PlayStation 2 MECHACON Adjustment Program (PMAP)

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posted by ftadeufs on Dec 5, 2016:

rama said:






These tools can help but probably not at the stage this problem is at.
It seems the laser doesn't detect the reflection of the disc until the software tries a different strategy.
The wait time with "Reading disc.." is very unusual. It could be related to the modchip in that case.

Normally, the console starts looking for a DVD first, then for a CD, then DVD again.
Can you see what the laser is doing right after inserting the disc? (Never look into the laser directly!)

Thank you for your reply. I will try to make some videos to show you the problem and laser activity.
One of the technicians who looked at the PS2 told me he unwelded the DMS4 and the problems persisted.
He also told me that he tried to change BA/LA chips and nothing worked.

One of the things I noticed latelly, is that sometimes (very rarely) when I put the console vertically, it spins the disc at the first try.
Other thing that sometimes work (rarely), is spining the DVD with my hands at the same time I power on the console or as soon as the disc magnet locks when closing the disc tray. It works sometimes... I´ll try to make a video of that too.

thanks
 

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posted by rama on Dec 5, 2016:

Videos would be great! Try to show the laser activity and sound will help as well
 

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posted by sp193 on Dec 5, 2016:

Are you certain that your consoles all came (out of the factory) with the KHS-400C? The F-chassis model can have the SANYO SF-HD7.
According to l_Oliveira, these consoles appear to eventually use the right defaults, if the wrong optical block is installed.
 

[Archive]

posted by ftadeufs on Dec 5, 2016:

Hello everyone,

Here is more info on this situation:
The console itself that is more important to me to repair, is a Portuguese PAL SCPH-30004R - Serial is: C4632766.
It was only opened once by strangers to install the DMS4Pro. The other times it was opened it was to change laser unit and it was a KHS-400C in it. I have another 30004R which came with KHS 400C, and another 30004R motherboard I bought for parts/repair the DMS4 one. (I have 4 PS2 models here in portugal and all came with KHS-400C the other 2 I have are V9´s).

It could only be changed if someone changed the lasers on the same moment of the modchips assembly. I think its unlikely to happen.

Here are some videos I made some moments ago:
First, is the console booting without disc (the big cracking noise in the background is my chair asking for WD40 ) :


Then I booted a demo disc to show the problem and the laser activity (Did some continuous boots to make the problem repeated):

And with a "white clear" disc to better see the laser working:


Then I did a complete video of the problem and the process of booting a game:


Then I did a video showing the process of spinning the disc by hand helping the game to boot.


Something I notice on these consoles is the coil Whine. It is also noticeable in the videos, and it depends on the laser/tray activity.

Is this of any help?

Thank you all.
 

[Archive]

posted by rama on Dec 6, 2016:

Okay, your problem is the disk type detection failing. The most common reason is too little laser power.
You can adjust it with the 2 trimpots below the read head. One is for CD, one for DVD.
The one on the edge is CD, the inner one, nearer to the spindle motor, is DVD.
Try turning the DVD pot a few degrees to the right. If it works, great! If it doesn't, undo it and continue debugging.

A few notes:
- The coil whine / chirping is normal for these machines, in my experience. It sounds pretty ugly but all my consoles do this.
- That modchip must be doing something curious when the BIOS never stops attempting to read the disc, even though it's not even spinning. Not a problem but curious.
 

[Archive]

posted by ftadeufs on Dec 6, 2016:

rama said:






Okay, your problem is the disk type detection failing. The most common reason is too little laser power.
You can adjust it with the 2 trimpots below the read head. One is for CD, one for DVD.
The one on the edge is CD, the inner one, nearer to the spindle motor, is DVD.
Try turning the DVD pot a few degrees to the right. If it works, great! If it doesn't, undo it and continue debugging.

A few notes:
- The coil whine / chirping is normal for these machines, in my experience. It sounds pretty ugly but all my consoles do this.
- That modchip must be doing something curious when the BIOS never stops attempting to read the disc, even though it's not even spinning. Not a problem but curious.

Thanks for your help.
I will try the trimpots later today. First I want to state something I´ve already done:
The same KHS-400C laser unit works very well on the other V9 consoles.

I´ll make a list of the 3 motherboards I have here, and the behaviours tested with the same laser unit:
1-GH 015 V5 with DMS4 Pro (the one in the video); <--- the one I like the most
2-GH 015 V6 with Duo2SE with same behaviour that the one in the vídeo; <--- I will try to unweld it to see if the problem changes.
3-GH 015 V6 with Duo2SE which starts spinning the disc right away, but cant recognize it, and have GPU problems (image all messed up);

Its really weird this problem. Should I call an exorcist instead?

Regarding the trimpots, I´ve never achieved good results messing with those things.
I´ve read a lot about values and never found it usefull. I´ve even read that decreasing too much the resistance I could burn the BA/LA´s...
What are the reccomended maximum values in the trimpots in order not to burn anything?

Thank you!
 

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posted by sp193 on Dec 6, 2016:

If you must adjust those potentiometers, your optical block is already worn out.
Also, the gain adjustment is usually done with the software service tool instead.

The console may have to be adjusted to support the optical block, if you replaced it. By simply switching the optical block, you are hoping that the values used with the old block will fit the new optical block.
So what you could try, would be to go through with the adjustment (electric-circuit + mechanism adjustment) process.

The SONY technicians probably used equipment (i.e. jitter meter) to get accurate measurements for adjusting things like the skew, FYI. Gain is adjusted in the electrical-circuit adjustment and is done automatically.
 

[Archive]

posted by ftadeufs on Dec 6, 2016:

sp193 said:






If you must adjust those potentiometers, your optical block is already worn out.
Also, the gain adjustment is usually done with the software service tool instead.

The console may have to be adjusted to support the optical block, if you replaced it. By simply switching the optical block, you are hoping that the values used with the old block will fit the new optical block.
So what you could try, would be to go through with the adjustment (electric-circuit + mechanism adjustment) process.

The SONY technicians probably used equipment (i.e. jitter meter) to get accurate measurements for adjusting things like the skew, FYI. Gain is adjusted in the electrical-circuit adjustment and is done automatically.

Thank you!

So what your are saying is that every console is "tuned"/"married" with the individual laser, and this must be updated everytime the laser is changed?
Considering this, there is great probability that readjusting my motherboards to the laser units, the discs will be well detected and read?

This adjustment can be made with the PMAP tools, right?
Do I need to connect the PS2 to the computer? Is the process simple/automatic?
Theres info in this forum explaining the process and what kind of equipment is needed?
I´m comfortable with soldering and stuff, but not too much with software programming and coding...

Thank you all.
 

[Archive]

posted by sp193 on Dec 6, 2016:

Before you start taking everything that I write as the truth, please take note that I am not from this industry and my knowledge comes from my studies of the SONY adjustment tools and their manuals. Sometimes I also hear a thing or two from the folks on these boards, but I do not have practical experience at all.

ftadeufs said:






So what your are saying is that every console is "tuned"/"married" with the individual laser, and this must be updated everytime the laser is changed?

The help documentation for the ELECT (electric-circuit) and MECHA (Mechanism) adjustment tools indicate that the technician is expected to make such adjustments, whenever the optical block and/or spindle motor driver are replaced.

There were also various models of the optical block, so the console also had to be calibrated to support the installed optical block.
For example, you know about the SONY and SANYO optical blocks. But the SONY optical blocks had at least two lens models: the T487 and the (new) T609K. Apparently the T487 was used up to the KHS-400B, where some of them were shipped with the T609K. Older consoles were not calibrated to support the T609K, out of the box.

ftadeufs said:






Considering this, there is great probability that readjusting my motherboards to the laser units, the discs will be well detected and read?

Yes. That is, if we assume that your consoles are free of other hardware problems.

ftadeufs said:






This adjustment can be made with the PMAP tools, right?

Yes. If you have the SONY tools though, those should be better.

ftadeufs said:






Do I need to connect the PS2 to the computer?

You must connect the MECHACON's serial port to a RS232C signal converter. The MECHACON is a 3.3V device.
The RMC line of the MECHACON has to be connected to ground, to put the console into test mode.

ftadeufs said:






Is the process simple/automatic?

It's not straightforward, unfortunately. Particularly because I made PMAP a command-line program.
Thankfully, the gain adjustment part is automatic.
Mechanism adjustment (tangential and radial skew), however, requires you to issue commands to the console with PMAP.

Just remember that the ultimate goal of this adjustment process, is to achieve the lowest-possible jitter when reading all types of discs.

ftadeufs said:






Theres info in this forum explaining the process and what kind of equipment is needed?

It's all in this thread (particularly, the first few posts). The README file included, also explains some things.

Few people have used such a method, mainly because PMAP was made last year and the SONY tools are rare.
 

[Archive]

posted by ftadeufs on Dec 6, 2016:

sp193 said:






Before you start taking everything that I write as the truth, please take note that I am not from this industry and my knowledge comes from my studies of the SONY adjustment tools and their manuals. Sometimes I also hear a thing or two from the folks on these boards, but I do not have practical experience at all.

No problem! i´ve lost a lot of time and money trying to fix it. i´ll try this at my own risk!

sp193 said:






The help documentation for the ELECT (electric-circuit) and MECHA (Mechanism) adjustment tools indicate that the technician is expected to make such adjustments, whenever the optical block and/or spindle motor driver are replaced.

sp193 said:






There were also various models of the optical block, so the console also had to be calibrated to support the installed optical block.
For example, you know about the SONY and SANYO optical blocks. But the SONY optical blocks had at least two lens models: the T487 and the (new) T609K. Apparently the T487 was used up to the KHS-400B, where some of them were shipped with the T609K. Older consoles were not calibrated to support the T609K, out of the box.

So, the 400C can only be T609K, right? I´ve never had personal contact with any other thanthe 400C.

sp193 said:






Yes. That is, if we assume that your consoles are free of other hardware problems.

If the lasers read just fine after a minute, isnt that weird for an adjustment situation? I think we will be down to hardware problems in the end.. but I wish i´m wrong

sp193 said:






Yes. If you have the SONY tools though, those should be better.

I´ve heard of those tools, but never knew exactly what they were. Are they like super special discs with maximum quality to optimal laser tuning? or is just some software tools? If good discs are used, can I use very new PS2 original games and Verbatim DVD+R?

sp193 said:






You must connect the MECHACON's serial port to a RS232C signal converter. The MECHACON is a 3.3V device.
The RMC line of the MECHACON has to be connected to ground, to put the console into test mode.

I´ll try not to burn the house down ... in alternative, i´ve read about Lenschanger for lens update. Can it do a similar job with this detection problem?

sp193 said:






It's not straightforward, unfortunately. Particularly because I made PMAP a command-line program.
Thankfully, the gain adjustment part is automatic.
Mechanism adjustment (tangential and radial skew), however, requires you to issue commands to the console with PMAP.

Just remember that the ultimate goal of this adjustment process, is to achieve the lowest-possible jitter when reading all types of discs.

What kind of relation does this adjustment have with the white knob and screws in the laser disc tray?
If it gives many Jitter errors, I will have to adjust the knobs and the pots in the laser?

sp193 said:






It's all in this thread (particularly, the first few posts). The README file included, also explains some things.

Few people have used such a method, mainly because PMAP was made last year and the SONY tools are rare.

Sorry for the amount of questions, but I really dont want to mess up with this.

Thank you!