PS3 Is PS3 laser power adjustable?

[xxxmarioxxx]

Greetings. Today I got another CECHA system without original BD drive. Put in a spare drive from YLOD CECHE system, flashed CFW and married the BD drive, everything is working... except the new drive won't read BD discs. The disc spins up and I can see the violet laser beam, but the game won't show up on xmb, so I think the violet laser is wearing out. I took apart another completely dead laser assembly, but I didn't find any potentiometer that adjusts laser power. Is the laser power on PS3 laser assembly adjustable like it's on PS2? Thanks

 

[sandungas]

KES-400A doesnt have "pots" to adjust the power of the laser beam, there are some photos here
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/KES-400A

This removal of the pots was one of the most important changes in comparison with the PS2, also the laser of the PS3 doesnt needs to be calibrated, it seems it adjusts itself automatically (and thats a bless, lol)

The only thing you can do is to clean up the "loupe", this procedure applyes to all lasers, i was talking about it here
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/serious-laser-issues-scph-39003.22649/#post-160001

Sometimes by cleaning it you can improve a bit the reading quality, but dont expect miracles

 

[xxxmarioxxx]

KES-400A doesnt have "pots" to adjust the power of the laser beam, there are some photos here
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/KES-400A

This removal of the pots was one of the most important changes in comparison with the PS2, also the laser of the PS3 doesnt needs to be calibrated, it seems it adjusts itself automatically (and thats a bless, lol)

The only thing you can do is to clean up the "loupe", this procedure applyes to all lasers, i was talking about it here
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/serious-laser-issues-scph-39003.22649/#post-160001

Sometimes by cleaning it you can improve a bit the reading quality, but dont expect miracles

Good to know. Thanks. Guess I'll order some new laser assemblies from ebay. These early laser diodes are so unreliable...

 

[wrx884]

Greetings. Today I got another CECHA system without original BD drive. Put in a spare drive from YLOD CECHE system, flashed CFW and married the BD drive, everything is working... except the new drive won't read BD discs. The disc spins up and I can see the violet laser beam, but the game won't show up on xmb, so I think the violet laser is wearing out. I took apart another completely dead laser assembly, but I didn't find any potentiometer that adjusts laser power. Is the laser power on PS3 laser assembly adjustable like it's on PS2? Thanks

as sandungas said give that a try i also go the extra step on these, i actually remove the top lens (just 3 screws and a small ribbon cable) from the 400A housing so it exposes the bottom lens, u can clean that also. That way u can also clean the under side of the top lens and not just on top, so theres 3 parts to clean here. A lot of people i see only clean the top side of the lens where the bottom of the top lens can also be mirky or dirty. Ive actually got 50 odd of the 400A lenses ive bought from ebay over time, the sellers dont bother asking for returns and just refund usually when they find out they dont work, but i have actually got a fair few of them working after doing this. provided u do what u have done and make sure both diodes light up their separate colours by doing the simple 5V test u might have a chance.

The only thing you can do is to clean up the "loupe", this procedure applyes to all lasers, i was talking about it here
https://www.psx-place.com/threads/serious-laser-issues-scph-39003.22649/#post-160001

Sometimes by cleaning it you can improve a bit the reading quality, but dont expect miracles

i had a quick read but couldn't see u use the same word again, the "Loupe" ur refering too man is the main top lens yeah? i might be learning something new here of its actual name? haha i always just called it a lens.

 

[sandungas]

as sandungas said give that a try i also go the extra step on these, i actually remove the top lens (just 3 screws and a small ribbon cable) from the 400A housing so it exposes the bottom lens, u can clean that also. That way u can also clean the under side of the top lens and not just on top, so theres 3 parts to clean here. A lot of people i see only clean the top side of the lens where the bottom of the top lens can also be mirky or dirty. Ive actually got 50 odd of the 400A lenses ive bought from ebay over time, the sellers dont bother asking for returns and just refund usually when they find out they dont work, but i have actually got a fair few of them working after doing this. provided u do what u have done and make sure both diodes light up their separate colours by doing the simple 5V test u might have a chance.



i had a quick read but couldn't see u use the same word again, the "Loupe" ur refering too man is the main top lens yeah? i might be learning something new here of its actual name? haha i always just called it a lens.

To be honest, im not sure which word to use for it, everytime i need to talk about it i had doubts how is named in english XD
Ive seen calling it "magnifyer glass", "loupe", "magnifying loupe", and things like that
Also, i have the same problem with this "tool" (i use to mention it because is very cheap and handy for this kind of precission works)... usually named "jewelry loupe"

So... i suggest to use a "jewelry loupe" to check the PS3 laser lens surface
I mean the "top surface of the lens at top"
What i use to do is... (with the method explained in the other post using a "modded" cotton ear stick and isopropil alcohol)
1) half a turn with the ear stick (wet side)
2) check with the jewelry loupe
3) half a turn with the ear stick (wet side)
4) check with the jewelry loupe
5) repeat previous steps as needed until surface is clean, and only remains some marks of the alcohol
6) half a turn with the ear stick (dry side).. to remove the alcohol marks

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I dont use to clean the bottom surface of the top lens, or the other lens at bottom, is nice you mentioned having reading improvements after doing it, good to know

I guess is something i avoided to do just because im extremelly scared about the "coils", lol
Im going to mention something that probably you already know, but for curiosity sake of other people reading us...

The top lens is "levitating" (in between 2 magnets at his sides) and grabbed by 4 very thin copper wires that does several loops around the top lens... that wires are the coils
The coils are made of pure copper... but have a (transparent) "varnish bath" that isolates tem all along
The lens moves up/down by sending diffrent voltages levels throught the coils

When the laser is reading a disc with problems, the laser needs to do "jumps" to read the same area and find the track, and the coils starts overheating, until a point where they "melts" the varnish covering them and enters in short circuit
This was a typical problem in PS2... you could burn the coils just by inserting an scratched/dirty disc in the drive
And at that time there was lot of unnofficial shops selling "refurbished" official PS2 lasers... where they was replacing the coils and the diodes

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The point is that coils are critical, and everytime i touch them with an ear stick im very scared, lol
Incase you bend the coils while cleaning them (the kind of thing where you modifyed the geometry of the coil wires) you are fucked

Also, i prefer to dont uncrew the metal piece that holds the coils, just incase are calibrated. I know it doesnt have much mistery and it can be made at home but im not sure if that people selling "refurbished" official PS2 lasers was using some expensive equipment to align the lens with the laser beam

What we cant do at home is replacing the diodes, lol... are "glued" to the metal body of the laser, but this ones are really calibrated with expensive equipment... if you want to replace a diode at the time you unglue the old one you are fucked again
Maybe works... but you know is imposible to achieve the same precission of expensive equipment, we are trying to align a laser beam with a precission of nanometers... is like imposible to do at home

 

[wrx884]

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The point is that coils are critical, and everytime i touch them with an ear stick im very scared, lol
Incase you bend the coils while cleaning them (the kind of thing where you modifyed the geometry of the coil wires) you are fucked

Also, i prefer to dont uncrew the metal piece that holds the coils, just incase are calibrated. I know it doesnt have much mistery and it can be made at home but im not sure if that people selling "refurbished" official PS2 lasers was using some expensive equipment to align the lens with the laser beam

What we cant do at home is replacing the diodes, lol... are "glued" to the metal body of the laser, but this ones are really calibrated with expensive equipment... if you want to replace a diode at the time you unglue the old one you are fucked again
Maybe works... but you know is imposible to achieve the same precission of expensive equipment, we are trying to align a laser beam with a precission of nanometers... is like imposible to do at home

Ahh now i know the term loupe. i dont know why i didnt pick that up before haha, thats more a jewellers tool im pretty sure? but has many other uses too.

TBH when u take the top lens off as a whole it has its own metal plate for support so when u take them off those copper wires ur scared to touch pretty much stay as they are. as long as u dont get ur screw driver stuck to the magnets and hit the wire u should be pretty fine. i used to use tweezers and pick up the top lens so i could get to the under neath lens surface but i find u cant clean under the top lens and there is more risk there to damage those said wires so removing it completely is much safer and u get to clean all 3 surfaces.

The lens as u mentioned will auto adjust itself when trying to read the discs so when u put the top lens plate back on it can only move so far but u can mark it so u know exactly where it needs to go back with a permanent marker.

Yeah i found a lot of sellers for the ps2 lasers used to just adjust the Ohms on the pots to increase the diodes output but i found this killed the diodes much faster after u managed to get them working again, so u always struggled to find brand new lasers and none that have had this temp fix then sold off as refurbs. im kinda glad the ps3 lasers removed the pots this way u know no one had actually tampered with them.