Project Katana: Building the "Ultimate" Dreamcast

My grand vision is of a DC with superb functionality and style.

Just now completed piecing together the shell made from violet tinted clear plastic. Pictured below. I used the buttons and a few other pieces from a sports edition DC for added style, and it came out sweeeeeet if I may say myself. For anyone who may want to recreate this case, beware the aftermarket shell is not exactly the same as the Sega manufactured buttons. I needed to do a bit of dremeling to retrofit them.

The next step in the project for me is installing a violet (blacklight) LED(s). I am considering multiple around the case, but I'm starting to favor a total of 2 one for the system light, and one for the SD card reader I am planning to install.

When "Project Katana" is complete it will have:
VGA + 3.5 audio out
SD card reader (bootable w/ out disk)
Region free bios


I am new to electronics and the online resources are the only reason I am attacking the project with confidence. I have enlisted the help of friends, family and experts alike, and I am eager to hear any feedback or ideas that you might have.

Somethings that are on the table for the project but not in the current plan include: overclocking, ethernet, wireless controller, vmu backlight.

MASSIVE thanks to: @Bad_Ad84 & chrisvcpp from ebay for clutch advice and essential components.

 

LED Mod:


All in all I'm very satisfied. I ran into some difficulty as you can tell, and I will be practicing my soldering for the next few days (much needed) as I wait for my components to arrive.

Stay tuned !

 

Please tell me it's not as bright as the picture suggests! Camera tended to exaggrate LED brightness in the blue end.

 

I would say the same as the original.

Honestly wish it was a little less blue... It looks awesome but, for me it slightly takes away from the 'custom' feel. If I had known it would appear blue I may have opted for a white LED. If I do choose to switch it out I will be switching the entire controller board because that ghetto rig pictured above took all night and half a day. As an amateur solderer, I managed to brake the LED pin off flush inside the contact hole and had to compensate for my error.

Any thoughts on color?

 

why didnt you just solder in the led where the old one was, why the cable?

 

I managed to brake the old LED pin off flush inside the contact hole :/ The better contact it's on the underside of the board and is much more accessible. After pouring over the problem that's what I came up with...

 

A few case mods while I'm waiting for the rest of the electronic components:
I mounted the switches, VGA, and 3.5 mm audio jack. Also a chrome swirl sticker, matching "SEGA" logo otw.

 

Jake585 that looks great!

What speed are you planning to overclock to?

 

wow awesome project, sounds like the final Console could be awesome!
By now i really like the controller and the LED MOD you did, tried this a while ago couldn't get it done somehow, but as I'm a real noob aka learner to electronics, isn't it possible you put some resistor between Led and DC Controller Board to darken the LED's light ?

I'm curious about the Sticker did u create it on your own or did you order it online somewhere? Would love some like that for my dc too
Gonna keep an Eye on you and your great Project as I'm about to give a VGA / SD Reader / Dual Bios MoD on one of my DC's, so this comes in perfect time for me and will sure help me realising my project

gr33tz

 

Thanks!!!

I am still debating an overclock... think ill open the poll back up
What speed would you suggest? I may have to start thinking about where to put another switch!

To dim the LED, you could also easily use a piece of electrical tape around the light guiding plastic piece leading to the triangle. I did a really nice job of wrapping tiny strips to smoothly cover it, then ended up taking them off to achieve the original brightness.

I got the sticker from ebay. The metallic swirl and each letter are individual stickers, and they don't stick so great. :/ I have them on top of the original sticker and used piece of clear packing tape over the top to hold them in place. It came out ok, but I think I will redo it using a better method when I come up with one.

UPDATE: Just got a bunch of components and can't wait to plug in the soldering iron!

 

beware, if my memory serves well, if you overclock your dreamcast you need to overclock VMU as well.

 

Thanks for the info!

The VGA mod is underway:

 

VGA Mod:

It was a great success! and a lot of fun!!!
It probably took about 60$ including tools, MANY hours, a steady hand and some patience.

I owe it all to the help of others sharing information on the net.

Here are a few helpful links for anyone interested in giving this mod a go:
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/dreamcast-internal-vga-mod/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sega-Dreamcast-VGA-Mod/?ALLSTEPS


>>>THANK YOU to my friend John for his patience explaining some electronics basics, and for the awesome connector I used on the circuit board. THANKS JOHN!

 

SD Card Mod:

I flew threw this project today like a kid unwrapping gifts on xmas. I am so glad it works!

I would consider this mod much more difficult than the VGA. Thinner wire and more precise soldering tip could have made things a bit easier... Luck was on my side.

Here are some of the links I used:
youtube.com/watch?v=qh6SxdUk_Xk
http://www.theisozone.com/tutorials.../how-to-buybuild-a-dreamcast-sandisk-adapter/
http://www.dc-swat.ru/page/dreamshell/

More pics to come

 

This SD mod inside the modem looks great!

 

Did the SD mod again using prototype board opposed to soldering the SD card reader directly to the serial port and it now works and loads into Dreamshell. However the image on the screen is to far down and to the left resulting in the sides cutting off. What SD card and version of Dreamshell did you use ?

Cheers

 

I had that problem but my monitor allowed me to move the picture on center and I used
15.08.2010
DreamShell 4.0 Beta 4 (Form SD Loader)
with the SD card pictured above.

 

Hi

Any chance you could list the exact part numbers for all the items you used for these mods and where you bought them? (vga socket, cables etc)

minus the sd reader part , as im using a usb-gdrom
Thanks

 

how did you take off the jewel on the lid ... mine was superglued all around even with the dremal I couldn't get it out.. I was going to replace it with OEM black one but heat and rotary tool would not get the cheap Chinese one out it literally destroyed the case lol