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Bluetooth DataLink

gameofyou1 - Sep 21, 2014

		gameofyou1		Sep 21, 2014
			Hey all, I am currently developing a Bluetooth version of the DataLink. I'm curious if anyone on here would find this useful. I'm still developing it, so there's not much on my site yet. I just wanted to see if there is any interest. http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/DataLink/

		television2000		Sep 22, 2014
			I want one actually. Is the speed improved or the same compared to the usb ? Also, what about power from the Saturn side ?

gameofyou1

Sep 22, 2014

		television2000 said:
		I want one actually. Is the speed improved or the same compared to the usb ? Also, what about power from the Saturn side ?

It will not be as fast as the wired (USB) version. I will not know specifics until I have done testing with prototypes. There is some additional information on my website.

I want to use the standard 25-pin ARP cartridge connector, and there are no power pins available.

		television2000		Sep 22, 2014
			I'll withhold judgement until I you post updates then. The one that I got from you works great so far, although I wish it would be faster.

gameofyou1

Sep 22, 2014

		television2000 said:
		I'll withhold judgement until I you post updates then. The one that I got from you works great so far, although I wish it would be faster.

I have thought about it a bit, and I think I could make the design so that it can be powered from either battery or Saturn (depending on which parts you solder down).

Originally, I had thought that people would not want to modify their ARP cartridge to bring out power to one of the unused pins (like pin 12). But I might as well design the DataLink so that it can assembled to be powered that way. Thanks for the suggestion.

It will be interesting to see what kind of throughput I can get with the bluetooth link. Who knows, it might not work at all, lol.

		television2000		Sep 23, 2014
			Personally, in any shape or form it's fine with me if you're able to make it. Less cables anyway and I can place it anywhere I want. Btw, is your email the same ? I wanna ask you some questions...

gameofyou1

Sep 23, 2014

		television2000 said:
		Personally, in any shape or form it's fine with me if you're able to make it. Less cables anyway and I can place it anywhere I want. Btw, is your email the same ? I wanna ask you some questions...

You can email me thru my website (there are multiple email links).

		gameofyou1		Oct 18, 2014
			Good news! I have had successful transfer tests over Bluetooth today. Next, I will work on optimizing the speed.

		vbt		Nov 1, 2014
			nice job gameofyou !!! so any speed test ?

gameofyou1

Nov 3, 2014

		vbt said:
		nice job gameofyou !!! so any speed test ?

I have it working at slow speed, which is a great start. I have been looking into various options for boosting the speed. I think that I have come up with a way to achieve speed which is 20% faster than the current USB DataLink. I am currently waiting for some parts to arrive. I will post my results when I get some test results.

		gameofyou1		Nov 5, 2014
			Well, that didn't work out as expected, lol. On paper, the Bluetooth design should be faster than the USB DataLink. My testing shows that it is not as fast as the USB DataLink, though. The cpu's data rate is actually higher for the Bluetooth design, but the actual data throughput is slower. Apparently, there is some Bluetooth protocol overhead going on, which is slowing down the Bluetooth DataLink. I will probably still build and sell these. It is still a pretty cool solution, if you are mainly transferring game-saves. It is really nice to be able to be cable-free.

		gameofyou1		Nov 7, 2014
			I haven't given up on the Bluetooth speed yet. I came up with some additional things to try. I am determined to make it as fast as the current USB DataLink.

vbt

Nov 12, 2014

		gameofyou1 said:
		I haven't given up on the Bluetooth speed yet. I came up with some additional things to try. I am determined to make it as fast as the current USB DataLink.

great to hear ! maybe some data compression can help. what kind of language you use ?

cafe-alpha

Nov 14, 2014

vbt said:

		gameofyou1 said:
		I haven't given up on the Bluetooth speed yet. I came up with some additional things to try. I am determined to make it as fast as the current USB DataLink.

great to hear ! maybe some data compression can help. what kind of language you use ?

Is it fair to compare raw transfer speed and transfer speed when compression is used ? ^^;
But as Data Link is game-save oriented, it would be a good idea to use some data compression, because half of the BRAM data is filled with 0xFF.

		gameofyou1		Nov 28, 2014
			Ok, I have finally completed testing on the Bluetooth DataLink. I ended up going to a faster microcontroller, which has additional ram. The Bluetooth DataLink now has the same transfer speed (actually a bit faster) than the USB DataLink. I will probably get some boards built up in a few weeks, that will be available for sale. I have started using etsy.com, for selling DataLinks. I am also planning to test the new microcontroller in the USB DataLink. If successful, I will release a faster version of the USB DataLink.

		gameofyou1		Nov 29, 2014
			By the way café-alpha, Thanks for making the small binary version of your Cartridge Firmware Flash Utility! I have downloaded this utility to my Saturn using the USB DataLink, and it runs correctly! This is a nice option for those that don't have mod chips to run the utility on CD. Great job!

cafe-alpha

Dec 3, 2014

		gameofyou1 said:
		By the way caf-alpha, Thanks for making the small binary version of your Cartridge Firmware Flash Utility! I have downloaded this utility to my Saturn using the USB DataLink, and it runs correctly! This is a nice option for those that don't have mod chips to run the utility on CD. Great job!

Thank you, I'm glad it could help you in flashing your cartridge !
And yeah, I made this utility because I didn't wanted to burn CD-R