EmuBoards have got a nice write up of the Datel Battery Tool for the PSP, that caused a few raised eyebrows in the PSP community when it was released a while back. The Datel Battery Tool is effectively the Pandora Battery that you can create from a standard PSP-1000 (PSP Fat and Heavy) battery. This Tool (or Service Mode) battery then allows you to recover your PSP in case of a brick. It also allows you to downgrade both a PSP-1000 or a PSP-2000 (Slim) to firmware 1.5.

The Datel Tool Battery was released shortly after the Pandora Battery announcement, it is a pre modified battery pretty much identical to what you would get if you done it yourself. The Datel Tool Battery has received a bit of flak by some as it has been seen as Datel cashing in on other peoples work. Personally I see it has a useful option, as like myself, many people may not have access to a working homebrew enabled PSP so they are unable to make the battery themselves. Sending a PSP or battery to someone that can do it for you is an option but costs can add up once you take into account postage & packaging and insurance (if sending a PSP) both ways and a small donation for their trouble. The Datel Tool Battery costs £14.99 and either free delivery or faster shipping for £4 more if you want it. It is also worth noting that you can use the Pandora Battery hack on a PSP Slim, having a pre hacked battery is a necessity as PSP Slim cannot run homebrew unless it has been downgraded.

A few days later I received the Datel Tool Battery in the post. It comes in a blister pack and inside is a cardboard box with the battery and an instruction sheet. The battery is bright orange and is the same size as a standard PSP battery which fits as normal into the PSP. On the instruction manual is a short guide that explains you need to charge the battery for at least one hour before using, I gave it two hours to be safe.

Following that is a guide on how to use the battery. The guide says use a prepared Memory Stick with correct data, it is not exactly clear on what a ‘Memory Stick with correct data’ is; the Datel Tool Battery doesn’t come with this ‘correct data’ which is the Pandora Battery software. For someone purchasing the battery expecting everything to be supplied this is a bit misleading but it does state on the homepage that all the battery does is put the PSP into service mode so it does do exactly what it is supposed to do.

If you are in the same predicament as me and do not have access to a working homebrew enabled PSP you can download a package called Pandora’s Box GUI which contains all the files needed to unbrick/downgrade your PSP. I believe there are now newer packages available, but at the time of downgrading my PSP I used Pandora’s Box GUI. All you do is connect your PSP to the PC USB and run the program and it will copy all the required files to your PSP. Once completed, you insert the Datel Tool Battery and it will boot the Pandora menu from which you can begin the unbricking/downgrade process. Everything ran no problem and after a minute or two I had a v1.5 firmware PSP. You can now install a custom firmware such as Dark_Alex’s M33 firmware on the PSP.

Unfortunately I was unable to test if the Datel Tool Battery was really hard locked into Service Mode. I was sending the battery to a friend after using it and did not want to see if the battery could be restored to a normal PSP battery in case it broke it. My guess is that it should be able to using the battery restore program supplied with the Pandora software but you would need to create a fake serial number. If anyone could confirm if this is possible or not please reply here. It is however still possible to use the battery as a normal battery an alternative way by using Booster’s Multiboot IPL which will boot to the PSP XMB instead of the Pandora menu.

I can highly recommend the Datel Tool Battery, the price is reasonable at £15 and while it is a little misleading for someone not familiar with Pandora it does do exactly what it says on their site. I would guess that most people wouldn’t have an idea what to do with the battery otherwise so only people looking to unbrick/downgrade their PSP would know what it is for and what else is needed?

So if you are in need of a downgrader for your PSP, or are thinking about protecting yourself from a possible future brick scenario, and don’t want to chance damaging your standard PSP battery, the Datel Tool may well be the answer.

Understandably the Datel Tool does not come with the implicit instructions required to use the device as intended, so you will need to obtain the extra software required if you want to perform a downgrade or recovery of your system.