CPS2 Multi Boot!!!

Finally this long awaited project has come to an end and all the CPS2 fans will be able to
play all the CPS2 games using just a single CPS2 Setup. It's been months of work and
testing so I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did building it.

In order to make this work, you'll need to have a suicided CPS2 set, which means both
A+B Boards. The B Board, which is where the roms are, needs to be opened and the kit
is installed inside.

You can open the B Board with a TORX T20 bit. There is also a full tutorial from Mitsurugi-w
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HExwzQlxrQ4

FIRST STEP
The first that you need to do is to remove all the socketed Eproms and mask roms that are
installed in the sockets. When you remove it, it will reveal some numbers. See picture below of
Eproms and mask roms to be removed (Red are the sockets, don't try to remove that :)
Make sure that you have a battery-less B Board. We won't support anyone asking for
information about how to kill a working PCB. Look a little bit around the internet, there
are plenty of suicided B boards available.

SECOND STEP

There is no need to modify the jumper configuration. Just leave them as they are.
To check the location of the Jumpers, please see here:
http://wiki.pcbotaku.com/wiki/CPS2_Eprom_and_Jumper_details

THIRD STEP

Now you need to look at your PAL3 chip. It's a 20 pin chip that is marked in the picture from
above in green (bottom center). You need to look at the revision of your board (center-right),
just below the yellow marked Graphic Roms. In this case, it's a 93646B-7, so revision 7.

This kit only works with PAL F+cable or PAL G.

If you have a revision 3 or 4 B Board, then you need to add an extra cable that goes from
pin9 of PAL3 to pin J17 from the Multi (If your using the F pal then it goes to pin 7).

Some boards have a jumper wire between the PAL3 and the connector CN3. If that's the
case, remove such a wire and leave only the wire that we explained above.

You can see below the location of pin J17 in the multi. It's located at position J17 in the
lower center part of the bigger board. See below:
If you have a B board revision 5 or above, you will be ok with a PAL G or a PAL F+Cable.
If you already have a PAL F, you need to lift pin 7 of PAL 3 so that doesn't go into the socket
and doesn't make contact and solder a jumper wire into the pin J17 that I explained for
revision 3 and 4.

See pictures here and below:

http://ikotsu.blogspot.com/2010/01/progear-capcom-cps2-cavecapcom-2001.html
FOURTH STEP

Once your PCB is romless and you have the right jumper and PAL configuration, you can
now proceed to install the two PCBs that you should have received with your package. The
two PCBs will end up joined together by a small 3 rd PCB.

IMPORTANT! When installing the PCBs you should do it gently, making sure first that
everything is properly aligned and then start pushing gently until all the pins are
inserted inside the ROM socket. It should look like this:

This is what you'll receive.

First, proceed to install the smaller PCB. Check that the PCB is placed as in the
picture below. First just lay it, to make sure all the pins are in the right place.

Now, start pushing them gently by each corner and also in the middle, look at the pins while
you push to make sure everything goes gently in the right place and you don't bend any pins.

It should look like this once installed:

Now you can proceed to installing the big PCB. First make sure that it has arrived
undamaged to you. It is important that no pins have been bent. Notice that only the top of the
pin should go inside. This is the part marked in red.

The first thing is to align the white connectors with the ones in the B Board like you can see
below. Again you need to carefully look at the pins while you insert them in the Eprom
socket to make sure that everything is aligned and the pins insert in the right place.
Now start pushing gently the PCB into the sockets making sure that all of them fall into
the right place.If unsure remove it and insert again. IT will look like this:

Your kit should now look like this:

Now you can proceed to insert the tiny PCB that joins these two PCBs together.

Make sure that the ЯU sign is facing upwards as it's shown in the picture below:

Your kit also includes an LCD screen module with 3 buttons to choose which game to load.
The buttons and the cable are connected to the bigger PCB's 14-pin socket and you can
take that cable outside the B Board case through the register opening in one of the sides.
You will be able to change games with the lid closed.

Now using left, right an OK buttons you can choose which game to load. You'll see a
progress bar and once the uploading process is complete, you'll see a message prompting
you to reset. Now power cycle the cabinet and your recently loaded game will boot.

IMPORTANT: Due to a last minute change, the lid will not close unless one of the legs of
the B Board lid is removed. I know we stated that it will close as it is, but we were afraid of
the consistency of the PCB with an opening there. We apologize for that.

If you want to close the lid, you just need to cut one of the supporting legs of the lid. As you
can see in the pictures below. You can use a knife like this one. Make sure you do the
cutting gently and without rush or you can break the lid.
So it will end up like this:
All units sold before October 2017, came with a firmware installed that provides auto reset
feature but no key writing yet. To make it work you needed to solder a cable between the SWD5
“dot” in the CPS2Multi which can be seen below and the pin B28 of CN1 connector OR pin A29
of CN2 connector OR pin #5 of CN9 connector, all of them located on the B Board.

All units sold after October 2017 come with a firmware installed that allows using original
untouched romsets. In order to use them, you need to solder 4 wires that will program your B
Board with the needed key in each case and will automatically reset the system. SWD5 is not
being used anymore.

We implemented the key writing process discovered and made available thanks to Edcross
from arcadehacker.blogspot.com/

Programming of the key is done with 4 additional signals called DATA, CLOCK, SETUP1 and
SETUP2.
IMPORTANT!!! Follow the instructions to connect CLOCK, DATA, SETUP2 and SETUP1 as
stated below and corresponding to your version of B Board only.

Note 1: Before you attempt to solder these wires, practice soldering on a scrap board
first. Use good quality solder and a temperature controlled iron at a reasonable
temperature (200-250C maximum). You WILL destroy the pads if you use too much
heat and it is extremely difficult to repair if you lose a pad.

Note 2: Tin your wires with solder and then solder the tinned wire to the pad. This will
give you the cleanest solder joint and has the lowest risk of losing a pad.

Pinout for board revisions 93646B-3 and 93646B-4

CN2 interface pins:

CLOCK → CN2 A31

DATA → CN2 A32
SETUP2 → CN2 A29
SETUP1 → CN2 A30

4 wires connected to CN2

Pinout for board revisions 93646B-5, 93646B-6, 93646B-7 and 97691A-3

CN9 interface pins:

CLOCK → CN9 #4
DATA → CN9 #2
SETUP2 → CN9 #5
SETUP1 → CN9 #3

The CN9 header is a 6 pin JST NH connector. Pins 1 and 6 are not used.

Here is a picture of the CN9 connector. Pin 1 is on the left, pin 6 on the right in this image.
Pay attention to your orientation and note that pins 1 and 6 are silkscreened.
Here is a short video explaining the procedure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqQjdd1Dg90

Once installed, it should look like in the pictures below:

4 wires connected to CN9. Notice that pin #1 and pin #6 are NC (not connected)

If for any reason you need to update the firmware on your CPS2 Multi from a previous version
to the latest one supporting key writing, take into account the following WARNING:

DO NOT INSTALL THE WIRES UNTIL AFTER UPDATING THE FW!!!! IF THE WIRES ARE
INSTALLED WHILE TRYING TO UPDATE THE FW YOU WILL CORRUPT THE BOOT-
LOADER ON THE KIT AND YOU WILL HAVE TO REWRITE IT USING A DISCOVERY!!!
 Running games

Thanks to the key writing feature, we can run original untouched roms. Each folder game
should have a file called "key" which has the key that corresponds to each game. The
firmware will copy the latest programmed key on the root of the microSD so don't delete files
like NOW_PLAY NOW_KEY, etc. please

For the suicided versions like the ones from Team Avalaunch, just place a 20bytes file full of
FFFFFFF in the game directory. Using this file: https://www.arcade-
projects.com/forums/index.php?attachment/6392-nobattery-zip/

Thanks to the key-writing feature, you can use this kit to resurrect dead CPS2 B Boards.
Simply install a battery and load any game that you want but put in file “key” the key that you
want the cartridge to be programmed with. Note: Do this if you plan to remove the kit and use
regular Mask ROMS.

Even better news is that you don’t need a battery for this to work, it will write the keys of the
latest selected game regardless of the fact if you have a Battery installed or not.

More information can be found here: https://www.arcade-projects.com/forums/index.php?

thread/4342-new-cps2-multigame-firmware-with-key-writing/&pageNo=1

Now you should prepare your MicroSD to work with your kit.

You need to get the latest romset from your usual source.

SmokeMonster has made a Roll-Up Pack. Google for it. I.e. “SmokeMonster CPS2 Roll Up”

Make sure you use a branded MicroSD, preferably Class 4 from Samsung, which work very
well. See below:
Most of the issues with the games not loading come from using a cheap card or not properly
formatted. We don't recommend to use a Mac to copy the files, but if you do, make sure you
run the program “dot_clean /Volumes/sdcardvolumenamehere” which gets rid of the hidden ._
folders MacOSX creates. After that eject the card “to be used with windows”.

If even after that you see a yellow or purple screen only after loading, you probably need to
reset the board properly. Make sure you make a short-circuit at position EXC5 where there
are 3 pins on the B Board, EXC5 is close to where the battery is but on the other side.
Obviously do this without powering the B-board.

I trust this kit will give you hours and hours of fun, so enjoy!

Darksoft and Mitsurugi-w

 TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS (THANSK TO xodaraP )

I have a solid colour screen (white)

Your kit is not reading the main program ROMs at all. Check the following:

- Broken pins on the multi kit

- Interconnect board not installed the correct way
- Broken sockets on your B board
- SD card is bad

I have a solid colour screen (blue, green etc)

Your kit is attempting to run encrypted code on a suicided board or is not able to read all main
program ROMs. Check the following:

- EXC5 may need to be temporarily shorted to remove keys that have not been flushed
- Broken pins on multi kit
- Interconnect board not installed the correct way
- Key writing wires are not installed correctly
- Correct firmware has not been installed onto multi kit
- Correct ROM pack is not installed on the SD card
- SD card is bad
- Mac only: You have not run dot_clean to remove the indexing files MacOS creates on all
storage devices (this is done by running the following command in a Terminal: dot_clean
/Volumes/SDCardnamehere )

I have a black screen

Your kit is not able to boot after flashing the encryption keys.

- Key writing wires are installed incorrectly

- Key writing wires have been shorted to another component on the multi kit
- Key writing wire pad has been damaged during installation
- Incorrect firmware is loaded onto the multi kit
- Interconnect board is not installed correctly

I have jailbars/sprite glitches etc.

- Kit has broken pins

- B board has damaged sockets
- Kit is not making good contact
- A and B board are not making good contact

Try reseating the A and B boards and using the clips to hold them together. If you have not
yet installed your B board into the shell, do this first. Often the A and B will make much better
contact with the shells and clips installed

I have sound issues

You have not installed the jumper wire for the F/G PAL (Rev 3/4) or F PAL (Rev 5/6/7) or you
have installed it incorrectly. Read the installation guide again and as above the leg MUST be
removed from the socket.

I have damaged pins/lost a pad/none of this is helping me

If none of these fixes has worked for you, please start a thread and detail exactly what you
have done so that we can try to work through it. Should your kit require repair, please visit
www.arcade-projects.com making sure you have set your location in your profile so we know
where you are to help you.

The following people can help if you have broken pins and may be able to help out with other
issues as well such as lost pads (depending on which pad has been lost) - do NOT PM these
people until you have made a thread and tried to fix the issue unless you have a broken pin or
lost a pad etc. which can't otherwise be fixed.

US/Canada - @Mitsurugi-w
Europe - @CPZ - SAVEYOURGAMES
Australia/NZ - @xodaraP

Note 1: Damaged pins from shipping will be provided and/or replaced for free. If pins
are damaged during installation there will be a small fee for replacement

Note 2: Key writing wires are soldered at your own risk. It is recommended to only be
completed by users confident with a soldering iron. As such, if you damage the board
or destroy a pad as a result your board may not be able to be repaired. If it is
repairable, the repair will be charged. This will also void your warranty.