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[Answered] Triforce: Mario Kart GP 1/2 Card RX/TX wiring reference

I don't think the the US manual has it listed. Is it the same connector as WMMT on Chihiro? They're pins 4 and 5 there, IIRC, but not sure off hand which is which.

Are you trying it in your WMMT cab? That should have the card reader and FFB on the same connector. Maybe the pinout will just line up on the Triforce?

However, you had to change a dip setting for baud rate for FFB, right? Perhaps the same will be needed for the card reader. I don't know what the settings are, but there are a lot of dip switches on the card reader unit and baud rate would be configurable. I had messed with them on my ID3 card reader to initially get it talking to WMMT.
 
winteriscoming said:
I don't think the the US manual has it listed. Is it the same connector as WMMT on Chihiro? They're pins 4 and 5 there, IIRC, but not sure off hand which is which.

Are you trying it in your WMMT cab? That should have the card reader and FFB on the same connector. Maybe the pinout will just line up on the Triforce?

However, you had to change a dip setting for baud rate for FFB, right? Perhaps the same will be needed for the card reader. I don't know what the settings are, but there are a lot of dip switches on the card reader unit and baud rate would be configurable. I had messed with them on my ID3 card reader to initially get it talking to WMMT.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is the same JST-8 pin on Chihiro, Triforce, NAOMI2 and N2 systems. The pins line up perfectly. I am trying to plug it in to my WMMT cab.
It never occurred to me to check the baud rate for the card reader as well.

I know you mentioned the dips on the card reader in your emulator post so I will look there to see where these switches are.

Thanks for the reminder!
 
I guess I was only changing parity:
NAOMI 2/Chihiro Card Reader Emulator (Initial D3/WMMT)

It might be a guess and check battle. Flip a switch, and try. Flip another and try. Hopefully it's one of the first few and it's a simple on or off and not a combo that you won't be able to easily figure out. Metallic posted a doc about the reader, so maybe it has more info?

You might have an easier time trying to get it to interface with the emulator since you can hard code the baud rate and at least see if that's what's needed before figuring out what's needed on the physical reader.
 
winteriscoming said:
I guess I was only changing parity:
NAOMI 2/Chihiro Card Reader Emulator (Initial D3/WMMT)

It might be a guess and check battle. Flip a switch, and try. Flip another and try. Hopefully it's one of the first few and it's a simple on or off and not a combo that you won't be able to easily figure out. Metallic posted a doc about the reader, so maybe it has more info?

You might have an easier time trying to get it to interface with the emulator since you can hard code the baud rate and at least see if that's what's needed before figuring out what's needed on the physical reader.
Click to expand...
This is a good starting point for me to change those settings thanks!

I wanted to get some logs going for Mario Kart to work with your emulator.
I figure getting the logs from the physical reader would have been an easier route but it may be easier to get them from the emulator instead.
Thanks!
 
I just won an auction for a Triforce, so hopefully it works and I'll be able to play Mario Kart with the card reader.

Just curious, do the US versions of MK1 or 2 allow card reader use? The options are in the test menu?
 
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winteriscoming said:
I just won an auction for a Triforce, so hopefully it works and I'll be able to play Mario Kart with the card reader.

Just curious, do the US versions of MK1 or 2 allow card reader use? The options are in the test menu?
Click to expand...
Cool!
Yes. Both games have an option called "Card Game" On or Off.
 
When you get your Triforce, there are a few things you may want to check:
DIP Settings:
SW1:
DIPSW.jpg
GDROM (or CF/SSD) mode:
1: ON
2: OFF

NETBOOT mode:
1: ON
2: ON

If using SEGA I/O:
J4 - JST7 - Driver BD MIDI (No FFB)

If using NAMCO I/O:
J3 - Card Reader / FFB: STR / RW
J5 - ? (Not Used)

This will save you some time looking for these :)
 
freddiefiasco said:
Yes. Both games have an option called "Card Game" On or Off.
Click to expand...
That's great! I was just looking through the US manual and see there are several sections on the card reader. Interesting that they included that in the manual, but decided to blank out the TX/RX for the reader on the wiring diagram. You can see where they left the spaces on the diagram for pins 4,5 and 8. Those match up with the diagram in the WMMT manual.

I don't suppose there would be many people who own a cab with a card reader. It's probably going to be blind luck getting the physical reader configured. There are 3 sets of 8 dip switches. With the reader facing you and the cover unlatched and lifted, they're located on the right, towards the front. They're pretty tiny.
 
Ya I don't get it. Every reference to the card reader but not in the wiring diagram. So it confused me when I was trying to figure out why I was getting errors with it plugged in.

Do I need to mess with all 3 sets? or just one of the sets of DIP?
 
freddiefiasco said:
Do I need to mess with all 3 sets? or just one of the sets of DIP?
Click to expand...
Assuming they're like the ID3 reader's, I was only trying one by one and lucked out that the parity ended up being in the first set. I'd start there, changing only one switch at a time, and then turning it back if it doesn't work. However, I have no idea what any of the others are doing and hope I'm not recommending something that could break it.
 
Kind of unrelated, but I notice the camera plugs into the I/O. That means the images are being sent over JVS... If that communication could be deciphered (the one between the I/O board and the motherboard, not the I/O board to the camera), my MEGA JVS could potentially utilize any cheap off the shelf camera that can interface with an Arduino and translate the data accordingly over JVS to the motherboard. The challenge would be getting logs from someone who has a camera.
 
NAMCO manuals are not as easy to understand as SEGA manuals. If a standard camera could be used, it would be really awesome.

If SEGA had a product description for this: "CAMERA 123-ABC-01"

NAMCO product description: "CAMERA"

Do you think sniffing the I/O lines for the camera connections would help without having the camera? (rhetorical)
 
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