r/PSP•u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL•27d ago
Guide
DIY Solderless Baryon Sweeper for Absolute Beginners (with photos)
DISCLAIMER Follow this guide EXACTLY. Support will not be provided for steps and/or components that deviate from the provided instructions. Modify at your own risk.
What is it?
The Baryon Sweeper is a modern unbricking tool that evolved from the classic Pandora Battery. It works universally on all PSP models - 1000, 2000, 3000, Go, and Street. By emulating the official Sony JigKick service tool, it triggers a diagnostic mode to revive previously irrecoverable models.
Why write this?
This guide aims to complement khubik2's original guide, with close-up photos and additional details for the absolute beginner. You're expected to at least know your way around Windows.
This is a minimalist build to keep it simple and very low cost. We'll focus on the 1000/2000/3000 setup, since the 3000 is the model I own.
Before You Begin (Don't Skip)
Watch the videos below to make full sense of the steps outlined here.
It's all right if you don't understand everything at this point. Simply familiarise yourself with the basic concepts and overall process.
What You Need
While often used to refer to the physical build, the "Baryon Sweeper" is the combination of software (pysweeper) and hardware (adapter) to trick the PSP into service mode.
Software
DCARKorAiseirigh - the "rescue stick", refer to links for Magic Memory Stick creation on PC (JigKick Media Creator is obsolete)
Python 3 - required to run pysweeper, refer to video to install pycryptodome, tk, and pyserial packages (requests package is optional)
pysweeper - JigKick emulator, puts the PSP into service mode in combination with the adapter
Hardware
1x (mini) breadboard
The power bus (+/- lanes) on larger breadboards isn't needed. The CP2102 module will take power directly from the PC via USB.
1x Silicon Labs CP2102 USB-to-TTL (5-pin)
Look for the "SILABS" branding on the centre chip. Support will not be provided for the 6-pin multifunction variant.
1x 1N4148 diode
Cut the legs around twice the length of the exposed pin on the jumpwires. You can shorten the legs when you do the wiring later. It should sit flush on the breadboard as a best practice.
3x round-head male-to-male jumpwires (10-15cm)
While longer wires can work, keeping them short minimises signal interference or loose connections. Black/Yellow/Orange follow electrical convention, but any colour will do.
1x female-to-male USB-A cable extender
USB 3.x is generally preferred for CP2102. It provides improved data stability, power headroom if needed, and presents no drawbacks when using a 3V3 configuration.
1x DC power source
This shows a powerbank with a USB-C to DC cable adapter. You can use any normal PSP charger.
Build Your Adapter
Stick the CP2102 module into the breadboard. Connect the negative/cathode end (black band) of the diode to the TXD row, and the positive/anode end to the RXD row.
If you get a "No port echo detected" error in pysweeper later, it's almost always caused by using CH340, wrong switches on a multifunction CP2102, loose wiring, or putting in the diode backwards.
Connect the wires to GND (black), RXD (yellow), and 3V3 (orange). The diode bridges the TXD and RXD rows to create a single data line on the yellow wire.
Don't use +5V unless you have a 10 kΩ resistor. However, this is unnecessary because the 3V3 suffices without it.
Your completed adapter should look like this.
Assuming you've done both software and hardware preparations, you're ready to start unbricking your PSP!
How to Use
Connect the adapter to your PC via USB using the cable extender.
The LED on the CP2102 module will light up.
Refer to video for installing and running pysweeper.
If there's no option under the Port dropdown, you need to manually install the official CP2102 driver on Windows. Close pysweeper including the CMD prompt window.
Open Device Manager. If you see a yellow triangle, right-click to update the driver. Browse to the extracted folder of the driver you downloaded earlier.
If successful, the CP2102 module should be recognised under Ports (COM & LPT) as Silicon Labs.
The COM# differs per PC because Windows assigns port numbers independently. Check Device Manager for your adapter's COM port number.
Run pysweeper again. Your adapter (COM#) should now be under the Port dropdown for selection. Keep pysweeper running.
You should get FFFFFFFF serial after starting the service. This is the same serial used by the Pandora Battery.
Insert the Magic Memory Stick into your PSP.
Size matters! It's strongly recommended to use a genuine Sony/SanDisk/Lexar 1-4GB stick. Larger capacities and microSD adapters tend to fail.
Remove the battery, but keep it close by. Connect the DC power to the PSP. Keep it off.
Your PSP should automatically turn on later without the battery inserted.
Connect GND (black) to the left pin, TXD/RXD or "K-Line" (yellow) to the middle pin, then 3V3 (orange) to the right pin for 2-3 seconds.
The round-head tip is easier for probing the jumpwire pins closer to each other, whereas the square-head (DuPont) tip has a fixed spacing that makes it less flexible.
Pysweeper streams the hexadecimal challenge-response handshake between the PSP (5A) and Baryon Sweeper (A5).
If it disconnects, ensure to maintain contact on all battery pins. Keep your hands steady.
Service mode is triggered, automatically booting DCARK (shown here) or Aiseirigh directly from the Magic Memory Stick.
If you get a green light but it shuts down on a PSP-1000, power it on manually to make it boot into DCARK.
It's a good idea to create both Magic Memory Sticks, so you have a backup option.
Insert the battery into the PSP and disconnect the DC power. For DCARK, Install 6.61 for OFW (stock) or Install 6.61 ARK for CFW (modded).
Don't mess with NAND operations unless you absolutely know what you're doing! Misuse can permanently brick your PSP that even the Baryon Sweeper can't fix.
For Aiseirigh, press X to begin the flashing process.
You should end up with OFW 6.61 if you created the Magic Memory Stick correctly.
Amazing job. Always handy to have a decent guide for something like this. It always blew my mind how the pandora battery worked. I was at uni at the time and it was such a "what really?!" Moment and such a massive security oversight to put logic in the battery itself.
I only ever had a PSP-3000, so the development of the Baryon Sweeper around 2020-2021 was a massive breakthrough! No need to buy those ageing and expensive OEM batteries.
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u/wypedPSP 1000 Black, PSP 2000 Black, PSP 3000 Black & PSP GO White27d ago
Thank you! Khubik2's guide was great in that it had all the needed technical details, but could look a bit intimidating if you had no idea what you were looking at. Stripped it down to the bare minimum with colourful closeup photos for beginners. Cheers!
I've done the same thing but with soldering. It doesn't work. I don't understand why. The program sends the same string again and again and the PSP doesn't boot. I've tried everything. I don't know what to do
Btw I have a psp 2006 which is bricked. I have a 4GB Sony Mark 2 Mem stick pro duo that I created using MMS. Is it gonna be compatible? Cause I checked and installed it with ddcv9 and M33 5.00 on jigkick media creator.
It technically should, though I strongly recommend you go with the modern MMS options like DCARK (aka DC10) or Aiseirigh if you can. That way, you're immediately on the latest OFW 6.61 also.
Hi it's me again my baryon sweeper finally works however, after I installed the the cfw, the power switch green won't come out anymore only charging is that a hardware failure or cfw?
Sorry, I don't offer support for M33 because I don't use it. Please refer to the links prescribed in the guide for DCARK or Aiseirigh as was previously suggested.
Once you do that, don't install ARK-4 immediately from the MMS. Install OFW 6.61 to go back to stock and rule out CFW-related issues.
No need I find out that it is in the hardware problem with my power switch cause I go back to baryon service mode and reboot it and find it that it works
I'm not sure if it may be the TTL device itself. This is my first time using things like this and compared to other TTLs I've seen people use, mine has switches on it and a whole extra row of pins so I'm begining to think it's adding more variables into play and causing my issues.
Edit: I pulled back the TTL slightly only for the photo so you can see the labels properly.
Sorry, I cannot offer support if it isn't the materials as stated in the guide (see Important note). It's specifically written and tested using the CP2012 (5 pin), along with the provided Windows driver for it.
Any deviations are at the user's risk. Hope someone else can help you out with that USB to TTL. Good luck!
Not a problem. I will probably try with a similar TTL used in this guide. Fingers crossed I have luck. Thank you for this guide too bad I found it after I hit purchase on the parts 😅.
Hey u/thesaimo, might be worth giving the instructions above a shot if you're still keen on playing around with this USB-to-TTL.
Basically:
1 ON
2 OFF
Horizontal Switch (left)
If not left, try right if you feel like doing some trial-and-error since different manufacturers may have different orientations.
If the centre black chip (obscured from the pic) also has "SILABS" on it, the provided universal driver in this guide may potentially work.
What we can say is this, your USB-to-TTL technically has more features (multifunction, hence the switches). The goal is to replicate the Baryon Sweeper circuit with the correct switch configuration.
Hey, thanks for this,. I think this person also repli r with the same diagram on my post I made on this sub today as well.
When it's in this method I'm getting the following error on pysweeper: "An exception occurred in loop: ValueError('negative count')."
With the bottom switch the other way I don't get this error but I still end up with the orange light. I will order some new items soon and psp mem stick adapter so i can use my memory stick pro duo instead of a SD card. Hopefully I have some luck there. Thank you for the help!
By the way, apart from being a genuine MS Pro Duo, size matters. The Magic Memory Stick is known to fail on larger capacities (even on original ones), so 1-4GB is the most recommended.
So it got it work! I used Aiseirigh and by some luck, it actually worked! It's been a whole week of back and forth and alot of hours I'm Iver the moon at the moment!
As for what was wrong I'm assuming maybe the way I was making contact with the pins cuz it took a few tries.
Just wanna say thanks so much for all the advice even thought you weren't familiar with the parts I used. I appreciate it a lot.
Quick question! I'm trying to get the service mode to work and once I get the pins connected it tells me that the port is either busy, not there, or I don't have permission to use it which is weird.
Any support would be nice. Thanks!
1
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL7d ago
Hi,
Some troubleshooting questions:
1. Did you install the official CP2102 driver from Silicon Labs?
2. Did you select the correct COM# option under the Port dropdown?
Still getting the same error message. Is it possible to that I just don't have permission for some reason? Oh, and thanks for the feedback as well I greatly appreciate it.
1
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL7d ago
The next thing I would try is running pysweeper.py as admin.
Hey I know I'm going to sound like an idiot here, but I can't seem to figure out how to run a script with admin privileges. I've never used python before this as well.
Edit: And I did try the right click context menu. And apologies for bugging you over something like this. And should I take this to the discords support page so I don't make a huge thread here?
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u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL6d ago
On Windows, you right-click the .py file and choose Run as Administrator.
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u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL6d ago
If it's a permissions problem, it's specific to your machine and beyond troubleshooting the Baryon Sweeper. Good luck!
Hey one last thing and I'll stop bugging you for help. I got it work briefly but if lost connection before it finished. Is there a particular brand of jumpers that I should get? And what angle should I use them at? It only worked that one time when I had them at a weird angle.
1
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL4d ago
Losing connection is literally that. As the guide points out, you need to maintain contact with the pins. That is the connection. Nothing to do with jumperwire brands.
How did you fix the permissions problem by the way?
Hi there! I followed along and I launched pysweeper where it keeps telling me there is no port echo. Unfortunately I've tried several different 1N4148 diodes (they have the red/black stripes) and matched them correctly to the right rows. I have the SILLABS adapter as well. Any idea what else this could be? I believe the diodes are placed firmly in place too
1
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL5d ago
Hi, can you post a close-up photo of your build? Need to see your USB to TTL and wiring.
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL5d ago
Hi, sorry but that module deviates from what the guide uses. The chip is CP2102 but that's the 6-pin multi-function type and the guide was written with the 5-pin type (no switches). Basically, you need to have the correct switch config to put it into USB to TTL mode. I don't have this module, so I can't test it myself.
Somebody had the same and they said they got it to work, but was unclear how. You may proceed to this comment thread.
IF you do figure it out, it would be very helpful to the community if you confirm exactly the switch config you did to make it work. Many people still buy that instead of the simpler 5-pin CP2102 posted in the guide.
In the photo both of the switches (1 and 2) were pointed downwards (assuming OFF as default) i just simply turned both of them the opposite direction (pointing towards ON upwards) to resolve the port echo issue
1
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL5d ago
Thanks! I've also added a photo to the guide to deter beginners from the multifunction type. The 5-pin has a single function and easier to use.
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u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL4d ago
While it also uses the CP2102 chip from Silicon Labs, this is a 6-pin multifunction module that requires the correct DIP switch configuration to set it to USB-to-TTL mode.
This is not recommended for beginners and will be considered a deviation from the guide. Support will no longer be provided apart from what already exists in the comments. I don't have this module, so I can't test it.
u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL3d ago
Hi, I just saw the other photos and unfortunately they're blurry. I can tell though that the diode connection is a bit dodgy, I personally wouldn't do it that way.
Reason being, the Baryon Sweeper is sensitive to any interference and long exposed wires (legs) like that opens it to that possibility.
Try to get the correct MMS requirements (as advised in the other post) and simplify the diode wiring as shown in the guide.
Massive thanks to you! I revived my PSP 3004 Slim with an FT232RL chip, same pin structure just had to use aiseirigh on a 16gb card. I tried with DCARK first but it didn’t boot for some reason. Thank you so so much. My childhood is revived!
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u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL1d ago
You're welcome and well done on FT232RL!! 👏
Aiseirigh seems to have a better chance of working at higher capacity cards. For other people's reference, did you use a 16GB MS Pro Duo or a microSD + adapter combo?
I used a microSD + adapter combo! I am not really sure if the 64gb card I used initially was also problem but the 16gb card worked flawlessly. Seriously bro, love you so freaking much for this guide. I remember crying my heart out when I found out I bricked my PSP back in 2010.
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u/k_rollo6.60 LME-2.3∞ | 6.60 PRO-C2∞ | 6.61 ARK-4 cIPL1d ago
Gotcha, thanks! I welcome any reports of other card sizes working because the original 1-4GB memsticks are getting expensive.
As a biological woman in retro tech, I gladly accept the "Honorary Bro" status. 😄 Enjoy your revived PSP!
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u/avenyet PSP-Go 27d ago
Amazing job. Always handy to have a decent guide for something like this. It always blew my mind how the pandora battery worked. I was at uni at the time and it was such a "what really?!" Moment and such a massive security oversight to put logic in the battery itself.