Hey,

As you know, we don’t have a link cable, or a suitable connector available for the VB. There’s several ways to make a cable that works, but in the end, it’s mostly ugly hacks for development/prototyping. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to make a quality cable that would just plug in… but so far have been unsuccessful.

So… it got me thinking… how about just making a proper cable? I contacted a custom part manufacturer (who I’ve used parts from in the past), and they said they could do it, but of course wouldn’t be “cheap”. I sort of based my design thoughts on the SNES A/V connector, which includes a plastic shell with crimp pins. So, I found some crimp pins which should work, but I didn’t have any way to make a 3D model of the plastic shell.

Well, of course I asked Hedgetrimmer (our resident 3D modeling expert), and he created a GREAT model of a plastic shell to house the pins. With that, I was able to verify with the MFG that it could be made, as well as get an estimate for price.

So, now here’s the question. They were right… it’s not cheap. A complete link cable would cost about $40, since the quantity would be so low. At this price, how many would be interested (and how many)? Would anyone want just the connector/pins?

There’d probably only be about 50 cables made, and this would probably be the only run, since I’m assuming the demand would be low. I don’t mind investing the money (and probably losing quite a bit on this project), since I think it’s a very worthwhile project… but, if I’m the only one that has any interest in it, there’s no point in even considering it further.

But, IMO this seems like a good time to pursue this, since homebrew is continually advancing, and I think linked homebrew has been held down by lack of link cable. Also, I assume some will be buying the new Flashboy, even though they already have an old Flashboy… so with two flash carts, why not have a cable to link the systems?

Of course, if there’s an unanticipated large interest in this, the price would come down… but we’re a pretty small community, and the homebrew crowd is really the only market for this.

Thanks,
DogP

Sweet!

😀 It’s working!! 🙂
:vb: <-------------> :vb:

I picked up my cable from the customs office today and tested it with Mario’s Tennis – work’s perfectly!
The cable looks and feels great – very good work, mellott! Thank You so much!

The 3D photos attached are optimised for cross-eyed viewing …

Attachments:

1. 

   vbs-linked_crossed-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   vb-linkcable_crossed-scaled.jpg
   

Very nice 3D images!!

^^ Those cross eyed photos worked MINT for me!

Just received my cable today. Unfortunately I don’t have two flashboys or two hyper fightings yet, so I can’t test yet. The quality is nice however, and it inserts into the Virtual Boy very smoothly. No it’s not actually Nintendo quality, which should be obvious by everyones pictures, but that’s not a fair comparison anyway. For a one man homebrew project, this is a great quality cable. I do like the material chosen for the 3D printing, the texture is nice and grippy, and helps tone down the 3D printed appearance. The connectors feel nice and solid. The cable itself is definitely solid and the color choice is ideal. It has kind of an industrial style, and similar in flex to an ethernet cable.

All in all very nice job Mellott, thank you for picking up this project and finally delivering a proper Link Cable to the community. Finally, we can experience one of the key features Nintendo should have included at launch, 22 years later!

Glad you like it.

The cable is cat6 Ethernet cable. If you look closely at the text on the cable you’ll see it written on there.

speedyink wrote:
^^ Those cross eyed photos worked MINT for me!

Just received my cable today. Unfortunately I don’t have two flashboys or two hyper fightings yet, so I can’t test yet. The quality is nice however, and it inserts into the Virtual Boy very smoothly. No it’s not actually Nintendo quality, which should be obvious by everyones pictures, but that’s not a fair comparison anyway. For a one man homebrew project, this is a great quality cable. I do like the material chosen for the 3D printing, the texture is nice and grippy, and helps tone down the 3D printed appearance. The connectors feel nice and solid. The cable itself is definitely solid and the color choice is ideal. It has kind of an industrial style, and similar in flex to an ethernet cable.

All in all very nice job Mellott, thank you for picking up this project and finally delivering a proper Link Cable to the community. Finally, we can experience one of the key features Nintendo should have included at launch, 22 years later!

mellott124 wrote:
Glad you like it.

The cable is cat6 Ethernet cable. If you look closely at the text on the cable you’ll see it written on there.

Oh yeah, it does! I did read some of the text the other day, but I guess I only read the “Cable Matters” portion of it :p

I’m so stoked to try this bad boy out. Can’t wait for the HF cart and/or more Flashboy carts to be produced!

Am I late to this party? May I get a cable, too? Are there any left?

I finally got the time to get my 2-player Hyper Fighting setup going and it was amazing! Stupidly I forgot to take pictures. I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing… after all this time… at long last, true 2-player VB action. The build quality was incredible and the functionality was as good as could have been expected. Absolutely no lag that I could detect. I kept grabbing one controller and looking in the other VB to check it out! Now I need to get another FlashBoy so I can try the other 2-player games, especially Mario Tennis (and I need to get another actual human in the room with me that wants to play VB, for that matter!). Incredible job on this project @melott124!

10 link cables shipping out tomorrow. Didn’t get the whole batch done this weekend but I should be able to get to the remaining ones in the next couples of days.

I’ll be placing an order for batch 5 cable parts in the next few days. If you’re on the fence about getting a cable then this would be the batch to get your order in. After batch 5 I’m going to take a break from cables for a while. I want to focus on some other projects and quite frankly just need a break from making cables. I’ve hand stuffed 224 USB pins so far!

thank you for all of your hard work!

Hello – I come back to the forum regularly but somehow missed this?

I had my name jotted down on a wait list I thought, but what’s the process to get in on the next batch?!

Would REALLY love at least one cable and happy to buy a few even if it helped.

Like L_E_T, I’m interested in buying one of this link cable. Just let me know how to make payment for one cable.

It is a really great thing, specially with the discovering of the recent patch for Mario Tennis!
VBoy still alive and congrats for all people involved in these projects (patch mario tennis, link cable, hyper fighting release …), you are amazing! 🙂

this came in the mail today. build quality is really nice. it fits in the EXT port perfectly. i’m waiting to find a second VB owner before i can test out the functionality.

thanks again for taking the time to complete these for the community.

Attachments:

1. 

   img_20170816_224806.jpg
   

I also received my cable in the mail yesterday. The build quality is nice, but I don’t have a way to test it out right now. It plugs into the EXT port perfectly. Now I just need to convince a friend to buy a VB and a FlashBoy+.

OK, all batch 4 cable orders are out.

I haven’t placed the order for new parts yet. Was just too busy with current cable builds. I’m planning on placing the orders today. I’ll order a few extras but like I said, I’m taking a break after this to work on other projects.

Should start shipping cables about 2 weeks from now. That may be about 1 week longer than what I previously stated for some buyers. Falling a bit behind.

Finally I had some time to show the new link cable also on video:
https://youtu.be/aSxmY4-TsP0

VectrexRoli wrote:
Finally I had some time to show the new link cable also on video:
https://youtu.be/aSxmY4-TsP0

I can’t wait to watch it later, Roland!

Great video as always Roland.

Kevin, fantastic work on getting these link cables out in the open. Have you considered selling these as a DIY kit? It may help you save time instead of building them yourself.

VBmills wrote:
Great video as always Roland.

Kevin, fantastic work on getting these link cables out in the open. Have you considered selling these as a DIY kit? It may help you save time instead of building them yourself.

I have thought about it but don’t want to have to do service calls/emails when people can’t assemble them correctly. For now I’ll keep building them so I know it’s done correctly. Maybe in the future…

FYI, I’ve had trouble accessing PlanetVB for the last 4 days. I’ve been setup with a proxy so that now I can load the website.

I’m also interested in such cable!