Lamelink RS232 adapter (only for cheapo USB-RS232 cables)

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LameGuy64
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Lamelink RS232 adapter (only for cheapo USB-RS232 cables)

Post by LameGuy64 » August 24th, 2013, 9:46 pm

Since my Xplorer FX hasn't arrived yet (super slow postage is to be expected in my country), I decided to see if I can run my homebrews straight into my PlayStation using a serial link method.

The adapter I've made is just a simple passthrough adapter so I can connect my cheap USB-RS232 cable (which is actually a CH340 clone) to my PlayStation and also acts as a null modem cable.

Photos:
Image
Image

Wiring:

Code: Select all

PSX side     RS232 side
 1 - RTS  ->  8 - CTS
 2 - GND  --  5 - GND
 3 - DTR  ->  6 - DSR
 4 - CTS  <-  7 - RTS
 5 - TxD  ->  2 - RxD
 6 - DSR  <-  4 - DTR
 7 - 3.3v ->  x
 8 - RxD  <-  3 - TxD
I'm just not sure if feeding 5 volts into the PlayStation's serial port will potentially destroy it :? . Type 79 said it never made any smoke from his console which he later added a logic level converter onto his cable (or maybe his CH340 outputs 3.3 volts logic). I can add a logic level converter circuit onto my link cable but I can't find any 2N7000 transistors in my country so far (don't suggest ordering one from ebay, I can't order anything from there in the first place).
Last edited by LameGuy64 on August 24th, 2013, 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by Shadow » August 24th, 2013, 9:49 pm

I was using 5V logic and it worked fine.
Your Xplorer FX should have been there by now. I sent it many weeks ago :?
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

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Post by LameGuy64 » August 24th, 2013, 10:23 pm

Thanks a lot! :D

Yeah, it should have been here by now but since I live in a third world country that is (crappy) Philippines, postage is extremely slow! My Raspberry Pi sent from my uncle who lives in New Zealand took 2-3 months to arrive that I almost forgot about it. Heck, even a package from my older sister who lives in the same country took 3 months to arrive.
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by Shendo » August 24th, 2013, 10:54 pm

This won't work.
RS-232 uses negative voltage for logical zero, opposed to TTL which treats 0 - 2V as logical zero and 3 - 5V as 1.

Don't connect it, unless you want smoke. You need a TTL converter like MAX-232.
Dev console: SCPH-7502, FreePSXBoot, CH340 serial cable.

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Post by LameGuy64 » August 24th, 2013, 11:05 pm

Shendo wrote:This won't work.
RS-232 uses negative voltage for logical zero, opposed to TTL which treats 0 - 2V as logical zero and 3 - 5V as 1.

Don't connect it, unless you want smoke. You need a TTL converter like MAX-232.
My USB-RS232 cable shown in the picture outputs 0-5 volts with no negative logic whatsoever because its actually a CH340 clone...I've already used it to transfer data to and from my graphing calculator via its serial port which uses 0-5 volts logic levels.
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by Shendo » August 24th, 2013, 11:15 pm

Well if that's the case, then OK. Have you tried to upload somethings?

When I got it working on my PSone I first ran a PSYQ echo example and used putty to send data.
Dev console: SCPH-7502, FreePSXBoot, CH340 serial cable.

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Post by LameGuy64 » August 25th, 2013, 12:38 am

Shendo wrote:Well if that's the case, then OK. Have you tried to upload somethings?

When I got it working on my PSone I first ran a PSYQ echo example and used putty to send data.
I haven't tested it yet but I will tomorrow.
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by LameGuy64 » August 25th, 2013, 11:25 pm

I've just tried to upload a PS-EXE a while ago using Shadow's PSXSERIAL v1.2 using this adapter. It works (the text disappears) but once the transmission is finished, the PS-EXE doesn't start. I tried removing the handshaking lines, it still doesn't work. I think its because the data got corrupted during transmission as its being sent too fast (115200 baud) for my stupid CH340 clone to handle in my opinion. I'll try this again later once I get access to a old computer where for some reason, my CH340 clone works better on it (probably because of its lower CPU speed).
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by Shendo » August 26th, 2013, 7:08 am

You said that letters disappear. That happens during or after transmission (100% of data sent)?
What program have you tried to run? Something from the samples or your own?
Dev console: SCPH-7502, FreePSXBoot, CH340 serial cable.

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Post by Shadow » August 26th, 2013, 1:55 pm

I too noticed that the text disappears when I type any key in the terminal window.
With my particular FTDI however, I can't transmit from my PC to my PSX, so what it's doing, I don't know.
I can only receive on the PSX (PC -> PSX only). I can't actually type in the terminal window to talk with the PSX, even if I run the TUTO1 SERIAL example that echos back.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

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Post by LameGuy64 » August 26th, 2013, 4:07 pm

Shendo wrote:You said that letters disappear. That happens during or after transmission (100% of data sent)?
What program have you tried to run? Something from the samples or your own?
I first tried to run one of inc^lightforce's cracktro demos which are 120KB big. Then, one of the samples included in the PsyQ SDK which are roughly 50 to 60KB. When the upload reaches 100%, nothing else happens on the PlayStation regardless of the EXE size being uploaded.
Please don't forget to include my name if you share my work around. Credit where it is due.

Dev. Console: SCPH-7000 with SCPH-7501 ROM, MM3, PAL color fix, Direct AV ports, DB-9 port for Serial I/O, and a Xplorer FX with Caetla 0.35.

DTL-H2000 PC: Dell Optiplex GX110, Windows 98SE & Windows XP, Pentium III 933MHz, 384MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 7000 VE 64MB, Soundblaster Audigy, 40GB Seagate HDD, Hitachi Lite-on CD-RW Drive, ZIP 250 and 3.5" Floppy.

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Post by bizarro2011 » August 26th, 2013, 9:24 pm

also had this idea, but went on to the end.

Image
Image
Image

I believe it can work. I'll work on it

look:
http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=349

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Post by Shendo » August 27th, 2013, 5:03 am

Try burning echo sample and see if you can talk to PSX.
Dev console: SCPH-7502, FreePSXBoot, CH340 serial cable.

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Post by Shadow » October 20th, 2013, 3:08 pm

Looked into this a bit more. Use an FT232RL. The others don't work correctly.
I mean, you can transmit to the PSX from the PC (with the FT232), but you can't receive from the PSX to the PC.
It's weird, but the RL version works correctly, so use that chip.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

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