Dreamcast GDEMU from Aliexpress + Amazon

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

I need your appreciated opinions and experiences please.

Has someone tried the GDEMUs from Amazon or Aliexpress ?

https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=gdemu

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesal...09145348&origin=y&catId=0&isViewCP=y&jump=afs

Thank you.

 

[TheSnke]

I purchased mine from Amazon back in the summer. I use it regularly and I haven't had any problems or issues with compatibility. From what I've discovered, it's identical to the "real" GDEMU, except that you can't update the firmware. However since it already has 100% compatibility, you don't need to.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

Thank you for your info and feedback.That helps me for my decision.

 

[tech3475]

From what I’ve read, you may want to check/upgrade the cooling system as the GD ROM drive was used as part of it, which obviously will be removed when you install this.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

That´s new for me.

 

[tech3475]

Hello.

That´s new for me.

View attachment 160542

I think there are kits and/or fan upgrades you can get, but I’ve not looked too deeply into them.

 

[Alexander1970]

Ok,thank you for that info.I forget how "silent" the Dreamcast is.
Maybe i´ve take a look on that too.

Thank you for the tip.

 

[MockyLock]

Or else, for getting rid of the cooling problems, you can swap the power board for a PicoPSU.

 

[Alexander1970]

Great idea.

....another 30 € ....*ufff* .... maybe later.

Thank you for your consideration.

 

[retrofan_k]

The cooling thing is over exaggerated, as I have owned the GDEMU original boards, since 2014 and ran tests by removing the 12v resistor/transistor or just placing a 300 ohm resistor on GND/12V pins on the PSU.

Voltage spikes do occur because the ODE does not use 12V to run, yet with proper air flow, like installing a 3D printed tray will suffice enough, as that is what the issue boils down to, because the original GD drive being removed, so the air flow is not consistent enough.

Also, be wary of clones, as some have known to have incorrect crystal oscillators on them, resulting in issues with peripherals not working correctly and incompatibilty the DCHDMI mod.

The firmware on both clone and original is not 100% perfect either, regardless of what some say (Skies of Arcadia and D2 disk swap is one example), so if an official update is released in the future, clone users are stuffed because it will brick without no means of recovery.

 

[Alexander1970]

Thank you for your perspectives and foresight.

 

[Alexander1970]

Now i have ACTUAL info from an german site,he had Aliexpress ones with Firmware 5.5 who plays all relevant games without issues/CDI or GDI-Images AND can activate the VGA cable and remove region lock.Also that they was selling over Amazon are cheap(er) produced copies from the Aliexpress ones.

https://marc.tv/gdemu-dreamcast-spiele-von-sd-karte-laden/

Great,then the Aliexpress one will it be

Thank you all for your tipps and advices.

 

[enarky]

(Skies of Arcadia and D2 disk swap is one example), so if an official update is released in the future, clone users are stuffed because it will brick without no means of recovery.

Wasn't Skies of Arcadia originally a single disc/GD ROM game and only the pirate copy was split on two CDs?

 

[retrofan_k]

Wasn't Skies of Arcadia originally a single disc/GD ROM game and only the pirate copy was split on two CDs?

Earlier scene release may have done (can't remember tbh), yet advances with newer groups like RDC, there is a single rip on a 80min CD-R now.

 

[enarky]

Earlier scene release may have done (can't remember tbh), yet advances with newer groups like RDC, there is a single rip on a 80min CD-R now.

Ah, I think I missunderstood you in the part I quoted and you meant the D2 disc swap and Skies of Arcadia is a problem, not the disc swap with D2 and Skies of Arcadia.

 

[retrofan_k]

Ah, I think I missunderstood you in the part I quoted and you meant the D2 disc swap and Skies of Arcadia is a problem, not the disc swap with D2 and Skies of Arcadia.

Yeah both seperate games. Skies has a 100% crash, if you leave it on the opening demo cut-scene (can be skipped). D2 has inconsistent swap code when running with the ODE i.e does not recognize the swap of discs when it prompts the user (50/50 rate sometimes).

 

[kublai]

anyone know what's the difference between the board revision v5.1.5 vs. v5.5?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Anyone know if you can update firmware on these clone boards?

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

https://gdemu.wordpress.com/firmware/updating-gdemu/

USE IT ONLY ON THE ORIGNAL GDEMU NOT ON THE CLONES/COPIES !!!!

DO NOT UPDATE CLONES LEAVE IT AS IT IS.

 

[toxic9]

what happens if you try to update? will it brick? will it even accept the update?
maybe there is some header offset we need to patch the FW in order to successful update.

 

[kumikochan]

Well i got the original one and not a clone since i rather support the one who made this but a friend of mine got a clone and it works exactly the same as the non clone version and yeah do not update the clone

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The cooling thing is over exaggerated, as I have owned the GDEMU original boards, since 2014 and ran tests by removing the 12v resistor/transistor or just placing a 300 ohm resistor on GND/12V pins on the PSU.

Voltage spikes do occur because the ODE does not use 12V to run, yet with proper air flow, like installing a 3D printed tray will suffice enough, as that is what the issue boils down to, because the original GD drive being removed, so the air flow is not consistent enough.

Also, be wary of clones, as some have known to have incorrect crystal oscillators on them, resulting in issues with peripherals not working correctly and incompatibilty the DCHDMI mod.

The firmware on both clone and original is not 100% perfect either, regardless of what some say (Skies of Arcadia and D2 disk swap is one example), so if an official update is released in the future, clone users are stuffed because it will brick without no means of recovery.

You don't need it to be 3d Printed tho, you can just cut a piece of plastic and tape it so that there is proper airflow.
Yeah i do know that my resistor is pretty overkill but that was the only one i had laying around and it does the job so why not