Saturday, 5 February 2011

Naomi / Triforce / Chihiro Compact Flash

Sega recently released a Compact Flash device compatible with Naomi 1 & 2 / Triforce (Type 3) and Chihiro (Type 3). The idea is to replace the very unreliable and no longer supported GDROM drives with something a lot more reliable. It uses a custom Compact Flash reader which is pretty basic and a 512MB CF card to store the game(s).

Seeing how basic the reader was I decided to see if I could make my own using a PC CF reader. I wanted my version to be in a drop in replacement for the GDROM drive just like Sega's version. This means I had to add a SCSI-2 port for the data to go to the DIMM board and a 6 pin power connector to attach to the power splitter.

The project took about 3 days, 2 days to document everything and another day modding and soldering 40 odd wires to complete.


Here you can see my CF reader hooked up to a Triforce (Type 3).

I picked this Unitek CF reader even though it is sold as a SATA CF reader because it is about the only one that comes in a case that isn't USB. Also it has an unused IDE connector on the PCB which is ideal to solder the SCSI-2 connector to.

I have written a guide for this project and will be uploading it here once I have the time to finish it. Keep in mind you will need a official CF card for Triforce / Chihiro games to work. Naomi on the other hand does have a hacked DIMM firmware floating about which allows other CF cards to work.

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7 comments:

  1. Unknown7 March 2011 at 13:27

    I can’t wait for the guide comes out. I have some questions through. Is the Unitek CF reader a SCSI reader? What is the model number of the Unitek CF reader?

    Naomi system: I have the official dimm firmware 4.01 that has fat 16 file support. Won’t this work?

    Thanks,

    T

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  2. Ace`9 March 2011 at 10:14

    The Unitek CF reader is SATA not SCSI. You can solder a SCSI-2 connection to any IDE CF reader but I chose the Unitek as it has a case. It doesn't seem to have a model number but it's the only one they make so if you type unitek cf in google or ebay you'll find it.

    Your 4.01 dimm will work with the reader but only if it has an offical cf card in it. You'll need the '4.02' hacked dimm firmware to use standard cf cards.

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  3. Unknown10 March 2011 at 09:51

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Unknown10 March 2011 at 09:52

    "You can solder a SCSI-2 connection to any IDE CF reader" Does it need to be modded?

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  5. J Ramon R19 September 2011 at 19:47

    it's compatible with naomi gd rom capcom vs snk 2.
    thx

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  6. aje_fr15 December 2011 at 17:29

    Hello,
    Could you show us the inside of your reader to understand how you install it inside.
    Thanks ;-)

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  7. JP19 December 2011 at 15:08

    That sounds like a awesome job! Could you post a tutorial or something? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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