Dreamcast Internal VGA modification

Your diagram and info is hella interesting!


Now to the questions ^^

1-Do ya know if this mod makes the vga signal better than this vga box?
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/vgabox3.jpg

2-What is the best shop to buy all these stuff? I have no electronics knowledge and so I would be very gratefull if you could give me that info.

3-When your running a DC game, do you have 2 black bars on each side of the screen, or can you play full 16:9 with no black stuff? Same question for 4:3.

4-I would like to do, or ask someone to make me a Digital audio mod as well. My question is, can I use VGA and digital sound at the same time?

Thanks in advance!

 

Thank you! I'm glad to hear people appreciate it

Without question, it does!

I've owned both the transparent one, and a black one from "Brooklyn", I think it was. The transparent box, showed some clearly visible horizontal lines, sometimes more or less, depending on the game. The Brooklyn box did so too, and as a bonus, it just wouldn't work on certain televisions. A friend of mine owns the original VGA box, and the picture you get from this mod, is just as great - we've tested!

To be honorst, I don't have a clue. Google a online local-store would be my best advice - maybe another member knows more precisely? :shrug:

Haven't really tried that myself, because I usually like to play games in their original aspect. Guess it depends on your TV though.

Again, haven't tried that myself, but I can't see why you wouldn't be able to ;-)

 

Wow, man. Nice job. I like it when tutorials are made easy with a nice simple diagram instead of just a schematic I have to fumble my way through.

I was going to do a VGA mod to one of my DCs a while back, but then my mom got scared and said you're movin with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air.


I mean, uhh, I just bought RacketBoy's box dongle instead. If I get the mod done (working on other things...) soon I'll try and bust out some comparisons.

 

Thanks for the answers dude.
Here's what I mean, uploaded specially for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tRzEBAXQHQ

 

Cool and nicely done!
Shouldn't 4k7 be 47k on the diagram though ?

FG

 

Thank you very much!
And no, it shouldn't ;-)

 

the switch is really necesary? isn't it possible to connect the rgb and vga lines to 2 gnd pins of the vga connector? because all gnd pins are linked in the monitor.

 

Yes you can do that :nod: but the advantage of a switch is that you can 'trick' some Dreamcast games that are usually incompatible with VGA output into VGA by simply flicking the switch from 'standard' to 'VGA mode' after the game has started to boot (On original GD-ROM's you flick the switch just after you hear the 'beep' from the GD Drive, with CD-R software you wont hear any beep)

If you used the grounds pin on the VGA socket you would need to disconnect and reconnect the cable to perform the same trick which would quickly wear out the VGA plug/socket (In fact this is what some people used to do with Dreamcast VGA boxes which didnt have a switch, but they ended up wearing out the Dreamcast's AV socket)

 

You can also use ipwriter to add vga support to any game.

 

How?

 

:thumbsup: I actually lol'ed...

 

i did this mod, but now my dreamcast isn't working.i have this problems:
1. on the dreamcast logo, the "S" letter is flickering
2. when i go to the VMU menu, i get the blue background and nothing else.
3. when i go to settings, i get to set the time again, and after that white screen.
4. when i have to set the time i get some strange horizontal lines. see the photo.

 

Just finished up a unit, sure was fun. Now I do still have to sort out holes for the vga socket, switch and audio socket but that is cosmetic. A little crappy Picture of the gutted sexbot.

This unit is actually a gift for a friend, also flashed the board to NTSC/J. Gonna kick him off into the awesome world of dreamcast with style.

My chipped HKT-3010 will most likely be next in line.

Thanks to everyone from whom I endet up taking information for this, especially RedDragunee! :thumbsup:

Edit: finished up the internal unit case fitting a few days ago and today I made my own VGA cable, since I went against cutting up my japanese unit. Fun!

 

Any chance you could re-upload the original images in the first post?

Thanks!

 

Duh, stupid me. Sure thing :katamari:

 

Excellent, thanks again. Planning to do this mod on one of my DCs

 

Just finished this mod on one of my Dreamcasts, I ended up having to substitute some of the components (which I harvested from a broken phone lol:

150R > 100R
220uF > 100uF 10v
1N4148 > 1N50R

Worked absolutely perfectly, I'll take a pic of it tomorrow when my wife gets back with the camera.

I was hoping the switch would fool Last Blade 2, but I can't seem to get it to work, so I may not bother cutting it into the case (at the moment it's tucked inside)

Props RedDragunee, mmmonkey, etc

 

Here's my go, I could do to tidy up the wiring inside, but it works, that's the main thing

 

Looks great :clap:
I've just received another Dreamcast, so I'm about to do the modification once again.

 

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/DCback.jpg
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/1876835/DCoverview.jpg

my DC (I do not like cutting holes into my own stuff).