Use a slimline CD drive for PSone?

**bacteria** · 05-16-2009

The CD drives in the PSone console are a bit slow and noisy and thick; it would be nice if there was a way to connect one of those slimline laptop CD drives, so the drive pops out - slimmer drive, hopefully less clunky and also quieter! If I can so this, it will help make a future portable slimmer!

Can this be done, if so, which drives will work (and what do they need to work) please?

**madhatter256** · 05-16-2009

I don't know of any out there, but I highly doubt you just plop one in and go. The laser assembly is old and out dated. One will have to be engineered from the ground up using higher quality parts.

Of course, you're looking at something really expensive!

Another method is probably to come up with a controller that converts a more standard PC CDROM laser data signal into one the PSX can understand and read, then you'll can use a laser made of better parts that will work on a PSX console, but again, this will ahve to be created from the ground up.

**Piratero** · 05-16-2009

This is certainly interesting. I'd like to see such a thing.

**lukeusher123** · 05-22-2009

Replacing the PS1 CD unit with another would not be completly impossible, but would be extremly difficult. I believe that an FPGA could be used to create a piece of hardware that, when connected to the mainboard, converts the signals to and from the format the Playstation expects. In all honesty, It's most likely not worth the time and money needed to implement it successfully.

Although I would love to see this done, it would make a good mod to my old system.

**bacteria** · 05-23-2009

There is another method, which I will experiment with at a later date (in next months when re-visiting this project again), of using the existing laser and carriage motors from a PSone drive and mixing it with a pop-out drive - a hybrid.

**phate** · 05-24-2009

Originally Posted by lukeusher123

Replacing the PS1 CD unit with another would not be completly impossible, but would be extremly difficult. I believe that an FPGA could be used to create a piece of hardware that, when connected to the mainboard, converts the signals to and from the format the Playstation expects. In all honesty, It's most likely not worth the time and money needed to implement it successfully.

Although I would love to see this done, it would make a good mod to my old system.

I'd rather take that FPGA and instead of having it convert from one cd laser to another, I'd have it convert it to hard drive filled with ISOs.

**skavenger216** · 05-24-2009

Originally Posted by phate

I'd rather take that FPGA and instead of having it convert from one cd laser to another, I'd have it convert it to hard drive filled with ISOs.

Only legally copied backups, right?????:thumbsup:

**karsten** · 05-25-2009

there was a lot of talks about such projects related to the neogeo CD and people trying to use a 16x drive... i think it ended in nothing

**madhatter256** · 05-26-2009

Actual computer engineers are need for this job and some hightech equipment, as well as detailed technical documents of Sony PSX laser system.

**edit**

And money...

**phate** · 05-27-2009

Can't be all that hard, while not the same, someone figured out how to take the Gamecube's DVD drive and replace it with a FPGA and an SD card.

**karsten** · 05-27-2009

i wouldn't mind something like this for saturn or neogeo CD :)

any link?

**AntiPasta** · 05-27-2009

This exists for Saturn, I've seen the schematics. For the PSone, you are in a world of shit - the drive connector carries only analog signals, which are way harder to tap into. The early PSX motherboards offer more possibilities, as the CD part is split over 4 chips - but then, you still need to do a lot of soldering.

**madhatter256** · 05-27-2009

But aren't the PSOne and PSX lasers one and the same?

**AntiPasta** · 05-28-2009

The lasers are, yeah, but the circuitry on the motherboard got moved around a lot. I think it went from SPU->ASIC->ASIC->AKM chip->connector in the SCPH-100x to CPU+SPU->connector in the PSone. The first version is definitely more hackable, in fact, at one point I had all the relevant pinouts.

**bacteria** · 05-29-2009

There was someone who managed to salvage a CD with a pop-out tray and get it working on a PSone by making a hybrid, unfortunately they didn't document it. He kept the same laser and mechanism and managed to mix them into the other drive; so the concept can work, however, might be difficult (worth trying though).