Your second chance to get a MicroSD adatper for your Vita 3G!
The MicroSD adapter is a thing that the Vita community has wanted for quite a while. While the adapter isn’t exactly what we expected, it’s still a great add-on to Vita 3G owners and now, you have another chance to get one!
What’s the MicroSD adapter for the Vita 3G?
This is an adapter that you fit into the miniPCIe port on your PSVita instead of the modem card. It’s a pretty easy process to do (about as hard as replacing the battery of the Vita) and once you slot in a MicroSD card and the adapter in your Vita, you can simply forget about it! Thanks to HENkaku Ensō (boot-time HENkaku/taiHEN), you’ll be able to use the adapter at boot-up!
Obviously, this adapter requires a PSVita 3G (1100 series models/ Fat 3G models) and won’t work with Wi-Fi only Fat models nor will it work with Vita Slim models (there are no 3G Vita slims) and the PSTV (you can use USB pendrives/hard drives with that). If you really want to use it on a WiFi Fat PSVita, you can replace the motherboard but in my books, it’s not really worth it.
How do I get it?
When the article about this adapter was written, the adapters were all sold out due to only 100 being available! Yifan Lu has decided to increase the initial run to 500 units from 100 units so now, there are 400 units that are waiting to be bought. As of right now, roughly about 100 units are sold so quite a few are left so make sure you get one as they won’t last forever (about 100 were sold in 17 hours since the Reddit accouncement so yeah..).
If you have a Vita Fat WiFi only or Vita Slim, you can only hope for a MicroSD adapter in the memory card slot that RichDevX might someday release (but don’t get your hopes up too high as there are various diffuculties with getting to work).
IndieGoGo page from where you can you back Yifan and get an adapter: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ps-vita-3g-to-microsd-card-adapter#/
Warning: There’s a risk of getting a board that doesn’t work! This is stated explicitly in the IndieGoGo page but I think that emphasis should be done on it!
if you have a fat WiFi only you can also swap the board inside for the 3G model
Oope you totally said that, my bad 😉
Just swapped my WiFi board for a 3G one (bought at AliExpress). Unlinked my memcard, swapped the board, logged into PSN and now everything works just as before (including game saves etc.). Now I have to wait for the adapter and Enso to arrive.
To everyone trying to replace boards: You have to cut out a tiny section of the back cover in order to close the Vita’s case. There are some supporting plastic braces in the back cover that the 3G model does not have where the modem and PCIe slot is.
Good point, forgot to make that comment below. It’s easy to do and will not have any adverse effects. If you google a link for what a 3G console looks like you can figure out exactly what needs to be removed and what can stay.
Or buy a mini pci e 4mm connector and solder it to the main board. I will do it ;D
will it work even with the firmware of the motherboard of the vita being for the non-3g one? will it detect the 3g module converted to micro sd slot module?
I wish I had some notice, my funds are tied until next Friday.
Got one! Thanks aurora!
Dangit, just when I didn’t have the money for another week. 🙁
Everyone keeps downplaying the process of swapping your motherboard and honestly I don’t get it. It’s mad easy to do, lot of screws and what not, but really if you’re careful and have $35 in your pocket you can upgrade easily. Takes maybe 15 min tops and I’m being generous.
Now if we were talking about buying a whole new Vita just for this, I would understand that. But if you have a phat console and don’t feel attached to your wifi only board just take the plunge. If you wait too long, the price for 3G boards will probably go up, if you can even find any new ones at all. Just my opinion on it.
Swapped my mainboard today. Works fine now. Never opened up a Vita before and it took me around 20 minutes (used the instructions at ifixit). I can be quite frustrating to get the back cover off. That part took me more than 5 minutes.
Oh I agree with that. I’ve opened many many consoles now and I can say the best way I’ve learned to do it is to slide your fingernail between the two shell pieces at all four corners of the console. At the top, between the triggers and the back of the shell, and the bottom between the hook and the back of the shell. More often than not the shell comes apart easily if you create an opening at all four corners.
where did you find the board you used? having trouble
Check eBay, they always have stock there. Usually go for $30-$35, but right now the only place which might have them is China. I’m sure others have already cleaned out a lot of the stock.
Now that I realized you could swap a 3G vita motherboard in any wifi model it made sense to look for a cool edition vita and I’m going to drop a 3G board into a blue Jap phat that I ordered and then plan on adding the psvsd adapter. can’t wait 🙂
Just got in for one. I still have a WiFi model, but this makes it worth picking up a 3G unit somewhere.
Just order a used 3G mainboard online. They cost around 25 bucks and it takes less than 30 minutes to replace them. I did it today in about 20 minutes.
I’m really tempted to do that, save a solid hundred bucks in the end. But I’ll need to look at the difficulty and time investment. I used to do a LOT of modding, actually made a pretty penny doing it for others back in the early to mid 2000’s. I haven’t done much in the way of hardware mods since damaging a connector pin on my old slim ps3 in 2014. I think that the frustration there, added to the fact that I’m currently working a full-time-plus job while doing college courses online… It makes me hesitant to increase the risk of another failed project, the “time wasted” portion can be incredibly frustrating. Maybe I’ll look up some tuts and see how comfortable I am with the process.
FIRST
…in line to huff paint, I assume?
You might want to fix the article’s title. *Adapter
You transposed the p & t in the title.
I’ll be waiting this out, though I applaud the price.
Adatper?
SO this is an extra memory or completely swaps it?
So if I have a 64GB memory card like I already do and I install this can I use a 64GB MicroSD card and have 128GB of useable space?
Will it work on any Vita 3g? Or does it need homebrew enabled? EG, will it work with the latest firmware or only 3.60 firmware Vitas?
I’m guessing it will be similar to the PSTV using a usb drive. You can have both, but cannot use both at once.
It is for Henkaku-enabled systems only. It sounds like it might need to be Ensō to enable the mounting of the mSD at boot. Enabling both at the same time would cause it to fail at reading either I’m sure. Hardware-wise you would want to add a switch to the board to cut the power and disable the mSD. Maybe the plugin will support choosing the card to mount upon boot (but will waste extra power).
sadly only payable via credit card and I don’t own one… 🙁
Why only credit card? I don’t own one and I seriously don’t want to own one because it is the reason of so much financial trouble (fraud) in this world 🙁
Is there any way I can buy one with PayPal ??
Look up virtual credit cards. They only store what you pay on to them.
Do the mPCIe points on Wifi models not actually work or something? They are there.
I think the issue is that on the wifi models, the mPCIe points are just bare solder points on the board; there’s no connector into which to slot the new card (the white part labeled 217FB in iFixit’s photos: https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/guJKCMX1nupBChOj.huge).
so potentially doable (assuming there’s not some model-specific logic in the firmware), but would require sourcing your own connector piece to attach the microSD adapter card’s pins to the board.
welding mandatory in the board hardware of psvita?
*Soldering
You don’t have to solder anything to install it 🙂 Just plug and play (after some disassembly)
I cant get one , cause i live in iran 🙁
Rosted Roch!
first
So is it expected for other people to start manufacturing these after the indie gogo is over?
It will be open source to all so anyone can manufacture these boards. Once everything is released, it won’t be long before Chinese manufacturers make them readily available.
Got in on this while it was still good.
39 left
Gone
I grabbed one guys! thanks wololo
Dang, the one day I don’t check wololo like regular…
***, I came late….. again 🙁
I really hope this becomes commercial at some point! I’d buy one!
Damn, sold out again. Have you guys heard of a pre-paid debit card. Can get it at the local CVS, 7-11, Walmart, Target….etc. Just load money on there and buy away. No credit needed.
You can get a Visa gift card that acts like a debit
Sold out. Again. >_<
Thankyou Wololo, this time it only took less then 120 minutes for it to run out
Surely Yiifan-sama will do atleast one more batch for the people who did mis out again due to work and so on.
,Greetz
I guess that since the mod replaces the 3G card, it means the Vita 3G loses its GPS capabilities (eg. for Go!Explore in Adrenaline)?
It won’t lose it’s GPS capabilities, but it would lose the chance of pulling in needed data of 3G that the apps in question were wanted from the internet. You’d need a wifi connection instead. After all, all you’re doing is the 3G PCB, not the GPS PCB. (If I’ve understood things correctly). GPS tracking doesn’t need the internet – that much I do know for sure. A-GPS does though.
Too bad it’s already sold out LOL
Sold out again
Why even put a limit on it?
He should just take as many orders as there is demand
Likely because:
1) The item is still in the development stage (remember: it’s a crowd funded project).
2) It could mess up the price of producing this (for the worse).
3) It’s going to be open source anyway, so if there’s enough demand you may find someone else make them.
4) Small projects like this tend to be produced in batches anyway.
Damit, damit… Damit! Was too slow. It’s sold out.
I missed it 🙁 Noooooo… I really need to check wololo more often…
It’s not a guaranteed working product. Until this is fully flesh out, i wouldn’t recommend buying it, unless you want to be a backer and receive a product that might work, or might not.
It was a gamble with ps vita too, might be. Turned out to be “could have been”. With this extra SDcard adapter the vita will be something. Also, I have bought more expensive stuff that doesn’t work. This is not a big deal at all. I want to support badly.
‘Crowd funding’ projects like this is always a bigger risk because at least when you bought a Vita it physically already existed and has some kind of QA and warranty.
I’ve backed this, but in 12 months time I could be down a few quid where as my Vita still works.