USB MemoryCard replacement for PSX

dangiu · May 20, 2022

I just finished watching the video Anthony did about reading cartriges from old consoles. Figured I posted this here since it's kinda a similar concept.

Basically I recently created a Memory Card replacement for PSX using a Raspberry Pi Pico.

Here I'm, posting a small guide on how to assemble the device and use it. For more in-depth information visit the compete github repository: https://github.com/dangiu/PicoMemcard

Components required

Raspberry Pi Pico (~5$)
One of:
- Memory card (original or a clone or even broken... Basically everything works, clone Memory cards can be found on AliExpress for less than 2$)
- Controller cable (the connector that you plug into the PSX)
- Custom PicoMemcard PCB (not yet available... I'm working on It. I Will post some pictures as soon as I receive the first prototype)

The total cost of the whole project is less than what would cost an original Memory card!

Assembly

Assembling the device is quite easy. The schematic below shows what pins of the Pico need to be connected when using a Memory card.

You need to cut a grove deep enough to disconnect the original memory controller (dashed red line). Than you can scrape away the protective film on top of the traces and solder the wires onto them (yellow squares).

Finally cut a hole at the bottom in order to feed the wires out (dashed red area).

If you are using the controller cord the connections are slightly different, you can find the controller pinout here. If you have any problems let me know.

Installing PicoMemcard

To install PicoMemcard on the raspberry simply plug it in via a micro USB cable while pressing the "BOOTSEL" button, than drag and drop the latest release of PicoMemcard.

Uploading an image

To upload/download a memory card image simply plug in PicoMemcard into your pc and copy to/from the PicoMC disk. The memory card image must be exactly 128KB in size (131072 bytes, the exact size of an original memory card) and must be named exactly "MEMCARD.MCR".

Also remember to perform safe-ejection after uploading a new memory card image otherwise the data will not be processed correctly.

I've tested it in a few games and it seems to work fine. It's also compatible with FreePSXBoot so you can play homebrews and backup copies of your games (e.g. if you scratched your oriignal copy).

If you try it out let me know!

In my spare time I'm already working on a custom PCB and on adding support for a micro SD card to allow for additional memory card images. Let me know if this is something that you would be interested in.

Demo