Dreamcast Parallel Port Mod

Hello, I am planning on installing a parallel port above the vent at the back of the DC. I am following this

http://www.dc-swat.ru/blog/hardware/874.html

But it states you need to use external power for the drive. A standard molex connector is 12v-GND-GND-5v and on the Dreamcast power board the pins are 3.3v-5v-GND-GND-12v would it be possible to use them? or is an external power source required?

Thanks in Advance
jse

 

Just use 2,5 inch hdd It uses 5V

Pinouts:
http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1717

 

Hey so just a quick update and a question.

I am following this install diagram.



I have begun soldering it in.



But now I'm wondering why he left some pins unconnected and should I solder to them or not?
It looks like they are for CDDA so I'm guessing I will loose CDDA support in games if I skip those pins?
So does anyone know if they are required or not?

Thanks

Here is a pic of the port I cut for the Parallel port and it mounted

 

Why do you keep calling it a parallel port? It's and ide port (while technically it's a parallel interface, it's not what you would call a parallel port).

Also it's for a hard drive, not a cd drive. So cdda isn't needed

 

My bad, don't know why I got it into my head that it was a parallel port heh, so games with CDDA audio will not work at all with this mod? it's hard trying to understand everything from a Russian source.

 

Well the audio will be in the image file. It's up to how the iso loader handles that. The hdd itself doesn't transfer audio, it's transfers data. It's up to the program running on the dc side that works out the audio data. I don't have experience running isos under dreamshell to tell you how well it works. I never bothered as the sd card mod was slow. But might give the hdd mod a try

 

What does this mod allow you to do?

 

interesting

 

Connect HDD to DC and play isos (cdi/gdi) from it.

 

I want one, can you buy the G1-ATA adapter?

 

Another interesting mod... another Russian webpage. Very cool though, wonder if it would need any kind of boot disc?

 

Just to confirm, this is supported by dreamshell?

 

Since RC2 yeah.

 

I'd be so much more interested in this style of mod, if it weren't for the fact that it's impossible to buy new IDE HDDs here :/ I'm not particularly fond of replacing one antiquated technology with another. TBH the compact flash version is more appealing!

 

the ide to sata bridges seem to work pretty well. I have one in my original xbox and also in a fat ps2. They might work on this as well.

 

You're bet bet with IDE/SATA adapters is one with a Marvel chipset. I have one of these in my Fat PS2 and Original Xbox: http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Inch-Adapter-Converter-IDE2SAT/dp/B000ZLM9IA/

 

Good thought! I hadn't looked into these. Would be interested in seeing how to use one with a fat PS2/xbox - aren't they a fairly specific mounting position, which wouldn't play nicely with an adaptor such as this? Of course, that's totally off-topic.

 

Trust me you don't want "new" IDE drives. Even used ones are unreliable for the fact that after the first two years of use HDD failure rates jump considerably but level off until about year 5 where it jumps again. Any IDE drive you find these days shouldn't be trusted and at the very least if you insist on using one for something like this just keep a backup of whatever images you dump onto it.

You know what you could do though? http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Profess...&qid=1401844392&sr=8-4&keywords=compact+flash

CF cards are pin for pin compatible with this sort of thing, just need a simple adapter. OTOH CF cards are really expensive as you can see, you can easily get the adapter, a SATA->IDE bridge, and a HDD for less than one 64gb CF card.

 

The Xbox has plenty of room to spare for the adapter, it's tiny. The BBA has to be modded for PS2. Buy a dremel, it's a modders best friend.

http://psx-scene.com/forums/f98/attempt-use-2-5-sata-250gb-hdd-v9-ps2-61272/index4.html

 

So you can wire an ide connector directly to motherboard and retain gdrom functionality?