First up, a little information on the PlayStation modchips and programmers I was experimenting with around 2016.

A lot of this originally came from educated guesses, forum posts, things I read on the internet of all places, and my own trial and error.

Probably shouldn’t be taken as gospel! ;)

What we can do now is separate the things I actually observed from the bits that can be documented more confidently.

Programmers

My GQ-4X gave me trouble programming some of these PIC devices, particularly around configuration data. That’s what happened in my setup, not proof that every GQ-4X behaves the same way.

The MiniPro TL866CS became my weapon of choice for these chips.

My K150 kept “exploding”, by which I mean repeatedly losing communication while I tried to program things. Why? Who knows!

I originally wrote that PICkit 2 supported the PIC12F508 but not the PIC12F629. That was wrong. The official PICkit 2 v2.61 device list includes both the PIC12F508 and PIC12F629. The older PIC12C508 is a different matter and does not appear in that support list.

MultiMode3

MM3 uses the PIC’s internal clock source. One advantage is that it works across earlier PlayStation motherboard revisions where Mayumi V4 cannot use the same mechacon-clock arrangement.

Mayumi 4

Mayumi V4 uses the PlayStation’s mechacon clock on supported motherboards, giving it highly consistent timing. On PU-22 and later boards it also uses the XLAT signal as part of its stealth behaviour.

OneChip

OneChip is specifically aimed at the PAL PS one and includes the additional boot-ROM patch needed for that machine.

TL866CS

I also eventually discovered why some Mayumi-programmed PICs would not read back normally: the supplied code had code protection enabled. That was why the behaviour differed from some of the MultiMode3 chips I had programmed.

It’s amazing what you learn after going back to what you were already supposed to know.

Thanks again to Master991 and Bad_Ad84 for helping me work out what was happening.

  • [Mayumi 4 PIC12F629 SCPH-7502 PU-22](/mayumi-4-pic12f629-scph-7502-pu-22/)
  • [Mayumi 4 PIC12C508A SCPH-7502 PU-22](/mayumi-4-pic12c508a-scph-7502-pu-22/)
  • [Mayumi 4 PIC12C508A SCPH-5502 PU-18](/mayumi-4-pic12c508a-scph-5502-pu-18/)
  • Creating a Sony PlayStation Modchip

Sources