So, most of you know how that on a PSP 3000 you can charge from the miniUSB port while the system is turned on, but not while it's off. I think that's incredibly stupid because you have to always have the large physical charger when a miniUSB cable would do the job just fine. I've tried to use The Google to find a way to mod a 3000 to always charge from the USB port, but the only tutorial I had found was for the PSP 1000. I ended up doing a little poking around and managed to get it working on my 3001 model, keeping the charge light functional for both sources of charging too!
For posterity, two pics and a sparsely worded guide.
You need a thin wire (I pulled mine from an old parallel cable I had previously mauled, it's probably around 30 gauge) and a soldering iron. You'll need to solder, on the bottom of the board, the wire to the left most leg of the miniUSB port, if the port is on the upper edge of the board.
Cross the wire over the top, and solder the other end to the left leg of the connector for the charge port, if the connector is pointed downwards.
To make soldering a little easier I took a razor and scraped those two legs a tiny bit just to help remove any residues that may have existed from the manufacturing process.
Also, it won't hurt to take a voltmeter, plug in your official charging cable, and measure the DC voltage between the two terminals on your charger plug on the motherboard (like where the wire is soldered). You'll get +5v DC off of the positive leg.
So now you have the option to charge the system at any time, off or on, via the USB cable or the charging jack, with the bonus of the charging LED activating from either method. USB mass storage functionality remains, too.
For posterity, two pics and a sparsely worded guide.
You need a thin wire (I pulled mine from an old parallel cable I had previously mauled, it's probably around 30 gauge) and a soldering iron. You'll need to solder, on the bottom of the board, the wire to the left most leg of the miniUSB port, if the port is on the upper edge of the board.
Cross the wire over the top, and solder the other end to the left leg of the connector for the charge port, if the connector is pointed downwards.
To make soldering a little easier I took a razor and scraped those two legs a tiny bit just to help remove any residues that may have existed from the manufacturing process.
Also, it won't hurt to take a voltmeter, plug in your official charging cable, and measure the DC voltage between the two terminals on your charger plug on the motherboard (like where the wire is soldered). You'll get +5v DC off of the positive leg.
So now you have the option to charge the system at any time, off or on, via the USB cable or the charging jack, with the bonus of the charging LED activating from either method. USB mass storage functionality remains, too.