Sega Dreamcast mod: Custom bios with switch, Overclock, IDE HDD, and SD card (and soon reset button)

[wolffangalchemist]

I had started on this months ago and just recently had time to finish one up, i have 1 more VA1 console and a VA0 i plan on doing these mods to.

Spoiler: pictures

it is currently running Japanesecake's latest bios with DEV boot and running a copy of dreamshell from SD with the boot cd, all games i have used are running great from a 32GB CF card with external power( could not get my IDE2SATA adapters to work.
I decided against doing a internal VGA or sound jack mod because space is a premium and finding what i would call a good place to put it without a psu mod is a pain, and the cables are cheap as chips as of recent.
I have this one done and only plan to open it up once more because i want to ad a reset button.

I did start on the va0 probably the one i will keep and not sell, apparently 3v flash isn't supposed to play well with them. I wired it up to get power from 3v and it seems to work fine and flash with no issues.

Spoiler: pictures

 

[koffieleut]

Sounds great, I'm planning to mod my Japanese Dreamcast almost in the same way, but instead of using an HDD I'm going to use an ide to cf (and a cf to sd adapter).
Furthermore I want a raspberry Pi zero w, build in etc.
I was also planning to do the VGA mod, but now with the Dreamcast to HDMI cable I don't think it's still necessary.
I'm going to build a VGA connector on to the mainboard, because the HDMI cable isn't giving the best quality like VGA does.
I've just got one question regarding the bios you are using, what are the difference between the Japanesecake one and the regular and the standard one you are getting with dreamshell?

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Thats really cool to the point that i want to get a dreamcast and do something quite similar.

But man, your soldering skills needs lots of improvements, and you need way better tools. Not trying to put you down, but poor soldering quality can lead to lots of issues. Also, not cleaning off flux is extremely bad as flux is usually corrosive. So you may find that everything works now, but in a few months it could just stop working.

Hell, if you want, send that over to me and i will clean that up for you and make it look like a professional install

 

[wolffangalchemist]

Sounds great, I'm planning to mod my Japanese Dreamcast almost in the same way, but instead of using an HDD I'm going to use an ide to cf (and a cf to sd adapter).
Furthermore I want a raspberry Pi zero w, build in etc.
I was also planning to do the VGA mod, but now with the Dreamcast to HDMI cable I don't think it's still necessary.
I'm going to build a VGA connector on to the mainboard, because the HDMI cable isn't giving the best quality like VGA does.
I've just got one question regarding the bios you are using, what are the difference between the Japanesecake one and the regular and the standard one you are getting with dreamshell?

Basically the difference is the JC bios has a lot more options some are just neat but useless (DEV boot logo and "3d mode" home screen) others are more useful (region free cdi and gdi booting, skipping sega boot logo in games)

Thats really cool to the point that i want to get a dreamcast and do something quite similar.

But man, your soldering skills needs lots of improvements, and you need way better tools. Not trying to put you down, but poor soldering quality can lead to lots of issues. Also, not cleaning off flux is extremely bad as flux is usually corrosive. So you may find that everything works now, but in a few months it could just stop working.

Hell, if you want, send that over to me and i will clean that up for you and make it look like a professional install

Nah bro, that isn't my best work but the photos make it look worse than it is,i have been soldering since i was 14 (i am now 28, man am i old!) that was a quick job just to see if it would flash the bios fine on the va0. when i actually get started i plan on tidying it up.
Been at the modding game some time now, E.G some of my finished and er unfinished work.

Spoiler

pesky ass fake supercard minisd's, man those things had some cold solder joints.















MY 360 lasted for 7 years after a RRoD rosin flux and heat gun fix and modded dual cpu heatsinks and extra fans, only died because my roommate put it in a cabinet and left it running. i miss this thing.