PS2 [MX4SIO/SIO2SD] SD Card Adapter and SD-driver for the PS2 SIO2 interface

BBsan said:
Question to the mods here:
Is there any way to open another thread for only all kinds MX4SIO HW related discussion to keep it out of this thread here?

@Workz_777 don't get me wrong - I really like your work and also the work by every Dev here, (even bought one of Takeshis protos), but as time goes by there will be lots and lots of clones/different versions, so I guess that from a SW point of view it still might be interesting to see issues that come with clones or other vendors' variations. I'm not saying you should support those users with HW issues that are clearly related to not being from the "main" design - but still it might be interesting to know in the future, which knock off or clones can be considered "ok" and which don't - and even get some insights why this is the case.

From an ethical point of you I share your frustration. But you also have to admit that the whole project got a lot more attention and public visibility, because of the "cheapish" clones.
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Hey bro, i understand what you are saying, it's just why didn't they follow the Devs' designs, using their recommended BOM list of components? I know why that is, it's because some of the components on the Devs' list for MX4SIO are expensive (due to being high quality) and these people were more interested in making a profit (big profit) while capitalising on the name "MX4SIO".

To the unsuspecting buyer, they think they're getting the original PSX-Place Devs' MX4SIO creation, when that's not true. And anytime these clones have problems due to using less and cheaper components (cutting corners basically) then it's MX4SIO and the Devs hard work here that takes the hit.

If those people reproduced the original MX4SIO, 100% to the original specs, then i wouldn't have a problem with it at all. I have a problem with people giving MX4SIO a bad name due to their drive for money / profits / corner cutting.

The Devs' designed MX4SIO to be the very best it could be for the end user, and then some middle men came along and ruined that hard work. Even to the point of sending their sub-par quality product to many Youtubers to review, but not under the project's real name and location (here in PSX-Place), but instead they re-branded the product as their own. For example, MC2SIO is more known than MX4SIO now.

Angry Helder was plugging his product to Youtubers (with links to buy from his website), not advertising the original project. The whole idea was people could come here and make their own d.i.y MX4SIO version, or use the gerber and BOM files available to make their own high quality version of MX4SIO + 3D printed case.

Many of you know i have done free MX4SIO give aways here on PSX-Place, another one is coming very soon (all being well) with 128GB Toshiba Exceria MicroSD cards, called the "MX4SIO Ultra Pack", because i want to give the community the original high quality MX4SIO just as the devs' had intended it to be. I also sell a few here and there to the PSX-Place community members, but i barely break even with all the costs + time + efforts, i'm just one guy with a very small bank account.

It would be really great if more people would re-produce the Devs' original high quality MX4SIO for people to buy, so we can have some balance out there. The clones took over because they are being mass-produced on the cheap (by using less components, a compromised design, and what few components they do use are of low quality) by people in the USA and in China. Some people promised to help fund the manufacturing of lots of original high quality MX4SIO to be sold at a very reasonable price, but they failed to deliver and i never heard from them again, and that's a shame. If i won the lottery i would mass produce high quality MX4SIOs 100% to the devs' specs, and flood the market selling them for a bargain. :D
 
Hey guys, how is work on getting MX4SIO working on the deckard ps2 (specifically the 90001 model)?
 
Workz_777 said:
I showed you the insides of both PSX-Place Dev's MX4SIO and Helder's MC2SIO. If you can't tell the difference from that then, i'm not sure how to help you. It's not just about gold contacts, it's about the fact there are 70% missing components with MC2SIO, which i pointed out to you, also the size of the components used in the MC2SIO will give less quality due to the tolerance levels being different for the same value of resistors and capacitors (size 0603 vs size 1206). If you don't think components are important in electronics, then you might as well just stick your finger into your PS2 and hope to play games that way.

For an example, KFC has 11 different herbs and spices in their original recipe, if i now only make my recipe with only 3 herbs and spices and call it "KFC" - i'm not sure they would be of the same quality, or the even same product, but both are fried chicken.

Just from a user's perspective MC2SIO only has 1 x LED, MX4SIO has 2 x LEDs, the point of having 2 x LEDs is (1) to indicate when a MircoSD card is inserted / working correctly and the other LED is to indicate data transfer from the MicroSD card to the PS2.

Considering the voltages going to and from the PS2 and the MicroSD card, plus the need / importance of clean data transfer, i would say having more and higher quality components does make a difference in usability, reliability and compatibility.

The main point is, without the PSX-Place Devs and their creation called MX4SIO, there would be no MX4SIO or MC2SIO. If someone wants what the Devs originally invented / created (with their long and hard work) then it's called MX4SIO. If someone wants a cheaper and different design of that (no longer being what the Devs created in the first place) made by a "Johnny come lately" then buy a Bitfunx or MC2SIO.

I have a friend here in PSX-Place who has a MC2SIO that works sometimes, and other times it doesn't work. Some games that worked yesterday - don't work today. So the reliability of MC2SIO is in question. Another friend's MC2SIO just stopped working after 2 months.

@longsun_zhao you appeared in PSX-Place only a few months ago, when Angry Helder was first here, the both of you disappeared at the same time a short while after you were both posting here. Now you come back to (1) say you won't trust Bitfunx to make as good a product as Helder (which i 100% disagree with) and (2) to argue that MC2SIO is probably just as good as MX4SIO, even though i have pointed out to you how the two cannot be compared in originality, quality, and reliability. I feel your motivation for wanting to defend MC2SIO, even though it's a blantant sub-par quality knock-off of the PSX-Place Devs' original invention / creation "MX4SIO", is dubious. Also it wouldn't surprize me if you were actually Angry Helder using another account trying to defend your product, so that posts like mine do not impact sales for MC2SIO. Or you are just trying to justify your purchase of a sub-par product that costs about $1 to make which you bought for $20 + shipping costs. Either way, personally i'm not willing to give you any more of my time, so maybe others here will help you on your quest.
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It's nonsensical to say that one piece of hardware is inherently superior because it has more components, bigger components, and more lights. If you can't articulate why MC2SIO is inferior any better than that, then you don't have the information I'm looking for.

Not even going to reply to that last paragraph, it's absurd on its face.
 
longsun_zhao said:
It's nonsensical to say that one piece of hardware is inherently superior because it has more components, bigger components, and more lights. If you can't articulate why MC2SIO is inferior any better than that, then you don't have the information I'm looking for.

Not even going to reply to that last paragraph, it's absurd on its face.
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Well o.k, if you really want to test the difference in real life, then how about this... why don't you buy a BitFunx and test it against the MC2SIO you've already got and i will even send you for free a PSX-Place Devs' original MX4SIO + 32GB Toshiba Exceria MicroSD card for testing purposes.

Then you can test all 3 of them against each other, of course you would have to test alot of games, as many as possible, and over a period of a few months to see which version resulted in the best overall experience (compatibility / reliability / functionality).

Fair enough, right? ...so please DM me here with your address and i will aim to ship you a Devs' MX4SIO Mega Pack this week.
 
I must admit this whole MX4SIO thing is really tiresome.

When I first got a Bitfunx one (along with a matching memory card) I could not get it to work. It would not show up at all.
Then I managed to get it to discover its existence but it would not show any games. I tried different SD cards with no improvement. I also tried low level formatting the cards. Eventually I did get it to work by copying the games.bin file from a USB setup I had along with the games. Then it finally worked (on the latest OPL). Then after a while it just stopped working again and I am basically at square one with this thing.

Its supremely frustrating because now I have a whole new set of issues. I cannot enable and save MX4ISO in OPL, saving the blocking setting freezes the console and blanks the config file. I managed to get around this by simply copying a working config file from USB. Its annoying but it works. Anyways so far I have not gotten it to work ever since it stopped the other day, but I will keep trying :)

I am on a 77k slim by the way :)

Oh and hello PS2 scene!

Edit: OK I give up, the furthest I can get now is it basically behaving like I have no games on the SD card. It detects it, it reads it, nothing comes up. Goodbye MX4SIO :(

OPNPS2LD-v1.1.0-Beta-1629-e20f2ee-bdm3 does not work at all, just a black screen. I have to use the 1.2.0 Beta instead.

Workz_777 may have to send me a real MC2SIO lolol
 
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BwE said:
I must admit this whole MX4SIO thing is really tiresome.

When I first got a Bitfunx one (along with a matching memory card) I could not get it to work. It would not show up at all.
Then I managed to get it to discover its existence but it would not show any games. I tried different SD cards with no improvement. I also tried low level formatting the cards. Eventually I did get it to work by copying the games.bin file from a USB setup I had along with the games. Then it finally worked (on the latest OPL). Then after a while it just stopped working again and I am basically at square one with this thing.

Its supremely frustrating because now I have a whole new set of issues. I cannot enable and save MX4ISO in OPL, saving the blocking setting freezes the console and blanks the config file. I managed to get around this by simply copying a working config file from USB. Its annoying but it works. Anyways so far I have not gotten it to work ever since it stopped the other day, but I will keep trying :)

I am on a 77k slim by the way :)

Oh and hello PS2 scene!

Edit: OK I give up, the furthest I can get now is it basically behaving like I have no games on the SD card. It detects it, it reads it, nothing comes up. Goodbye MX4SIO :(

OPNPS2LD-v1.1.0-Beta-1629-e20f2ee-bdm3 does not work at all, just a black screen. I have to use the 1.2.0 Beta instead.

Workz_777 may have to send me a real MC2SIO lolol
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Hey bro, lol you mean "a real MX4SIO", created here by the PSX-Place Devs / Team (Takeshi, Maximus32, Wisi, TnA, Anakin94) ...not Bitfunx, not MC2SIO, but the real authentic MX4SIO. For me this MX4SIO version works perfectly on my 77K slim with OPL BDM3, and has been working every day. Also, i sent the original version to many members here in PSX-Place and it's working fine.

If you want one, "a real MX4SIO" ;):D ...then please just message me anytime, i have some at the moment :encouragement:
 
Workz_777 said:
Hey bro, lol you mean "a real MX4SIO", created here by the PSX-Place Devs / Team (Takeshi, Maximus32, Wisi, TnA, Anakin94) ...not Bitfunx, not MC2SIO, but the real authentic MX4SIO. For me this MX4SIO version works perfectly on my 77K slim with OPL BDM3, and has been working every day. Also, i sent the original version to many members here in PSX-Place and it's working fine.

If you want one, "a real MX4SIO" ;):D ...then please just message me anytime, i have some at the moment :encouragement:
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I'm interested in one "real MX4SIO" :rapture:
 
Has anyone tried to use the Katana 32mb memory cards with freemcboot and the MX4SIO. Having a magic gate card able to switch between 4 cards at the touch of a button would be very convenient for saving. But I don't know if there would be any problems unique to that particular card since it is very different from others.
 
Slick_Prime said:
Has anyone tried to use the Katana 32mb memory cards with freemcboot and the MX4SIO. Having a magic gate card able to switch between 4 cards at the touch of a button would be very convenient for saving. But I don't know if there would be any problems unique to that particular card since it is very different from others.
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Yeah that would be really cool to try out, i bought a PS2 multi-tap the other day to see how that would work with multiple memory cards for saving with MX4SIO, i'm not sure it will work but worth a try anyway. I saw @jolek talking about it, so i thought i should try that and see. :eagerness:
 
Workz_777 said:
Yeah that would be really cool to try out, i bought a PS2 multi-tap the other day to see how that would work with multiple memory cards for saving with MX4SIO, i'm not sure it will work but worth a try anyway. I saw @jolek talking about it, so I thought I should try that and see. :eagerness:
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I went ahead and took a chance buying a katana 16MB at the flea market to try out. It's working great so far. The first card on it is used for FMCB only and at the press of a button I have access to my saves. I'm now looking into getting the 32MB variant.

On a side note, I'm also interested in the official MX4SIO spec card too. But I also got an unexplained lifetime ban from paypal a few years back. I have a majority of the other payment processors, but I try to be up front about that because not having it has caused a lot of headache over the years in making purchase arrangements. If you could shoot me a DM too, I'd much appreciate it.
 
Workz_777 said:
Hey bro, lol you mean "a real MX4SIO", created here by the PSX-Place Devs / Team (Takeshi, Maximus32, Wisi, TnA, Anakin94) ...not Bitfunx, not MC2SIO, but the real authentic MX4SIO. For me this MX4SIO version works perfectly on my 77K slim with OPL BDM3, and has been working every day. Also, i sent the original version to many members here in PSX-Place and it's working fine.

If you want one, "a real MX4SIO" ;):D ...then please just message me anytime, i have some at the moment :encouragement:
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Haha sorry I am a bit new to all of this <3
 
I noticed atleast 4 games i tried that were under "incompatible" on the compatibility list were incorrectly labled. after some research i can safely assume it's because some people are using previously zipped ISO's without defragging them before trying to launch them. so if a game doesn't work check to see if it's fragmented before adding it as incompatible.
 
hawmie said:
I noticed atleast 4 games i tried that were under "incompatible" on the compatibility list were incorrectly labled. after some research i can safely assume it's because some people are using previously zipped ISO's without defragging them before trying to launch them. so if a game doesn't work check to see if it's fragmented before adding it as incompatible.
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Hi @hawmie ...if you didn't already please can you submit the games you tested as working, at the top of the MX4SIO game compatibility list is a link where you can submit the games you have tested.

Also please keep in mind anyone can add to the list, so many people might have tested the games with incorrect settings, also they might have been using their own d.i.y MX4SIO version, or the clones, and what brand of MicroSD card / SD card also makes a difference (the best being Toshiba Exceria and Samsung Evo Plus), also what model of PS2 can affect game compatibility (scroll right on the list to see PS2 models)

USA versions of the same game will be more compatible when compared to it's European version. Because they put less protection on the USA versions.

It's important to use a PS2 DualShock2 gamepad, or PS3 DualShock3 with Bluetooth dongle, for best game compatibility, some games (mostly racing games) won't load if there is a PS1 DualShock1 gamepad inserted in the PS2.

Even if you see a game on the compatibility list that's red, meaning not compatible, i would still recommend you test it for yourself. I tested over 180+ games and about 90% worked perfectly, i even tested some of the games that were red on the list, and for me they worked just fine.

(For Europeans) a few USA games will want you to change the video settings (via GSM 'Options' in OPL) to NTSC, you will know when to do this because as you load up the game there will be a black screen and your TV might say 'Invalid Format' so just change the GSM settings in OPL to NTSC and that particular USA game should work after that.

Another important note, never have a USB thumb drive inserted into the PS2 when using MX4SIO, otherwise the games list will appear empty as OPL looks to the USB instead of MX4SIO, and OPL BDM3 only works with MX4SIO.
 
Workz_777 said:
Hi @hawmie ...if you didn't already please can you submit the games you tested as working, at the top of the MX4SIO game compatibility list is a link where you can submit the games you have tested.

Also please keep in mind anyone can add to the list, so many people might have tested the games with incorrect settings, also they might have been using their own d.i.y MX4SIO version, or the clones, and what brand of MicroSD card / SD card also makes a difference (the best being Toshiba Exceria), also what model of PS2 can affect game compatibility (scroll right on the list to see PS2 models)

USA versions of the same game will be more compatible when compared to it's European version. Because they put less protection on the USA versions.

It's important to use a PS2 DualShock2 gamepad, or PS3 DualShock3 with Bluetooth dongle, for best game compatibility, some games (mostly racing games) won't load if there is a PS1 DualShock1 gamepad inserted in the PS2.

Even if you see a game on the compatibility list that's red, meaning not compatible, i would still recommend you test it for yourself. I tested over 180+ games and about 90% worked perfectly, i even tested some of the games that were red on the list, and for me they worked just fine.

A few USA games will want you to change the video settings (via GSM 'Options' in OPL) to NTSC, you will know when to do this because as you load up the game there will be a black screen and your TV might say 'Invalid Format' so just change the GSM settings in OPL to NTSC and that particular USA game should work after that.

Another important note, never have a USB thumb drive inserted into the PS2 when using MX4SIO, otherwise the games list will appear empty as OPL looks to the USB instead of MX4SIO, and OPL BDM3 only works with MX4SIO.
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Already ahead of you and did just that , and tested a few games that weren't on the compatibility list at all and submitted them.
 
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