[thirdhaf]

From the paper it looks like most of the interesting work with the laser and optical train use an external board to recreate the feedback and control circuitry already present and required for normal operation in a DVD/BluRay drive. It would be great if you could have more control over the existing hardware in these drives.

I found a project that started the reverse engineering process on a popular bluray drive [1] but it really looks like an uphill slog against undocumented CPUs and motor control chips among other obstacles. Anyone know of any other resources for reusing the existing hardware but modifying the control software?

1. https://github.com/scanlime/coastermelt/

[dbuder]

https://loetlabor-jena.de/doku.php?id=projekte:dvdlsm:start

https://www.gaudi.ch/GaudiLabs/?page_id=652

[roastedpeacock]

From memory the most applicable prior art is the "region free" firmwares for various DVD drives and, the drive hacks used to play "backup" (and some homebrew) games on the Xbox 360 while bypassing some of the attestation protections for online.

> It would be great if you could have more control over the existing hardware in these drives

You can blame the DRM lobby basically forcing manufactures into a veil of "security by obscurity"

[dr_coffee]

Hackaday has featured a couple of projects featuring the ps3 optical pickup unit. The author of one of the projects breaks out the 40-pin ribbon cable and is able to drive it with some simple circuitry

https://hackaday.io/project/9205-blubeam-a-scanning-laser-mi...

https://hackaday.com/2019/11/12/tearing-down-a-ps3-blu-ray-d...