[DEV] Dreamcast BBA Converter!

[Mechanic]

very low price compared to the bba.. Nice job ,... So how many atomiswave bba boards are available? Did you buy a bunch of atomiswave consoles to make the kits or is the atomiswave board not included which would still be a great deal considering a bba cost

[Anthony817]

You have to buy the actual Atomiswave LAN adapter separate. A lot were sold at $20 a pop just the other week. So they can go for WAY cheaper than a BBA. And yes you have to solder it too, so you will need at least basic skills to connect the adapter and the connector must be sourced from a spare modem as well.

If you are lucky, and can source all the parts, seems you potentially could get one built for around $50granted you provide your own modem connector.

[Mechanic]

ok thanks

[RetroAMS]

It lives!

Kit arrived today and put it all together. Tested so far briefly with PSO and Quake (used PSO to set it up).

I have no access to a 3D printer (or the skills to use it) so I modified the atomiswave communicator casing slightly.

The no-cut crew will no doubt be raging with me haha. Just removed the top metal shield, removed a little plastic from the inside of the cover and added a slit in the side for the ribbon cable ( ). A couple of "sticky fixers" affixed to the bottom were used to raise the base up enough so that the original connector underneath isn't touching the desk. If it ever gets connected back into an atomiswave (it wont) the hole would never show of course.

Planning on doing some lag comparison tests in quake at some point, interested to see if performance is improved when connecting to servers across the pond in particular.

This was a fun little mod, thanks again XRider. All-in cost was £55 including purchase of a donor modem.

[-drez01-]

Hey looks great! Just received my atomiswave communication cartridge. I am definitely copying you

[RetroAMS]

Modem (wifi dreampi) vs "not bba" (wifi bridge) ping comparisons:

Used a laptop with PC quake to measure against too, which was also connected by WIFI and was hosting the local server. The PC client also handilily reports ping for each connected player numerically, rather than a green bar:

First test, laptop hosting a local server, so all on my local LAN
PC = 0ms (surprisingly enough
Dreamcast via modem/dreampi = 130ms
Dreamcast via "not bba" = 0ms

Second test, connecting to "Test FFA DM" server, presumably close to me geographically
PC = 61ms
Dreamcast via modem/dreampi = 185ms
Dreamcast via "not bba" = 60ms

Final test, connecting to "Dreamcast Talk CTF", which is on the other side of the Atlantic from me
PC = 110ms
Dreamcast via modem/dreampi = 248ms
Dreamcast via "not bba" = 110ms

So basically it's as fast as a PC connection would be - nice.

So if playing against our American friends on American servers in the middle of the night (for us Europeans) you'd expect to be getting about 110 ms, so it would level the playing field somewhat against dreampi players over that side of the pond... (against BBA players.... well not so much, but not too bad).

All in all very happy with the result

[Anthony817]

Wow nice! I like how you reused the original case! Nice to see the ping test. 55 pounds total? That seems kind of high compared to my calculations it should have been around $55 or so. Roughly close to 33 pounds. Was the shipping and a spare modem to blame for the increase? Considering you are in the UK and the adapter parts are shipping from France it should have saved you some cash. Of course that is assuming the Atomiswave LAN cart was around $20.

[RetroAMS]

Wow nice! I like how you reused the original case! Nice to see the ping test. 55 pounds total? That seems kind of high compared to my calculations it should have been around $55 or so. Roughly close to 33 pounds. Was the shipping and a spare modem to blame for the increase? Considering you are in the UK and the adapter parts are shipping from France it should have saved you some cash. Of course that is assuming the Atomiswave LAN cart was around $20.

Cost breakdown (includes shipping charges for each):

Conversion Kit £27.22
Donor modem (ebay) £12.99
Atomiswave Lan £15.33

Total £55.54

Still international shipping from France of course... despite not being that far from the UK, and of course I only bought one for personal use, so no economy of scale savings on shipping. Total for conversion kit including shipping 30 euros.

To be honest I don't begrudge the cost of the kit, it's not just the cost of producing the pcbs and the cost of shipping them out, it's the effort the original creator in putting in the hard work and for such a niche product it's unlikely to sell that well.

If it was 30 euros with free shipping I wouldn't have hesitated either. I couldn't justify buying a BBA for over a hunderd quid, but 55 and some elbow grease (and a fun challenge) worked for me.

[XC-3730C]

Does the BBA have any other functionality in 2020 besides the few games that support it?

Very cool mod I must say

[Xrider]

Sold out. New batch coming in 3 weeks