DCHDMI

@citrus3000psi next progect is ODE for dreamcast?

 

Real men use IDE

 

@MastaG GD-ROM is device with IDE interface
IDE is not device, IDE is interface for communications host and device

 

Yes I know, I meant to say you can just hook up an ide hdd/cf-card/whatever to the bottom of the mainboard for use with Dreamshell.
And just keep the original gdrom drive.

 

truth? it is possible?

 

Don't have any spares at the moment. One board will be made specifically for the DC junkyard.

 

Short recap and some background info to what was done in the last months by citrus3000psi and me.

Hardware is already final, a custom flat flex takes the signals off the dc motherboard:
(All images were posted by Dan before on twitter https://twitter.com/citrus3000psi, some do show older versions of the hardware, but the setup remains the same for the newer revisons)

The FPGA board sits below the dc mainboard:


OSD was implemented a while ago, to display debug information, but maple bus integration was missing

This block diagram shows the current system setup:

Previously output resolutions had to be switched by flashing a different firmware (via the web interface running on the ESP this is easy), but with the maple bus integration, this could now be done via the OSD using the controller (without the need to re-flash). Version 1.2d/e (e revision is just a 4-layer version of the 2-layer revision d) already has the pads to tap into maple bus.

The original ESP-12 was replaced by an ESP07S with an external antenna, because wifi does not work well from within the metal shielding

The menu logic itself is implemented inside the ESP, which writes to the OSD RAM using a dedicated 800kHz I2C connection to the FPGA.

The firmware (both FPGA and ESP) is auto-build using gitlab-ci and then auto-deployed to https://dc.i74.de/ and https://esp.i74.de/ for easy update via ESP.

Once again, here are the links:
Hardware: https://github.com/citrus3000psi/DCHDMI-Hardware
FPGA: https://github.com/chriz2600/DreamcastHDMI
ESP: https://github.com/chriz2600/FirmwareManager

 

Soldering the flex cable seems like a tricky job, because if you you accidentally bridge two pins together you'll have a hard time cleaning it up without melting the plastic of the flex cable..

 

That's what flux, patience, and solder pumps are for.

 

I'm going to take my chances
Got a decent controlled station with a very small tip and lots of flux.. just need to get myself a pump (because I'm used to braid) and some easy-for-beginners-to-use dremmel tool, to cut the hdmi-port hole in my dreamcast case.

 

Braid is fine, I've had a lot of practice with Ultra HDMI installs and find a solder pump is a bit too heavy-handed. Just use a tiny amount of solder and tons of quality flux.

 

Unboxing, check it out with 240p, 480i and none VGA compatible games. We'll also be doing a side by side comparison to RGB. Is it much better?

 

It's just a vga to hdmi adapter, not in the same league as the one being discussed.

At best your tv upscales a bit. But its not getting any more detail out of the consoles than a vga cable would.

This mod is completely digital and will have superior picture quality.

 

Yeah it should be considerably better since the Dreamcast will never have a chance to convert the signal to Analog. That in itself will give us the clearest picture possible. I am sure seeing it in person is much better than what we have seen in videos of these types of projects as well.

As far as I know we have only seen Ozones project in action actually, and it was posted on youtube.

 

Just noticed there was a new video out.



Found out about that here.

http://retrorgb.com/dchdmi-osd-1080p-samples-posted.html

 

Hi guys - I was lucky enough to be sent a review version of the DCHDMI - review is here: http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2018/10/hardware-review-dchdmi-1080p-dreamcast.html

Special thanks to Dan (citrus3000psi) and Christof (chriz2600) for this awesome bit of kit!

 

Wow this looks awesome.

 

@citrus3000psi & @chriz2600 , may I suggest using only the arrows and triggers to move around and select in the OSD? Like R to confirm, L for back.

That way it should not interfere with the bios or most games start menu.

Good job so far! Be sure to update us when we can buy it!

 

@Tomleecee
Can you post some comparison screenshots between hdmi mod and Berharbros vga adapters?

 

I like the idea, I will change the buttons