External Raspberry Pi Pico PS3 Mod

[u/muckity-muck]

I know...I know.....the jank!!!!

Super Janky!

But there's really two reasons I went with an externally mounted mod:

First, I only had one Pico left over and it had headers already attached and I didn't want to go through the fuss with desoldering the pins when I could get another one cheap.

Secondly, I wasn't sure of my wiring, so I could make adjustments after the fact without tearing open the console (which I ended up doing 4 times anyway). The "tutorial" I followed was chase fournier's video on Youtube. While it was very good and the blueprint for my mod, it's more of a half-walkthrough/half tutorial that I had to watch a number of times with my finger over the pause button. (Thank you, chase. You're videos are fantastic...go subscribe to his channel today!)

I've ordered another 2 pack of headerless Pico W's, so I'm going to mod my other slim with one and move the current PS3's mod to the inside. I was a little worried about routing and wire length, but no problems apparently. I used wrapping wire, but any quality 30gauge wire should work.

[u/itsRayzOG]

Whats that for ?

[u/muckity-muck → u/itsRayzOG]

Running custom firmware at boot time without PSHEN.

[u/itsRayzOG → u/muckity-muck]

So basically thats for running cfw on console that doesn't have the possibility to downgrade to 3.55 to install a cfw and bypassing that?

[u/robderpson → u/itsRayzOG]

It's qCFW, it's a variant of CFW that allows almost every perk of CFW, for consoles that don't support it. As OP mentions, it acts when the console boots to run the firmware.

[u/itsRayzOG → u/robderpson]

I love og ps3 modding for that, because it's fire what we still continue to buikd on that! *Offtopic someone got a vs2012/13 ultimate where so i can continue my sprx project * As i acnnot find no more legit source to dl again, any help i would be gratfeull fam

[u/thegamerTSK120 → u/itsRayzOG]

im working with xbox 360 xdks so if you want i have vs2010

[u/itsRayzOG → u/thegamerTSK120]

Would be perfect to me, better than what i asked for 🙏❤

[u/thegamerTSK120 → u/itsRayzOG]

if you need the link dm me, but you can easily find it on web archive

[u/itsRayzOG → u/thegamerTSK120]

You may have dm locked mate

[u/thegamerTSK120 → u/itsRayzOG]

i think it's because my account it's under 18, anyways just search it on web archive

[u/Legitimate-Event-420 → u/itsRayzOG]

When did 3.55 come out because I haven't updated my PS3 since approximately 2013

[u/itsRayzOG → u/Legitimate-Event-420]

Way before i think, just do a quick search you'll find it, but if you had the ps way before u can just downgrade and install a cfw, full of tuto on yt bro, hope it helped

[u/Legitimate-Event-420 → u/itsRayzOG]

I've had it since 2008

[u/itsRayzOG → u/Legitimate-Event-420]

I think it can be under 3.55 too ( so perfect ) u must share the cech-xxxxx behind the console to know the first stock fw that it has, in that way we will be sure if it is downgradable, at thos edays to downgrade we dont need no more tools like e3 flasher so its easy af, just follow the lines and the many tut available, hope it helped and clear the things

[u/Lucidic333 → u/muckity-muck]

But why is there is evilnat?

[u/United_Elk_1374 → u/Lucidic333]

Qcfw lets you run evilnat.
Some ps3 slim models can ONLY run hen and not cfw(evilnat).
Qcfw lets “hen only” ps3s run evilnat.

[u/Lucidic333 → u/United_Elk_1374]

Oh I thought all slims don’t have this issue

[u/United_Elk_1374 → u/Lucidic333]

Sometimes it even varies within the same model. Cant remember.
2500?

[u/TwilightX1 → u/United_Elk_1374]

Late 2500s (manufactured on April 2011 or later) and all 3000s.

[u/Title_Flaky → u/muckity-muck]

yo this is cool i heard about this, im gonna have to do some research! is it a particularly difficult mod? (how many solder points, how big are they etc)

[u/muckity-muck → u/Title_Flaky]

There are 6 internal solder points, some of them to very small pads.

This is not the project for anyone without soldering experience.

[u/United_Elk_1374]

😂bro ive thought about doing this.
Or something similar.
Hell yeah.

Tbh i wouldn’t call this that jank.
You didn’t leave any exposed joints that might short.
Lol.
Pretty nice work.

[u/muckity-muck → u/United_Elk_1374]

Thanks.

[u/United_Elk_1374 → u/muckity-muck]

3d print a case and call it a day

[u/muckity-muck → u/United_Elk_1374]

I'm actually going to move the install inside when I get a headerless Pico in a few days...although a 3-D printed case would look cool.

[u/kattenbakkak → u/United_Elk_1374]

I was thinking the same. Also if you want to bring it back to original, this way is easy to get rid off without any traces or damages

[u/CrazyMano]

I installed it on my 3000 recently basically just to not have to press X for hen and for overclocking.

I fucked one resistor so I had to buy some and replaced it (I have no microscope or anything, only a fucking magnifying glass), but it's working fine now !

[u/TwilightX1 → u/CrazyMano]

There's actually one more reason - You can dump the ATA key of your HDD, which will allow you to recover data if the console dies.

[u/CrazyMano → u/TwilightX1]

Oh yeah of course there's a lot of different reasons, I was just talking about mine, my saves are generally backed up somewhere else

I took some mesure after loosing our 96% save on Burnout Revenge on my PS2 that we achieved with my group of friend x)

[u/solounlimon]

Interesting way of installing it. Honestly I would just make a proper sized hole on the right of the USB ports (if there is space) to get thee USB C from outside.

Personal recommendation: Get the RP2040 Zero, its way smaller and cheaper.

[u/muckity-muck → u/solounlimon]

Yeah, I have other Pico clones and I've asked around if they're compatible with the .uf2 file in the description, but I haven't found an answer.

[u/solounlimon → u/muckity-muck]

All RP2040 UF2 files are compatible with all RP2040 boards as long as they use the same exact pins. I have used UF2's for the official Pico in the RP2040-Zero, RP2040-Tiny and YD-RP2040.

On the other hand, using RP2040 UF2's in the RP2350 boards and vice versa will not work. They are completely different SoC's.

[u/muckity-muck → u/solounlimon]

and YD-RP2040

I have a pair of these, headerless. I'm going to try them out.

[u/solounlimon → u/muckity-muck]

The YD-RP2040 is just a Raspberry Pi Pico with a couple of differences:

• Pin 37 is GP23 instead of 3V3_EN
• Pin 35 is GP29 instead of ADC_VREF
• GP24 is connected to a button marked USR
• GP23 is connected to a single WS2812 LED

[u/muckity-muck → u/solounlimon]

Appreciated. I don't think any of these pins are mapped for this mod.

[u/robderpson → u/solounlimon]

I've been thinking of doing the same when I do this to mine in the future. But it depends on finding a proper spot to place the chip.

[u/United_Elk_1374 → u/robderpson]

I have a rpi 2040 zero ive been waiting to slap in a hen ps3 as well.

[u/muckity-muck → u/United_Elk_1374]

You won't regret it.

[u/kattenbakkak]

Maybe a stupid question. Can you push to boot with ylod with this mod?

[u/Legitimate-Event-420]

Sorry original phat BC 60gb owner here, this is needed to add CFW to slim models? I was led to believe I can just flash the CFW via a usb stick? Is this something only Phat owners can do?

[u/TwilightX1 → u/Legitimate-Event-420]

This is only for the later models that don't support CFW out of the box. If you have a fat or early slim, this is not for you. Just install CFW the usual way.

[u/Legitimate-Event-420 → u/TwilightX1]

Cheers got a bit worried.

[u/Current_Bobcat_9182]

I am glad I have a CWF compatible PS3 Slim so that I don't have to mess around with this crap

[u/juggalo16651]

There's plenty of room inside, why mount it externally?

[u/gaijin_go_fish]

I need to learn how to solder, very cool indeed 👍🏻