pl2301 cable is it special

[darrenjferguson]

Hi,

I just got a USB <=> USB cable and connected between PS2 and Laptop.
Win XP didn't 'find' a new device.

is the pl2301 anything special??

I've booted naplink via swapmagic and am just getting a black screen...

Thanks.
Darren.

[ole]

You shouldn't get black screen after booting naplink. There should be the blue/violet screen with the Naplink banner at the top of the screen.
About the PC drivers - you have to install drivers that are included in the naplnk client package.

[darrenjferguson]

Hi, Thanks

What i really wanted to know is the pl2301 different to any other usb to usb cable. e.g. is it a special cable i need to buy?

With the cable i have XP didn't find any new hardware nor did it show up in device manager.

RE: naplink, are there any steps in cdgenps2 that i need to take beyond dropping the files in and burning.

Finally, do i need to have naplink up and running before i hook up the pc?

Sorry for beginner questions, but i promise i'm a quick 'n keen learner!!

Thanks
D.

[mharris]

Yes, the PL2301 is special -- it's essentially a "null modem" or "crossover cable," although there's a little more to it than that (i.e., you can't just swap pairs like you can with serial or ethernet cables).

Here's what I can remember about the way USB works: The USB standard has 3 kinds of devices -- hosts, peripherals, and hubs. A host (your PC) cannot directly connect to another host (the PS2) without some sort of trickery in between; this is what the PL2301 provides. An plain cable won't cut it.

[Drakonite]

...and although there are USB networking cables made with chips other than the PL2301 (such as the AN2720), the PL2301 based cables are the only ones supported by naplink.

[darrenjferguson]

thanks people!

managed to find one on lik-sang.com, and it's on its way....

last really useful thing would be a guide ond how to burn ps2 cd's, as naplink seems to be a coaster.

[cory1492]

I use Nero to burn homebrew cds, I just add in a dummy file, the system.cnf file that points to the elf and set the mode cdrom/mode2/xa and drag/drop the files into the compilation. The only problem I have had with this method is that bad media + ps2 == not great results...

[darrenjferguson]

Tried burning again with my extetnal drive and all works fine.
Thanks for all the help.
D.

[J.F.]

I use Nero to burn homebrew cds, I just add in a dummy file, the system.cnf file that points to the elf and set the mode cdrom/mode2/xa and drag/drop the files into the compilation. The only problem I have had with this method is that bad media + ps2 == not great results...

Same thing I do... I'll add that I usually make the dummy file about 100M, and I limit the write speed to 16X. I've had no trouble with any media written at 16X so far, but I like RiData media the best for both CDRs and DVDRs.