Update: A picture tutorial is now available here.

A quick story resulting in a quick hack job… LordLeXaT’s PSP battery broke, and with no money to buy a new one, he turned to his MacGyver box set to determine the best possible route… And the result:

What you see above is a standard Nokia battery (BL-5C) pack used with the original PSP battery control board. So now that all is said and done, LordLeXaT has a longer lasting battery than most of you, or so he says…

“The battery is lighter and has nearly 150% lifetime of the original 1800mAh PSP battery, and by the way, the text of the Nokia battery reads 1020mAh.”

We don’t have a tutorial for you, but for the most part, it seems straightforward. And please, exercise caution should you attempt this battery mod yourself.

Team C+D shocked the PSP world when they released the first tools to ultimately revive or downgrade any PSP. While many similar Pandora software solutions have been developed; Quake of SubZero DeZigns takes us back to where it all started—wrapping a GUI around Team C+D’s command line utilities.

Download:
Pandora CMD
Firmware Updates (1.50, 3.71, 3.80)
Pandora CMD Torrent (includes source, fw updates, etc…)

- source: trading-post.sytes.net

Word that a new PSP Slim motherboard preventing the creation of a Pandora’s battery is among us — the TA-085 v2. That’s not to say an existing Pandora battery won’t work — it still should.

Sony has apparently blocked access to the battery’s eeprom; meaning our [existing] software methods are rendered ineffective. The workaround: use a friend’s PSP or go the hardware route.

- source: psp-ita.com

Your virtual lifeguard is back on duty. Breathe life into your seemingly dead Fat or Slim PSP with Dark_AleX’s own CPR device — Despertar Cementerio. As promised — the Pandora battery method for installing custom firmware 3.80 M33.

Installation, usage, and other concerns are addressed in the readme. I strongly encourage you read that over prior to flashing. You will require the Sony 1.50, 3.40, and 3.80 update EBOOTs. Get those below. As well, if you haven’t already, create a Pandora battery and magic memory stick. Tutorials available in our forums — here, and here, even here. Thanks Demonchild.

Despertar Cementerio v4 changes:

• Installer now checks if user has a custom theme installed, and ask him to disable it before running the program.
• The PSN DRM file in flash2 (act.dat) is now backuped during ms creation and restored in the unbrick.
• Flash2 is now formatted too.
• Now installs 3.80 M33-5 instead of 3.71 M33-3.

Download:
Despertar Cementerio v4
Sony PSP Update EBOOTs

- source: dark-alex.org

Thanks for the heads up, Fadil

Another from developer Weltall… Charge Control is an extremely simple plugin written for your convenience. It’s responsible for two functions: disabling & re-enabling the PSP battery charge.

When disabled and using the AC adaptor, your PSP will not charge the battery — for whatever reason you may have. The charging status will remain set until the PSP is powered off completely.

Disable: L TRIGGER + R TRIGGER + VOL down
Enable: L TRIGGER + R TRIGGER + VOL up

Features:

• [ALL] First release
• [ALL] Builds for 3.7x and other firmwares
• [ALL] Works at low priority and combinations are checked one time every second
• [ALL] It’s possible to enable and disable battery charging immediately

Download: Charge Control 0.1.0

- Donate to Weltall

The following “poor man’s” hardware guide to creating a Pandora Battery is aimed towards the non-handy man type. With that said you may potentially render your battery completely useless or cause another unforeseen disaster. Proceed with caution: (Thanks to James L for the guide.)

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the essential tools, and the soldering iron didn’t seem to want to work (possibly because it had solder on it). So I found a small way around using the “essential tools”. All you need is something that’s small enough to fit under the pin, a cutting utensil, and optionally, tape. Non-conductive tape, so NO DUCT TAPE!

Just pry open the battery by pinching the edges (with your teeth or something to that effect).

Once inside, this is optional, but I recommend it. Cut one of the batteries terminals, preferably, the one with a solid connection cable. One is solid, one is a flexible metal. Cutting the flexible one is fine, but it cause the battery to short, a problem I’m currently facing, every once in awhile, causing restarts. I’m guessing it’s because of the flexible material moving around inside the battery when the PSP is moved. Make sure to bend the metal GENTLY so that they cannot touch while you proceed.

Then, using your pry tool, make sure to get it just under the right pin, as seen in the diagrams. Preferably, get something that can wedge diagonally in the pin, then twist it.

Tape the battery terminal back together if you cut it, once you’ve safely removed the pin.

Put the battery back together. Don’t worry, it won’t snap together, thus, more tape! Wrap tape, and yes, you CAN you duct tape here, around the battery to hold it together. Scotch tape is recommended, because it’s not bulky, so it doesn’t prevent the battery from going in smoothly.

And that’s all there is to it. I was going to attempt to make a switchable service battery (even though this is possible VIA software, but it would have been cool to have), but the pin broke COMPLETELY off. Oh well.

The mentioned diagrams can be viewed here.

Looking for a simple software solution to create a Pandora/Service Battery and the whole shebang? Read this guide courtesy of Demonchild.

“Pandoraize” your PSP Phat and/or Slim battery without any software related hacks; just take a close look at the diagrams provided by godzivan. If you have a steady hand, it only requires the soldering of one wire. Upon success, create your magic memory stick!

Thanks for sharing MoBillyAla.

psp phat battery

psp slim battery

- source: eurasia.nu

Fanjita of Team Noobz has discovered Sony’s official PSP-110 battery, that of the original fat PSP, can no longer be converted to Pandora. After receiving a new battery from Amazon, it would seem numerous errors occur when using the battery creator, or even when attempting to flash an EEPROM image from an older Sony battery. Drats!

Fanjita says…

It wouldn’t be surprising for Sony to have patched their batteries so that they’re Pandora-proof. If this is true, then it still shouldn’t be a big problem – I’d recommend buying a new, large capacity battery to use as a regular battery, and using the original battery that came with your PSP for Pandora. And of course, you can always use Booster’s multi-IPL loader to use your Pandora battery as your primary battery, if you want. Just don’t go buying new Sony batteries for use with Pandora.

- source: noobz.eu

Every so often we enjoy showcasing pimped out PSPs. Here we have SonicBuddha’s PlayStation Portable, modded by none other than F00 f00. And I’ll be your host, GregCube.

The pimp factor:

1. clear case
2. USB charging
3. Dual nubs
4. Dual audio lighting chips (stereo)
5. PIC controlled additional lighting (press note to activate)
6. 14 leds (total)
7. Custom made UMD door jewel
8. Wifi/mem/power indicator leds switched for orange/amber

Stay tuned! On the next episode of “Pimp My PSP” — F00 f00 builds a PSP missile guidance targeting system using Google Earth!

- source: acidmods.com

AcidMod’s “The F00″ has directed my attention towards Virtual PSP Modder. Actually, that’s a small lie, previously Cyberpyrot has sent us beta versions to test; nonetheless, I was unaware they made mention of it on their site… Until now — good lookin’ out F00 f00!

Virtual PSP Modder is currently a work-in-progress, meaning no public release yet. The app runs on Windows allowing you to virtually mod your PSP. VPM, for short, provides a visual representation of what the PSP will look like, should you actually decide to put one or more of these mods into practice. Trigger LEDs, preview face plates, buttons, you name it.

When a public version is made available, it’s a safe bet you’ll find it here. In the meantime, follow the source link for more detail and additional screen shots.

- source: acidmods.com