Dreamcast Katana Dev Box Issues

I picked up a Katana in an unknown condition on eBay a month or so ago, I'm trying to get it up and running but so far I have little success, hopefully someone can give me some tips on what might be wrong with it.

The front switches were all damaged when I got it. The slide switch works just the plastic arm is broken. The region switch was sheared off and missing altogether. The dip switches were broken to have no actuators.

I ordered a new set of dip switches and a HEX switch that was similar in shape and pin-out, but I couldn't test if it had the same function as I don't have the original. Does anyone have any idea on a source for one that is correct for the Katana?

The latch for the disk drive was broken, I did find a suitable replacement for that one, but I am fairly certain the drive is done for, it looks identical to the retail units so once I get video working I will get a drive for it as well.

So far I have gotten it to display a Dreamcast logo but I only got that to happen on letter C with the VGA cables. I did also get it to boot into the test mode briefly but my TV went into unsupported signal almost right away. So my current thought is the HEX switch is setting the wrong value and the system is outputting a signal my equipment can't handle.

 

I had a similar issue with mine and replaced the hex switch with this one: http://uk.farnell.com/erg-components/erg16-422-6/switch-hex-complement-blue/dp/1203422

For mine, the settings are:
0 - Japan
8 - North America
9 - Brazil
B - Argentina
6 - Europe

The original pin layout is:

Code:

2   8
    C
1   4

Hope that helps.

 

That helps a ton, the pinout on the one I sourced is wrong according to the layout you listed. Element 14 wants $20 to ship a little switch to me ugh, I guess I don't have much of a choice.
Thank you so much for sharing what you found!

 

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/10064
Datasheet: https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/Buttons/B-21-24.pdf

That one works too, but it seems SparkFun has discontinued selling them.

 

Looks like Mouser sells it still
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Grayhill/94HBB16T/
There is an optional knob for it too.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Grayhill/947706-001/

Thanks for the info, I'm going to give that one a go.

 

I have all of the switches replaced on my Katana, It still didn't boot, it also will not load the diagnostics screen with the fourth dip switch on. I did get the unit to boot up further with the SDK tools on windows 98, I was able to perform a DA check, but the GDM was not available I'm not sure if that is an issue with a dead HDD or possibly a bad flash on something. Since the diagnostics menu doesn't show up I am kind of afraid that the EPROM is corrupt or damaged, does anyone have a dump of the EPROM? It might be possible to flash a new EPROM and get things working if that is the actual problem.

With the SDK tools I was able to force OS mode and the system booted to the dreamcast main menu, but would hang with a message that the disk needed to be checked, the startup animation was a static dreamcast logo with no sound. That was as far as I was able to get the unit to go. I may just be out of luck with a bricked devkit.