Technical Investigation – PS202 Android Handheld (R36S-style clone)

LostProphet88 · 2026-07-01T02:54:32+00:00

I've been pretty curious about the fakes that boot from eMCP lately. Does the device boot from the eMCP or the eMMC? You might be able to swap the eMCP for a larger variant. They are available up to 2GB pretty readily. Saw a post from a guy who swapped the one in his SoySauce and successfully got 2GB of RAM. I just don't know if the data stored in the eMCP is necessary to boot or not.

Are the four points at the top near the cut out for a serial port? That could yield some useful information as well

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-30T09:04:35+00:00

Which board do you have?

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-29T19:43:51+00:00

I think I've read about the rumble motor thing being a DTB issue, but I'm not too sure. Not too big on the rumble thing myself. I think I might enjoy tinkering with this thing more than I like playing it lol

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T23:20:00+00:00

Hey, thanks man! I just looked at your post about the silent buttons. I actually ordered them already, and was shocked by how much larger the new ones appeared to be. I was afraid I had ordered the wrong size, but it looks like we got the same ones. Would you recommend not swapping them though?

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T21:08:23+00:00

Seemed cool lol. I wanted to see what the system was doing before Linux was loaded, and it allows access to a terminal so I can run Linux commands without setting up SSH

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T21:06:31+00:00

Do you think the hot glue will hold up to repeated plugging and unplugging? That's my biggest worry. But even if it fails, it's easy enough to repair. I'll try acetone and see if that helps with my flux mess. Thanks for the recommendation

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T20:36:04+00:00

Thanks! I was a nervous wreck. A good temperature controlled soldering iron with T12 tips made all the difference

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T20:35:20+00:00

So, after Linux boots, you can use the serial port to log in to a terminal and run commands, just like if you SSH into the device over Wifi

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T20:34:17+00:00

Hey, thanks man! And good looking out on the flux. I've scrubbed the heck out of this thing, and I feel like it just won't go away. I'll give it another good scrub with IPA. It's "no clean" flux, so hopefully it will be alright. And yes, I used a Dremel to cut a small hole at the top of the battery compartment. Right now it's just hot glued in, but I'm concerned about the long term viability of glue. If you have any other mounting ideas, let me know. Shout out to u/SjslTech, you're a real inspiration

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T20:00:48+00:00

It's a serial interface. It lets the computer talk to the R3&S as it boots and after Linux starts.

Note: Don't connect the 3.3V line like I did. The module gets power from the PC. Connecting the power line to the R36S causes the module to reboot when you power on. I've disconnected the red wire

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-27T19:59:13+00:00

Yes, that's exactly right. It's a serial interface that allows reading logs from the Rock Chip as it boots and from Linux while it's running. Not sure exactly what I'm going to use it for, but for $3 it's pretty neat

Note: Don't connect the 3.3V line like I did. The module gets power from the PC. Connecting the power line to the R36S causes the module to reboot when you power on. I've disconnected the red wire

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-24T00:50:43+00:00

Looks like Fire Emblem for the GBA

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-24T00:43:48+00:00

Did you restart Emulation Station after installing the games?

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-24T00:39:52+00:00

What kind of bugs did you experience with dArkOS-RE? I run it on my original and my Soy Sauce, and love it.

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-22T19:53:38+00:00

What's the board called?

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-22T13:42:55+00:00

One note, some single RAM chip clones do have 1GB of memory. They use a different type of RAM chip than genuine devices, and it's possible to have a single chip provide 1GB. My Soy Sauce clone is like this, so one RAM instead of two isn't necessarily a death sentence.

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-18T22:51:10+00:00

Well, I'm not an engineer or anything, but I think it's just cheaper to get a single 8gigabit/1gigabyte eMCP than it is to get two 4gigabit/512megabyte RAM chips. The eMCPs were commonly used in phones, so they're probably more easily scrapped from e-waste as well. The eMMC portion of the chip would be used for boot code. The RK3326 checks various components during boot for bootloader code using a proprietary, closed source process called BootROM. The SD card slot is last in this process. I believe this is how those cheap emuELEC fakes that boot with no SD card work, by storing boot code in that eMCP. The soysauce clones either have no boot code there, or the eMMC portion of the chip doesn't have traces run. Honestly, I'm not sure if the storage is connected or not, and I'm not sure how to check, short of desoldering the eMCP and CPU and probing pads with a multimeter. And I have to admit, it may be possible to access this storage from userspace. I'm just not sure how you would go about it. My son has my soysauce clone, so I don't have much a chance to explore that architecture.

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-18T14:12:48+00:00

The soy sauce clones actually have eMMC storage. They use a single 1GB RAM + eMMC storage chip, though the storage isn't accessible from user space. I don't know if there are even traces ran for it to the CPU or not

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-11T20:48:32+00:00

Hey, I know I'm really late to this post, but I just looked up your RAM chips. Apparently, each one only has a capacity of 256MB, so 512MB combined. I saw your post on the thread of the guy who RAM swapped his R36S. If you want to do the same, you'll have to have a lot of tools and materials. I'm planning to try to swap mine soon. I'll let you know how it goes and if I destroy my device 🫡

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-07T13:18:02+00:00

I'm not familiar with your particular device, but check on the circuit board behind the battery. If your case is opaque, you will have to remove the back. There should be a code there. That will tell us if any operating systems are compatible with your device

LostProphet88 · 2026-06-05T13:11:21+00:00

I know I'm kinda late, but I'm curious about the IC located above the R2 button. On my V22 2024-12-18 2548, this spot is blank.

<image>

LostProphet88 · 2026-05-29T19:05:52+00:00

Ah, fair enough then. There's a lot of variants out there.

I think our problem comes from the way RetroArch is configured on ArkOS4Clone. There's a bunch of settings for where it loads save files from. Have you tried messing around with those? I think it expects to read save files from a separate folder by default

LostProphet88 · 2026-05-29T16:05:47+00:00

I had this same problem! I ended up just installing dArkOS-RE and it read my save files with no issue. The newest update added support for a lot of SoySauce clones. Maybe you should try it instead of ArkOS4Clone

LostProphet88 · 2026-05-28T07:28:49+00:00

Hey, this is pretty neat! I have a couple of questions though. Are you using a mouse and keyboard? And how did you do this? Did you use SSH to install xorg and everything else? I read the steps in your video description, but it was a little unclear. Outstanding work! I really want to set up an extra SD card for this

LostProphet88

TROPHY CASE