Question About Changing Dreamcast Optics and Modem

[pipporamone]

Early japanese units have a 5 volt GD-ROM (written on plate). it is not recommended to put that on a DC board with a 3.3 v GDROM (works but behaves strangely, tested)

5v GD-ROM fine work on 3v3 board, 3v3 GD-ROM fine work on 5v board

GD-ROM use ATA controller from PC CD-ROM and compatibily with both voltages

Wells screw holes do not match, is true indeed that most of CD DRIVES of the era are compatible both 5 and 3.3v.

I tested a 5v GD ROM on a 3,3 PAL BOARD...works but the drive spins "differently" and do not have the usual BEEP.

This is what i noticed.

[megavolt85]

but the drive spins "differently" and do not have the usual BEEP.

Spindle motor is powered by 12 volts and independent of data bus voltage
If you notice the difference, it has nothing to do with the voltage on the data bus, the difference could only appear due to the wrong voltage on line 12v, look for a problem in the PSU

BEEP is focuses the laser head
focus coil connected to BA5986FM (spindle motor too) and powered by 12v

[thedemon1238]

Thank you all for the comprehensive answers. From what I can understand, there's no danger of changing the gdroms. I was worried not to blow something, because it had happened to me in the past.

The console is japan dreamcast with broken gd-rom. My local technician said that it cant be fixed.

THIS IS THE BROKEN GDROM


The model is YAMAHA and I don't see any volts

THIS IS THE WORKING GDROM


The manufacturer is Samsung. Тhere is an inscription 3.3v

Now that I know nothing will burn, I'll try to start it. I live in Europe and the replacement GDROM is probably pal too. I have around 10-15 Japaness games lying around and my dream is to spin them again. Dreamcast is region locked and cant play them on European console.

[megavolt85]

Dreamcast is region locked and cant play them on European console.

dc import enabler

[thedemon1238]

dc import enabler is an option, thanks.

From a whole day of testing, I concluded that you can change every model of the gdroms with my console. Тhere is no incompatibility. But the replacement GDROM that i buyed, have a problem with the data cable. I guess its broken somehow… Im pretty sure the problem is the data cable, because i test it with the working gd-rom from my pal console.



Does someone knows from where i can buy these data cables for gdroms? I cant find them on ebay.

[Alex_DC]

Late reply but - do you still have your original dead drive to pull one from?

[thedemon1238]

I tried that, but I found out that the data cable on the original dead drive is broken too. That's make me think that the "dead" drive isn't really dead... But with two broken data cables, I was too afraid to touch the only one that works and didn't test it yet. Also, reaching the data cable is too hard and time consuming (at least for me). Usually а whole day pass by when i'm dealing with dreamcast disassembling and watching videos on youtube. Its better to buy two or three cables and open the drive then.

After a while I found such a cables on AliExpress, but stuff from this site comes very slow. Around two or three months to my country. Maybe even more these days. But I guess I don't have a choice.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000529 ... 2e0e2irl7b

I hope these are the cables.

I know that most of the people right now are playing dc games from the hdd or sd card and doest have these kind of problems. But i love my original disc collection and i know that most of the disk will not play after 30 years. Maybe the next ten years will be the last chance to enjoy them. That's why I want to fix all my dc optics and even buy a replacement parts just in case.

[Ian Micheal]

Not a fan of the cable and it can break i dont touch mine at all unless i have to