Tag Archives: ps4

PS4 Playing NES Cartridges

Update March 2015

This project won 2nd place in this Reddit contest about functional 3D printed projects. Thank you very much to ToyBuilder Labs for being the sponsor.

Questions and Answers

  • Why not use a bigger 3.5″ drive? They can hold much more and cost much less.
    • I can edit the design anytime I want and 3D print it anytime I want, so I will definitely consider it.
    • But I had a few spare 2.5″ drives laying around.
    • The fake cartridge is a funny idea so I did it for the LULz! (and protects the drives)
    • Please note: 3.5″ drives will require an external 12 volt power supply, while 2.5″ drives only require the 5 volts from the motherboard.
  • What parts are needed?
    • #4-40 thread 0.25″ long countersunk machine screws, for holding the hard drives inside the cartridges
    • #4-40 thread 0.5″ long countersunk machine screws, for holding the dock to the cover
    • 0.5″ long nails to hold the SATA connector in place
    • something like this SATA extender, but note that this isn’t the exact same one I used, so you should measure it yourself and edit my files before printing my files
  • How did you connect the cable to the motherboard?
    • This was actually pretty hard, I ended up gluing a popsicle stick to the connector first, and then used the stick to poke the connector inside and into the motherboard’s connector.
    • This can be improved by some sort of 3D printed dummy drive, but I got tired and wanted to wrap the project up.
  • In the picture of the Ultimaker, why do the plastic look a bit rough?
    • Those are failed prints, I only used them for the picture, specifically because the roughness emphasizes the fact that they are 3D printed.
    • The final good prints are so good that you cannot tell that they are actually 3D printed. The Ultimaker is very high quality.
  • Why didn’t you launch the game?
    • I didn’t connect the system to my network, so the PS4 didn’t let me launch them, since they are all digitally downloaded and thus require authorization first
    • Don’t worry, they all work once connected to the internet.
  • I’ve seen something similar before…
    • Adding a hard drive to the PS4 using SATA extensions isn’t a new idea at all, somebody already added 6 TB to it, using a 3.5″ drive, but he used a external enclosure and a external 12 volt power supply.
    • I went to CES2015 and saw Nyko’s Data Bank. I want to make it clear that I started my design a long time before Christmas, and was not inspired or influenced by Nyko
  • Ask me a question, if it is a popular question, I will answer it here.

You want files? Click Here. I hosted the files on YouMagine, and I provided the STEP file format, which you should be able to open with most 3D modeling software. So if you want to change the design for 3.5″ drives, or chose another cartridge shape, you can!

NOTE: the dimensions of the fake NES cartridge I used are not the same dimensions as genuine NES cartridges, so genuine cartridges will not fit in this project, and the fake cartridges will not fit inside a genuine NES deck.

PS4 Laser Cut Stand

Summer is coming so I was worried about cooling the PS4. This stand lifts the PS4 off the desk a bit to give it more airflow. I had this cut by Ponoko, using 9mm thick clear acrylic. If you want to make your own, click here to download the EPS file, follow Ponoko’s instructions.

Another way is to 3D print them using black ABS, but I don’t have a 3D printer. The acrylic is left over from another project, hence why I used it.

Keyboard and Mouse for PlayStation 4 Games (second prototype)

Why did you do this?

I like playing shooter games on PC but my laptop is too weak to play them. Game consoles do not support USB keyboards and USB mouse, they only support gamepads. Gamepad controls are not suitable for shooter games, using a keyboard and mouse is much more comfortable for gameplay.

How does it work?

I designed a circuit that features a microcontroller and USB hub. The keyboard and mouse plugs into the USB hub, and then the microcontroller takes the data from the keyboard and mouse, translates them to the data format used by the PlayStation 4. It does the translation in a way as though the mouse was the right thumbstick, and the keys are mapped to buttons (the WASD keys are mapped to the left thumbstick).








If you want to buy one from me, you can’t, I don’t want to sell anything. If you want to buy something similar from somebody else, try the XIM4 (my top choice), CronusMAX, Venom X, etc. (if there’s another product you would like to see on this list, give me one to try out first, and I’ll add it if it works)

Development Story

Latest News – July 20 2014

I wanted to share this story because I am very happy that I finally managed to get this far! Anybody who is attempting this and thought it was impossible to do can now breath a sigh of relief because it definitely can be done.

I have already accomplished a similar project that worked with a PS3 (UsbXlater), something that connected to the PS3 via USB that translated keyboard and mouse data format to gamepad data format.

Once the PS4 launched, I reversed engineered the USB protocol used by the DualShock, and then attempted the same technique. But… Continue reading

UsbXlater, DualShock 4, PlayStation 4, Weekly Report Dec 15, 2013

I haven’t worked on the firmware for the UsbXlater for a while. This is because I really want it to work on the PlayStation 4 by spoofing the DualShock 4, but after some heavy investigation. It seems like this is impossible (in the sense of spoofing).

On the DualShock 4 circuitry, I have recently found the UART (aka serial port) pins for the Bluetooth module’s HCI (host controller interface). I used my logic analyzer to capture the data from the HCI. The results are posted on my wiki page about the DualShock 4, along with the pcap file with the entire capture.

The PlayStation 4 does not seem to accept input through USB. I did get UsbXlater entirely working and replicating the behaviour of a real DualShock 4, but the PlayStation does not respond. The Bluetooth connection is always active during this time.

Over Bluetooth, it seems that the L2CAP packets that are sent containing the report contains 4 bytes at the end that appears to be random. This could mean it’s a checksum or a hash. Update: it’s a CRC32, with a standard initial value. It’s easy to generate and I’ve already tested it on my sample capture data, so that’s good news. Credit goes to Matlo from GIMX

I do have a new version of the UsbXlater hardware that I can get assembled next week. It will emulate button presses on the DualShock 4 directly using electrical signals connected to the buttons themselves, instead of digitally through spoofing data streams.

I am aware that CronusMax has a “proof of concept” video of his hardware working on the PS4, but that video is a fake, what he did is program it to act as a HID keyboard, which only works in the menus. This is why the video does not show gameplay and why he does not plain outright say that it will be supported. Everybody who is making a device similar to XIM or Cronus or Eagle Eye Converter or UsbXlater is facing the exact same difficulties I am facing. I am disappointed in Cronus because the video’s purposes is probably to drive up pre-orders for people who are hoping for PlayStation 4 support which might never come.