BennVenn
Offline
Australia

Seasons greetings everyone!

I've just finished my prototype and testing of my latest gadget, the Lego Block Linker. It is a handy little cable that connects to your GameBoys link port and your PC's USB port, and allows quick and reliable transfer of your carts SRAM (.Sav files) to and from your PC.

I've patched a copy of LSDJ to include my Linker Utility (Hold down start when booting the gameboy) to allow convenient transfer to your PC with minimum fuss. I've also coded a stand alone ROM to add to your carts ROM list if you want to use the cable for other ROMs or want to use an unpatched version of LSDJ.

The cable can transfer the carts entire SRAM (128kbytes) in around 35 seconds so now you have no reason not to regularly back up your LSDJ tracks!

I've uploaded a quick video to youtube - http://youtu.be/Z6PSTsiivIU (sorry for the low quality, I normally use my backlit gameboy but I'm waiting on my DMG cables to arrive so had to hard wire into my 'test' gameboy)

I'm planning to build and sell a limited number of these. Is anyone interested?

TEOMAWKI
Offline
Minneapolis, MN

Looks cool! Would it work with all carts? (Like the 64m smart card) if so I would be very intrested!

Last edited by TEOMAWKI (Dec 29, 2014 12:34 am)

stargazer
Offline
SLC, UT

Wow, great work! A few questions:

Is the PC utility windows only?

Do you plan to do another run of your cartridges/flashers in conjunction with this?

Finally, to answer tour question, it really depends on the price, but yes I'm interested.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

TEOMAWKI, It will work on any cart where you can load the patched LSDJ ROM to. This includes the 64m smart card, but also those homemade carts out there based around a re-purposed MBC5 cart where you cannot fit multiple ROM's.

Stargazer, I can port the PC utility to Linux or Mac if needed. I have shipped a large number of my carts and flashers to my distributor in the US. We have decided to hold off on listing them until a full user manual is finished as well as extensive testing for any bugs. Quality, reliability and simplicity are key for reputation and my customers should expect nothing less than a polished commercial grade product.

Price for the Linker is expected to be around $30-$35 with free shipping worldwide. This depends on how small I can machine the Lego Block as its height determines if it can be posted as a letter or a parcel which is quite a difference in postage cost when shipped worldwide.

As each cable involves quite a lengthy production process (polyurethane casting, machining, resin filling etc...) I'd like to get an idea of how many to produce in this first lot, which is why I ask for interest.

Imaginary
Offline
Whateverville, California

Sounds like a great idea. I'd be game for one.

DSC
Offline

Epic idea and well executed!

nitro2k01
Offline
Sweeeeeeden

LittleFM can send/receive 128 kiB of data straight without any handshaking. The sending side is always master. Can the linker send/accept this format?

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

Yes, there is a 'debugging' straight through mode where the interface is transparent. Is there no error detection/start/stop/sync data in LittleFM's 128kiB packet?

TEOMAWKI
Offline
Minneapolis, MN

Well at that price I would be very interested!

nitro2k01
Offline
Sweeeeeeden

There is not. LittleFM's mode was, in turn, meant to be compatible with the transfer mode implemented in Nanoloop's MIDI adapter. I could of course implement your protocol if you send me a specification, or just a ROM that I can reverse engineer.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

No problem, I'll email you the info.

I'll start building 10 units this week and list them on the trading post as they become available for those interested.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

Hi everyone,

I've just finished the final product. Future units will be around 1mm taller to better accommodate the electronics and the USB port will be CNC'd also, rather than the hand cut slot on this first unit and the base will be milled for a perfectly flat surface. This is a typical example of what to expect when you order the Lego Block Linker. DMG-04 cable is 70cm long, and the block accepts a standard USB-mini cable (not included - the additional size&weight pushes the postage up more than it would cost you to buy a cable locally)

Different colours available on request.

http://bennvenn.com/LBL.htm

Last edited by BennVenn (Dec 29, 2014 1:03 pm)