Dreamcast Silencer

My last mod, the Xbox slim, is quite tough for the uninitiated.
Time for something easier.

The noisy Dreamcast is next on the bench.

There's really no need for all those clicking and grinding noises it spits out, so with a little bit of grease and some felt pads, it now sits quietly in the corner.

Clickety-click:
http://bobzee.multiservers.com/console/dreamcast/silent.htm

This mod is non-destructive, so you can revert your DC to it's previous state, but I doubt you will.

 

Will this really stop my Dreamcast from sounding like a dot-matrix printer?

 

a noisy dreamcast is a healthy dreamcast ^^

 

Mines purrs like a warm kitten. :icon_bigg

The sled motor/gears make most of the noise during gameplay, so as long as you grease the gears right, it does get a lot quieter.

 

You might also put some of that felt strip around the fan casing to dampen the whine from the fan.

 

Dude. It's thinking.



EDIT: So, it was definitely a silicon grease, as in not a liquid? I know I have some silicon lubricants but I don't think they'll be thick enough. To the store... after work!

 

How's white lithium grease? Isn't that whats on PSX assemblies?

 

If it works for the PSX drive, then it should work on the Dreamcast drive.

 

I put some silicon grease on the gears last night. Some of the familiar noses are gone, but it still makes a helluva lot of dot-matrix-like noise.

Is it not a good idea to put grease on the sled rails?

Also while we have our DCs in pieces, is the GD-Rom laser assembly identical to the Naomi GD-Rom or what? It looks exactly the same. I guess what I'm asking is are they swappable? It would make servicing a Naomi setup about half the cost...

 

Apparently the best grease you can buy is 'Tamiya Ceramic Grease'. Its meant for the plastic gears on RC cars but should be perfect for CD/DVD drive gears aswell such as those used in the Dreamcast.

 

'The best grease money can buy...'

I see there's some on eBay I'll check that out, thanks!

 

Worth a try, although the motor itself causes a good bit of noise.

Not sure how easy it would be to find a less noisy replacement.

I'm going to try a very small squirt of WD40 into the motor housing and i'll report back.

As for the grease, I used a tube of Servisol stuff from Maplin, but as stated in previous posts, grease for RC car gears will be fine.

 

I can't remember the exact details, but I'm totally sure you can use a DC GD Drive in a Naomi. Maybe check over on the Killer Cabs forum as they're most likely to have details.

 

Thanks _SD_ useful to know.

I take it by Killer Cabs you mean Arcade Otaku, I think KC is long since gone...

 

I really wouldnt use WD40 as I have read in multiple places that WD40 is not designed for this purpose, and whilst it will work temporarily in the long run it will actually make things much worse.

Much better to use a light oil, such as sewing machine oil - I use a small pipette/dropper to put one drop in the motor :nod:

Some good info here:-
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,2135514,00.htm

 

Thanks for the heads-up.

It's so easy to get carried away with WD40, in fact I know someone who squirted it into their £100+ slr camera lens because the focus was a bit tight. Ouch!

Anyway, going by the link you posted, i'll try the lubricating oil I got with my shaver as it's intended for high speed mechanical use.

 

£100 for an SLR? Is that a typo? ;-)

Funny, I was just thinking the same thing re: electric shaver oil

 

good call on the electric shaver oil....

 

No problem - good luck with the silent Dreamcast :icon_bigg
Shaver oil should be perfect for the drive motor.

One thing I always meant to try was to silence the Dreamcast's fan. I planned on getting some little rubber washers and putting them beneath the screw mounts to see if it would help, but I havent got around to it yet.

The other idea I had was to try and find a silent replacement fan, but I didnt have much luck due to the small size and low current (0.08A) plus the required third wire for the fan 'sensor'. For anybody who's interested my Dreamcast fan was made by Panasonic and had the model code 'UDQFHAB05F' (although I know there were other manufacturers/models of fan used in the Dreamcast)

There is a brief information/datasheet for this fan here:-
http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/appliance/pdf/fhb_ab01_hab05.pdf
(Its on the third page)

Id be interested if anybody else has any other solutions?

...and about that persons SLR, oh dear OH:

 

Not a typo, just the way I worded it.

It was a Canon Eos 500 (a few hundred quid back in '95), and the lens itself was just over £100.

Thankfully the WD40 didn't get into the body.

The idiots I served in the shop back then never ceased to amaze me, especially the woman who pulled the film out of her camera after it jammed, and put it in a white cellophane bag to 'stop the light from spoiling it'.