Dreamcast Devbox Bios on retail Console!

[DarthCloud]

I'm thinking of making an external SD card reader if i can find the proper cable that is. I want to mount the bios select switch on the SD card reader instead of the Dreamcast itself. Of course this requires the cable to have enough wires which it might not have, and will most likely remove all possibility of link play.

Soldering the switch to the pins of the serial port and mounting the switch on the SD card reader is no problem at all. The thing is that i would like the Dreamcast to default to the original bios when the SD card reader is not inserted. And the bios should be selectable with the SD card reader plugged in. How would i do that? I assume some kind of pullup/down resistor is needed...?

Pin 2 and 9 of the DC serial connector don't seem to be used neither by the serial cable or sd card reader. And their is two GND (pin 3 and 8) Link cable seem to use only pin 3 for ground from info I've found (don't know if it's accurate)

So you could lift those 3 pin inside the dreamcast and connect both chip /CE line and the D501 point to those pins. Then wire the switch like normaly but inside you sd cart adapter. But this assume that your serial cable have pin and cable for the unused pin of the serial connector, which is unlikely I guess.

The problem is that the dc will not work correcly without the SD card adapter (Both chip always disabled because of the two pullup resistor), I guess the DC need to switch off the bios, using D501 link, at some point so another chip can use the bus. (otherwise /OE would be always connected to GND.)

So in conclusion that's a bad idea, but like I said last time once you flashed the bios you don't need the original bios, so just leave the switch inside the dreamcast.

[LVNeptune]

LVNeptune: Are those chips still available? :)

Yup, toss me a PM :)

[Bearking]

So in conclusion that's a bad idea, but like I said last time once you flashed the bios you don't need the original bios, so just leave the switch inside the dreamcast.

You are probably right :) The chances of the serial cable having enough pins for both the SD part AND the switch are pretty low. I just liked the idea of flashing with the DreamShell bios and booting directly into DreamShell from the SD card. But i guess using a CD-R isn't so bad :P

I think i'll move it all over in my Resident Evil case and mount the switch on the inside. Probably between the GD rom drive and PSU :)

I have my modchip still connected to both biosses, but the Swat devkit bios should be regionfree like the one link83 made, right? I might as well remove the modchip then so i can use it in another DC some other time :)

EDIT: This is probably a stupid question. I should be able to boot DreamShell from the Swat bios and flash without touching the switch right? Just in case an even cooler Devkit bios is released at some point :D

[DarthCloud]

EDIT: This is probably a stupid question. I should be able to boot DreamShell from the Swat bios and flash without touching the switch right? Just in case an even cooler Devkit bios is released at some point :D

Yeais you can, but if bios flash go wrong you will have to take it apart to switch to the old working bios ;)

[Bearking]

That's what i thought ;)

[APE]

Wewt! Finally got it working thanks to the chip DarthCloud sent. Now to close it back up and gather parts for an overclock and internal VGA mod.

[Bearking]

Good too hear :D

[LVNeptune]

Wewt! Finally got it working thanks to the chip DarthCloud sent. Now to close it back up and gather parts for an overclock and internal VGA mod.

What happened with the one I sent you.

[DarthCloud]

Wewt! Finally got it working thanks to the chip DarthCloud sent. Now to close it back up and gather parts for an overclock and internal VGA mod.

I'm happy you got it working! :D Any pictures of your mod?

Btw Wow, only one week from Québec to California, that was fast :O

[APE]

What happened with the one I sent you.

Pulled the pin off the chip when I screwed down the shielding. Stupid mistake I didn't intend on repeating. I still have the chip but it needs some TLC before I can re-purpose it.

[LVNeptune]

Pulled the pin off the chip when I screwed down the shielding. Stupid mistake I didn't intend on repeating. I still have the chip but it needs some TLC before I can re-purpose it.

I can send you another one if you send that back...I can reconstruct the leg.

[APE]

I can send you another one if you send that back...I can reconstruct the leg.

If I can clean it up I'll see about sending it to you. Hastily removed it so it's coated with ugly bits of solder and flux.

[Bearking]

Huh the Swat bios isn't region free?! Just removed my modchip and now my Dreamcast only boots Jap, like god intended.

So how do i go about flashing link83's bios without a SD card reader? I don't suppose i can boot up DreamShell and toss in another CD-R with the bios file on it?

EDIT: Also both the rapidshare and megaupload mirrors of the bios isn't working atm. Anyone want to send it to me would be much appreciated :)

EDIT: Okay it looks like there are tools for making your own DreamShell iso on Swat's page. Seems simple enough so thats great! Now i just need the bios... and a blank CD-R which i don't have... :(

Get "DreamShell on PC loader" and "Updated ISO Make pack".
http://www.dc-swat.ru/page/dreamshell/

[DarthCloud]

Huh the Swat bios isn't region free?! Just removed my modchip and now my Dreamcast only boots Jap, like god intended.

So how do i go about flashing link83's bios without a SD card reader? I don't suppose i can boot up DreamShell and toss in another CD-R with the bios file on it?

EDIT: Also both the rapidshare and megaupload mirrors of the bios isn't working atm. Anyone want to send it to me would be much appreciated :)

EDIT: Okay it looks like there are tools for making your own DreamShell iso on Swat's page. Seems simple enough so thats great! Now i just need the bios... and a blank CD-R which i don't have... :(

Get "DreamShell on PC loader" and "Updated ISO Make pack".
http://www.dc-swat.ru/page/dreamshell/

Try my mirror again, It work fine for me.

DS need to access his file system, it crash if you swap the disc, just build one with link bios renamed with a .bios extension.

[Bearking]

Worked this time. Thanks a lot ;)

-Konsolkongen

[alphagamer]

-Konsolkongen

Ah "The console king" :-) Is that your secondary nick?

Sorry for offtopic!

[Bearking]

Yep ;p I tried registering here a while ago but couldn't. Eventually registered "Konsolkongen" using an email on a friends webserver or something, but it was a bad solution and never got around to using it.

Wish i could change my nick but bears are pretty nice too :)

[APE]

Try my mirror again, It work fine for me.

DS need to access his file system, it crash if you swap the disc, just build one with link bios renamed with a .bios extension.

Yeh I found that one out pretty quick. I falsely assumed the Russians would have loaded that stuff into memory so you could do things like this without having to second guess them.

[Bearking]

I've tried burning a new DreamShell disc with link83's bios on it but it's not working :(

Downloaded the two packages mentioned above. Moved everything from DSonPC_loader-v1.4/DSonPC_Loader/ to iso_make/Make_ISO/cd/ and made an iso using the Create_homebrew_ISO.bat. Burned the iso with Discjuggler.

I was suspecting that it wouldn't work because i never saw a 1st_read file in the folders. I don't know i using the Create_katana_ISO.bat would make any difference but i only have 2 CD-R's left :) So please help me out.

[DarthCloud]

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4OAG0PM0

DS with Link bios :P