Dreamcast-Talk.com

Gary_b wrote:I did some experimenting with the dell modem. I tried to power the phone line using the USB 5 volt power. I hooked directly to the phone line connection inside the dell modems case. I basically used the line voltage inducer but with the USB power supply and it did not work.

Yeah, it needs a minimum of 9v. I've used both 9v and 12v AC adapters and they both work perfectly for this. Although personally I prefer using the battery. It lasts between 35 and 40 hours of gameplay so you won't be changing it very often. Took me two months to drain my first one.

I have a couple of other ideas. One is to try to find a way to power it from the Dreamcast modem side. The next idea is that I can use a USB booster. This Booster boosts 5 volts to 9. I might need to plug the booster into another one of the USB ports on the Raspberry pi. It is possible to remove the USB connectors on the booster to make it fit inside the Dell modem but I am concerned that there will not be enough power to power the booster and the Dell modem, or it might damage the Raspberry pi by pulling to much current. The last idea is to just use a power brick, but I do not like that idea I want to power it with one of the two devices.

here is the USB booster that I am talking about
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281976849063?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

That voltage booster is interesting but I'm not sure how much I would trust something like that. Not sure I'm willing to risk frying my Pi. lol

Gary_B,

I like the 9V battery through the RJ11 pass-thru idea (shown in the photo).

I hooked another 9 volt battery connector to a power brick that outputs 9 volts DC at 600 mA and it works great. Played some PSO with Bob Dobbs and it connected and stayed connected great the whole time. At least I do not need to use batteries unless I want to and this way that option is still there for me.

Fwiw I boosted the 5v USB voltage to 18V with a custom circuit and it works great. I was going to sell them but it's just not worthwhile

@kazade I'm happy to pay a premium for this circuit and I'm sure many others will so too. This is the last piece of the puzzle to get a plug and play solution, using a battery just doesn't cut it.