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Internalized DreamPi Adapter

darcagn

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Just a little something I've been working on.

I used a Dreamcast kiosk's blank modem shell to create a WiFi adapter for Dreamcast (DreamPi based, of course).


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This is my custom black dyed Dreamcast, with 100% recapped motherboard and power supply, authentic GDEMU with all games including online patches, Noctua silent fan, DCHDMI output, battery, resetting fuse.
(That's a Phillips Hue light my girlfriend turned purple in the background -- the console is genuinely black black)


I always wanted a black Dreamcast (NOT Sega Sports) but didn't want to spend the money on the official Sega black one that's super expensive. Now I've successfully made it, but with the ultimate setup for DC gaming, too.

I think I've only seen one other person do this, but with a regular modem shell and a hole on the back. Most people who internalize their DreamPis do it inside the Dreamcast itself and look the phone cable back inside, but what if you want to cleanly swap for a Broadband Adapter? I do own the black Sega official Broadband Adapter for this custom black console too:

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Of course sometimes I'm going to want to use this pretty thang too, so I want to freely swap! The black on this BBA matches my black dye job on the console perfectly, too. You can't tell they're two different color plastics at all.


If you're interested in reproducing something like this for yourself, I have started a basic WIP guide here:
 

Treamcaster

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The best Dreamcast mod I've seen so far in my opinion.
Now someone just needs to start 3d printing these kiosk shells and offer this mod with it. I'd buy it.
 
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FamilyGuy

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Thanks so much, there's no higher compliment because total retail was exactly what I was going for.
Then you nailed it at least as much as I nailed my compliment!

I actually have a pi-zero lying around... So I might try and follow your build guide! Not before a few months that is though, real life and all that.

Somewhat related question: Can you use that adapter for development over the network? Like a coder's cable or http-ack? Or does the whole "phone line" things gets in the way?

@darcagn, is that the right modem?
 
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darcagn

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Somewhat related question: Can you use that adapter for development over the network? Like a coder's cable or http-ack? Or is the whole "phone line" things gets in the way?

It would be possible to create a "dcload-ppp" type application, and recently a few people over at DCEmulation were speculating on that, but ultimately moved away from the idea. When you power on the Dreamcast, the RPi and its OS need to power up and initialize, and then the DreamPi service starts. I timed this to be about 1min 25sec from the second the power button is pressed til the time the setup is ready to take connections. Usually by the time you pick a game on the GDMenu and get through the intro, most of that time has passed so it's not really a limitation for playing games, but if you're testing code, you're looking at about 2-2:30 for each boot just to initialize DreamPi and wait for the dial, and DreamPi operates at 33.6k, so anything you'd transfer would be super slow. If you used a normal, external and always-powered DreamPi, you could cut that 1:25 boot time off, but it'd still be sluggish and slow overall.

The fastest cheapest way to do a development link would be to get one of the FT232RL USB boards and wire it up inside your Dreamcast with the microUSB port facing the outside of the console. It's only 3 wires to solder if I remember correctly. I think if you are crafty enough you could install this below the motherboard (might have to remove the pin header and direct solder to get it to fit) like how the DCHDMI is typically installed and mounted. Then you can just use dcload-serial to send code to the console at speeds like 1.5M. This would interfere if you used the SD card adapter though, you could set it up on a switch though!

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darcagn

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@darcagn, is that the right modem?

That looks like it! I think there are some modems that look like it but don't work though, not sure. But I'm 99% that's the one. I'm not the expert on most DreamPi stuff, I've been using a telephone line sim and a Netopia router for online DC gaming for years (well, that and my white and black BBAs) I just set up a DreamPi for the first time in the past few weeks so that I could do this project! It's a lot better than 2 large boxes connected to the DC that are almost the same size as the DC ;)
 
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Wombat

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This is so cool! <shut up and take my money></shut up> :p
 

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