dtl-h2500 boards

First off, I'm new. I'm a new collector and aspire to be playstation developer. I recently aquired 5 dtl-h2500 boards from a flee market in my town. they were individually wrapped in antistatic bags in boxes full of developmental hardware. the man selling the stuff didn't know what they were or where it all came from but I had an idea (only an idea, I owned a test ps2 before and recognized the model prefix dtl- on the boards) so I bought as many as I could for 14$ which got me 5 of these and an artist board. What I want to know is, how do I get one of these boards running?

I just want to make it play games for now. I have an old tower that I pulled out of storage and can install win95 (its got win2k on it, If this works, even better). What do I need to just make it play a game besides the cd drive and the controllers?

About the controllers, all the cards came with the serial port for the controllers. Is there a way I can wire a regular pre-dualshock controller to make it work with this board via the serial port? I also have the mem-card/controller ports from an actual playstation, can I directly wire the board cable to the controller ports since they're each 10 pins?

About software, I dont have any, ANY at all, is it required to just play? What exactly do I need? I'm guessing I'll also need drivers, correct? win2k alerts me that it's found new hardware and wants to search for drivers.

I found an image at http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=457328#post457328 that shows the pinout of the a/v port and am wiring a vga port as it should be according to this diagram as I type this. Will I be able to see or hear anything on a tv as it is right now? or will I need to get the software down first?

Any help is appreciated :thumbsup:

 

You should have bought the entire box...
The picture you found has the pinout for the controller connector as well, so you should be able to use your regular ps1 controller with a bit of work.
There are drivers for Win95 and NT, you could try them under Win2k, but I doubt they will work...anyway, 95/98 is better, you can always use the real Dos mode.
There are 2 ways of playing retail games:
-the CD drive DTL-H2510
-the CD emulator board DTL-S2020 or DTL-S2900

The H2500 should start a game directly from the CD drive upon boot, atleast I remember reading something like that in one of the official docs.
But you'll need the software anyway, Ican help you with that, I'll send you a PM.

 

Good find! A shame you didn't buy the full box... but enough of making you regret not doing it. Flea markets are much much cheaper than buying on the net, but you need to wait a bit to make what you want show up. Think more and you understand a little secret.
All the software to upload the PSX dev cards is for DOS, if I remember well, and Win9x would be much better to run them. Win9x can run programs which interact with hardware ports directly (not the ones at the back of your computer! this is an addressing / software thing). To develop for the PSX you don't need these at all, in fact you can get away with a perfectly normal PSX, but in this is way it is very interesting and fun. Good luck.

 

You do not really need driver for the H2500 under win98se.
I have some trouble with some hardware conflicts before. Switching to ISA graphics card helps.
Anyway awesome found! Hope you will find an H2510. Cable can be made ;-). For the serial controller and the av cable, you will find it cheap on ebay.

 

i know...

it sucks, but no lie, I've been going back to the market every week just to look for this guy, It was 2 boxes, not 1, and even though it wasn't all playstation, most of it was, and everything in there was development hardware. there was some cartriges as well. some of the boards that I got have the MIDWAY logo sticker on them so I guess that stuff came from midway, was wondering what happened to them, good thing I have some souvenirs for them, and yes I do regret o getting everything while I had the chance.

SO I wired the a/v connection according to the diagram, but when I turn on the pc no signal comes from the card, not even a stutter on the display. I wired the yellow cable to pins 7 and 8 like the diagram says. will I need to connect the cd drive or cd emulator board for this thing to even power up? Also I did manage to get one of the cables that connects to this cd drive. one of the cards that I got had it already attached. I think there may have been more in the box though... so more of a reason to keep searching for the seller.

ever since I got these boards I've been doing some research on them and all the other parts that go with it and the isa boards. I've gotten pretty familiar with model numbers and even the ps2 I had (I was pretty clueless about that one when I had it, only wanted it for my collection at first) I've contacted lingjr through the auction site and asked about the DTL-H2510 but apparently this person is in the hospital right now, I believe for another 4-6 weeks for surgery but he/she said she/he will get back to me as soon as he/she gets out. thanks for all the help so far everyone!:thumbsup:

 

I have build an h2510 cable before : http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27505 maybe the infos in this thread help you.

 

FINALLY

So, I got back from mexico yesterday and was very tired this morning. but for some reason I decided to go to the flea market anyway. and I found it. The box with the development hardware. I had very little money and the guy wanted 40$ for the box (was the same stuff I saw last time in the 2 boxes but in a single, larger box) fortunately after arguing with him and 3 tries to go down on the price I was able to get all for 28$. I had to get this stuff no matter what, even if I had to snatch it and run (I thought about this but the exit was too far XD) because he said he was gonna recycle it. maybe he just said this to get me to pay more but I couldnt take the chance of leaving it for another week.

Here is what I now have:
7 dtl-h2500 boards, all complete with their controller boards
2 dtl-h2500/h2700 cd drive cables (apparently very rare)
3 dtl-h2000 complete with 2 boards and link cable
2 dtl-h2000 cd drive cables
4 dtl-h201a artist boards
3 sega 171-5734
1 genesis development card rev b (all sockets filled)
1 sega 171-5663 labelled "3rd party viii" (all sockets empty)
3 sega eprom evaluation board 32mbit version (brand new)
3 sega 837-11070 labeled "ic bd 16m 42pinx4 eprom r/d" (brand new)
1 nintendo shvc-4pv5b-01 (2 of 5 sockets filled, labeled "star wars")
2 unidentifiable cards, same color, 1 has isa connection, other has floppy-like connection w/short cable.
1 hard drive I have yet to explore
some other misc stuff including a small piece I can use to make an adapter for an old computer I recently bought, very random piece I need to make computer usable so very lucky it was there.

maybe I'll post pictures. I know nothing about sega or nintendo development so some info on the sega hardware would be good. the dtl-h2000 boards all look damaged and I already know 2 dtl-h2500 boards are damaged. the sega 171-5663 is damaged, the capacitors are falling off but looks fixable. some pictures of the complete dtl-h2000's would be appreciated. I have no other hardware for the dtl boards like controllers or cd drives. When I was bringing it all home I was really hoping I'd get an emulator board at least but none...

I have no computers with isa slots to test the isa boards so I would like some recommendations of some old pc's or motherboards with isa slots. I also need some advice on how to store all this equipment safely, but also efficiently. I don't want any more damage done, but I need to be able to keep it all together, stacked or something.

*edit: about the 2 unidentifiable cards, I figured out one is called "psyq psx adapter" and can connect directly to the dtl-h2000 and h2500 boards using the floppy-like ribbon cable (connects to the connection nearest the a/v out and com ports on the h2500) and has what I belive some kind of scsi port. the other card is called "psyq pc adapter" and connects to a pc via isa. this one has an ide-like connection on the inside, except for it has more pins than regular ata/ide. on the outside it has a port about the same size as the previously mentioned card. I have no idea what either of these cards do, but the both have sn systems ltd labels with serial numbers. also, the dtl-h2000 boards might not be damaged after all, except for a capacitor on one of the cards. only testing will tell if they work or not.

 

Sounds like you got a good deal, even damaged I'm in the same boat at the moment. I need a motherboard with 2 ISA slots to use my 2k but I also want it to use the most modern/fastest CPU I can find as I don't want to use any coma inducing slowboats.

Out of interest which company owned all of your boards? Or were they all Midway? Mine came from Probe Entertainment. It is comforting to know they could have been used to make Die Hard Trilogy, I loved that game back in the day!

 

Well even if he made you pay more than what you could have paid, it's still a good deal as it is not something you meet everyday. Not like he made you pay more than normal for a cheap x86 clone of old.

 

nice find

 

Just remembered I have a frinds old laptop + docking station here (he has soem of my hardware I have some of his) It has 2 ISA slots woot! Toshiba Tecra 520CDT FTW! Only problem is the laptop is like 166Mhz or something and barely used for years. I think the last time I usd this was way back when I used to have a DC 5.24 and functional GD Writer Need to get the vac out and give it a good seeing to but in the meantime - does anyone have the drivers etc for the 2k? They are the last piece of my puzzle.

 

I test different boards for the H2x00. The best solution is the Asus P2B. Has 3 ISA slots. I also recommend for the H2500 a ISA graphics card. AGP cards often give back IRQ conflicts with the H2500. But the H2000 is Plug&Play ;-).

Awesome deal!!!

 

That Asus board seems perfect, but I see there's a couple of versions of it. I'm not gonna rush into buying this board, wanna get a fully loaded one.

The worst damages are damaged capacitors. 2 dtl-h2500 boards have damaged or torn off capacitors, total of 3 for both. A dtl-h2000 has a partially removed resistor. Would I be able to replace these things with modern parts? Could I find these in a regular playstation, or get them on ebay or radioshack?

Bringing back an old question, do I HAVE to have the DTL-H2510 psx cd drive plugged in to get any kind of response from the dtl-h2500?:shrug:

 

You can use new caps.
You not really need the cd drive to get a answer from the dtl-h2500.
Follow the install notes. First you compile the FBalls example. After that you start with h25bios your connection to the board. Than you got back error or not. Will be the first steps...

 

The ASUS p2b and p3b aren't very great motherboards IMHO they had some quite serious problems back in the day
I have an asus p3b on which the ATX power on circuitry literally burnt (even smoke came out!). Works really fine if I override that, though.

A computer with ISA slots can be probably be bought at the same flea market you went to for a mere handful of dollars. At my local flea market I buy Pentium II / Pentium III computers for 5 euros...

 

I worked for an IT company back in the day and there was a running joke that the 'B' in P2B stood for boomerang. They always came back.

We always found the Supermicro P6SBA to be rock solid. Sure that had 2 or 3 ISA slots.

 

Not sure either of those motherboards will do me. I want 2x ISA but also a CPU around 1Ghz and DDR for the real kung fu I won't do anything stupid like Vapochill it though. IRQ is NP provided go through the ballache of flipping the dips.

 

I never had problems with the P2B. I run it with a 650MHz PIII and 3x128MB SD-RAM, Win98SE
All slots filled without problems ;-).

 

2+ ISA slots = Pentium 3 maximum - more than likely a slot 1. You'll probably find it'll be an SDRAM board that you come across. The only alternatives to that really are the super expensive industrial control boards that take P4 or newer chips. Yes, some P4 boards had ISA, but usually only the socket 423 boards and usually only the one socket.

Nice find - post pics and we can tell you what you have. Did you ask him if he had any more stuff - PCs etc from the same place?

 

AMD?

Soyo SY-P4I 845PE sounds more than capable. It even supports the P4 3.06GHz CPU... in Feb 2003 I paid £500 for one of those alone for my uber-system :O I have yet to find a stockist though.

Also these iBase chaps have motherboard which support P4 and more than one ISA slot but again stockists =/

MB800V
MB820
MB865

http://www.ibase.com.tw/mb820pic.htm