Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Online games, how to get online, and anything involving Dreamcast online can be discussed here.

Moderator: pcwzrd13

User avatar
mikeyp
shadow
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:58 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Not sure yet. Getting dreamcast for Christmas and looking forward to getting stuck in.

Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by mikeyp »

Hi all, I'm new to the Dreamcast. My wife has kindly got me one for Christmas this year. I really missed out on it growing up. I obviously want to get online. I have a raspberry pi, a US Robotics serial modem coupled with a USB-Serial adapter seems to work nicely with dreampi. Only thing I need now is a line voltage inducer. Obviously I could build the battery one but would prefer a USB solution. I emailed the Dreamcast Live shop but have had no reply.

Would building the battery-style inducer but replacing the battery with this connected to USB do the job? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181898976057

Equally does anyone in the UK supply them for PAL Dreamcasts?
User avatar
pcwzrd13
Seen Any Sailors?
Posts: 7083
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:16 pm
Dreamcast Games you play Online: All of them! I'm able to connect with dial-up or broadband.
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by pcwzrd13 »

Just replied to your email. It went in the SPAM folder for some reason. Sorry about that.
PSO Characters:
Teal'c - lvl 119 HUcast - GC# 11666
Alto - lvl 39 FOnewm - GC# 12964

YouTube Channel : Dreamcast Live
Bring
dark night
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:04 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Worms,AFO,Pool,Bowling,Planet Ring,Chu Chu,Tetris,4x4

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by Bring »

!!!Warning!!! Thread Jack !!!Warning!!!

Should all Serial Voice Modems work with DreamPi (off the Bat)?

TIA.
User avatar
pcwzrd13
Seen Any Sailors?
Posts: 7083
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:16 pm
Dreamcast Games you play Online: All of them! I'm able to connect with dial-up or broadband.
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by pcwzrd13 »

Bring wrote:Should all Serial Voice Modems work with DreamPi (off the Bat)?


Oh yeah. I was going to mention that but forgot. It could very well work without a LVI. @mikeyp You might want to check first.
PSO Characters:
Teal'c - lvl 119 HUcast - GC# 11666
Alto - lvl 39 FOnewm - GC# 12964

YouTube Channel : Dreamcast Live
Bring
dark night
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2017 7:04 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Worms,AFO,Pool,Bowling,Planet Ring,Chu Chu,Tetris,4x4

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by Bring »

pcwzrd13 wrote:
Bring wrote:Should all Serial Voice Modems work with DreamPi (off the Bat)?


Oh yeah. I was going to mention that but forgot. It could very well work without a LVI. @mikeyp You might want to check first.


I Meant Should the DreamPi Code recognize all Serial Voice Modems (like it recognizes the Dell modem)? and is it worth me upgrading my Cheap As USB Serial adapter? :D
User avatar
pcwzrd13
Seen Any Sailors?
Posts: 7083
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:16 pm
Dreamcast Games you play Online: All of them! I'm able to connect with dial-up or broadband.
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by pcwzrd13 »

Bring wrote:I Meant Should the DreamPi Code recognize all Serial Voice Modems (like it recognizes the Dell modem)?


Oh I have no idea. lol
PSO Characters:
Teal'c - lvl 119 HUcast - GC# 11666
Alto - lvl 39 FOnewm - GC# 12964

YouTube Channel : Dreamcast Live
User avatar
mikeyp
shadow
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:58 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Not sure yet. Getting dreamcast for Christmas and looking forward to getting stuck in.

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by mikeyp »

pcwzrd13 wrote:Just replied to your email. It went in the SPAM folder for some reason. Sorry about that.

Ah, no worries. Would you mind emailing the email header from the original email so I can see if there's any clue as to why it ended up in the spam folder please?
Bring wrote:!!!Warning!!! Thread Jack !!!Warning!!!

Should all Serial Voice Modems work with DreamPi (off the Bat)?

TIA.

Supposedly DreamPi supports them. This post references them.
http://blog.kazade.co.uk/2016/12/dreamp ... eased.html

Also this page has this comment:
http://blog.kazade.co.uk/p/dreampi.html ... 0329458054

So essentially the Dell modem acts like a USB-Serial modem. It's just the one that's confirmed to work.
pcwzrd13 wrote:Oh yeah. I was going to mention that but forgot. It could very well work without a LVI. @mikeyp You might want to check first.

Hmm. Might hold off ordering then. Is it the DreamPi modem or the console modem that requires the LVI? If it's the console, then I will still need it I should think. The USR modem is wall powered anyway but again I don't know if it needs the LVI or not.
User avatar
pcwzrd13
Seen Any Sailors?
Posts: 7083
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 2:16 pm
Dreamcast Games you play Online: All of them! I'm able to connect with dial-up or broadband.
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by pcwzrd13 »

mikeyp wrote:Is it the DreamPi modem or the console modem that requires the LVI?


Both. Yeah, I forgot about the fact that you're using a PAL Dreamcast. You'll probably need it either way then.
PSO Characters:
Teal'c - lvl 119 HUcast - GC# 11666
Alto - lvl 39 FOnewm - GC# 12964

YouTube Channel : Dreamcast Live
kazade
Developer
Posts: 264
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2015 4:51 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Lots!

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by kazade »

Hi! So I'll try to answer a bit about serial modems...

Both serial and usb modems use the same command set for controlling them, and indeed the DreamPi uses a serial connection to talk to the modem.

The main difference is to do with baud speeds. True serial modems communicate and different speeds to USB ones, and although I've repeatedly tried to reliably detect the speed it's never really worked great; I always fix one set of modems and break another.

Because of that, the speeds the DreamPi communicates at are tweaked for the common USB modem, but that's not to say it won't work with a serial one, or that if it didn't out of the box, you couldn't tweak the value to make it do so.
User avatar
mikeyp
shadow
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:58 am
Dreamcast Games you play Online: Not sure yet. Getting dreamcast for Christmas and looking forward to getting stuck in.

Re: Need a PAL USB Line Voltage Inducer

Post by mikeyp »

How would we know? Would it fail to initialise completely or would it have communication issues once connected? The light on the USR modem comes on once the daemon has started.
Post Reply