xStation LATE PU-8 User manual

LATE PU-8

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Development: Guide by:
rama seewood
xStation ODE installation guide for LATE PU-8 Playstation 1
motherboards
The LATE PU-8 mainboards can be found in:
- most SCPH-100x
- most SCPH-3000 & 3500
Why the mainboard called “LATE”, and is there an “EARLY”?
Literally, yes! The PU-8 came in two major flavors (EARLY and LATE). You can
check which mainboard you have by looking for these marks:
1. Mainboard labels
- EARLY mainboards are labeled PU-8-11
- LATE mainboards are labeled PU-8-21/22/23 or 41

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Development: Guide by:
rama seewood
2. The GPU and especially the VRAM area on the top side of the mainboard is
different, see picture below
3. The Mechacon controller chip has different sizes, see picture below

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When you are sure that you have a LATE PU-8 you can follow this guide.
1. You have to disassemble the Playstation 1 completely to get to the
mainboard. PLEASE REMOVE ALL CABLES FROM THE POWER SUPPLY. MAKE
SURE THAT THE POWER CORD IS DISCONNECTED!
2. Search for IC309
- IC309 is labeled CXD2510Q. You will find it in the upper left corner. See
picture below
(Remember the purple area as well. We will get to it later in this guide. For
now we'll focus on the red area.)

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rama seewood
3. IC309 (CXD2510Q) needs to have the following pins lifted:
44, 63, 66 and 69.
Please make sure that only the shown pins are lifted.
4. Please be careful not to damage the mainboard when lifting pins. Use a
needle or x-acto knife and a fine soldering tip to simply touch the pin and apply
some heat, then gently lift it from underneath using the needle or blade.

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Development: Guide by:
rama seewood
5. Please make sure that you have lifted the pins completely. They should not
have contact with the motherboard, nor with each other.
6. Now we'll get to the purple area on the mainboard top side. In this area you
can see the 67mhz oscillator. You need to desolder/remove the small resistor
and the filter. They are marked in the picture below.

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rama seewood
We are now finished with the top side of the mainboard; turn it bottom side
up. Here, 3 resistors have to be desoldered and then the Quick Solder Board
(QSB) installed.
7. First we need to desolder the 3 resistors as shown

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8. Place the QSB on the mainboard as shown, the yellow markings help with
the alignment.

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rama seewood
9. Connect the IO16 pad from the QSB to the marked location. Please ensure
that the cable does not run over the metal areas where the shield could crush
it.
It should look like this:

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Development: Guide by:
rama seewood
10. The difficult part is now finished, but the lower part of the console shell still
needs to be prepared. Clip off the small plastic pin marked below in red. This is
necessary to prevent the flex cable from pinching and taking damage during
installation.
11. Connect the flex cable to the cable holder on the QSB (blue side up) and
close the cable holder. When this is done you can fold the flex cable to the
right, as shown.

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Development: Guide by:
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12. To ensure that the cable sits correctly route it through the slot on the top
shield.
13. Prepare the PCB and push all 3 spacers into the xStation board. If you look
at it from above they can be found in:
- the lower middle (right next to the ESP32)
- the upper right corner
- the upper left corner.
(The spacers are a bit too long for installation in a PU-8. We recommend that
you shorten them a bit, so that the xStation pcb rests securely.)

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14. Now grab the other side from the flex cable and carefully connect it to the
cable holder on the xStation. When it is done you have to fold the flexcable a
bit. Folding it like this is best:
16. Mount the xStation on the posts of the original Disc Drive.
It should look like this:
When everything is ready, you have to reassemble the Playstation 1 in reverse
order.

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Development: Guide by:
rama seewood
A freshly installed xStation:
Initial Software Steps
17. Format a microSD card to either exFAT or FAT32.
18. Create a folder on your microSD card named “00xstation“ (without
quotation marks), then download the latest update files and copy the files
update.bin and loader.bin to the 00xstation folder.
(https://github.com/x-station/xstation-releases)
From now on, your Playstation will boot right into the xStation loader!