Hardware Looking for broken PSP UMD drives/magnets

[buckchow]

Hi all. I picked up a used PSP 2001 and after taking the whole thing apart I realized the magnet was missing from the UMD drive. No magnet = very noisy, non-functional drive. I swapped in a magnet from another PSP and discs worked fine. Now I'm hoping to find some extra magnets or simply a couple of broken UMD drives with the magnet still attached to the center of the drive. Any help would be appreciated.

FYI, the donor magnet was from a 1001, so magnets/drives from 1000 and 2000 series units would both be fine. I don't know about the 3000 series.

Thanks.

 

[rundeer]

Check ebay, there are a ton of listings for cheap broken psps that you could probably cannibalize working parts from.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hi all. I picked up a used PSP 2001 and after taking the whole thing apart I realized the magnet was missing from the UMD drive. No magnet = very noisy, non-functional drive. I swapped in a magnet from another PSP and discs worked fine. Now I'm hoping to find some extra magnets or simply a couple of broken UMD drives with the magnet still attached to the center of the drive. Any help would be appreciated.

FYI, the donor magnet was from a 1001, so magnets/drives from 1000 and 2000 series units would both be fine. I don't know about the 3000 series.

Thanks.

If you can find a similarly sized/shaped magnet you may be able to just put that in the drive and have it work. Make sure it's the same type of magnet though as different types have different strengths and may be too strong or too weak to function properly.
I'm guessing it's a rare earth magnet as those are the most powerful ones, and the ceramic ones are probably too weak to use for that purpose, though I don't know what that purpose is.
If it's shiny silver colored, it's probably rare earth. They're sold all over the place online, such as here: http://dx.com/s/rare+earth+magnet
That would be the cheapest solution if you can find one that fits well enough.

 

[buckchow]

rundeer: UMD drives alone start around $15 shipped on eBay. Broken PSPs are more. Not a good deal for a couple of tiny magnets.

The Real Jdbye: Thanks for the suggestion. I thought of that too a while after my original post went up. No luck on eBay where a lot of magnet sizes are available for very cheap. I did locate an online store with a magnet that seems like it's the right size, although there's a $15 minimum order and that would be far too many magnets. So, I haven't ordered anything yet.

FYI, some PSP drives use a shiny magnet while some use a dark one that may be the same type of magnet without plating. The shiny ones are smaller.