TFT Internal Connections?

[DigitalFoundry]

Has any one opened up their machine or seen the PCB of the PSP?
Does any one know how the TFT screen is interfaced to the main board?

Essentially, I'm looking to intercept that signal and capture it. I have a Matrox Meteor II multichannel framegrabber which can handle pretty much any kind of resolution and scan rate right up to 480p.

Would any one care to speculate on the refresh rate that PSP uses? I'm looking at Ridge Racer and feel fairly sure that it's updating at 30fps.

The simple solution to my problem would be to get a devkit from Sony as it has TV outputs on it but the issues here are manifold. Firstly, Sony barely have any of them, secondly they run games off DVD - nobody (and I mean nobody) is allowed access to a UMD development device... so far as I know. And finally, I'm not important enough :D

Any ideas?

On an unrelated note, I notice that on the PSP interface, there's a "game" option under the memory stick menu. I can't believe that Sony would allow even the potential for a user-executable to be run off the memory stick. Any comments?

[ooPo]

Its probably a digital connection right to the screen, so capturing it would be a lot different than what you're thinking.

As for the game option, there's already a program that will run from there - the 'fake' update file. When you download a network update it will put it in /PSP/GAME/UPDATE/EBOOT.PBP and will leave it there for you to run at any time.

[DigitalFoundry]

I would imagine whether it is analogue or digital is all going to be down to the cost of the internals - in terms of visual quality, the human eye wouldn't be sensitive enough to tell the difference when the screen is that small. I guess I'm going to have to open mine up and take a look at it.

I know that Lik-Sang had some photos of the machine opened up, but I was wondering if any one had any higher resolution shots.

[Guest]

Whether its analog or digital, one thing you must understand is that this is direct LCD interface cable/connection. This is NOT the same thing as a VGA monitor cable connection (CRT, LCD, or otherwise).

The closer analogy is, consider a normal LCD monitor. The VGA (or DVI) cable connects your computer to the LCD monitor unit. The circuitry inside your LCD monitor must convert the analog or digital VGA signals into a signal that directly drives the the panel itself. This is a completely different type of signal than any monitor or av signal you have ever worked with. So if you open up a normal LCD monitor, you will also see this type of connection, and its not going to be something you personally can do anything with.

The same will be true for the monitor inside the PSP, except that the PSP mainboard will drive the TFT directly without using any vga signals. There is no need to go through the trouble of generating a VGA or AV signal of any type normally used for external monitors when your panel sits right above the mainboard.

Although, some mini-itx mainboards from Via have the ability to drive digital LCD panels directly from a connection on their mainboard, but that is outtput only. There are no inputs to the mainboard, but its a host-to-display path only, no one expects to capture this signal.

[DigitalFoundry]

Yes this picture shows the internals and it looks like a dedicated connection of the type I've never seen before, although the ribbon cable looks easily removable from the main board: http://forum.lik-sang.com/other/psp-rel ... ease57.jpg

Just had word from a developer who is expecting a dev kit to arrive sometime in the next couple of months. What interests me is that the dev kit pictured posted on this forum seems to show a PSP connected to the box rather than having a fully integrated unit. So I'm looking forward to snooping around it a little.

Perhaps there are some connections on the mainboard designed for TV output, maybe in preparation for a TV-out peripheral connected via USB 2.0. Or something.

[Guest]

I think earlier discussion confirmed that external box emulates a UMD.

Anyhow, the standard nowadays for embedded devices with TFT panels is to use a LVDS transmitter on the mainboard through a cable to the TFT where a LVDS receiver chip translates the signals to directly drive the TFT.

Notice on the ribbon is a big thick dark square embedded square. I am speculating this is a LVDS receiver.

One could hook a LVDS-DVI transceiver module in its place to display on a computer monitor, theoretically.

But this is all speculation.

I am more interested if there are any untapped dedicated NTSC outputs, or even a 1394 based video out which is common now for the newest multimedia chipsets.

[DigitalFoundry]

I will look into that gorim, thanks for the heads-up. In terms of the NTSC output, and referring again to the devkit picture, one wonders if those cables emanating from the PSP also drives a TV output.

My developer contact seems adamant that the devkit has a TV output and since the PSP is attached to the devkit unit, it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that such an output is being utilised there although I assume it's more logical to assume that the devkit is talking directly to PSP's memory.

It seems that the PSP uses a Sharp K3146 LCD screen - I'm presuming that this will be an off-the-shelf screen with a standard input, especially if it is interchangeable with the alleged Samsung screen that PSP will be manufactured with in future. A standard connection would infer that in theory one would be able to interface it with an LVDS capture card, like this, perhaps: http://www.visionelements.co.uk/framegr ... -lvds.html

For those interested, Googling "Sharp K3146" brings up this very interesting dissection of the PSP which seems to be a more comprehensive version of the Lik-Sang dissemblage feature: http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... en%26lr%3D - be warned though, it takes a long time to download all the images.

[Rikai]

I thought i'd just point this link out as well, as it seems to be the same, but much more dialup friendly...

I find it strange that these are the only refrences ANYWHERE to the lcd though... wouldnt you think that there'd be a lace to buy these lcd's as replacment parts? they do so with every other lcd i've ever seen...

[Cogboy]

I suppose that these screens are a little bit more 'unique', i mean they even bore a little bit out of the side to give the square button room to move.

[cj]

Ill leave it at this:

Input/Output:
USB connector (1)
Memory Stick® Duo slot (1)
Controller port (1)
VGA connector (1)
(I deleted the rest, gotsa be safe)

But it has a VGA connector, mostlikely VGA out = should be able to hook up to a TV!

[DigitalFoundry]

That's odd - there was a post on this thread yesterday showing the internal connections. It appears to have disappeared!! Any idea where it's gone? It was a link to a very big of the mainboard.

cj - the internal connection didn't look much like VGA to me... where did you get the info and using the pics shown earlier in the thread can you locate the port/connections? Or are you referring to the DevKit?

[Paulo]

The simple solution to my problem would be to get a devkit from Sony as it has TV outputs on it but the issues here are manifold. Firstly, Sony barely have any of them, secondly they run games off DVD - nobody (and I mean nobody) is allowed access to a UMD development device... so far as I know. And finally, I'm not important enough :D

Erm the PSP dev kit has a UMD slot so u can run UMD games on it. However only retail releases. Also as far as i know it doesnt run games from DVD.

My developer contact seems adamant that the devkit has a TV output and since the PSP is attached to the devkit unit, it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that such an output is being utilised there although I assume it's more logical to assume that the devkit is talking directly to PSP's memory.

There is no need to have a psp attached to the dev kit. (I actually think its not possible to attach one. Im going to put up a couple of e-mails from someone i know who is making a psp game.)

Paulo

EDIT: Here are the e-mails not sure if its of any interest to you people...

"So the devkit - yep it's a standalone box, connects via the network to a PC and that's how you get software onto it. No need for UMD burning (we don't have one)"

"Q: How different are the dev psp units to the release ones? Also how do you test your code on the psp if you cant run them from umds...?

A: Devkits change over time - our current ones are pretty identical to the final hardware. We test the games by dumping data from the PC down to the devkit - it reads everything over the network."

"Q: Umm interesting. How many different dev kits are there? We have this picture of one...

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/images/psp_dev_kit.jpg

A: Yup that's a PS2 TOOL and a PSP dev kit - not the final final one, but not the earliest one either - they get revised over time.

Look closer at the picture - the big square on the front of the PSP kit has UMD written on it - that's the door that opens allowing you to slide one in from the top. Same mechanism as the final device..."

Thats all i asked him really. I can ask him anything else if you really want to know but please bundle all your questions together! Dont wanna keep bugging him about the dev kits!

[cj]

Umm those connections are from the devkit yeah, got the info from somewhere, being nice really didnt wanna share it, theres more, but the basic stuff..ill see what i can do later.

Paulo, i THINK you can hook a PSP up as a controller (as theres a controoler port) , and theres 1 picture (i think its posted in the forum somewhere which shows it hooked up via what looks like the USB port on the top w/ like a clamp going into those 2 holes next to the USB port

Wish i had a devkit to see, but im SOL :/

[Mulder99]

I am NOVICE. Can anyone help me to use and controlling PSP screen / Find the PINOUTS and control it via PC . Any suggestions are acceptable

!!!!!! I will apreciate any HELP !!!!!

[CyberBill]

You cannot hook up a standard retail PSP to the devkit.

The devkit-psp looks just like a retail PSP except with no Memory stick slot (which is on the devkit itself) and no battery compartment (as its always connected to the devkit).

The 'controller' port is connected from the devkit to the devkit-psp (what they refer to as a controller) but you cant hook a retail up to it, I mean.. its got a thick black cable with a proprietary connector on it and I dont see any retail PSPs with that. :P It also has a USB pass-through port so you can use the USB connector on top of the devkit-psp.

The devkit does indeed have a VGA output, although I have never seen it in action.

I'll also point out that I saw on some PSP website somewhere a device "PSP2TV" or something like that, that added RCA cable connectors to the PSP. I'm not sure how the device works, but apparantly you have to take the PSP apart and put some fatty connector on it. I wasnt sure if it was BS or not. It could of very well been running on a devkit with the cables hooked up to look like something its not.

[urchin]

I've seen the devkit VGA in action at GDCE, during a talk about the development of Wipeout Pure. At the end of the talk, they demoed game sharing with 3 members of the audience. All the PSPs were devkits and one of them was hooked up to an LCD projector. It was very cool seeing Wiipeout on such a large screen.

[Musiker]

I realise that its not exactly wht youre looking for, but anyways:

If you look on http://www.keycard.dk under:
http://www.keycard.dk/shop/sony_psp/spa ... sp_en.html
you can buy a replacement LCD Unit..

[Alex Atkin UK]

There doesnt seem to be much going on under that black tape but hopefully this will be some help without having to risk trashing your own screen to see it (mines already cracked).



The cable on the left is not important, it just provides power to the LEDs on the backlight and you can just about see, its actually not connected to this circuit but goes direct to the LED array.