Playstation LCD Hack - Works!!

**starfox** · 04-29-2003, 06:08 AM

Friend dropped by today and tested out some stuff on my Sony PSOne LCD, and we pulled this one off (more like he pulled it off while i was making a composite -> 3.5mm cable).

My PSOne LCD is a PAL LCD. There *is* a difference between the NTSC and PAL LCDs, the timings are not in powerstrip for the PAL Sony PSOne LCD. We obtained approximate timings from http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/c...nversion.html.

Large image 1: http://nakoruru.rudora.net/serio/lcd...hoto-large.jpg
Large image 2: http://nakoruru.rudora.net/serio/lcd...to-large-2.jpg

But it works!!! It f***ing works!!!

Testbed:
Video card: Radeon 9000 Pro, on Dual Monitor mode (else there was no way we could try the PAL timings without rebooting every time).

We found after comparing the Sony MultiAV passthrough with the input that only the SVideo Y, R, G and B lines are not directly passed through. The Video CSync pin on the MultiAV connector (pin 6) actually went straight through, which made us wonder if it was the correct pin.

Wiring:
Some of the wiring diagrams available on the web are slightly misleading:
Wire the +5V line (pin 10) to the VGA DCC to obtain 5V. When the LCD senses +5V on the +5V line, it switches on. This is some sort of sense line.
Wire VGA CSync to pin 5 (SVideo Y). This is *NOT* the same as Composite / CSync on the Sony MultiAV out.
Tell your video card to use composite sync! This hack doesn't need a resistor between VSync and HSync as it's using CSync, which is done on the video card.

Nb. Please do not try the above just yet, i'll review everything with my friend and post everything up on a website. Also note that this has only been tested on the PAL LCD, and we can't test it on a NTSC display.

**starfox** · 04-29-2003, 06:11 AM

By the way, the LCD photos look a little odd because it's really hard to photograph an LCD nicely..

**starfox** · 04-29-2003, 06:33 AM

And just for fun..

**MajikNWA** · 04-29-2003, 07:58 AM

Keep us updated!! This is VERY interesting...

Majik

**vikingboy** · 04-29-2003, 11:23 AM

Fantastic news.

Once you have double checked everything, could you post a complete wiring schematic of exactly what VGA pin goes to what pin on the LCD unit - just to remove any possible conusion?

Is there anyway we can obtain power to the LCD display from the powersupply rather than using the external supply (I want to mount my display in the front of the case).

And lastly - what if the graphics card doesn not support composite sync? I recall my geforce2 doesnt have the option anabled although my Radeon does support it.

thanks for all your hard work.
Ian

**pogue1000** · 04-29-2003, 08:46 PM

congrats man! looks good.

so did u notice a big difference in quality?

**starfox** · 04-30-2003, 12:40 AM

Yeah sure... I'm just a little busy at the moment, but when i have time i'll compile pinouts and such, but just remember that this modification's only for the PAL PSOne LCD.. not the one which MPro or some other people are using (i think MPro's is quite a lot nicer in terms of what pins you push each signal through!).

The NTSC PSOne LCD should have a similar mod, with different timings.

Power to the LCD is 7.5V from a power pack, i don't think you can get something similar with enough current through a computer power supply (i wouldn't want to try the 12V - 5V difference trick as the LCD might draw more current than a computer power supply is tolerant for), unless you build a DC-DC circuit for it... I'll probably have to look into something like a 12V to 7.5V buck for my car... My friend suggested that the LCD might actually be taking in 7.5V unregulated, and regulating it to 5V internally, so there's another thing we need to look into.

if your graphics card doesn't have composite sync.. i'm not sure about what to do there, but i'll have to tackle that myself because i want to run this LCD off my nForce which is in my car.

There's probably a way to build a HSync + VSync to CSync converter (else you can use MPro's resistor trick).

And yeah there's quite a nice difference in quality comparing the composite signal and the RGB signal!

**M pro** · 04-30-2003, 03:36 AM

Originally posted by starfox
By the way, the LCD photos look a little odd because it's really hard to photograph an LCD nicely..

hehehe I know exactly what you mean

Keep us updated as I would like to see your pinouts using composite sync, also more pics would be good too

**starfox** · 05-02-2003, 08:44 AM

This afternoon i had some time, so i bought a Ti 74LS86 IC (TTL XOR IC) and built the seperate sync to composite sync circuit on this page(http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/c.../vga2rgbs.html), and connected it up through my nForce's onboard Geforce 2.

The image isn't as good as with ATi's CSync. It looks like someone ran the image through nearest neighbour filtering. I plugged the LCD into my ATi card with seperate HSync and VSync, and the image looked the same as on the onboard Geforce 2 MX...

ATi makes really nice cards... ^_^