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--- oldtech:prs505 [2025/04/03 04:14] – ifixcoinops
+++ oldtech:prs505 [2025/05/16 14:29] (current) – ifixcoinops
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 ====== Cool vintage e-reader ======
-One of the many [[uncategorized:mhmachines|machines that are good for mental health]]
+{{ :oldtech:img_20250420_135756.jpg?400|}}Look at this thing, it slaps.  So many buttons!  So many books!  Such a good daylight-visible screen!  So much nothing else!
-Proper write-up on this thing INCOMING, but first:
+This lovely lad is a Sony PRS-505 from 2007 and it pisses all over reading on your phone.  It cost like $300 in 2007 (half a grand in today's money) and you can feel the let's-make-this-feel-expensive Premium Device For Rich People quality when you touch it.
-==== Getting the damn thing out of demo firmware mode ====
+A few years ago you could find these things by the bucketload on ebay for like a tenner a pop, but now that new ereaders are plastic and don't have buttons, these are starting to get more expensive.
-Highly specific instructions in case anybody else in the world ever buys a former shop-display-model PRS-505 off eBay (or got given one by a pinball machine repairman) and it's on the shop display firmware (settings -> about shows Demo firmware), here's the procedure as of April 2025 to get this thing outta demo mode.  You'll need a Windows box, miniUSB wire, and an SD card of 16gb or less (microSD cards in SD card adapters also work).  I've tested this on Win10, if you're on Win11 good luck I guess.
-Download these two files, which I've uploaded here in case they bitrot elsewhere:
+I bought a job lot of eleven ex-display-models off eBay for fifty bucks in late 2024.  [[https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/113623643319050789|Here's a Mastodon thread on replacing the battery]] (click on the date when it seems to end, Mastodon's threading is still broken in 2025 booo) which will have to do until I get around to writing it up here on this site.
-  * [[https://danfixes.blog/downloads/prs-505/PRS-505_Updater_1.1.00.18040_a.zip|PRS-505 Updater (windows)]]
-  * [[https://danfixes.blog/downloads/prs-505/Universal_Flasher_2.1.zip|Igorsk's Universal Flasher]]
-The PRS-505 Updater is official Sony software, but it bitrotted from the official Sony site as of 2024.  I eventually found a copy via [[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=325794|this forum thread]].
+Modern ebook files are massive because they're filled up with bullshit that tends to choke vintage ereaders, so [[oldtech:calibre:start|here's a guide on how to get books onto this thing]].
-Igorsk's Universal Flasher was originally found via [[https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26831|this forum thread]].
+If you also bought a display model, [[oldtech:prs505:demomode|here's how to get it out of demo mode and onto proper firmware]].
-Unzip Universal_Flasher_2.1.zip, navigate through the "Universal Flasher 2.1" directory, copy the contents of that directory to the root of a blank 16-gig-or-under SD card freshly formatted as FAT.  The SD card should now have script.sh, the "Sony Reader" folder etc in its root.
-Have the ereader turned on, fully charged and ready to rock with an **empty SD card hole**, don't plug the SD card in yet.
+==== Basic info ====
+Quick run-down that doesn't fit in the other sections:
-Have the miniUSB wire plugged into the computer but not yet into the ereader.
+=== These are chill devices ===
+E-Ink is the chillest display technology.  It doesn't hurry for anyone and is used in only the most chill of devices.  Pair that with a processor so aggressively underclocked that you only have to charge it once a month, and you can see how these devices don't belong in the same instant-response brainspace as phones or computers.  They charge slow, they discharge slow, and expect it to take a sec to turn the page.  Sounds infuriating aye, but within a few minutes you get into the habit of pressing the button when your eyes are at the start of the last line and then you stop noticing.
-On the Windows box, unzip PRS-505_Updater_1.1.00.18040_a.zip somewhere, and start the resultant .exe file.  This is one of those  WinZip self-extractor doodads that were everywhere in the early aughts, a cheap way of making an installer.  Don't close the WinZip self-extractor window because the Sony updater software unzips AND RUNS inside of it lol.
+=== Memory card and maximum capacity ===
+You'll need a 4gb SD card (microSD cards in SD card adapters also work).  If you're living in the amazing future world of 2025 and you can't hold of a card that small (or they cost more than bigger cards because they're now specialty devices lol), I've had success with repartitioning an 8 or 16 gig card down to a single 4 gig partition.  **Careful:** The ereader **can** see cards of up to 16gb, but once you've written more than four gigs of data to the card, everything goes wrong and the reader will corrupt the card.  The alternative firmware PRSPlus can mount and read larger cards, albeit by taking a different approach to everyday reading - I'll have an explanation on that up soon, but for now just partition your SD card down to 4 gigs FAT32 and everything will be fine.
-Insert the SD card into the reader.  It'll straight away go to a screen with a big scary exclamation-mark-in-stop-sign menu and the title **PRS-500/505 flasher 2.0 by Igorsk**, with these options:
-  * 3: run script.sh
-  * 4: copy image from the card
-  * 5: make a new image
-  * 6: flash the image
-  * 7: switch to firmware update mode
-Press 7 on the ereader, and plug in the miniUSB wire.
-Firmware update proceeds from the PC side with Peak 2006 Aesthetics, taking about fifteen minutes.  Dire warnings to not unplug the ereader, ominous messages like "Removing old software" and "establishing secure connection" remind you that if this fucks up then you're boned because nobody's even posted about these things in a decade (even though they still read books just fine???) so TRY NOT TO FRET.
-Once it's done, unplug.  If Igorsk's scary menu pops up, press the Menu button to exit.
+=== Charging and battery life ===
+The best way to charge these things is via the round barrel jack.  They'll charge from the mini-USB port, but very slowly (think days rather than hours) and only when plugged into a computer (if you plug into a phone charger then they'll //appear// to charge while actually slowly draining).
+There are charging cables for the PSP (remember, the handheld PlayStation console?) that have standard USB on one end, and miniUSB/barrel jack on the other.  These things, you can plug the USB side into a phone charger and use the barrel jack in the ereader just fine.  An afternoon's charge is good for weeks and weeks if you're on a newish battery.