Not sure if this is the right sub for this post, please move where it belongs if that is the case...its kind of a build log and a possibly long winded discussion of how and why I modded my DC. Long time lurker, first time poster. When I realized there were ways to bring a Dreamcast back to life without using discs, I was interested if not solely because I missed my DC exclusive games that I traded to GameStop years ago. Though, side note, Skies of Arcadia (the GameCube version) is not as fun as I remember...its so sloooooow....but i digress. Now finding the GD-EMU and GD-USB got me wondering which is best for me, and I am not sure I made the right choice with the USB from mnemo...more on that later. Once I was able to get the GDUSB board (thanks superg!) secured and on its way to me, I continued to look deeper into what you can do to a DC to make it more "future proof" and let me play my DC without worrying its going to stop working or read discs one day. I dont think i really need to go into detail about installing a GD-USB, but I am glad to say that adding the lid switch was easy. I heated the 4 pins on the GDROM board one at a time as I pulled up and eventually it came right out. The GB-USB board accepted it perfectly without any modifications and it functions as expected: open the lid to either switch discs on 2 disc games or to go back to the DC menu. This is definitely worth it if you dont want to have to power cycle every time you want to choose a different game from USB. A basic mod is to change out the date/time battery in the front. You can get these holders for less than $1 and the batteries for only a couple dollars. http://console5.com/ is where I got mine. Definitely make sure you get the RECHARGEABLE battery for this, the other type is instead for the VMU. Desoldering the stock holder, with battery permanently attached, was easy enough. Slips right in and works perfectly. If you dont have a solder sucker, no big deal as I was able to just heat and pull one pin at a time and when putting the new one in, heating the hole while pushing each pin in and following up with fresh solder for a clean joint. Everyone comes to find that removing the GDROM from the DC makes the 12V pin on the motherboard unnecessary but that doing so can cause the stock PSU to get a little hot. So you eventually learn of the PicoPSU mods, many of which are on this forum so thank you all for the inspiration, photos and help. I already had a genuine PicoPSU 120W with a 12v 10A wall adapter. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0081S1YEE/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item I had purchased this with intent on making a mini-xbox (OG, not 360 or One) and that project died when I decided to go a full on MAME cabinet with it. So with this PicoPSU lying around, i put it to good use in the DC. Since this seems to be one of the more "show me" kind of mods, I took a few photos and added info to them to better explain what you are looking at. The Pico PSU comes with a plastic pin connector that many people, to save space, remove. I found the cleanest and simplest way is to just use wire snips or something similar and cut each pin off one a time. Once you cut them halfway the plastic piece can come lose. Do it to all 20/24 pins and youll have just the board like me shown below. For wires I simply cut off most of the HDD plugs the Pico came with and used those. To have the Pico work with the DC power button, you need to bridge the PS_ON pin to a COM ground which i did with a blob of solder since the pins are side by side. If you do not do this, the thing will not turn on no matter what you try, so don't forget this. The DC only need the 3.3v and 5v plus 3 COM which I directly soldered to the pins from the mobo and heatshrink tubing over that. Eventually I will probably hot glue over the Pico connections, once I have all the internals how I want them. Speaking of using the DC power switch and expecting it to just turn on/off like it used to, youll need to wire in the DC power switch to the Pico. Everyone on this forum agrees that wiring it in line with the incoming 12v line from the wall socket is best. I was able to use the original plastic AC connector from the DC PSU, drilled out the circular hole and shoved the plug in. It was snug but I added hot glue to hold it all snug. You will NOT be able to use the entire plug housing and have it fit the black plastic piece. I remove all the plastic surrounding the plug first. If you try and put the full size in there, it will break your black plastic. Wiring it up is simple. The DC power button is 2 wires. The power plug is 2 wires. Pick one of the Pico wires and cut it along with the end plug of the DC button wires. Now wire in the switch to the line you cut from the Pico. That is all there is to it. You see some heat shrink tubing along the white wire only because i made it shorter, but you only will cut ONE of the 2 wires coming from the Pico to the AC plug end. So youll have 1 wire from the Pico untouched and direct to the AC plug and the 2nd wire goes with the DC switch. So you may now be asking wtf is the molex plug still doing attached to the Pico if I am not powering a HDD with this? Because I am going to be adding both a Kuro (http://www.beharbros.com/#!kuro/c1dcu) and a VGA-HDMI converter to this DC and want to power them with the Pico and save on an extra 2 AC adapter plugs. This is where waiting on parts, Kuro is on order, stalls me from moving forward and knowing what is feasible and what is just impossible. I am confident I can de-case the small VGA/HDMI box (http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011404&p_id=6191&seq=1&format=2) for a smaller footprint and just deal with the internal PCB, and I am also confident I can do the same to the Kuro (if I had to, it seems very small already). With both PCBs bare I can solder their 5v power requirements directly to their boards. Is my thinking on that correct? This is where questioning whether the power brick is overkill or not. The 120W Pico seems adequate regardless and I am pretty sure you can add any power brick to it up to 120W, meaning I can use a smaller one. Hell the brick weighs MORE than the DC does now, by a fair bit. Though if I am powering the DC, the Kuro and the HDMI converter, is it still overkill? Id love to be able to use a smaller power brick...and I defer to the expertise on this board while I continue to work on this thing. Another question to ask myself would be "is the GD USB overkill" for me? Relative to the GD-EMU? The USB can take up to 2TB, but I am never going to get over 100GB of DC games on my USB stick. So is using an SD card and the GDEMU a better choice for someone like me? I feel like the USB is for those who want the whole DC collection in one place and I just want a couple handfuls.
You might want to check how much lag that vga to hdmi box will introduce to the mix. Take a look at OSSC, its a zero lag scart, component, vga to hdmi converter. But its not going to fit inside a dreamcast. Also take note that fitting an hdmi connector inside the deamcast might be challenging. Flex cables come to mind, so you'd have to build a small pcb connector with both connectors. Something like this comes to mind, http://www.proto-advantage.com/store/images/PRODUCTS/CN0002_0.JPG
OSSC seems way overkill for my needs and expensive too. I expect to have the DC AV out physically looping back into a hole I will cut in the body. Inside the DC this connects to the Kuro which then connects to the VGA/HDMI converter and I will have an HDMI cable coming out of the DC, not a port.
Not sure if the Kuro supplies 5v on pin 9 of the VGA cable? If it does, you don't need to power some VGA to HDMI adaptors. (The Hanzo does) Also the DC AV Port powers the Kuro/Hanzo.
Good! Thanks for confirming that. I suppose it still remains if my power brick is overkill for the demands of the DC + Kuro (seems negligible) + HDMI converter + GDUSB? Id like to have the smallest brick possible.
I just checked my Kuro, and it does supply 5v on pin 9. Since I use an Atlona AT-HDVieW for VGA to HDMI, I soldered a wire inside the AT-HDVieW so it draws its 5v from pin 9 of the VGA cable (as opposed to the USB plug). I was concerned about the small wire gauge of the VGA wiring in the AT-HDVieW being a current limiter on the 5v line, but it works like a champ. Also, I ordered my Kuro without any fancy scanline generators or anything like that. Without any extras, it's really a simple device- it has a few resistors, 3 capacitors, and an LED. If you're going to put everything inside the Dreamcast and don't want any extras on the Kuro, it's probably easier to just wire the VGA internally (as many modders have done over the years) and skip the Kuro altogether. If you don't have access to a lab power supply, it might be worthwhile to get a cheap USB current meter that you could use to measure the draw your components have on the 5v rail.
For lag, I use a hammerhead vga2hdmi converter (~50$) and I can't feel any lag at all, even playing games like thps2 where timing can be crucial. I've been playing that game for well over ten years and I'm really used to how it feels.
Godofpoo, I did mods very similar to yours. I installed usb-dgrom, rechargeable battery holder and an 80 watt Pico PSU. I also removed the stock fan and installed an Arduino mini to provide the fan signal. Everything worked good but I was worried about heat. I tested for heat by letting Crazy Taxi run for hours. With the top cover off everything was fine. However put top cover on and it got hot. Still ran OK but I did not like how hot the main board got. Installed the quietest 30mm fan I could find in place of the stock fan. The stock fan holder amplified fan noise and it was way louder than stock. I had a spare Noctura 40mm fan. Connected it directly to Pico PSU. Positioning it in the top left on the case at a downward angle fought good cooling. Photo of position is below. it is only audible if you are right on top of the DC. Still need the Arduino mini installed to provide a fan signal (or else DC just shuts down) [GALLERY=media, 1500]IMG_1340 by rayik24 posted Sep 6, 2016 at 1:15 PM[/GALLERY] [GALLERY=media, 1499]IMG_1347 by rayik24 posted Sep 6, 2016 at 1:12 PM[/GALLERY]
Bringing back this topic from the nethers I have finished my DC mods and am very happy with them. The KURO proved to be too big but I found http://retrotimegames.com/dcvgakit.html (site only works half the time) which sold me a very tiny VGA circuit board that fits inside the DC. Sure it doesnt have scanlines or anything of that nature, doesnt even have the switch...because, lets face it, the non-VGA games kinda suck anyway and I dont even have any. The AV connector pins on the bottom of the motherboard make wiring the circuit easy. (bottom view of mobo) So once I got VGA out I wanted to get it to turn into HDMI out, if only because i know my next HDTV will probably fail to have a VGA port. Any decent VGA-->HDMI converter is kinda big and bulky and wont fit inside the DC body. But seeing as how cheap HDMI converters still do the job I was able to find a very small VGA-->>HDMI converter that I de-cased and with the bare circuit, fit it inside the DC. Some hot glue to hold it in place and some careful cutting/filing to get a HDMI shaped port in the back of the DC case. The adapter needs 5v to run, and this was supposed to be done by using a USB cable that was part of the adapter. I just cut off the USB end and connected the 2 bare wires to the 5v+ and G posts on the PSU pins. The audio jack, included with the VGA adapter, connects to the headphone plug coming from the HDMI adapter. With the PICOPSU taking up so little space there is "plenty" leftover for the HDMI converter to fit. My GD-USB is not in this photo but there is enough of a gap underneath itself to fit the HDMI circuit and wire you see in this photo.
I am working on a hdmi hardware design for the DC based on some open source software. This will display the correct the aspect ratio and also line double 480i games. http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=59339
Well it takes the digital signals and converts them to HDMI before the DC's DAC converts to VGA. The Dreamcast outputs a 720*480 frame with the source material actually being 640x480. All VGA to HDMI adapters display the incorrect aspect ratio because of this. These can't really be compared. Just wanted to let you know, that new solutions are on the horizon.
