GDEMU + Naomi drive -- Does it work?

[stj]

I've had a netdimm fail too years ago. Tried to give it away for free but noone wanted it so was binned. Sold the naomi a few months later. ODE isn't much use for naomi imho.

i would have paid you for that net-dimm.
they are scarce and expensive now because people hord or bin them.

 

[rtw]

The reason the GDEMU cannot replace the optical unit is purely because of voltage levels. GD-ROM is 5V , GDEMU is 3V3.

 

[stj]

some gdroms are 5v, newer ones are 3.3v - same mechanism as the dreamcast.
the gd case has a baseboard with voltage shifters on some.
i had pictures on a harddrive somewhere.

 

[twistedsymphony]

I was gonna say I've sent Dreamcast gdrom units to people to revive Naomi gdrom drives

 

[nem]

There are two types of drives used we used with Naomi on thru Chihiro. The 610-0617 will be compatible with the lens deck and pcb in most DC units. However, the 610-0617-01 and -01A has a different pcb you cannot get anywhere.

By @irepairsega at https://forums.arcade-museum.com/th...om-drive-work-on-a-naomi.323009/#post-2944044

 

[bobbydilley]

The reason the GDEMU cannot replace the optical unit is purely because of voltage levels. GD-ROM is 5V , GDEMU is 3V3.

For what it's worth, a friend made a voltage level converter and tried this and it complained the GD-ROM lid was open all the time, and couldn't get past that.

Unsure if he made a mistake, but it seems it may just not work due to some software incompability anyway. Sorry I can't provide more concrete information though!

 

[nem]

Unsure if he made a mistake, but it seems it may just not work due to some software incompability anyway.

mathieulh claims it does work. See here:

https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...-force-chihiro-gdrom-drive.17631/#post-278831

 

[bobbydilley]

Just spoke to him, and he's confirmed that the Terraonion MODE does work as it's 5v and 3.3v compatible, and the firmware must be good enough for the Naomi to like it.

In theory the GDEMU might work, but until someone successfully tries it using a level converter and gets it to work, it's still up in the air as the firmware might be wrong as MetalliC has explained above.

 

[MetalliC]

there is one more thing which may matter in theory: DIMM 4.0x firmware does some a bit weird things to determine connected ATA device type - GD-drive or CF card. so, I'd imagine ODE sim code may not like that and go crazy or being detected as CF if it's not robust enough.

 

[nem]

Just spoke to him, and he's confirmed that the Terraonion MODE does work as it's 5v and 3.3v compatible, and the firmware must be good enough for the Naomi to like it.

Oh right, my mistake. Like a dunce I completely skipped reading the part you quoted which specifically mentioned GDEMU.

So yeah, MODE works. GDEMU might work.