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View Full Version : How to buy a Dreamcast SD card reader from China



MAXIMUSpowers
April 16th, 2011, 15:26
Possibly an ideal news post or sticky? I found this out through another source and have just bought one.

This is how you buy an SD card reader from China. The total including the middle man services and shipping comes to just under $15. This might seem a little pricey but its worth it considering how rare these items are!

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i4/119984923/T220RxXdRXXXXXXXXX_%21%21119984923.jpg

What you need:
- a PayPal account
- $15(can be in your native currency)

What to do:
- go to this URL: http://buyfromtaobao.com/ShoppingCart.aspx
- copy and paste this URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7818275499 into the input field
- pay with PayPal

Explaination:
Basically there is a website called 'Buy from Taobao' that acts as a middle man to get items for you from the Chinese website Taobao. You enter the Item URL that you want and pay for it through them. They obviously add a service charge.

WhizzBang
April 16th, 2011, 20:51
Does anyone here have one of these? Are they any good? What do you use them for?

wraggster
April 16th, 2011, 23:40
bloody hell 15dollars is cheap. soon as i get some cash in my paypal ill buy one

MAXIMUSpowers
April 16th, 2011, 23:56
Yeah quite a few people should have them here. They are used for things like: loading roms off, playing music, saving data... its relatively new so support is only just starting to appear for it. Chui has updated many of his emulators to support the SD card adaptor. Dreamboot is what ud benifit most from. Its an OS for the Dreamcast

wraggster
April 17th, 2011, 00:03
I remember those Dreamcasts modded with an sd adapter and was it a Broadband adapter, i wonder what they fetch in conversion

Iceman^2
April 18th, 2011, 04:37
Thanks for this! I have been wanting one of these for a long time now, and I ordered one as soon as I saw the link.

JLF65
April 18th, 2011, 21:58
I've just ordered one as well. Don't forget that the initial price isn't the final price - you will be charged for Intl. shipping once they receive the product and ship it out to your address; so depending on where you live, it will be another $5 to $10 which will be charged to your PayPal account when they ship it out.

wraggster
April 18th, 2011, 22:11
its times like this that i wish lik sang were still around, you would have paid a lot less i reckon, but still they are decent, no more burning ruddy cds makes up for all that cash spent on the SD adapter

JLF65
April 19th, 2011, 00:10
its times like this that i wish lik sang were still around, you would have paid a lot less i reckon, but still they are decent, no more burning ruddy cds makes up for all that cash spent on the SD adapter

I know what you mean - I burned perhaps 80 CDRs while working on my port of Doom for the DC. Granted CDRs are cheap, but they add up after awhile. The SD adapter will allow me to do my testing off the SD card, and only at the key releases burn a CDR to make sure that is working properly as well.

wraggster
April 19th, 2011, 02:19
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=9661485967 - is this the same only cheaper ?

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=8914904057&ad_id=&am_id=&cm_id=&pm_id= - vga box and sd adapter together ?

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=3497818359 - dreamcast with built in sd and vga, says its 350 so how much is that in dollars or pounds

XDelusion
April 20th, 2011, 00:32
I "think" my order went through...

JLF65 (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/members/88265-JLF65): Glad to see you are still working on DOOM!

Kaiser
April 20th, 2011, 01:24
Funny this thread pops up now. Was just talking with Eric a day or two ago about homebrew using SD adapters.

Might have to grab one myself.

JLF65
April 20th, 2011, 05:12
I "think" my order went through...

JLF65 (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/members/88265-JLF65): Glad to see you are still working on DOOM!

Yep! I'll also make sure it has good SD support once I get my SD adapter in. I had been meaning to get that for a while, not just to save on CDRs, but because it will be MUCH easier for using mods and different midi instrument sets.

wraggster
April 20th, 2011, 12:18
adding sd support to the whole dreamcast Homebrew and emulation library would be great although not sure if totally doable

XDelusion
April 21st, 2011, 00:16
Wait a second... is this thing usb?

JLF65
April 21st, 2011, 02:01
Wait a second... is this thing usb?

No. It's made FROM a standard USB SD card reader, but it's be hacked to work from the DC serial port in the back. If you look at the pics closely, you'll see where it's been pried apart and wires soldered here and there, then glued back together. It's a good job, but still noticeably a hack.

XDelusion
April 21st, 2011, 20:07
Phew! O.K. Good deal!

HaiNet
April 25th, 2011, 11:03
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=9661485967 - is this the same only cheaper ?



I think the two adapters differ in SD format. The one you mentioned ($6.36) supports only normal SD cards. The other one ($9.54) supports the micro SD format (in title it has the abbreviation TF=TransFlash). Actually it should be possible to use an microSD to SD adapter.

Anyone can confirm my thoughts? I'm also considering buying one :-)

XDelusion
April 28th, 2011, 21:30
Ya, if you buy the SD verison there should be zero reason why you could not use a Micro SD adaptor. I've yet to use a device that didn't, including the SD card reader that I use on my old Atari 8-bit computers in place of a floppy drive.

JLF65
May 22nd, 2011, 21:09
I've just ordered one as well. Don't forget that the initial price isn't the final price - you will be charged for Intl. shipping once they receive the product and ship it out to your address; so depending on where you live, it will be another $5 to $10 which will be charged to your PayPal account when they ship it out.

Quoting myself to update the info... I got notice a few days back that my purchase had arrived and that after paying the final shipping to where I live, it would be shipped. Standard shipping was $10.60, and express was something over $30, so I went with standard. With PayPal fees, the charge was $11.31, making the grand total to get the adapter through TaoBao $26.14 (includes PayPal fees).

EDIT: Finally picked up the package... it arrived June 4. So given I started the process April 18, it took just under seven weeks from order to arrival. That must be considered along with the price as some people have more money than time, or vice versa.

XDelusion
July 16th, 2011, 16:55
Still have not heard anything about mine.

JLF65
July 20th, 2011, 01:28
You might want to email them about it. They were pretty responsive to the one email I sent them about my own order.

Basile
July 21st, 2011, 15:34
XDelusion, what model you have ordered ?
http://img04.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i4/119984923/T220RxXdRXXXXXXXXX_%21%21119984923.jpg ?
But the link pointed in the first msg goes to another one with more price so i think you should tell buyfromtaobao this link http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=9661485967 and ask to change item.

XDelusion
July 26th, 2011, 05:24
Even if this one does not come, it's alright, got one off Ebay too. ;)

XDelusion
August 24th, 2011, 02:29
That's the same model I got off Ebay. Seems to work fine!

Most Katana games will not work, or are choppy, but there are a few that seem to work flawlessly.

Thus far all my Homebrew is liking it! Still running tests though. Can't wait to see how far all this goes!!!

On that note, I hear a Virtual GD-ROM drive is on the way so we don't have to use CD's any more!!!! :)