VERY Difficult Hardware Mods For The PS2 

for anyone curious what this mod does, it allows you to tap into the full power of the PS2's Emotion Engine so you too, can feel emotions for the first time in a long time.

Random guy on the internet modded my PS2 years ago. Dug it out and checked. looks very similar. nice

Music made it sound like I was watching the Power Rangers

Great stuff as always, thanks for posting this. I just have to say that I get a real "Bob Ross with a soldering iron" vibe from all of your videos when the subject is simply the task at hand and nothing more. Keep up the great work.

What... Wait! No hotglue, no Epoxi tar, not even a paperclip, can I realy trust this?

i feel cheated that he couldnt have even showed off what the mod actually does after all that

A god amongst men. Even though I'm not interested in this specific mod, your technique videos have taught me a lot and inspired me to challenge myself to more difficult mod work. Keep em coming my lord!

Killing it with the vids lately! Possibly consider vlogs or just random conversations on certain topics relating to retro gaming or anything else. Will watch it all.

I work with electronics and do mods as a hobby, and have for years. I always learn something from watching your videos. I appreciate the content, man. Keep it up!

Just did a ps1 mod for the first time (first time soldering too) and it was a cinch. Looked into PS2 modding and I was like, damn, that's quite a step up in difficulty. Nicely done!

Just a tip - old ide ribbon cables for conductors , keeps everything super tidy

Great stuff, I have been psyching myself up to install a Matrix Infinity on my PS2 for like a month now - this is exactly what I needed!

Man that was intense. Cleaner than a tech mogul prototype board! I bet you could toss that PS2 down a flight of stairs and your work would still look good as new! Never seen anything like that.

So glad the 17 y/o version of me went the DMS 4 EZI path back then. Solderless DMS4 Pro chip. Super sweet. Still works to this day!

Now I can absolutely see the idea and the ideas to make and be able to easily fashion anything with the kits offered and developed by you, super ... I like it, that's how i roll .

Great video. Couldn't have pulled it off without the Video. All praise Lord Voultar!

oh thank god. I was watching some dude mod an xbox 360 but nobody makes good quality videos like you, i just had to watch one to restore balance to my mind.

10/10 video. I see I missed a lot of your newer stuff, better ring that bell button!

I did this many years ago, and when I turned it on and IT WORKED i was in shock. Pain in the ass. I screamed out "IT WORKS" like Emmitt L Brown.

So much respect bro! I done all these mods back in the day but being 36 now I don’t think my hands would let me

Finally found you Voultar, nice work as always! If you don't mind I downloaded the video for future reference, very nice work! Cheers ans subscribed!

your soldering skills are amazing. i come here only to see the soldering. congratulations!

Nice job ! How much did you charge to do these back then ? I'm kind of surprised that no one has made a shaped PCB with the traces included so all you have to do is clip it down. I think I saw something like that for a TG16 mod once.

When soldering the white wires at the beginning, what is the reasoning behind not using the extra pads literally right by the chip where it would be not only easier, but cleaner (i.e. leaves the chip untouched on that side)? Is there that much of a possibility of interference with conductors that are a few centimeters longer? Either way they are routed above the chip itself, so I cannot see interference being an issue any more so than how it was done in the video.

This is beautiful. Mine is what I would describe as "aesthetically displeasing, but operational". :D

Wow, you did great there, those B,G,H,I and A points are quite a challenge to get right. Only criticism I have is your method of melting the conductor of off the wire to solder it down, but it's still a functional method so it's all good.

This is still a thing of beauty.

Makes me want to bust out my old Hakko 935. Back in the day it was several hundred Matrix Infinity mods for PS2 in my 8 years doing it. Also short wire but crosswire as well. I know there's worry about signal interference but never had any issues. Nice job!

You inspired me to give this a try, not the super short method though. After 4 hours, im happy to report it was a success.

Hey im looking to try my hand at modding of this nature, are there any good resources for what kind of mods are there out there for the ps2?

I replace the power board on mine and the power bottom 12pin flex cable, and still no power is coming on? The model is 50001/N. Any idea what else it could be wrong??

Love it. The only modding I've ever done revolved around the early Dreamcast controllers, the triggers use to break their hinges really easy and being pissed about the £60 cost for a new Japanese pad every couple of weeks I thought I'd give it a go. My solution was to strip the plastic from a connector block and cut into quarters then glue into the broken trigger, line up and heat up a sewing pin and ram it through hinge into the upper casing making a new hinge. Probably made a couple of hundred quid doing this in the day charging £5 per trigger for a local but now long gone import store.

Is that retrorgb on the guitar? :D

I remember doing this 17-18 years ago with Messiah's and eventually Duo2 SE's and they certainly were wiring nightmares compared to this. I was in college and my previous experience was soldering larger microelectronics on RC Cars where things are VERY forgiving so the PS2 was a real cliffhanger, especially compared to other consoles of the era like PS1 that were a few wires and even XBOX where the JTAG pins were in a nice cluster.

You are an artist!!! All of my work is fine and works but typically my wires just sort of hang there (I make them as short as I can but not nearly as short as yours) That super glue thing does give me ideas, probably bad ideas but hey if I break it, it's mine anyway (I don't do mods for other people anymore.)

Awesome video!!! One question: which kind of cable do you use in this video? 30AWG wrapping?

7:03 what are those white cables called? When ever I buy wires like that its just a bunch of thin copper wires in insulation. That seems to have one single silver piece of cable inside which looks pretty good.

Man I love this channel!!!

OMG amazing solder job! Well done :)

Way did you not use the test pads when adding the wires?

Is there a difference between the orange and blue ps2

you're right - this is art. it's glorious.

Quite a lot of those connections to the flat packs broke out into really nice pads and lands. I think I'd have reduced risk and used those more.

What kind of wire are you using and where did you buy it? I like the solid AWG 30 or 34 that you’re using. Thanks!!

Very best. Im looking forward to making this myself in a few 20 years.

I really have a question about the small Mainboardet ps2 the one with the power supply beside the DVD drive. I know that's kind'a rude but can you actually give me a trustworthy guide to install a mod chip?

Just in time Voultar, I am about to order a few of this modbos for a special project on PS2 slim and I was looking around for inspiration for chip placing, I must admit I stole a few techniques from you in the past few months and the no clean is now a must have around, something good came out of the doujin dance work after all.

What do you use to strip kynar? looks like you strip it with heat. Great video and you've skills man!

What are the different mod chips you can get and what do they do?

Wow that is a lot of wiring what's this mod for? Don't think ide do something this intricate unless it was for some major improvement but great work you still got it looks like something years of experience brings

I guess when you get to the newer consoles the architecture gets properly convoluted and more and more difficult to mod. Is the slim PS2 any more difficult or easier to mod?

Jeeze, I forgot how many screws went into that thing's assembly. That said, when doing modding, are there any good uses for hot glue? I figure at best to secure/route wires (not to cover the solder joints, as long as the wires don't have a way to wiggle, the joints will hold fine). There's also that fun felt tape they use in OEM wire securing such as the PSP, etc, which allows for a more professional looking job, but that can wear out over time.

Anyone know what brand conductors he uses? I can tell these are 30 or 32 solid core with pvc jacket. All the brands I test never separate from each other properly. Great wiring man.

Most Difficult thing here was to listen to that music, damn

wow...this dude did a pro job with the wires. made it look super neat like it was supposed to be there from the factory lol. mine would look like a 5th graders science experiment with a mess of wires all over the place... but hey, if it works it works... just put the cover on and no1 knows the difference lol

Been watching your channel for a while even though I have no idea what is REALLY the purpose for the mods, could you explain what this particular modding does to the ps2?

At 7:10, why did you choose to solder directly to the chip, versus the pads below that lead to the same pins? Is there a difference? (Serious question. Curious for my own knowledge when I attempt this same install)

Hi... Awesome Video... But I have a question... The wires are the same at the modbo 5.0?? I cant find anything about them. Thx f. help

What glue do you use for the cable management?

What type of wires are you using?

I've got nervous just by watching this. Nice job.

Love your videos, amazing skills 👌

very beautiful and neatly done, but doing it with your eyes only is probably impossible can you tell me what does this chip do? (it only allows you to play burned games from backups or something else?) If I could solder like you do without destroying everything on my path that would be great but my shitty eyes betray me everytime

Thanks so much for this. Your the man!

This is probably a dumb question, but why do you solder onto the chip when there are pads and hole points connected to those pins right next to the chip? (for example around the 7:30 mark)

can someone recommend me a decent flux to do this type of thing in future?

Hi, do you know where to get a fat ps2s enclosure?

Hey Voultar, I always wonder: How fo you choose the gauge of wire to use?

Now that's real passion. Just awesome

what kind of flux is that you used, the stuff you sprayed

Around the 7:30 mark... How come you didn't use the holes in the board or the solder pads??

Has anyone mounted a modchip on top of the DSP chip? Would the rf/heatshield need drilled any? Also has anyone taken the bios signals directly from the dsp chip? Might try making some ffc cables to see how that would look.

ok what does this mod do? does is remove the region locking?

9:02 finger glued forever.

Why a Modbo 4.0 and not a 5.0? The latter can be used for homebrew and other software related stuff.

Mother of god. My ocd has been cured.Godlike job with the wiring.

I’d just like to learn or understand how to solder the ps2 fan connector back to the board that I accidentally ripped off

I've modded a hundred PS2's. There is no reason to, now, you can soft mod the memory card, and do 10 times more than even the best chip could do. The only thing that a chip can do that the memory card mod can't, is CR-R burned discs. Burn them onto a DVD-R, mo problems. I still have mine, and it has a brand new laser that has never been used, since I keep my games on the hard drive. I am partial to the version 5 console, the SCPH-30001-R, the first incarnation of the second generation "high speed" consoles, before any software "updates". At my peak, I'd buy a brand new console, take it straight out of the box, and mod it. While I was at it, I'd leave a burned demo disc in the drive, and put it back in the box, so that whoever I sold it to could have the honors of the "enter language" screen that they only do the first time you use one, and when that was done, the demo would run. That way they know they got a brand new console, with zero miles on it. You have to be very confident in your work to do that.

Jinn was the shit and one of the coolest moders to learn from I miss talking to him on the isozone. :(

What's the song? It's some solid shit.

So I've red most of the comments and didn't find my answer. 1) what kind of wire is that? 2) what type of flux are you using?

Let me guess,that chip is for playing ps1 backups,right?

Can I get a link to the audio track? Sounds like good workout or beatoff sesh music.

Its like bilbo imparting his stories and wisdom onto frodo

What music is this? I'd love to know.

dam man old school chills, tip tho when you get shaky take a 5 min break drink some water and proceed it gives you more precision

Should have shown a real challenge, mod a V1 - V3 console! :D I used to do V5+ fats all the time, once you get used to it it was easy stuff. Did a lot of repair work on consoles from competition that used ACID FLUX... ate through traces and all sorts. Ugh. But I will say I did use a few dabs of hot glue to hold the wires in place, but never anywhere near the chips, just on the board away from components to fix wires where I wanted them to stay routed rather than getting under screws for re-assembly. I originally used wire wrap wire, but found that wasn't fine enough for the V1 - V3 consoles. Moved onto 36 AWG varnished magnet wire. Was a pleasure to work with, no need to use strippers, just burned the varnish off where I needed to make the connection.

Why you've soldered those cables at 7:00 on the chip... there are pads connected to it. I think, it's the same (and easier) if you solder the cable on those pads

Specs on wire? also lists of mods he's doing?? I'm adding this and DCHDMI to my lists of mods I want to successfully pull off.

Why not solder wires through the vias instead of to the pins on the chips?

what song is that?? really want to know

Voultar, I know this is a year old, but I watch all of your videos, because it's truly intriguing. I don't own anything, but an Xbox One X (I've owned an Xbox, 360, 360 Halo 3, Xbox One, Xbox One Halo & current Xbox One X. I trade them in, I don't keep any of them), never had a PlayStation, did have an NES, SNES & N64. Anyways my question is I never have a clue what the mods you're doing actually accomplish. Take this video for example, what was the purpose of all this hard work? Thank you for your time &the awesome videos!

Nice looking workmanship.

What is the result of the mod?

This is literally an art you're not wrong.

I'm having veitnam flashbacks of when i tried soldering a modbo to my ps2 fun times, giant wires. Ended up breaking it. No video when i first booted, desoldered. Flashed green, pop noise, right back to red. Now it doesn't turn on at all, 5+ ripped pads.

What mod used for?

Do the latter days saints really prefer super glue on the bios chip over a little blob of hot glue on the wires? But thanks for showing this video. I am struggling myself a bit with clear wiring.

Beautiful. Congrats

Great video buddy! I was always curious what you used to keep the wires all bunched together in those circular patterns.