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Sega Dreamcast USB Coder's Port tutorial

einsteinx2

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Aug 8, 2019
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Quick update. Had a great call with Steven, my Shenzhen hardware partner and explained that all we're really looking for is the connector. I showed him an example of the AV connectors available on AliExpress and basically said we want that but for the serial port based on the measurements and photos I sent of the port.

I asked him if there would be a required minimum order size, and he said, paraphrased, "No, the manufactures don't care about minimum orders, only if they can make a profit. So for example it could be possible to order as little as a few hundred, but the per unit cost would be higher than if it were a larger order. Once we have quotes we can figure out the optimal order size based on unit price."

He's now going to reach out to his manufacturing partners to get quotes. Keep in mind that given the small size of this order and the fact it's a niche hobby project, he's just doing this as a favor to me in his free time, so it's not going to move as quickly as if we were a larger company placing an order in the 10s of thousands of dollars. Especially since there was just a week long holiday in China, another one is coming up (if I remember correctly), and then Chinese New Year. So we're probably looking at something like 5-6 months from now to have something in our hands, but obviously that could be earlier or later depending on various factors.

I'll keep you guys updated as things progress.
 

einsteinx2

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Aug 8, 2019
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Regarding the cost, as I understand it there are three components: initial tooling costs, per unit manufacturing costs, and shipping.

The tooling costs only need to be paid once and are the same regardless of order size. That same tooling can then can be used to manufacture as many more connectors as we need in the future. So the first order would be the most expensive per unit when the tooling cost is divided by units ordered and added to the per unit manufacturing cost with future orders being significantly cheaper per unit as only the manufacturing costs will need to be paid going forward as long as we use the same ODM.

Regarding the shipping, Steven has access to very good world-wide shipping prices via the shipping agent he uses for all of his hardware. Especially given the small size and weight of these and if we don't mind waiting an extra few weeks for boat freight shipping vs air shipping, the shipping costs should be very reasonable. And he'll definitely be able to direct ship to each person that orders (though probably only if each person orders in bulk), so we won't have to ship them all to one place and then pay again to ship them to each person which should save some money.

As soon as I get the first quotes, I'll share all the information here and we can see if it's doable price-wise. Hopefully the tooling isn't too expensive as it's only the connector and not entire cables, much less something as complicated as a custom Android tablet. I'm not trying to make any money off of this, I'm only interested in helping make these available to the community and getting a few for myself, so I'll be sharing the quotes as-is and we can figure out how to best organize a group buy. If we're short on funds for the initial order, I can throw in up to about $500 myself and just try and sell the extra connecters I receive later over time on eBay or whatever (or just keep them I guess), but I don't have the cash on hand for much more than that.

I'm fully aware that I'm relatively new to the community, so there's clearly going to be an issue of trust and I don't expect people to send me thousands of dollars based on my word alone. So if anyone has done this kind of group buy in the past, I'd love to hear how it was organized. Maybe some kind of escrow service? Though I suppose that will add a few percent to the cost in commission. If we can figure out a way to prove my trustworthiness then I'm happy to broker it myself so we can potentially save on extra fees, but I'm not sure how I would be able to do that, so maybe some kind of escrow service is the way to go even if it costs a bit more. Anyway, once we get the price locked down and commitments from each person that wants to order, we can figure out some way to do it that makes everyone comfortable.

I'm really excited at the possibility of finally having access to professionally made connectors, no more hacking up AGP slots and HDMI cables!
 

einsteinx2

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Aug 8, 2019
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Have you heard anything more about this?
I sent him a message to see if he got any quotes yet, but I'm waiting to hear back. Right now we're finalizing the new version of our commercial tablet hardware that he's supplying for us, so I know he's been focused on that (turns out half million dollar orders get priority :p). I'll update this thread as soon as I hear back from him.
 

MangeX

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Nov 20, 2019
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Dakangel
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Haha I should have waited another hour before replying, he just replied and said he'd get back to me early next week. As soon as I hear from him I'll update this thread.
Hello ,i'm mes here from assembler games, i read your posts here and i want a question.
Can You ask your contact how would cost to make virtualboy's cartridge's connectors? For a multicart project on planet virtualboy named multiboy.
 

Cooljerk

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Original poster
Jun 8, 2019
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The Perfect K
On a side note, i finally got around to documenting the process of turning one of those cheapo $10 SD card adapters from ebay into a USB coder's port. Nothing mind blowing -- just pry apart the plastic SD card reader being mindful of the glue, then solder pins 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to GND, TX, RX, CTS, and RTS on the FTDI 232rl breakout board.

Additionally, I just realized there were unlisted baud rates besides "normal" and "alternate" in dcload-serial by looking at the source code. These little FTDI 232rl boards can do 1500000 baud, really fast compared to even the "alternate" speed.
 

puppydogpals

New member
Jul 22, 2020
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Great guide!

Done making my usb/serial coders cable for the dreamcast using a FT232RL and a JST 5 pin connector housed in the modem casing. Works great with dream explorer to access vmu to backup saves.

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einsteinx2

Well-known member
Aug 8, 2019
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github.com
For anyone still interested in the custom serial connector stuff...unfortunately as you can imagine COVID killed the project dead. First it was just taking forever to even get the connector samples I sent over imported into Shenzhen from Hong Kong due to the border being closed for COVID, and now my startup just folded and I'm out of work so have no money at the moment to continue trying to get this done...

I still have contact with our hardware partner there, so sometime in the future when the world is less insane and things are back to some kind of normal (and I have a job and income again lol) I'll definitely look into this again if no one else has done it by then. Sorry guys, I really wanted to do this, but this year...yeah... :(

Hello ,i'm mes here from assembler games, i read your posts here and i want a question.
Can You ask your contact how would cost to make virtualboy's cartridge's connectors? For a multicart project on planet virtualboy named multiboy.
Generally any custom connector run is going to cost in the 1000s of dollars at minimum due to the tooling costs, so unless you're either willing to lose a ton of money on the project or think you can sell enough of them to make up the cost, it's not worth it. As I've mentioned, once the tooling is made, it's much cheaper to do additional runs, but for something as niche as the Virtual Boy (even more niche than the market for Dreamcast serial connectors) I can't see it being economically viable. It would have to be a passion project using donations with not expectation of any kind of profit...
 

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