[Tutorial] Pandora's Battery w/ a Switch

[brentbizzle]

Description: Limited to only 1 battery but want to be able to have a Pandora set up on hand? Well, with this hard mod you can build a switch using a jumper to switch from a regular battery to a Pandora battery.

Warning
This involves not only opening your battery, but modifying it as well.
Neither I nor PSPbrew will be held responsible for anything that happens while following this tutorial.
Use at your own risk!

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(All images are clickable)

Supplies: (other than your battery)

30 awg wire
Male strip pin header
Jumper

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Step 1:

Prepare your switch. Take the pin strip and solder a wire to the short side of 2 pins. The wire doesn't have to be very long. Mine were in the ballpark of 3-4 inches. As I was doing this mod, the solder wouldn't hold the wires on if you pulled too hard, so I coated the connection with hot glue to help keep the connection secure. Also might want to wrap some electrical tape around the package below the pins to prevent anything from accidentally grounding.

Keep in mind the thickness of the header. If you use hot glue, make sure that the overall width of the switch remains unchanged or you won't have room to fit it in the battery.

Step 2:
Open the battery. Run something along the seam such as a butter knife to split the two halves. Don't use anything too sharp or you risk cutting into the battery cell inside. I used my finger nail to split most of it...

Step 3:
With the battery open you can either continue the mod with the battery as is, or go the safe way and desolder the cell before you continue. I didn't desolder the cell and was fine, but your millage may vary.

Step 4:

Identify the points and solder the other side of the wires to the 2 points on the battery's circuit board. You're soldering to the right side of both R21 and C06. After, resolder the cell to the board.

Step 5:

Cut a small hole in the case so you can access the pins when the battery is closed. With the "3.6v" facing up, and the warning label down, the hole should go on the right side toward the bottom.

Step 6:

Secure the header to the bottom of the battery. The most room is on the right side of the battery. I suggest using just a small dab of hot glue to keep the header in position while you put the assembly back in the case and make sure it's lined up with the hole.

Step 7:
Finish securing the battery and package her up. I used electrical tape on the bottom and sides to keep the halves together. You can use super glue as well.


Test the battery first without the jumper. Make sure your psp works as normal.
Testing the pandora function does not require the memory stick. As soon and you put the battery in the green power light should come on.

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Here is a video of my battery in action. It's a little weird since I'm holding the camera in one hand and messing with the psp in the other.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ik7SocRvJLU

Thanks to mootoo at acidmods for the original idea.

you do know i posted a very similar tutorial... i like yours better good bye old one.
and a litle tip... soldering r21 is a pain is the but. take your time and make sure you have a good soldering iron.

[brentbizzle]

The only other tutorial I saw was the one copied from acidmods, so I wanted to make one for pspbrew, as well as post more pictures for visual learners.

With my mod there was actually a little extra room, so I can store the jumper in the battery by having it on one pin and not connecting the 2.
Now if I could store the memory card somewhere I could have the power of Pandora's no matter where I am, haha.

you could super glue a little plastic pouch on the battery for you ms

[brentbizzle]

Well, if more comes out on the internal hard drive mod and it's easy enough to do, and there's enough room, maybe I can stick an MS slot on the inside of the UMD door.

Any idea what shorting R21 and C06 is doing in the circuit ?
How is this different than the procedure where you lift one leg on the chip as seen in other threads?

[brentbizzle]

Any idea what shorting R21 and C06 is doing in the circuit ?
How is this different than the procedure where you lift one leg on the chip as seen in other threads?

I don't know exactly what's going on, but i think lifting the pin stops power from reaching the chip on the board. Maybe this essentially does the same thing, but the thing is doing it this way allows you to keep regular functionality but have the power of Pandoras by simply placing a jumper on the pins. No more opening the battery.

Nice job Brent, i'll add this to the master guide.

[DarkPacMan77]

LOL, just as I was reading over this tutorial, staxx comes along and adds it lol. That's cool though. 1.) thanks for the tutorial, Brent. And 2.) thanks for adding it to the master list staxx

-DarkPacMan77-

Now that I have created the battery with the switch what will I require on the memory stick to debrick the psp. There are tutorials that tell how to creat the pandoras battery with software. With these tutorials I am not sure what I will require since I have a battery that is using the hardware to do it.

[brentbizzle]

There's no difference between this battery and a battery created using a psp.

Search for TOTALNewbieasyInstaller and you can create the memory stick without a psp with a custom firmware.

There's no difference between this battery and a battery created using a psp.

Search for TOTALNewbieasyInstaller and you can create the memory stick without a psp with a custom firmware.

A good part of these procedures is spent on the creating of the pandoras battery. When you do the hardware mod to the battery this is not required. I am having a hard time seperating what I should do since the battery software mod is not required.
In other words if I boot the psp with this hardware modded battery what will I require on the memory stick?

[brentbizzle]

Dude... search for and download the installer. You are talking to someone who not only wrote the tutorial you just used, but has also used various methods to downgrade my fat psp and my slim psp.

The Total Newbie Installer is the ONLY way currently to create the memory stick without another psp on custom firmware. Yes, it includes the application to create the battery, but the funny thing about applications is you have to click on it to run it. Want to skip the step of creating a battery? Then don't USE the battery creating application!

Or, since you seem to know so much about how to do this, you can just not follow my advice

Dude... search for and download the installer. You are talking to someone who not only wrote the tutorial you just used, but has also used various methods to downgrade my fat psp and my slim psp.

The Total Newbie Installer is the ONLY way currently to create the memory stick without another psp on custom firmware. Yes, it includes the application to create the battery, but the funny thing about applications is you have to click on it to run it. Want to skip the step of creating a battery? Then don't USE the battery creating application!

Or, since you seem to know so much about how to do this, you can just not follow my advice

I have another psp running custom firmware. Just currious what are the only files I need to put on the memory stick to unbrick my other psp after booting with the hard modded battery.

[brentbizzle]

If you run the installer then you will have 2 folders used to create the battery, pandora_battery and pandora_battery%.

You need everything except these folders.