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Xplorer headache

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 5:39 am
by stvincent
I'm having trouble getting caetla/catflap to work. Spent a whole freakin' day on this :(

I have Xplorer cartrige, the original one (not FX or Pro). See here for different models (http://www.murraymoffatt.com/playstation-xplorer.html)

At first, I wanted to back up original ROM. Tried newer PC (from about year 2005), with a real parallel port. Checked that parallel port enabled in BIOS, Normal mode, IRQ 7, port 378. Tried from WinXP. I tried both
caeflash -P10 -T and caeflash -P10 -T -XT. It shows trying to access the correct port (378) but just loops indefinitely, waiting for connection. Then I tried X-flash. Same thing, not able to establish connection with the cart.

Then I tried an old Pentium II PC from 1998. Enabled LPT in BIOS, SPP mode, port 378, IRQ7. Booted into DOS off of Windows 98 CDROM. Again, both caeflash and X-link behave in the same way - just waiting endlessly to connect to Xplorer.

Next I gave up on backing up original ROM, and I burned a "CDFLASH" CDROM that I got from Orion's website (http://onorisoft.free.fr/retro.htm). It has X-Flash 1.2 on it. Booted CD, toggling option "ENABLE COMMS" , tried both PCs, no connection.

Then, with X-Flash, I flashed the cart from the PSX side with Caetla 0.37. Upon powering on the PSX, I see the caetla menu in Japanse. Great. Swittched to English, toggled in the settings the Cart hardware type to "Xplorer", still not connecting, from both PCs.

Finally, I tried catflap from WinXP, with various ROMs (Caetla 0.34, 0.35, SickleBrick's UniRom 0.2.) flashed onto the cart. Again, no connection to the Xplorer.

The cable is brand new Printer extension cable DB25 Male-Female (http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_ ... _id=074495).

What to do now ? GRRRRRR.

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 9:06 am
by Greg
Hello, The cable is the faulty point, it's a serial cable not a parallel one, in fact the cable has not all the pins wired.

The standard 25-pin RS-232 connector:
Image

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 9:25 am
by Greg
You'll need this: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_ ... _id=44765R
but this one it's only 3ft long, but now you have a good idea of what will work.

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 11:34 am
by Shadow
Yeah, it sounds like it is the cable for sure. I had the same problem once.

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 14th, 2015, 3:41 pm
by stvincent
I suspected it was the damn cable....i'll get the one you suggested Greg :)

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 29th, 2015, 4:38 am
by stvincent
I got this cable now http://www.cablestogo.com/product/02654 ... sion-cable . Description says all pins are connected. I STILL cannot connect to the Xplorer cart from the PC. :x

The thing is, the cart is not FX version. Its just the Xplorer V1. Is V1 supposed to work with caetla, catflap, etc?

I dont know what else to do at this point.

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 29th, 2015, 6:12 am
by Greg
If you use windows XP, use the modern Cataflap from Orion.
You can find it here: http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... flap#p1494

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 29th, 2015, 1:51 pm
by Shadow
Windows XP needs "GiveIO" to allow direct LPT access.
I highly recommend using Windows 98 Second Edition instead...

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: June 30th, 2015, 8:07 am
by Greg
Can you check the cable with a multitester, or asked someone do it for you?

Re: Xplorer headache

Posted: July 7th, 2015, 6:51 am
by stvincent
Greg wrote:Can you check the cable with a multitester, or asked someone do it for you?

I have multi-meter somewhere...what am i checking ? Continuity between all pins?

I also got my hands on Pro Action Replay CD version. The main menu states "ver 1.4 (E.M.S.)". I couldn't get it to work either, although I spent only a few minutes on it before giving up (and didn't try flashing caetla rom, etc). According to the PAR version 3 manual, no comms link card is required, but its unclear if my cartridge is newer or older than PAR V3. What does V3 refere too ? The firmware version or the hardware revision?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nyV ... edit?pli=1