Here is a quick clip of what worked for me:
I had done several manual bypasses for the easier stuff like 5v or LRCK, but this is the catch-all solution and a way to avoid soldering to the back of the audio flex connector on the PS1Digital. The 4-layer PCB means we can’t easily trace out good alternates for a manual bypass, hence, the breakout board.
I apologize for not getting back to you guys sooner. You can see in my screenshots back then that I had ordered the breakout boards to develop/finalize a bypass for everyone weeks before I posted here. It took that long to ship from China but I intended to share much more once I figured out placement, best practices, shortcuts, etc.
Unfortunately, soon after receiving them I took a direct hit from the strongest part of an EF-4 tornado right while I was in the middle of testing my breakout board bypass method for the first time. I even see it in my video where I open the back door to find the missing balcony:
(3:05)
I finished a week ago so it took me this long to get the thing tested and moved to the client’s board since it has been disaster after disaster ever since (multiple floods, damage, incompetent contractors, landlord deciding to sell the place, etc, etc).
To illustrate the irony, let me describe that moment... March 26th, 12:04AM: Finally time to test my breakout board bypass but my TV powered up a bit too late to catch the boot up sound during my first test... so I hit Reset. It takes a moment for my TV to sync HDMI and another moment for it to play the audio, but the moment the PS1Digital image appeared on my screen, household power went out. It wasn’t even raining but I heard the air raid sirens warning of a tornado. Less than a minute later we were sheltering in the basement while the EF-4 tornado ripped the house apart, picked up my car, and then crushed it under a tree. I tried to put a tarp where the roof used to be when the remnants of the ceiling collapsed, breaking my arm and putting an end to my mod work for a while... not that I could’ve done much with no power, Internet, transportation, etc anyway. Some of my neighbors didn’t have a single wall left standing, which is how they calculated it was an EF-4 at my exact location... nowhere else on the 38.9 mile long track. They know the building codes and what it takes to wipe an entire home off the foundation. We were at ground zero. I checked a couple days ago and it is still the strongest tornado on record so far this year and I was literally still inside the vortex while EF-4 winds were tearing apart my neighbors who lost everything.
I set up a workshop to resume but the landlord decided to sell leaving us no place for our lifelong collection. I’m about to be homeless and everything I try to hang onto is getting damaged in the aftermath. I had to invite pickers over to get it for pennies on the dollar... which hurts since I was the original owner for most (kept my shrink wrapped boxes even as a kid).
One guy this past Saturday got at least $25,000 worth of my childhood collection for $6,800 and he is just one of many. That’s like losing 3/4 to the tornado and still being forced to sell the last bit... even if the tornado didn’t take it directly.
It’s currently spread across at least six locations and I keep losing more and more to floods and worse.
That same day I visited the tornado-damaged place with the picker and found contractors taking pictures of my stuff in the basement and sharing it with other strangers. These people have access with the realtor key lock box and some even have a key. Others have taken the lock box key without authorization and left ME locked out since they had also changed the locks. Yet other times I have found giant ladders left in place to unlocked windows and an otherwise-inaccessible balcony door (sans balcony after the tornado) that were only placed there when they were leaving. Very sus.
I had a good conversation with the contractor who was excitedly sharing pictures but even if I trusted him, how can I trust the people he sent those pictures too? ...his coworkers? ...or any of the other coming through this revolving door in an unoccupied home? I came back later that night to find that the same dudes had knocked the topper off my PS2 retail kiosk, damaging it on the concrete floor, and then walked all over it (big plastery footprints). Clearly anything I try to hang on to is in danger. That whole garage was a watery lake the previous two weekends (two separate floods) and it was absolutely full of my stuff since it was the only part of the house with a roof. Lost a lot. Floods were caused by contractors... roofers ripped off the gutters and left it that way causing water to cascade inside. Almost as bad as the people who took out the kitchen’s window and framing just before another storm which caused a basement flood (the other place where I still have a lot of things).
Previously I tried to list things on eBay but then my dog was in a serious accident. He survived with a huge vet bill that set us even further back. Transportation was such an issue that we couldn’t resume selling even once my pup was recovering. Things were BARELY progressing when my dog suddenly got sick and died two weeks after his accident. Both incidents were caused by the tornado forcing me to leave him in the care of my mother who could not properly care for his special needs. It’s been a couple weeks now but I’m still a mess over this. I really miss my pup and thought I had years left with him.
My brother was also displaced and had no place to charge his car, which meant he needed to use Premium gas to carry me and our mother... then gas prices doubled from the pipeline hack. I was forced to spend my car insurance check on my $5,000 medical deductible (MRI alone was $1,333) and with out-of-pocket physical therapy I’m not going to be able to get a car any time soon. I got a little folding electric kick scooter so my brother could get to and from public car chargers and we could go our separate ways in a pinch and it broke down in less than a month.
To add insult to injury, my brother’s car tires were showing unusual wear but we were relying on him and his car too much. By the time he could get it checked they were showing cords in some places despite plenty of tread left and he was only barely past the 40,000 mile tire warranty. Though you might expect a leak from the strange tire wear, we were on our way to get the cheapest tires we could at a discount tire place when we got stranded with a screw through the tire. By the time we were done with the roadside repair the tire place was closed. When my brother got back they had sold the tires to someone else. This “recovery” has been a cavalcade of comedies.
We were already planning to move the workshop out of the basement and had signed a lease when the tornado hit but I was unable to install lights or do much of anything with my arm in a sling. Even now I can’t use my rotator cuff to get my elbow over my head. It’s against the terms of the lease but we will probably take turns sleeping at the workshop since the landlord needs us and our stuff gone and we are in no shape to go anywhere else. At that point we will technically be homeless but at least it’s better than being on the street and we still have what we need to work our way out of this. Lighting still sucks though.
Sorry to gush but it’s cathartic. My brother has just freed himself from his obligations to the landlord and I rigged up a way to charge his car at the workshop so we are finally ready to get some work done!