Undiluted Platinum Fact Sheet: It’s A PSP Owner’s Dream Come True

This should serve as wake-up call to many of our commenters who are quick to judge – its best not to get up on a soap box and make accusations unless you have all the information and know what’s going on. Remember the old adage about assuming…

It wasn’t a pretty picture: PSP owners rejoicing at the fact that they can play games without having to pay for them thanks to the smart minds of homebrew developers and Sony trying to quash these creative geniuses’ products by improving their official firmware security making it impossible (or should that be ‘almost impossible’?) to run homebrew on their handheld console. Add to that messy picture the fact that some of the best games now does a forced auto firmware check, requiring an unexploited firmware to run original UMD cartridges.

Since the whole scene was leaving the PSP owners and developers a bit (?) jaded, we cannot exactly blame them for rejoicing at every bit of development that allowed later firmwares to play homebrew – eLoader, downdater, etc. The eLoader, however, was not a really stable platform for allowing homebrew on all PSP firmware revisions, while the downdater removes all privileges higher firmware versions have. Which leads us to looking hopefully at the one solution that promised to permit running of homebrew on newer PSP versions plus allowing features of the official firmware to be enjoyed at the same time – Team Epsilon’s Undiluted Platinum.

Of course, when the Undiluted Platinum (U.P.) was first announced, the PSP scene was skeptic. How can such a beautiful piece exist? Is perfection really possible in this lifetime? Apparently not…because U.P. is nowhere near perfect (as this review will reveal)…but it does exist. Believe it – it has arrived.

Here’s the Undiluted Platinum in a flash:

Pros

• THE WORLDÂ’s FIRST PSP MODCHIP!!!
• You can load multiple firmwares onto your PSP
• You can run homebrew code and backed up UMD cartridges with the right firmware
• Flashing the firmware is easy and straight forward
• When Epsilon BIOS is released you can unbrick your PSP from a bad firmware upgrade
• Well-packaged product
• Intelligent and impressive physical design
• Great product support with guides and flashing software

Cons

• EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO INSTALL
• Requires a visual aid such as a microscope
• Epsilon BIOS is not available yet

That may be a good first look, but I’m sure most of you would like to know more, right? So here it is…

Just like a movie star walking the red carpet on Oscar’s night, this baby came to our PSP scene all jazzed up. Such innovation will not be caught dead inside a boring brown paper bag. If it will make our PSP world a more worthwhile place to linger in, it has to come in a beautiful package. I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures: U.P. is a large, chocolate box-type with the now infamous logo printed on top. If you are unlucky to have missed the first batch of U.P. to be shipped, I’ll let you in on what can be found inside: all pieces required for installation — the Undiluted Platinum PSP Modchip, USB connector, a thin insulated wire, a FPC ribbon cable, two metal pieces for installation, and a USB cable.

The PSP demonstrates how Sony have mastered creation of a micro hardware, which means that installation of U.P. will not be a walk in the park. Even experienced technicians may have a hard time dabbling with U.P. because of its smallness. It is therefore recommended that you arm yourself with any device that will aid you in viewing the small parts (microscope with a 10X lens resommended) and a .2mm soldering tip or finer. Other tools needed to have this chip on your PSP are the included Solder, a 30 AWG Wire for the Power and Ground, a small pointed tool to scrape traces, Phillips ‘X’ head screwdriver plus flat screwdriver for scraping traces and helping with ribbon disassembly and assembly, and tweezers to help with installation.

This “very small and compact, but of solid design” modchip reveals its first imperfection: it is incompatible with motherboard type TA-082. Now if you are one of the lucky souls to have gotten a U.P. at this point and have a TA-079 and TA-081 motherboard versions (learn how to check if your PSP is compatible here), before getting that  needed to screw your PSP, read on to know the pros and cons of this chip you are about to install.

* WeÂ’re Gonna Need To Look At That Trace MUCH Closer

There were traces provided on the chip; unfortunately, the solder points were almost impossible to see with the naked eye. The traces being very fine and incredibly close together, there will really be a need for visual aid. So don’t be so hardheaded, get that microscope before doing anything with the PSP. Preparation erases all sense of panic.

* Things Can Only Get Better…Hopefully.

Getting good solid scrapes for A-P points on the board – a good trace cut plus well-prepared points – determines how successful your installation is going to be. Because every point on the trace is not parallel or touching any other trace cut, a short will not be created even if you roll over a solder. What will only happen is that the solder will only stick to the Copper Traces, making things very easy once the traces have been scraped to hit the right points.

The other six points may not be a piece of cake but they will definitely be easier. Two of them are in the back part, on the part that goes behind the main board of the FPC cable. The other four will be in front and will use a thicker wire – although a 28awg will work, try using 30awg…the thicker the wire, the better for the power and ground.

Says experienced technicians, soldering procedures will be easy. A tip though: since you will be dealing with very small and very delicate components on a circuit board covered in epoxy – which will melt – be sure not to leave your soldering iron tip in one place for too long to avoid melting through the circuit board…and I’m sure you don’t want that to happen, so take heed of this advice.

With the traces being scraped and the copper exposed, put some solder on the traces and on the tips of your pre-cut wires. Every point on  the A-P was basically lay, touch with the tip of the soldering iron for about one second, remove soldering iron and let the connection harden for two seconds. You might want to tape the FPC Cable to the connector to ensure it does not get separated when assembling.

If you need a visual cue on how to install the U.P. modchip, download the installation diagrams right here at QJ.

* Mission Completed – Or Is It?

Not quite. Because after installation, you will need to start testing, right? Well, we did just that: we pressed left on the D-Pad to go into programming mode, plugged the USB component to the FPC cable, and plugged the handheld into the PC. After making sure the metal part of the FPC is facing UP towards the USB connector (yes, you’d need to do that as well), the Driver Installation Procedure began. Following the user guide, we installed the drivers, opened the software, hit connect, and whaddya know – “Diagnostics Test Error. Check Installation.”

Apparently, after putting the PSP under the screwdriver again, the two points from I-P had come loose. Folding the FPC cable around the main board leads the FPC cable to provides leverage and use it to pry some wires off. This may be inevitable but it’s not exactly solution-less.

* The U.P. Needs Some Hot Stuff This Evening

If you also encounter the same problem as above, all you need to do is to Hot Glue the FPC cable down to the main board. Just solder the A-P and the thin wire in blocks to the board beside the black chips and not over the traces. Then route them to their corresponding traces to ensure that they don’t move even as there’s movement in the FPC cable.

After doing this, try to hit connect again. I bet this time, the screen ill show you those sweet words (at least for someone trying to flash the firmware), “Connected”. Flash your firmware.

* ItÂ’s All In An Hour and a Half’s Work!

Yes, an hour and a half – this, coming from experienced technicians. Of course, they were U.P. virgins. Non-experienced technicians may also take as much time installing the modchip, with properly scraping the trace taking up most of the time. But all will be worth the wait.

Just some pointers. You may not get any video or sound after pressing Left D-Pad. this is normal for programming mode. Also, make sure the battery is in its compartment while flashing as this removes a possible error during flash.

* The U.P Comes To Life In A Flash!

As U.P. works like an alternative flash that can run different or modified firmware, the default firmware and the U.P. firmware can both be booted on your PSP. Just hold down the “L1” button while turning on the PSP to load the default firmware on your and to access the U.P. firmware, just turn on the system by itself.

You can also flash the Undiluted Platinum from your PC. After putting your PSP on programming mode, hook it to a PC that has the U.P. flasher installed and follow instructions. You will have in your hands a black-screened and soundless PSP, but don’t fret…it’s normal.

From there, everything’s easy. Click “connect” then “write flash” to the selected NAND flash image. Wait. As patience is a virtue, your patience will have you getting your U.P. and PSP flashed.

Although this flashable in PC feature of U.P. is nice, Epsilon BIOS will really bring this modchip to life. Dare we hope it to be in the future releases? Oh well, for now, we can content ourselves by using the exploitable v1.5 PSP bios.

* Undiluted Platinum – A Dream Come True

Indeed, it is – for every PSP owners. The U.P. box does not tell a lie. Everything that the chip promised, it was able to deliver. Installation may be a pain in the neck, but once the modchip is installed, everything is a breeze – from flashing the chip to swapping between firmwares. So if you can deal with the hard installation, I say the Undiluted Platinum is indeed a good investment. When going through the installation, just remember: no pain, no gain.