Dreamcast VS LinkCable Question and CodersCable

Hi guys, Is it somehow possible to do a diy version of the dreamcast vs link cable?
Research I did so far.

Connector Building
- Use parts of old AGP ports
- Some connector from inside a floppy drive
http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/dreamcast-sd-card-adapter-from-a-floppy-drive.33032/

Basically. Is the VS-LinkCable a simple point to point connection, but I guess there's some kind of additional electronic circuit involved !?
At least what I found so far is that the DragonCastLink cable has some kind of box between the two cable ends, but I've never found a teardown of a vs link cable.
Does anyone have any pictures or information of what's inside ?

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DIY coders cable with usb to serial adapter (That one looks nice)

 

You can have a look at this page. In french but it seems to be pretty simple to build.

 

I have some pretty darn good pics of my link cable tear down. I'll see if I can find them. It is really simple board inside.


Edit

Found them on DC Talk I posted years ago. These are the pics from the official one not the Dragon cast BTW

http://www.mediafire.com/?0ttyoewhfs2110h

 

I'm use hand made connector from HDMI

 

Thx for all the responses...hmm the guy (from the first link)connected two coders cable. The one thing that makes me wonder is
According to this page http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html:
....
The dreamcast uses CMOS (3.3V) voltage levels, whereas normal RS232 uses +/-12V levels.
...
So basically by connecting two coders cables we convert to normal rs232, use the null-modem cable and the convert back to dreamcast voltage level. So I wonder if the two circuits are really needed since I convert to 3.3v back anyway ???

 

@megavolt85...so that would be basically all I need ? No converter circuits whatsoever (like from the page linked from japanese_cake). just two connectors and the appropriate wiring between them ?
If yes...then awesome !!!
And many thx for your hdmi connector pictures


:edit
forgot the link I meant
http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?fiche=45
and
http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?fiche=27 (picture 4)

 

Sega Dreamcast and PSX use direct connect without converter
For coders cable need USB-TTL adapter

 

Ok. Thank You!

 

Example USB-TTL

 

How critical is the cable length for the link cable. I built one with about 50cm and in F355 Challenge the Link Cable option still stays grey when connecting two dreamcasts.
The original cable has some circuit between the two connectors, I wonder if this one is for signal amplification ?
I guess the next step is opening one of the two dreamcasts and measuring if there are any major contact errors between the connectors and dc serial socket , and then shortening the cable length to....next to nothing I guess..

 

Mission accomplished
I have a working link cable.
I confirm Sega Tetris is working and F355 Challenge NTSC-JP also
Note, the PAL-Version seems to have no link cable support...yes it is hidden in the menu and appears when pressing x+y but it is still greyed out so no connection is possible

@megavolt85 Many thx for the pinout and your helpful tips to get this working

 

Do you mind uploading a pic of the finished cable? Any plans on making more for sell? And lastly does the connection fit snugly do the dc?

 

For the record I can confirm that the PAL version of F355 Challenge fully supports VS link play. I have played this game many times in link mode, using 2 PAL copies and a Dragoncast VS-cable.

 

Thanks for the info, thats interesting...maybe this could have something to do with the litte box in the middle with the additional circuit in it ?
I still don't know what this one is for...
I had no luck with the pal version and the self-built cable,for me the option for vs-link stayed grayed out.
Btw, heres the picture of my cable.
Connectors are taken out from an agp port, cut and sanded, so not really a fancy way to produce more of this..since building this thing, with pin bending included took quite a few hours.

Length is about 50cm

 

Just in case you missed the other pages/pictures on the french site:
Câble VS Link Dragoncast http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?fiche=5
Câble VS Link Sega http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?fiche=3

 

I have Dreamcast and coders a cable when i'm have free time I will try to connect dreamcast to the emulator lxdream

 

Hi there, I am the french guy who made the "coders" link cable
I expected to try a direct link like you did ! but never done.
I was afraid about damages, but now I can try safely !
I guess the circuit in the middle helps in regulation as it may do a buffer ?

Did you try to play Virtual On ? it's harder to get it working, some dragoncast cables gave errors :
http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?fiche=46

Also, all my pages about vs link are :
http://topdream.imaginux.com/topliste.php?search=vs

 

I just tried the direct link : Ground, RX-TX (crossed), RTS-CTS (crossed).
I used my plugs from a defective dragoncast cable, and the length is 1.8m !
And yes, it works with all VS games : F355, Sega Tetris, Aero Dancing (i), VOOT.
I really wonder why Sega added such components in the middle !

 

Many thanks guys. I succeed to build my own working vs link.