mluckow said:
I was just referring to the cleaning process.
mluckow said:
As Audio1st mentioned, you have that short period of time when the laser head is moving vertically to check the voltage. If you need a mini-CD, you should be able to find them on the Internet or any well-stocked computer store. If you place a "re-sized" you would most likely get disk read errors.
ecir38
I haven't got any photos yet, it's still in "lethal exposed mains wiring beta test mode" I will take some when it's in a safer more postable state.
With hindsight the layout could have been much more compact but it's working well at the minute. The 3.6v section gets hotter than I expected, some vent holes are planned for the playstation casing above the heatsink. I can hold the sink for around 10 seconds before swearing so its not critical but the heat would be better out than in.
John
I haven't got any photos yet, it's still in "lethal exposed mains wiring beta test mode" I will take some when it's in a safer more postable state.
With hindsight the layout could have been much more compact but it's working well at the minute. The 3.6v section gets hotter than I expected, some vent holes are planned for the playstation casing above the heatsink. I can hold the sink for around 10 seconds before swearing so its not critical but the heat would be better out than in.
John
Rich, Mr. Skinny, and Audio1st,
Thanks very much for your help and advice. Today I followed Mick's procedure for aligning the laser and got all the voltages very close to his specs. However, it still won't play any of my CD-Rs, unfortunately. I even got the gain to 1.8203 V. (But my multimeter might not be perfectly accurate, of course.)
Well, at least it's a huge improvement. Before I changed any of the voltages, I noticed they were way off what they were supposed to be.
I paid a total of about $30 for it on eBay and the seller gave me a full refund since it didn't work properly, but I offered to send him back $15 for it since it took me a couple hours to do the work on it. That seems reasonable . . . .
Thanks again!
Mike
Thanks very much for your help and advice. Today I followed Mick's procedure for aligning the laser and got all the voltages very close to his specs. However, it still won't play any of my CD-Rs, unfortunately. I even got the gain to 1.8203 V. (But my multimeter might not be perfectly accurate, of course.)
Well, at least it's a huge improvement. Before I changed any of the voltages, I noticed they were way off what they were supposed to be.
I paid a total of about $30 for it on eBay and the seller gave me a full refund since it didn't work properly, but I offered to send him back $15 for it since it took me a couple hours to do the work on it. That seems reasonable . . . .
Thanks again!
Mike
Rich,
It cured the noise problem with all the commercial CDs I tried, but not with any of the CD-Rs I tried. All the CD-Rs still have the scratchy sound, unfortunately. (I tried about six of each.)
Anyway, it's good that at least I can listen to commercial CDs now. I'd have to throw it away if it couldn't even play commercial CDs without noise.
Thanks,
Mike
It cured the noise problem with all the commercial CDs I tried, but not with any of the CD-Rs I tried. All the CD-Rs still have the scratchy sound, unfortunately. (I tried about six of each.)
Anyway, it's good that at least I can listen to commercial CDs now. I'd have to throw it away if it couldn't even play commercial CDs without noise.
Thanks,
Mike
I have heard that some people can't get their Playstations to play CD-R discs. Once you have time to look at the laser unit on your Playstation, look to see if the Model No. is KSM-440AAM. This was the first generation laser unit that employs a plastic body that can potentially distort with exposure to heat from the power supply. Sony later went to a more reliable die-cast bodied laser unit. I doubt that the body material has a bearing on the ability to read discs, but there may have been other improvements that were electro-optical in nature. My Playstations all have the latter-built KSM-440ACM laser units. If the problems persist, a new laser mechanism might be in order. You can purchase replacement parts like KSM-440ACM from http://www.richspsxparts.com/ for $16.95 USD.
My 1002 has the original drive in it. When you turn it on it wont play a CDR, it whirrs and carries on something alarming. Replace the CDR with any shop bought disc and play for 10 seconds and it will then play any CDR until its turned off again.
It's a bit of a faff but I can live with it until a newer type laser is acquired. I haven't gone near the laser adjustments on the grounds that it works fine once it's had it's little ritual.
It may that mine isn't quite as worn as yours.
John
It's a bit of a faff but I can live with it until a newer type laser is acquired. I haven't gone near the laser adjustments on the grounds that it works fine once it's had it's little ritual.
It may that mine isn't quite as worn as yours.
John
Rich and John,
I checked, and I have the KSM-440ACM laser unit. Also, it won't play CD-Rs without the scratchy sound even if I play a commercial CD first.
So, it looks like I'm stuck and won't be able to play CD-Rs, unfortunately. Oh, well, I'll live. I have another CD player I can use if I really want to listen to a CD-R. Or, I could always buy another PS1.
Thanks again for all your help!
Mike
I checked, and I have the KSM-440ACM laser unit. Also, it won't play CD-Rs without the scratchy sound even if I play a commercial CD first.
So, it looks like I'm stuck and won't be able to play CD-Rs, unfortunately. Oh, well, I'll live. I have another CD player I can use if I really want to listen to a CD-R. Or, I could always buy another PS1.
Thanks again for all your help!
Mike
mluckow:
As you did adjust all the voltages, I'd say that's a dying laser diode you have there.
As the CD-R's have lower reflectability, with a weak laser, the result will be read errors. Commercial CDs will still be read.
Temporary solution would be to increase laser current (don't remember which of the adjustment controls is responsible, have a look at mick's site), but then life of laser diode will be drastically shortened. But as it is dying anyway, that would be a temporary fix, until getting a new laser unit.
As you did adjust all the voltages, I'd say that's a dying laser diode you have there.
As the CD-R's have lower reflectability, with a weak laser, the result will be read errors. Commercial CDs will still be read.
Temporary solution would be to increase laser current (don't remember which of the adjustment controls is responsible, have a look at mick's site), but then life of laser diode will be drastically shortened. But as it is dying anyway, that would be a temporary fix, until getting a new laser unit.
Well after reading every post on this thread I have to say I am ready to take the plunge, I go to pick up my model 1001 psx tomorrow! I found one at a local game store, thought they had to have it shipped from another store out of state! Anyways, after my 90 day warranty is up the moding will commence. I plan to re-case it, build a custom output stage (possibly with a tube buffer, though I have no experience on how to design one), build a linear power supply, add on board controls, and a built in lcd screen, all this must be done with hi WAF! This will be a long process but hopefully will be well worth it. I will be giving updates and asking lots of stupid questions once I get started, so please be ready to bear with me. One question I have right away is that wiki claims that the CD drives in the 900x series are of higher quality than those of previous series, is there any truth to this? see here... What WIKI says about Playstation
-Justin
-Justin
I wish that website wasnt in German, hehe. Well I have the ACM drive unit, but unfortunately have having problems with distortion on certain tracks of CD-Rs, at least so far it has only happened on CD-Rs. I will be looking into the issue to figure out exactly when it happens. Do people find the newest BAM laser units to be the most reliable? I will be attempting to align my laser after I play with the distortion problem a little bit, and we will see if that takes care of it.
-Justin
-Justin
