Stock Heatpipe DC? Sweet!!! (Pics ~ 300k) Should I OC It?

kingbuzzo · Post by **kingbuzzo** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:14 pm

Funny thing, every dreamcast I've ever opened up has been a heatpipe dc.

Those are all the 4 that I've owned, and my friend's 2. I have yet to see a DC that doesn't have that heat pipe system. Maybe they're more common in canada?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:44 am

Maybe they're more common in canada?

Its just the manufacturing date

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 6:18 am

You should feel lucky to get older revision hardware, in my opinion vev 1 and 0 and way better than rev 2.

Okay, so I need to get some switches for my scratch DC. I found some decen-t looking ON-ON toggle switches for about 1.20 apiece. In regards to these type switches, what does SPDT mean? I just need a switch to toggle between 33 / 40 for the CPU clock, and 54 / x for the GPU clock.

Also, what is the multiplier for the GPU clock? How high can you overclock it? I figure I'll try and get a 60, 70, and 80 meg oscillator and see what happens.

And finally, can you build a 50/60 hz output switch?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 8:41 am

SPDT

Single Pole, Double Throw,
Will do this:

How high can you overclock it?

I don't think anyone has tried, have you got a clock generator kit yet?

And finally, can you build a 50/60 hz output switch?

From the FAQ:

3. FORCING DC TO BOOT IN 60HZ AND 50HZ

Do you live in a european country and are constantly annoyed by the poor versions of games from america which are forced to 50hz and you want to boot them at 60hz? or is your TV too old to support the 60hz signal and games dont run very well and you want to force a 50hz signal? Or do you simply want to create a 50/60hz switch? then look no further than here.

In this topic BOB_LORDOFEVIL_2001 explains in this neat tutorial how to create a 50hz/60hz switch.

http://www.dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1776

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:36 am

THanks for the diagram matt, helps me out a bunch.

I don't think anyone has tried, have you got a clock generator kit yet?

No, still just looking at crystals ATM, haven't really seen a clock generator kit yet, but I haven't really looked.

From the FAQ:

Doh!

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:14 am

lol, I suppose.

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:13 pm

Has anyone seen any cool soft-touch illuminated ON-ON pushbutton switches?

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:11 am

Ok,

The pipes version of the DC is not as effective as teh rev1 board. The pipes machines do overheat and are less efficent in cooling the DC. With REV1 the heatsink is better designed in the dc. This make the dc run cooler. The pipes were a bodge to get the dc out of the door in time.

When overclocking the DC here is what you should do.

Lift the 33mhz leg solder a wire to the lifted pin, and one to the motherboard. You then can either fit a switch to go between the std speed and your overclocked speed. (Thats an easy part). When overclockign a DC i founf 40MHZ works,(clock speed 240mhz) but 48MHZ doesnt (clock speed 288mhz).

The common fault for the overclock not working is a black screen. This means that the CPU is not able to sync or send any cycles. As long as you have a completed circuit this will not happen unless you are also overclocking the DC to high (as I said 288 is to high).

As to overclockign the video, Ive started experimenting wih a PAL DC as you should be able to overclock the GPU 20% before std PAL RGB scart will not be able to cope (as it will then be 60hz)

Overclockign the DC definately speeds up shenmue2, but sega rally 2 was still slow, thats why Im lookign at gettign the gpu and the CPU bpth overclocked as this will create a faster system than jsut havign one of these done. I might have a system with both gpu and CPU speed up approx 20% each..

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:41 am

I found some damn cool light up switches with digital text on them, but they cost 30 bucks a pop. Still pretty cool.

I'm going to look at what voltages the pipe system I have on the rev 0 board is using, and see if I can move that over to my rev 1 scratch board for fun. Don't know how hard they'll be to get off the chips...

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:56 am

The pipes machines do overheat

the pipe system

Heatpipes don't require any voltage, it could be used to attract the particles from one end to another

Morphv2 · Post by **Morphv2** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 12:05 pm

Thats an excellent idea qatmix. Give us a tut wen possible, would LOVE to try it.

btw, thx matt, about the bios chip. Becasue of that, I've been able to acertain that the "mystery" motherboard i own was actually an attempt to either flash or alter the bios.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 12:29 pm

I've been able to acertain that the "mystery" motherboard i own was actually an attempt to either flash or alter the bios.

Thought so, you got any pics?

Pyrosurfer · Post by **Pyrosurfer** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:59 pm

I just got a pretty rare dc, its a model 2 November 2000, but it can read cdrs. I'm still gonna try to put my dc in my pc, and using this dc I might be able to fit it in one bay. The downside is model 2s suck for overclocking

. Oh well, I killed a dc and some other stuff when I was working on my dc (not overclocking it) a month ago, so I kinda feel like taking less risks anyway.

wolf1728 · Post by **wolf1728** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:32 pm

fatheadpi
THanks for the diagram matt, helps me out a bunch.

Well it's nice of you to thank Matt for that diagram - but I drew the darned thing. Relax. I'm not some Internet "whistle blower". I run my site http://www.1728.com just as a hobby and if people use my site that's fine with me. Provided that they don't "hotlink" too many of my diagrams. Usually message boards are okay by me. (What I really hate is when people outright steal my work, put it on their website and act as if they wrote it.)
Okay, that's a long way around what I wanted to say. Instead of just looking at that diagram, why not go to
http://www.1728.com/project2.htm ?
There you'll see a complete tutorial about switches written by (you guesed it) - me.

I've got a feeling that the message board members here would find some other pages of my site interesting. If some of you would just post a comment about my site here on this message board, I'd appreciate it - but don't feel as if you have to do that.

Thanks
wolf

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:44 pm

you forgot the part where you ask him to give you credit for the diagram

heh, sorry (I've been saying sorry a lot, its because I go kinda off topic)

Morphv2 · Post by **Morphv2** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:45 pm

mattthemodder wrote:
I've been able to acertain that the "mystery" motherboard i own was actually an attempt to either flash or alter the bios.
Thought so, you got any pics?

Will get some ASAP. Just gotta borrow a friend'd digital camera. What scares me is that it looks like the guy (or lady) knew what they were doing too. VERY well soldered.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:29 am

wolf1728, tis a very good tut. I'll add it to the FAQ

wolf1728 · Post by **wolf1728** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:09 pm

Thanks matt. I had a feeling this message board would find it useful.

wolf

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:24 pm

mattthemodder wrote:
The pipes machines do overheat

the pipe system
Heatpipes don't require any voltage, it could be used to attract the particles from one end to another

I don't think he means all heatpipe-based systems overheat. He's just saying more or less what I said, that heatpipes aren't automagically better. They are better in specific circumstances than just metal alone. Sega found a more efficient way to do things later on.

One thing he may not have taken into account is the fact that later runs of SH4 chips may simply have more potential to begin with, which is why I didn't say that heatpipes are worse. In fact I hinted that I feel they're slightly better, even if they WERE a stop-gap measure.

Oh, and heatpipes don't "attract particles". They're basically closed gas-liquid phase change systems. That's why they usually work better in a specific orientation, although its not always necessary.

fatheadpi · Post by **fatheadpi** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 9:20 am

Played around with my scratch DC last nite, here's where I'm at.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

The switches are set up right now so that each SPDT switch is wired to it's respective PLL output, board input, and... well, nothing, as my big box of oscillators isn't in yet. When those get in, I'm going to add a DPDT switch in that gaping whole in front of the switches. It will select between the standard PLL chip outputs on the overclocked outputs and route them to the board inputs. The existing switches will then be rewired with a "high"and "low" overclock (basically a 40Mhz and 46.2 Mhz crystal osc. on the CPU swtich and a 66 MHz Crystal Osc. and a TBD Mhz CO on the GPU end.) After that I'll probably cut in a 50/60 switch behind the two SPDT swtiches, not 'cus I'll ever use it, but 'cus I can. Today I'll probably throw in a drive open/closed switch. Again, not because I'll ever use it, but because I can.