Misc Project Did the DSi Capture Card End with Katsukity?

[KIlly728]

I think that I will try and get it working with the software, and possibly make a YouTube video about it. I will end up selling it at some point, and I will probably do an auction which I could let the people who have shown interest know about so they all have a fair chance. Have you ever seen one of these sell anywhere before? I can’t find any traces of them online.

I would greatly appreciate any work you do and videos you make.

Yes, I would do an auction. No offense to anyone in this comments section, myself included, but I can imagine you getting more money through an eBay bid war. Plus, there are added safety measures and transactional protections that make it more difficult for you to be scammed (not an ad for eBay, but I wouldn't do a transaction over a private message).

There are no records that I am aware of for one of these capture consoles selling. There were hints of Japanese Yahoo auctions that took place many years ago, but I couldn't find them through the Internet Archive. The store image from Katsukity's website is the only known image of the capture unit that I could find.

 

[TheStonedModder]

I would greatly appreciate any work you do and videos you make.

Yes, I would do an auction. No offense to anyone in this comments section, myself included, but I can imagine you getting more money through an eBay bid war. Plus, there are added safety measures and transactional protections that make it more difficult for you to be scammed (not an ad for eBay, but I wouldn't do a transaction over a private message).

There are no records that I am aware of for one of these capture consoles selling. There were hints of Japanese Yahoo auctions that took place many years ago, but I couldn't find them through the Internet Archive. The store image from Katsukity's website is the only known image of the capture unit that I could find.

eBay would scam OP in a second there is no seller protection only buyer protection id use another service

Years ago I was forced to refund and pay return shipping on an upgraded ps4 I sold and was mailed a different system back. eBay didn’t care so in the end I wasted too weeks and $50 to get scammed

 

[Lime_Cupboard]

I would greatly appreciate any work you do and videos you make.

Yes, I would do an auction. No offense to anyone in this comments section, myself included, but I can imagine you getting more money through an eBay bid war. Plus, there are added safety measures and transactional protections that make it more difficult for you to be scammed (not an ad for eBay, but I wouldn't do a transaction over a private message).

There are no records that I am aware of for one of these capture consoles selling. There were hints of Japanese Yahoo auctions that took place many years ago, but I couldn't find them through the Internet Archive. The store image from Katsukity's website is the only known image of the capture unit that I could find.

I have a feeling that this one came from a Japanese auction. All the other consoles in the bundle were Japanese and the seller clearly had been buying broken Japanese ones in bulk to fix them, and must have not really known what this one was. Is this really the first image of one on the internet other than katsukitys?

Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2025

eBay would scam OP in a second there is no seller protection only buyer protection id use another service

Years ago I was forced to refund and pay return shipping on an upgraded ps4 I sold and was mailed a different system back. eBay didn’t care so in the end I wasted too weeks and $50 to get scammed

I’ve been selling consoles on eBay for a while now and I haven’t had a bad experience yet, but that could change.

Post automatically merged: Jan 11, 2025

I would greatly appreciate any work you do and videos you make.

Yes, I would do an auction. No offense to anyone in this comments section, myself included, but I can imagine you getting more money through an eBay bid war. Plus, there are added safety measures and transactional protections that make it more difficult for you to be scammed (not an ad for eBay, but I wouldn't do a transaction over a private message).

There are no records that I am aware of for one of these capture consoles selling. There were hints of Japanese Yahoo auctions that took place many years ago, but I couldn't find them through the Internet Archive. The store image from Katsukity's website is the only known image of the capture unit that I could find.

I also have another question - do you have any idea of how many of these capture card units were made?

 

[KIlly728]

I also have another question - do you have any idea of how many of these capture card units were made?

No clue.

I have to imagine it isn't that many. Katsukity stopped installing them for the DSi at one point, and I theorized it was in favor of a growing demand in 3DS capture cards. Who would want a DSi capture card when the 3DS can do what the DSi can and more?

I think only Katsukity would know how many they installed, and as far as I could tell, at least as of the writing of the post, Katsukity is impossible to contact through their business accounts.

 

[master801]

No clue.

I have to imagine it isn't that many. Katsukity stopped installing them for the DSi at one point, and I theorized it was in favor of a growing demand in 3DS capture cards. Who would want a DSi capture card when the 3DS can do what the DSi can and more?

I think only Katsukity would know how many they installed, and as far as I could tell, at least as of the writing of the post, Katsukity is impossible to contact through their business accounts.

I seriously doubt it was because of the 3DS capture cards.

As you already saw, these things are a giant pain in the ass to wire up when their solder work was already quite shoddy (remember when Katsukity was denying failed 3DS units?), and even requires an extended housing for the extra generic components (reused FPGA dev board).

 

[KIlly728]

I seriously doubt it was because of the 3DS capture cards.

As you already saw, these things are a giant pain in the ass to wire up when their solder work was already quite shoddy (remember when Katsukity was denying failed 3DS units?), and even requires an extended housing for the extra generic components (reused FPGA dev board).

Yes, there is that as well. That was a lot of solder points and wires to deal with.

 

[Lime_Cupboard]

Yes, there is that as well. That was a lot of solder points and wires to deal with.

Did Katsukity solder all of the wires in the factory or was it more of a kit which you did yourself?

Post automatically merged: Jan 12, 2025

I seriously doubt it was because of the 3DS capture cards.

As you already saw, these things are a giant pain in the ass to wire up when their solder work was already quite shoddy (remember when Katsukity was denying failed 3DS units?), and even requires an extended housing for the extra generic components (reused FPGA dev board).

The extended housing also seems to not be the best. It isn’t held on very well and has had to be trimmed to that the sd card slot can be reached, and even with that the stylus is still covered up.

 

[KIlly728]

Did Katsukity solder all of the wires in the factory or was it more of a kit which you did yourself?

This is all speculation since I don't know, but it is all done by hand.

DS capture systems, be it 3DS, DS, or whatever, is a niche market. Any operation that I'm aware of is all done by hand.

The Chameleon FPGA kit was apparently something you could buy off the shelf in Japan. It wasn't built for DSi capture systems and was a general project board for hobbiests. Pippin had the code written for the FPGA, the software, and the points on the motherboard to solder to.

So all Katsukity had to do was solder wire to the 42 different points on the motherboard in a way that was contained and functional enough to be played on. I don't think Pippin ever got to the point of making a portable capture system, so as far as I know, Katsukity gets the credit on that one.

As for the craftsmanship of it, I really cannot say. Never seen or used a Katsukity capture card before.

 

[Lime_Cupboard]

This is all speculation since I don't know, but it is all done by hand.

DS capture systems, be it 3DS, DS, or whatever, is a niche market. Any operation that I'm aware of is all done by hand.

The Chameleon FPGA kit was apparently something you could buy off the shelf in Japan. It wasn't built for DSi capture systems and was a general project board for hobbiests. Pippin had the code written for the FPGA, the software, and the points on the motherboard to solder to.

So all Katsukity had to do was solder wire to the 42 different points on the motherboard in a way that was contained and functional enough to be played on. I don't think Pippin ever got to the point of making a portable capture system, so as far as I know, Katsukity gets the credit on that one.

As for the craftsmanship of it, I really cannot say. Never seen or used a Katsukity capture card before.

Presumably if you could get the board made by a pcb supplier and get all of the right components for it, you could replicate the board and in theory have made another capture card?

Post automatically merged: Jan 13, 2025

Presumably if you could get the board made by a pcb supplier and get all of the right components for it, you could replicate the board and in theory have made another capture card?

I also found a video of one on youtube that seems to be the only video on there about it, but the one in the video isn't actually working properly. I will try and get mine working with the software later today.

 

[KIlly728]

Presumably if you could get the board made by a pcb supplier and get all of the right components for it, you could replicate the board and in theory have made another capture card?

First of all, honestly, I wouldn't even bother using this ancient FPGA board. It's too hard to source, requires an outdated and shitty toolchain that's a pain to install (the "toolchain" is the program used to turn the Verilog code into a bitstream file that can be loaded on the actual FPGA). Porting the Verilog to a new FPGA board is probably a better way to go here.

I'm going to refer to this smart person for that answer.

Yes, in theory, you could reprint and assemble a Chameleon PCB, but since I cannot find the Gerber files, the PCB would need to be recreated. All of the surface mounted components can be bought through sites like DigiKey, but they you need to deal with the relatively ancient software for injecting the verilog code into the FPGA.

That is well beyond my understanding, so it isn't something that I could do even if I wanted to.

I also found a video of one on youtube that seems to be the only video on there about it, but the one in the video isn't actually working properly. I will try and get mine working with the software later today.

I think I have that video linked in my essay. Aside from Pippin's video, that was the only video of a DSi capture card I could find. When I say information is scarce, I wasn't being dramatic.

Knowing nothing about capture cards, and hints suggesting Katsukity maybe didn't do the best job, it could just mean those solder points for the console or FPGA on that video weren't that good and need to be reflowed.

Best of luck. I hope you are able to get it working.

 

[master801]

I'm going to refer to this smart person for that answer.

Yes, in theory, you could reprint and assemble a Chameleon PCB, but since I cannot find the Gerber files, the PCB would need to be recreated. All of the surface mounted components can be bought through sites like DigiKey, but they you need to deal with the relatively ancient software for injecting the verilog code into the FPGA.

That is well beyond my understanding, so it isn't something that I could do even if I wanted to.

You weren't looking hard enough.

https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_fx2/index.html

 

[KIlly728]

You weren't looking hard enough.

https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_fx2/index.html

Following the link on the board to this website with the Chameleon USB FX2 featured prominently as a “Hot” item. When searching their shop, which is local only as far as I can tell, the Chameleon USB FX2 MiniB Kit is out of stock and appears to have been discontinued in 2019 (If it means anything, that board version was V1.2 instead of V1.1, so even if it was available, I do not know if that’d cause issues). I contacted the board seller, but they were unwilling to offer kits (it's within their right, but a bit frustrating).

View attachment 438655

Assembly instructions and software for the kit were available on their website along with the list of components, the Gerber file, and the Wire Schematic file. The Gerber file was, as far as I could tell, useless as it only shows one layer (The silkscreen, I think). That may be a consequence of modern Gerber viewers trying to read the file, or intentional to keep people from printing their own boards. I tried multiple Gerber viewers, and the output was the same.

View attachment 439628

I did comb that website and posted my findings as part of the original post. I wasn't able to get much further than that.

 

[master801]

I did comb that website and posted my findings as part of the original post. I wasn't able to get much further than that.

https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_fx2/build.html

That's what you're looking for.

It has gerber files and everything.

The parts list is pretty shit, so don't expect anything good out of it.

 

[KIlly728]

https://optimize.ath.cx/cusb_fx2/build.html

That's what you're looking for.

It has gerber files and everything.

The parts list is pretty shit, so don't expect anything good out of it.

I did look into those two gerber files, and using various gerber viewing programs and websites, I am only able to get one layer to show up. I am of the understand that a PCB printing requires multiple layers.

I checked them again incase I may be missing something, but the results were the same.

I will claim ignorance if there is something i'm missing or don't understand, but I am under the assuption that either the real print files have not been released for trademark reasons or that these .gbr Gerber files are not fully readable by modern gerber viewers.

 

[master801]

I did look into those two gerber files, and using various gerber viewing programs and websites, I am only able to get one layer to show up. I am of the understand that a PCB printing requires multiple layers.

I checked them again incase I may be missing something, but the results were the same.

View attachment 480380
View attachment 480381


I will claim ignorance if there is something i'm missing or don't understand, but I am under the assuption that either the real print files have not been released for trademark reasons or that these .gbr Gerber files are not fully readable by modern gerber viewers.

It's probably a single layer PCB.

 

[rvtr]

Presumably if you could get the board made by a pcb supplier and get all of the right components for it, you could replicate the board and in theory have made another capture card?

Post automatically merged: Jan 13, 2025

I also found a video of one on youtube that seems to be the only video on there about it, but the one in the video isn't actually working properly. I will try and get mine working with the software later today.

FYI the failure is because of ground and power input wires which are not on the official pinout. I learned that after recently transferring my capture card to a dev unit

Also to anyone out there with worse damaged capture cards, I'm now confident enough to repair them if you don't have the skills. A couple transfers to different motherboards and everything works fine.

Also friend of mine is going to attempt to port the capture software to other platforms, and I'm waiting to have a job so I have money getting everything together to clone the boards. Will also figure out the test points for XLs (thanks nintendo for EXTREMELY helpful names like TP1, TP2, TP3, etc). Should be fun! Though if anyone knows a better way of writing to the MAX II than getting a shitty board off of aliexpress I would be very glad to learn.

 

[MythraWasTaken]

FYI the failure is because of ground and power input wires which are not on the official pinout. I learned that after recently transferring my capture card to a dev unit

Also to anyone out there with worse damaged capture cards, I'm now confident enough to repair them if you don't have the skills. A couple transfers to different motherboards and everything works fine.

Also friend of mine is going to attempt to port the capture software to other platforms, and I'm waiting to have a job so I have money getting everything together to clone the boards. Will also figure out the test points for XLs (thanks nintendo for EXTREMELY helpful names like TP1, TP2, TP3, etc). Should be fun! Though if anyone knows a better way of writing to the MAX II than getting a shitty board off of aliexpress I would be very glad to learn.

I am this person by the way (Never had to make a post here before), and it is my current project and something I'm actively working on, and will work on til it's completion. So far I just have to actually implement the vulkan parts (the original source code only targeted DX9, and one or two builds used ffmpeg for recording). This will probably take me a bit, I am not a graphics programmer at all. That being said I've got the basics of communication over USB working, and all seems okay.

 

[KIlly728]

FYI the failure is because of ground and power input wires which are not on the official pinout. I learned that after recently transferring my capture card to a dev unit

Do you have the points that you pulled the power and ground from so I can add it to my greater document?

Post automatically merged: Jan 15, 2025

I am this person by the way (Never had to make a post here before), and it is my current project and something I'm actively working on, and will work on til it's completion. So far I just have to actually implement the vulkan parts (the original source code only targeted DX9, and one or two builds used ffmpeg for recording). This will probably take me a bit, I am not a graphics programmer at all. That being said I've got the basics of communication over USB working, and all seems okay.

I would be interested to know any and all progress you make. I am happy to know a couple of people are actively working on capture units.

 

[rvtr]

Do you have the points that you pulled the power and ground from so I can add it to my greater document?

No, sorry. The wires also support charging the DSi, but my last couple board transfers were set to kiosk mode (changes power and power button behaviour). I'll need to remove kiosk mode or do another board swap because I suspect that's doing additional weird things. I wouldn't want my stuff to be inaccurate on retail boards.

Will let you know once I properly test them!

 

[rinv]

Really exciting to randomly search and find a recent thread for this. If this ever reaches fruition I'm installing one!