to give me a nice L shape before soldering to the adapter PCB point.

PCB Bottom Side:

Solder wires directly between the ps2 motherboard points and the IDE pin solder points.

IDE pin number one is denoted by a white circle. The other IDE pins on that same side of the PCB are all odd number pins going from 1 to 39. The IDE pins on the other side of the PCB are all even number pins going from 2 to 40. The odd and even numbered pins increase the further they get from pin 1.

SHELL \ HOUSING MODIFICATIONS:

Bottom Housing:

You need to cut along the red line shown in the next picture. Leave the thin plastic middle part that runs length-ways in-place. Try and keep it as square as possible. Use a file once you are done to neaten up the area.

Before.

After.

Disable The Eject Mechanism:

To be added...

EMI SHIELD MODIFICATIONS:

Top Chassis:

You need to cut along the red line at the end of the plastic shown in the next picture. Doing it this way means you can revert to how the PS2 came by reinstalling the this piece.

Before.

After.

NOTE: With this method after you have finished the install and when you go to reassemble the PS2 you need to put a 0.5mm thick washer where you cut off the metal shielding where any of the 6 housing securing screws goes through.

NOTE: With the cut method if you ever wish to revert the PS2 back to as close to factory as possible, when you go to reassemble the PS2 you need to add two 2mm nuts on the bottom of the motherboard to secure the drive mount screws to.

Bottom Chassis:

You can choose to either cut or drill depending on your preference.

Drill

You need to enlarge two holes with a 5.5mm drill shown as red circles in the next picture.

NOTE: If you want to revert to how the PS2 came all you need to do is screw a 2mm nut onto the bottom of the drive mount screws.

Cut

You need to cut along the red line shown in the next picture.

Before.

After.

NOTE: With the cut method after you have finished the mod and when you go to reassemble the PS2 you need to put a 0.5mm thick washer where you cut off the metal shielding where any of the 6 housing securing screws goes through.

3D PRINTED COVER - OPTIONAL

To be added...

Vertical Adapter PCB...