GD Rom drive versions

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Bring
dark night
Posts: 53

GD Rom drive versions

Post#1 » Sun Jan 29, 2017 2:10 pm

Are all DC GD rom drives interchangable?

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SEGA RPG FAN
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#2 » Sun Jan 29, 2017 9:36 pm

No, there are at least two versions. My VA0 and VA1 definitely use different drives.
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Raen
Toy Commander
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#3 » Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:33 pm

They are interchangeable though, so yes. There's a model made by Yamaha and another made by Samsung. The Yamaha version was supplied with early Dreamcasts (Japanese VA0) and is more reliable than Samsung's.

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BlueCrab
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#4 » Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:35 pm

There are at least 3 non-interchangable versions to speak of...

Most Model 1 consoles (in my experience) have a 3.3v drive, which might be from a couple of different manufacturers. These should be all interchangeable as far as I know (just make sure the drive actually says "3.3V" on the metal part on the bottom right corner -- it's in fairly large print, see the picture below).

IMG_1668.jpg


There are also consoles (model 0 and some model 1, possibly?) that have 5V drives. These look pretty much the same as the 3.3v ones, but they are not interchangeable. I don't recall if these say 5V on them or not, because it's been a while since I opened up my model 0 console...

Finally, some later consoles (Model 2 ones) have a much lighter GD-ROM module. These drives do not have an on-board controller like the other models because the GD-ROM's controller hardware was integrated into the motherboard of these consoles. These are also non-interchangeable with any other model of the system, quite obviously.

I'll try to grab pictures of the 5V drive and the later drive sometime, if I can find them in my collection of consoles...

Bring
dark night
Posts: 53

Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#5 » Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:35 pm

Thanks for the info. Would like to see that 5v drive one day, if you get the chance.

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Raen
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#6 » Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:48 pm

Well, I thought they were all interchangeable, never read anything otherwise, but if BlueCrab says so ;-)

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BlueCrab
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#7 » Mon Jan 30, 2017 6:15 pm

Bring wrote:Thanks for the info. Would like to see that 5v drive one day, if you get the chance.
I've gotta find the correct box in storage first... Once I get a chance to do that, I'll be happy to post a picture.

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Tarnish
Prince of Persia
Posts: 342

Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#8 » Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:33 pm

Since this is something I'm interested in as well, could this be the 5V drive?
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20171203_182033.jpg
20171203_182033.jpg (707.91 KiB) Viewed 14131 times


Although it doesn't say 5V, I opened up the unit and the PCB is definitely a different design from the 3.3V versions I've seen so far, and this is one of the earlier Japanese DCs from 1998, so unless the previous owners swapped the drive, I assume this is a 5V drive.

So, the 3.3V and the 5V drives aren't interchangeable?

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BlueCrab
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#9 » Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:23 pm

Well, that is certainly a Yamaha drive. Also, since it doesn't say 3.3v, I'd presume it to be 5v. Plus, based on your statement of it being from 1998, I'd presume it to be a model 0 Dreamcast, which is where the 5v drives would normally be.

I'd stay away from interchanging drives between that console and any with 3.3v drives. The voltages won't be correct and will probably damage the drives (although, it may not be immediate). Heck, even the GD-ROM emulation devices won't work properly on those consoles, due to the difference in voltages (see here for a statement from the creator of the original GDEMU on that).

Thanks for the pictures of the drive though, since I never got mine out of storage to take pictures of it. :)

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Tarnish
Prince of Persia
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Re: GD Rom drive versions

Post#10 » Tue Dec 05, 2017 2:51 am

Cool. Just a little more info, the model number on its bottom is 670-13748D with T. TKR as the manufacturer, which according to this site definitely is one of the earliest DC types: http://users.skynet.be/t_chan/dc/mylist ... asts_japan

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