This is how to mod a normal battery into a Pandora's Battery, and install 3.71 M33-2 without the need for a homebrew PSP. You still have to obtain the Magic Memory Stick files from somewhere (Hint: Google, I'm sure some members will be willing to provide.) Remember, discussion of where to find said files is strictly prohibited.
By following any information or advice in this thread, you accept any and all responsibility for any damage which may happen, to your PSP, battery, and (if you choose the soldering method) limbs. Yes, that's right, limbs.
Those who choose to solder the battery pack, if you fail to remove the Li-Ion cell, and apply heat for too long, the battery pack will explode.You have been warned.
Making the battery.STEP 1:
The first thing you need to do is obviously crack open the battery. Surprisingly, the battery isn't very hard to get in to. Just use a guitar pick or something similar to slide in through an edge and slide around the perimeter of the battery to separate the two halves.
STEP 2:
Next, we need to locate a certain chip. The chip has the model number S93C56 printed on it. We are going to need to desolder (or cut) pin 5 and lift it off of the board. Here is a magnified view of the board, which shows where the chip is and which pin needs to be lifted or cut.
At this point, choose whether to solder, or cut your pin. Soldering should only be attempted with the ideal tools, and high soldering experience. Cutting the pin means the battery can never be returned to it's Non-Pandora state.
If you choose to cut, simply cleanly sever pin 5, and go to Step 4.STEP 3:
If you are not confident in your soldering skills, have a less than steady hand or have a larger-than-optimal sized tip, please desolder the cell pack from the battery first. If you make contact between pins 5 and 6 then you will short ground to +3.6VDC! Not good! When desoldering the cell, only keep the iron on long enough to melt the solder. If you can, use a higher wattage iron so that the tip will be hotter, but you won't transfer as much heat to the cell pack. Remember that heat + Li-Ion battery = large explosion (t3h sux0r5, unless you get in on video. Seriously though, this operation is not for the faint hearted, and should definitely not be your first soldering experience. I recommend trying your hand on lifting the pins on an N64 CPU chip. Surely you have a couple killed N64 mobos laying around.
Now is actually desoldering the pin. There are a few ways you could do this, but I think my method is the best because its less likely to damage components near by. Use an Xacto knife with a sharp tip and try to put it underneath the pin. Get somebody to hold a soldering iron (WITH A VERY FINE CONICAL TIP!) on the pin. When the solder melts you can pop the pin up with the knife. Be sure not to hold the iron on the board too long to avoid the lithium battery from getting too hot and exploding.
Note: You can convert it back to a fully functional Non-Pandora by resoldering pin 5.
STEP 4:
Finally, close the battery's casing. Use some Krazy Glue to keep it closed, or just use electrical tape around the edges. I don't actually recommend the electrical tape as it makes the battery very snug in the compartment and it takes a bit of force to get it out. You can use the battery just like a regular Pandora's battery. As for getting the Memory Stick files, I can tell you that they are out there and you can find them after a bit of Googling. However, I can't tell you exactly where to find them as they contain copyrighted Sony code, and sharing them is illegal.
How does this work?
The pin that we just lifted was actually the ground pin of the EEPROM. Removing this pin effectively shuts off the EEPROM. When the microcontroller inside the battery tries to read the EEPROM, it will think the EEPROM contains all 1s (in binary). This is because of the pull-up resistors on the data lines. So the microcontroller returns a serial number of 0xFFFFFFFF to the PSP, which then goes into service mode.
Installing the kernel, Despertar del Cementario V3, and 3.71 M33-2.
Note: For this, you need Windows XP, and a Memory Stick Pro Duo with a capacity of 256 MB or more. Do not ask me how to do it with a smaller memory stick, because I will not guide someone through hex editing a disk...
First, download:
-
Pandora's GUI v1.5 -
Sony's official 3.71 Update -
The illegal-to-distribute Despetar del Cementario V3 files.Step 1. When you receive the illegal files, you should have two folders: 'kd' and 'registry', and one file called 'msipl.bin'. If so, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2. Install Pandora's GUI v1.5, open it, and plug in your PSP. In the PSP Location frame, locate your PSPs drive letter, if it has not done so by itself. Then, click the button in 'Step 1: Formatting' to format and partition your Memory Stick.
Step 3. Copy the folders 'kd' and 'registry', and the files 'msipl.bin' and 'EBOOT.PBP' (The 3.71 Firmware Update you downloaded) to the root of your Memory Stick, which is immediately after you double click the Removable Disk icon in My Computer, where you see the folder 'PSP'. Rename 'EBOOT.PBP' to '371.PBP'. If it's name just appears as 'EBOOT' to begin with, just rename it to '371'.
Step 4. In Pandora's GUI v1.5, under 'Step 4: Removing the contents', click the Write IPL button.
Step 5. When all this is done, insert into the PSP (in this order) your memory stick, then the battery. The PSP will automatically turn on. Press [] (Square) to create a backup dump of your PSPs internal memory (it will appear on your memory stick as a file named 'nand-dump.bin'). After 3-5 minutes, the PSP will switch itself off.
Step 6. Flick the power switch up again, and this time press X (Cross) to install 3.71 M33-2. When this process is done, take the battery out of the PSP, and insert a normal battery, or the AC Adapter, and power on your PSP. Under System Information, it should now say 3.71 M33-2.
Your Memory Stick can still be used as a normal one, and will trigger 'service mode' whenever used in conjunction with a Pandora's Battery.
PM me if you have any questions unanswered in this thread, but make sure you read through a few times to be sure.