"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

any one have the USB-GDROM Controller with the internal usb? if any one has it please upload a photo

 

I got my new fan for testing. I bought 2 of these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360932145346?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I know there are cheap but I only wanted a 12v fan with the control 3rd line. Plus its a perfect fit.

With the normal 5v fan and no resistor, I got 13.94 volts from the 12v line using the USB-GDROM.
Hooked the fan into 12v and... 13.94 volts. It did NOTHING. I guess it does not draw enough current to have an impact.

Plus, since its running near 14v, the fan ran too fast, making a lot of noise. I hooked the ground into 3.3 or 5 volts to bring the voltage down to ~9-11 volts but then the dreamcast shut down on its own because the control cable did not create enough of a pulse I guess.

So, using a fan to get the 12v down is out. I would have hoped some electrician guy/gal calculated the resistor we need. I do not have the knowledge for it and the one I tried only got it down to about 13v.

I guess there is no way to totally disable 12v on the transformer? 3.3v and 5v are drawn from the 12v I guess?

Does anyone have a link to a picoPSU we can use instead?
Edit: Never mind. Found the thread =)
http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/replacing-the-dc-psu.53856/

 

i believe that 2x120omh at parallel (5-6 Watt) will make your dreamcast happy

 

Hey

Sorry, I've been pretty busy so progress has been slow.
Anyway here's a new build of the GDmenu.

Download
GDmenu_v0.5(01-06-2015).zip

Changelog:
- Updated internal boot loader.
- Added region check patch.
- Added VGA flag check patch.
- Added in-game reset (A+B+X+Y+START)

The boot loader should now have 100% compatibility, as it was tested extensively and no problems were found.

The in-game reset should work with all licensed games, but it won't work for unlicensed games or homebrew
unless they have support for a button callback to access the system call. Although, I may add support for those later...

Patch to skip the start up animation was removed as it would prevent some unlicensed games from booting.
I didn't really bother to investigate and find exactly why, so maybe it will come back on a future update.

Theres a few other things being worked on, but they are not finished yet and they are mostly for the upcoming firmware.


About the menu for the rhea, it should be ready pretty soon, I know I should have released it months ago but
I always get caught up in other things and can't find the time to work on it.

There's some good news though, a possible workaround to send commands to the rhea is being worked on...

 

Hey ! good to read about you neuroacid.
Thank you for this new menu, the IGR is THE feature for lazy men
Thanks for the update about Rhea progress.
See you soon !

 

Thank you for this new menu Neuroacid

This is great news! I wasn't expecting this at all - I guess you have a Saturn and Rhea now then

 

nice all work good but something is wrong with the region/VGA flag check patch because i am getting black and white screen on games

 

Hey guys,

I emailed Deunan about Proposed Jump function.

"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

He finally replied after some long delay.

Here is the extract of our email.

Spoiler: First Mail

Hello Sir,

Thank you for your reply.

From my understanding right now, we can have folders up to 9999 in the SD card.
With 128 GB Cards, you can at least have about 150 Game Images on the SD Card

Example

01 [Menu]
02 [Gameshark]
03 [Games 01]
04 [Gameshark]
05 [Games 02]
06 [Gameshark]
07 [Games 03]
08 [Gameshark]
09 [Games 04]
10 [Gameshark]
..
..
150

But for each game, I would have to duplicate the gameshark image and place it in between each game.
Currently I find it really not practical to use a single image.
If I were to use a single image, and my game was on the 78th folder, I would have to press the swap button 78x.
I think I would have lost count after pressing the button 30x even if set the "detect_time" longer.

That was the reason why I humbly requested a way to have a "Jump" function.
Instead of the button swapping to next image, it will swap to the desired folder number.

I understand that there is a function called "reset_goto". But since we are using the menu, it will be set to 1.
Every time dreamcast boots, it will always go to folder 01 to boot.

Will it be possible for a way to add another goto function? Example - "next_goto"
So from the menu, users would able to set, example image 57 as "next goto".
After going into gameshark and enabling the cheats and when prompt to swap disc screen, users can press the swap button to go to image 57.
So users don't have to press the button 57x.

I am aware that I might be the 1% who use this function, but if this feature is implemented, I believe everyone will appreciate and use it.

Spoiler: Deunan's Reply

> From my understanding right now, we can have folders up to 9999 in the SD
> card.

Correct.

> Currently I find it really not practical to use a single image.
> If I were to use a single image, and my game was on the 78th folder, I
> would have to press the swap button 78x.

Yes, that's not very optimal, is it. That's why I always say to stick
to smaller cards rather than try to fit every game on a big one
Obviously it's up to individual preferences but I designed the ODEs
with gaming in mind. It never occured to me people would want the keep
the entire game library on a single card - for what purpose? I don't
think I even know more than 30 games, much less play all of them.

There is unfortunately no good way around that problem unless you keep
the games interleaved with the gameshark images. I mean, even if I
added a button jump function for 4 games, you want to keep over 70.
That still wouldn't really help you at all...

> I understand that there is a function called "reset_goto". But since we are
> using the menu, it will be set to 1.

I belive there is another version of the menu software in the works
where this option will work as intended. But I have no idea when it'll
be released...

> Will it be possible for a way to add another goto function? Example -
> "next_goto"
> So from the menu, users would able to set, example image 57 as "next goto".
> After going into gameshark and enabling the cheats and when prompt to swap
> disc screen, users can press the swap button to go to image 57.
> So users don't have to press the button 57x.

Now this is actually something that might be doable. It will need
support from both the ODE and the menu software to work properly
though.

I really hope neuroacid could update his GDMenu to add the jump function once Deunan adds it to his firmware. Thanks.

 

Hmm I'm gonna need some more info, what region is your console and what is the BIOS version? in exactly which games does that happen and what region are they from?
The region patch itself doesn't force any specific video signal, so this shouldn't be happening...
It just seems more likely that your PAL TV doesn't support NTSC broadcast format.

That actually may not be need at all, I have some plans to add a cheat engine to the menu and already did some of the base work, but there's still a lot to do and a ton of different code types for the Dreamcast that need to be implemented.

In the mean time as a temporary solution I was thinking about adding a feature to detect the CodeBreaker before booting and then install a handler that would allow to change discs with a button press (like LT and RT). I mention CB specifically because I find it to be the best overall and it already has a disc check routine that parses the IP meta data and displays the game name after a disc change so I wouldn't even have to write anything to the frame buffer. I just haven't had the time to implement that yet.

 

Is he serious lol?

To go to all this trouble to develop something like this and not even have the insight to understand why people would want their full library on them? Does not compute.

This is the reason I would rather buy the USB-GDROM Controller or commission somebody to mod my Dreamcast with the G1-ATA mod.

 

Pal Dreamcast (i can dump my FW if you want), Pal TV yes i believe my tv only accepts PAL signal, an option to boot games to PAL or NTSC TV will solve the problem also a search function for game list

 

Thanks for the reply neuroacid!!
Actually your temporary solution to detect CodeBreaker would be great!! I really hope you could would have to time to implement it.

At the same time, I really like the idea of a built-in cheat engine to the menu.

Thanks.

 

Was excited to give this a whirl, but I've got problems with this version.

The menu boots fine (takes a little longer at the loading… screen) and will launch a game, the DC boot screen runs correctly, but the games are running in the wrong position on the TV screen.





As you can see, the picture starts about a quarter of the way down the screen. UK PAL Dreamcast, with RGB SCART out.

 

I hope i could try this new menu this afternoon.
i was wondering,
@madsheep : when we use your GDEMU SD card Maker, we have a VGA option. Does it alter the games files internally or just apply a patch ?
If i use set this new menu, do i have to reupload new game files without the VGA mark ?
Thank you very much.

 

No, you will be ok (patched games by my program will be booting with or without the new menu)

 

I noticed that the USB GD-ROM page now reads: "Before release new firmware update - I need bug report for current firmware."
So did MNEMO sent out betas of the firmware?

 

I saw that this morning but don't know who his beta testers are. Sure am I excited to get the update.

 

i am very hurry to test the menu for rhea ^^
thank you for the gdmenu update and for your work neuroacid ^^

 

I offered a few weeks ago, but he's never got back in contact O__O itching to get a new firmware.

 

I got version 15/04/25 with the latest USB-GDROM cards. It looks neat and you can select if you want to enable region free or not.

I also asked for the update to that firmware so I could update my older card but only got a response that a new firmware will be released and announced soon.

So, what does he consider "current firmware"?

http://img.tradera.net/images/375/209054375_2b48ad01-c84e-4d26-94f9-2af5e4abaede.jpg