Looking for a BJL cable

[Rick Dangerous]

Do these exist for sale anywhere anymore? Thanks

 

How would you use something like this differently than you would use a Skunkboard? Is it redundant if I have a Skunk?

 

Might still get one just for collectors purposes..

[sh3-rg]

skunk - no mods, quick, reliable, allows ROMs, USB

 

BJL - hardware mod or CD/arsing around, slow, temperamental, no ROMs, no USB

Edited January 12, 2015 by sh3-rg

[Chilly Willy]

Cables may be hard to find, but the adapter is still available at places like this:

http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/prodgame/adv-gj0002-3.htm

 

Use one of them with a DB25 extension cable and Bob's your uncle! That what I did before I got the skunkboard. Of course, you also need something that supports BJL - I got Protector:SE just for that purpose. That way I had a decently fun game as well as the ability to load software across the BJL cable.

[Rick Dangerous]

Cables may be hard to find, but the adapter is still available at places like this:

http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/prodgame/adv-gj0002-3.htm

 

Use one of them with a DB25 extension cable and Bob's your uncle! That what I did before I got the skunkboard. Of course, you also need something that supports BJL - I got Protector:SE just for that purpose. That way I had a decently fun game as well as the ability to load software across the BJL cable.

 

Thats great. Thanks, so would this be about what I am looking for?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOKO-6ft-DB25-Male-Female-Serial-Extension-Cable-25C-/371219620377?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item566e69e219

 

So this website has:

 

1. The Adaptor

2. The mod kit

3. The software

 

I need

 

4. A spare jag to mod (have)

5. A DB25 Cable (ebay)

6. A BJL Capable Cart: (Have: Protector SE)

 

Remaining Questions

 

-What is the mention of extra EPROMs? I know you need the one with the included software to run the OS, but why would you need more?

 

-Most newer computers don't have a DB25 port, including my crummy dell laptop. Am I going to have to setup a early 2000's desktop to run this setup? Is there a way around this?

 

Thanks.

[+CyranoJ]

I'm using one of these and an old core2 laptop. Works great.

[Rick Dangerous]

I'm using one of these and an old core2 laptop. Works great.

 

Thanks for the tip. I actually have a dell docking station sitting around at the office that looks nearly identical to that. I'll have to have a look see tomorrow....

[Zerosquare]

Not all docking stations will work. If the parallel port is detected as a USB device, it won't.

[Rick Dangerous]

Not all docking stations will work. If the parallel port is detected as a USB device, it won't.

 

My docking station does indeed have a DB25 port. Zerosquare is there any way to tell if the computer will detect the port as a USB device?

 

I'd hate to order all the equipment, and mod a Jag, just to have it not work.

[Chilly Willy]

Thats great. Thanks, so would this be about what I am looking for?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NOKO-6ft-DB25-Male-Female-Serial-Extension-Cable-25C-/371219620377?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item566e69e219

Yes, that cable should work with the adapter.

 

 

So this website has:

 

1. The Adaptor

2. The mod kit

3. The software

 

I need

 

4. A spare jag to mod (have)

5. A DB25 Cable (ebay)

6. A BJL Capable Cart: (Have: Protector SE)

If you get Protector:SE, you don't need to mod the Jaguar. All you need is the adapter and DB25 cable. That's the great thing about Protector:SE - no modding needed.

 

The mod kit has you put a BJL rom into the Jaguar to load BJL software, but Protector:SE has that same code in the game cart. Just hold "4" as you turn on the Jag to do the 4-bit BJL load, hold "8" to do the 8-bit BJL load, or hold nothing to start Protector:SE.

[sh3-rg]

...the really great thing is you already own a skunk board of some description, so actually need none of this expense or hassle as you already have the better solution as an end user.

 

I know you said "for collector purposes" but is there any here? It's just a cable and/or modified console... not really worthy of that revolving cabinet imo.

[Rick Dangerous]

...the really great thing is you already own a skunk board of some description, so actually need none of this expense or hassle as you already have the better solution as an end user.

 

I know you said "for collector purposes" but is there any here? It's just a cable and/or modified console... not really worthy of that revolving cabinet imo.

 

I do use my skunk for game playing purposes.

 

The BJL setup is for other purposes for which I need an open cart slot.

[sh3-rg]

 

I do use my skunk for game playing purposes.

 

The BJL setup is for other purposes for which I need an open cart slot.

 

Ah OK, so the Protector SE solutions etc. are no good to you, you need to make the mod. Just that your initial post didn't mention any of that, just is it useless if you have a skunk/just for collector purposes.

[Voodoo]

...useful for dumping carts though

[Zerosquare]

Zerosquare is there any way to tell if the computer will detect the port as a USB device?

Plug it in, and open Windows' Device Manager tool from Control Panel. Check the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section. The parallel port will appear as "Printer port (LPTx)":

 

Double-click it. If there's a "Resources" tab with one (or several) I/O ranges in it, like this, it's OK:

 

Otherwise it's probably a USB parallel port that can't be used with BJL.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Zerosquare

[Chilly Willy]

Can't be used by Windows, you mean. Linux has a method of sending data in a compatible manner to any type of parallel device, be it USB or anything else. Of course, you'd need to change lo_inp.c to use the that, but it's an easy fix. Just use the io functions from the parallel.c file from the ucon64 source. For example, this is how ucon64 handles inputting a byte:

 

unsigned char
inportb (unsigned short port)
{
#ifdef  USE_PPDEV
  int ppreg = port - ucon64.parport;
  unsigned char byte;

  switch (ppreg)
    {
    case 0:                                     // data
      if (parport_io_direction == FORWARD)      // dir is forward?
        {
          parport_io_direction = REVERSE;       // change it to reverse
          ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPDATADIR, &parport_io_direction);
        }
      ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPRDATA, &byte);
      break;
    case 1:                                     // status
      ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPRSTATUS, &byte);
      break;
    case 2:                                     // control
      ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPRCONTROL, &byte);
      break;
    case 3:                                     // EPP/ECP address
      if (!(parport_io_mode & IEEE1284_ADDR))   // IEEE1284_DATA is 0!
        {
          parport_io_mode |= IEEE1284_ADDR;
          ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPSETMODE, &parport_io_mode);
        }
      read (parport_io_fd, &byte, 1);
      break;
    case 4:                                     // EPP/ECP data
      if (parport_io_mode & IEEE1284_ADDR)
        {
          parport_io_mode &= ~IEEE1284_ADDR;    // IEEE1284_DATA is 0
          ioctl (parport_io_fd, PPSETMODE, &parport_io_mode);
        }
      read (parport_io_fd, &byte, 1);
      break;
    case 0x402:                                 // ECP register
      printf ("WARNING: Ignored read from ECP register, returning 0\n");
      byte = 0;
      break;
    default:
      fprintf (stderr,
               "ERROR: inportb() tried to read from an unsupported port (0x%x)\n",
               port);
      exit (1);
    }
  return byte;
#elif   defined __BEOS__
  st_ioport_t temp;

  temp.port = port;
  ioctl (parport_io_fd, 'r', &temp, 0);

  return temp.data8;
#elif   defined AMIGA
  (void) port;                                  // warning remover
  ULONG wait_mask;

  parport_io_req->io_Length = 1;
  parport_io_req->io_Command = CMD_READ;

/*
  SendIO ((struct IORequest *) parport_io_req);

  wait_mask = SIGBREAKF_CTRL_C | SIGBREAKF_CTRL_F | 1L << parport->mp_SigBit;
  if (Wait (wait_mask) & (SIGBREAKF_CTRL_C | SIGBREAKF_CTRL_F))
    AbortIO ((struct IORequest *) parport_io_req);
  WaitIO ((struct IORequest *) parport_io_req);
*/

  /*
    The difference between using SendIO() and DoIO(), is that DoIO() handles
    messages etc. by itself but it will not return until the IO is done.

    Probably have to do more error handling here :-)

    Can one CTRL-C a DoIO() request? (Or for that matter a SendIO().)
  */

  if (DoIO ((struct IORequest *) parport_io_req))
    {
      fprintf (stderr, "ERROR: Could not communicate with parallel port (%s, %d)\n",
                       ucon64.parport_dev, ucon64.parport);
      exit (1);
    }

  return (unsigned char) parport_io_req->io_Data;
#elif   defined _WIN32 || defined __CYGWIN__
  return input_byte (port);
#elif   defined __i386__ || defined __x86_64__
  return i386_input_byte (port);
#elif   defined HAVE_SYS_IO_H
  return inb (port);
#endif
}

[Zerosquare]

It won't work on any USB hardware that doesn't expose, or even support, low-level control (i.e. anything different from the standard parallel port printer protocol).

 

Even if it worked, it'd be abysmally slow because of USB latencies. You'd get a few hundred bytes per second at most.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Zerosquare