An unforseen project has arrived.

[rubber_jonnie]

I know that is a phrase I've probably used a bit too often...

But this time it isn't something new. I usually test my handhelds regularly to be sure batteries are good and charge if required. I just see this as regular maintenance.

Yesterday I pulled out my PS Vita to power on and charge if needed. I have never liked the connector for this on my Vita, it's the earlier 1000 series and the plug is reminiscent of the early iPhone/iPad.

It looks like this:

Screenshot 2025-11-27 at 09.58.36.png (2.29 MiB) Viewed 190 times

And the cable is suitably complex to match it. Well, I plugged it in to give it some charge and heard a crackle, and the plug got really warm and was pulling about 3 amd and 5v had dropped to just under 4v!!!

Of course I unplugged right away, but it was long enough to see that it was no longer charging.

If you look closely towards the right hand end you can see it doesn't look quite right, and thats because the plastic has melted slightly. There is similar damage on the plug.I'm hoping for no damage inside.




Luckily parts are easily available, so I have a new socket and cable on order. I'll add more to this when the parts arrive, and in the meantime I'm also considering a USB C replacement mod.

EDIT - I have a USB C mod coming as well, it's nice to have options.

[alexh]

Nice. I've wanted a Vita but made do with Playstation TV (they were really cheap, like £10 in Currys one time). And if course a PSP.

The earlier models I thought were more desirable because they had arguably a better screen?

[rubber_jonnie]

Nice. I've wanted a Vita but made do with Playstation TV (they were really cheap, like £10 in Currys one time). And if course a PSP.

The earlier models I thought were more desirable because they had arguably a better screen?

I have a PSP as well, it's an impressive little beast, but the Vita does have a lot more grunt and the screen is very nice. Fingers crossed I'll be able to fix this one as it's pretty frustrating that I can't charge it right now. Parts are on the way.

The Playstation TV never really appealed and I have a PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4, so something extra to connect to a TV isn't what I need...

[alexh]

I only bought it because like the Vita it can be jail broken, it can play all vita games and all Homebrew, and it was £10 and not the £130 that Vitas tend to sell for on eBay.

[Higgy]

I also went the PSTV route. Mainly due to cost and a risk on screen scratches on second hand Vitas.

For the PSP I have upgraded my OG model with a cheap OLED screen. Very nice as the original had bad ghosting issues.
Battery is shot though, discharges like mad when not in use. Unlike a DSLite which seems to always power on when I pick it off the shelf.

I was lucky to have a work trip to Japan and got the PSP then. At the time you had to have a specific serial number or something like that for the jailbreak to work, so that was a bit tricky to explain to store staff, me looking all over the boxes for the serial marking

[rubber_jonnie]

I also went the PSTV route. Mainly due to cost and a risk on screen scratches on second hand Vitas.

I got lucky and got mine really quite cheap. I think about £60 at the time and they were going for a lot more.

For the PSP I have upgraded my OG model with a cheap OLED screen. Very nice as the original had bad ghosting issues.
Battery is shot though, discharges like mad when not in use. Unlike a DSLite which seems to always power on when I pick it off the shelf.

Yes they do tend to go. I have a modded battery for jailbreaking and I think it's starting to fail. I bet Ali Express has them...

I was lucky to have a work trip to Japan and got the PSP then. At the time you had to have a specific serial number or something like that for the jailbreak to work, so that was a bit tricky to explain to store staff, me looking all over the boxes for the serial marking

Nice, I'd love to go to Japan, both for Karate and the experience of going round the electronics stores.

[rubber_jonnie]

The USB replacement for the socket arrived today, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Getting the board out was really simple, it is just screwed together with small Philips type screws, and then some more holding the internals together:

IMG20251129143700.jpg (256.62 KiB) Viewed 96 times

I don't know what solder Sony used, but I had to take my hot air up to 500C to get the old socket off, the board is really robust. Lots of thick layers of kapton tap over the nearby plastics ond nothing melted but the old connector

IMG20251129154744.jpg (262.69 KiB) Viewed 96 times

After that getting the USB C adapter soldered on was a bit hairy, because there are 4 hidden connections that need to be sldered on the original connection, which requires hot air, but at least this time I was using solder that melts at a lower temp, so no harm done to the USB socket:

IMG20251129160129.jpg (264.89 KiB) Viewed 96 times

Once on I plugged power in to check for shorts and all good, then I soldered the anchor points and then then hooked up the battery and it seems to be charging. We'll see though as I have to reassemble to fully test. Thats next.

If it doesn't work my backup plan is to install an original style connector, which is on the way. Time to put it all back together!

[rubber_jonnie]

And everything is looking good:

IMG20251129164838.jpg (260.58 KiB) Viewed 91 times

Charging is fine and all the controls seem to be working just fine too.

Oddly the game TxD, a Tempest clone by Jeff Minter has vanished from the machine, so I'm having to download again, but other than that and the mad Sony soledr, it's been quite a simple mod, though I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner.

EDIT: Charged successfully to 100%

[rubber_jonnie]

Well, all is good on this repair/upgrade.

Charging works fine:

IMG20251130171902.jpg (125.62 KiB) Viewed 59 times

It was in the 70's when I started this so looking good.


Also the USB C adapter looks great:

IMG20251130172412.jpg (121.57 KiB) Viewed 59 times

Unfortunately my Vita is a bit scratched, but please ignore those and enjoy the new USB C socket

I also plugged into a PC today and all the USB stuff is working as expected, so PC sees the Vita and the Vita detects it's been plugged into a PC, so really pleased overall with the results.

It seems I'm better at hot air work than I thought :)I was a bit worried it wouldn't either charge, work with USB or both, but a good little mod for £10.

[stephen_usher]

That looks like a very neat upgrade actually.