Stumped by Dreamcast SD Card mod

I successfully did a vga mod and figured I'd throw in the sd card mod while I had it all open.
Thing is I can't get it to work, and I've checked my work over and over and I just can't find where the fault might be.

I'm using a 1gb sd card formatted to fat32.

I created my own board for the mod. Numbering is 1-7 on the mobo/sd sides right to left. Each color represents a number. Yellow being 7, purple being 1. At the board is where all the connections are made based off different schematics I've found online.
Everything seems to add up, so I can't figure out why it won't work.

here is the work below. Any help is extremely appreciated as I've spent two weeks trying to figure this thing out.

http://imgur.com/gallery/EgBwY

 

What version of Dreamshell? I know the latest has to be class 6 and 4GB+ I believe where as the 4.0 beta4 works with smaller and older cards. I had issues with mine till I used the beta4.

 

I was using DreamShell 4.0.0.RC.1

I'll burn a copy of that version you said now. I'll be very happy and a little peeved if it's that simple lol.

 

Sigh no that didn't work.

 

Try a different SD card.

 

I have. I should get at least the sd card reading even if the iso I have isnt good right? I think I may give up on this one.

 

He said it's 1gb so it's not SDHC, could just be an old SD card or the board is wired wrong even though it's a simple design that might be the issue.

 

I tried a 4gb but that was sdhc for the other sd card. I'll have to go get a new sd card then and try that out.

Does my wiring seem to be wrong at all? pretty confident on the soldering job on the serial port.

 

There's caps you might have to remove for it to work. I don't remember which ones, but I should have posted that in here some year or two ago.

SDHC always worked fine with me.

[EDIT]

Found it in a 5 years old e-mail: C605/C606/C607/C608/C609

Official quote of past me:

Official quote of jj1odm:

Historical note: 2008/12/23 is the first day someone else than jj1odm built a sd-card cable!

 

I found the caps on the underside of the board. What are they for? Is it safe to remove them if say the board I made is what's at fault?

Also, the sd card isn't recognized at all as far as I can tell, since no SD option shows in the file explorer or in iso loader.

 

I was using a different tool, a gd-rom dumper written by jj1odm iirc (dcsdrip?). So the fact DS doesn't recognizes it isn't relevant.

There's always a risk at removing them, if you break traces or stuff you could break the motherboard. But it shouldn't be too hard if you're confident enought with a soldering iron.

There might be issues if you're using the serial port for stuff other than the sd-card, but we both know you won't!
Good luck!

FG

BTW I ate real good tofu today, like, for real!

 

I'll grab myself a new tip just to safe lol, but I've pretty confident with one.

I'll try taking them out tomorrow and let you know the results. Thanks for the info.

You know despite my username I've never had tofu on a friday, maybe I should give it to you instead aha

 

So I took out those caps as suggested, I redid my wiring at the port. I realized I was using a 4.7uf cap on the mod instead of a 47uf cap. Changed it. Used the ealier version of dreamshell as suggested.

And nothing. Still no damn sd. Last thing to try is the new sd card.

 

Nada... Got the chip from helder. Put it in, and nothing. The LED doesn't light up either (and I did check to see if it was dud led)
I've ordered a 3rd sd card. 2gb.
I'm going to make a xp virtual machine to make sure fat32 format is working.
Here are pictures of the mod with helders chip. http://imgur.com/gallery/DbUie
Unless I've wired it wrong

 

I checked all traces before I sent it to you so that is odd indeed. You should see a faint light on the Led when it has power to the board. If not then I would check continuity from the back of serial port to each point on the SD board. You are going right to left with the pin order correct? And while you're checking make sure you have no shorts.

Edit: worst case scenario would be to use the test points on the bottom of the board to connect the wires to.

 

From which side are you looking at? With the controller port facing me, im going left to right. sp10 to sp1. My link in the previous post has the work I did.

I'll check for continuity in the morning/afternoon.

Also the +led pad broke off just now OTL Where does the trace lead to so that I can reconnect it.

I have another dreamcast, but it's a sports edition so I would rather not mess with it if possible.

 

The Negative lead of the LED you could soldr a wire to the Left side of the R1 resistor and the Positive side goes to the 2nd pin of the SD Card Reader from the right.

 

Thanks.

So there is definitely something wrong with the dreamcast.

Since I lack a multimeter with me right now, just went for led/battery test.

With the sd adapter still installed, I connected sp10 to the positive side of the battery, and using the port connected the led. And it lights up.
But I notice that connecting it to any pin makes the led light up.
So i disconnected the sd adapter and try again.
every pin still makes the led light up
So I lift pin sp10 and sp9 just be sure I don't have any crazy crosses along all the pins.
still every pin makes the led light up. Even the tall psu pins make it light up.

the caps that i were told to remove are empty. So from here I've got nothing. FamilyGuy also says he's stumped, and so am I.

 

I'm no reference on troubleshooting electronics though, I really don't know if the battery/led continuity test could find weird loops to power the LED and give false positives.