USB optical drive/burning out USB ports question

[wakka]

Hi guys

I have a Samsung USB optical drive (model SE-208) which I use to burn CDs and DVDs to play on my modded retro consoles.

I used to connect it to my ex's Lenovo to burn games but, since she's now an ex, don't have access to that any more.

It has a single old school mini USB port on it, and came with one of those 'Y' shaped cables with one mini USB male connector on one end and two USB-A male connectors on the other.

With the Lenovo laptop I used to use, I jacked it into two USB-As on the laptop and it worked fine.

I've now only got access to my MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 2021) which has 3x USB-C ports and zero USB-A ports.

I tried a mini USB to USB-C cable and it wouldn't work - the light on the optical drive just flashed, but it obviously wasn't getting enough power. I tried connecting it directly to my MacBook's 67w PSU, and it worked fine then because it was obviously drawing enough power (although obviously couldn't be used for anything cos it was just connected to a PSU, not a computer). This did narrow the culprit down to the power the MacBook is willing to supply via its USB-C ports, rather than the cable or the optical drive itself, though.

I've ordered these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CRR8CMY2

My thinking is that I connect these to my existing Y cable and two USB-C to USB-C cables to the other end, and jack them both into the MacBook.

It might seem silly, but will this be safe to do?

I recall many years ago I jerryrigged a similar setup - can't remember the precise details - and managed to permanently burn out one of the USB-A ports on my then computer (2008 MacBook Pro).

I really can't afford to mess up this computer in any way because it's a £2k machine that I use for work.

Sort of thinking I might just abandon the whole idea and work out another solution for playing retro games...maybe invest in ODEs or something...

Any thoughts from the Bordersdown brain trust most welcome.

[speedlolita]

Earlier this year I bought two USB Freecom DVD drives for this sort of application, one ended up costing me £15 delivered and the other was unopened for about £22. I appreciate what you're trying to do but for simplicity sake I might suggest grabbing something with a 12V external power supply and a single data connection, especially if you're concerned about sabotaging such an expensive laptop.

[egparadigm]

I have a cheapy caddy for smaller HDDs. It uses a similar “Y” cable to the one you mention. I used it for the first time today in a while and for power I went through my expensive-ish Anker USB-C hub, which has 2 USB-A ports. That worked, either with external PD via USB-C or without.

[wakka]

Thanks for the input guys, really helpful.

I've had some fun with this last night. With the USB A-C converters I bought, it actually works via just one wire - the data/power one - but only on some of the MBP's USB-C ports and not others. Which is weird but w/e.

However it seems like I'm buggered for actually burning Saturn games. Disc burning is so niche and deprecated in MacOS at this point that there is only a minority of legacy software still knocking around that supports it. The one piece of software that I could get working was one called Burn, which would happily burn a PS1 bin/cue but didn't like Saturn bin/cues at all. I guess something to do with how they're particularly configured in terms of like, sector size, or something (I have no idea what I'm talking about fyi).

I even tried virtualising Windows in UTM, the free virtualisation software, but that was a bit of a nightmare to be honest and I didn't get anywhere with that either.

I just want to play Touge: King the Spirits!

I might think about getting a Saroo but I'm concerned about the fact that it uses the memory card slot. It's so fupping unreliable. It's only about £50 though so maybe worth a shot. At least I can still burn PS1 games, as I rely on my PS2 for original hardware PS1 playback.

[speedlolita]

I've had some fun with this last night. With the USB A-C converters I bought, it actually works via just one wire - the data/power one - but only on some of the MBP's USB-C ports and not others. Which is weird but w/e.

I guess those ports are able to exceed the 500mAh standard of a regular USB A port with that converter. Shame you couldn't get a disc burned though! As for the Saroo, I've never used one but I've read good things about them. I've got a Fenrir in my own Saturn which costs about double but is debatably more reliable though you lose the CD drive.

[wakka]

I guess those ports are able to exceed the 500mAh standard of a regular USB A port with that converter. Shame you couldn't get a disc burned though! As for the Saroo, I've never used one but I've read good things about them. I've got a Fenrir in my own Saturn which costs about double but is debatably more reliable though you lose the CD drive.

I guess that must be it. It's a bit odd. I do notice my monitor, connected over HDMI, goes to a black screen for a second or two when the drive starts drawing its needed power. Makes me nervous. I just don't think Macs are built for optical drive stuff any more, not even remotely.

A Fenrir looks like a better shout man. Of course you know my Saturn as you sold it to me many years ago. My cart slot is just a classic Saturn cart slot, incredibly unreliable (no hate/blame, I love the machine). It seems like I'd get games crashing just because the cart slot stopped reading.

Shame the Satiator is so bonkers expensive. $260 is far too much.

I might go over to a mate's house who has a proper Windows desktop and just burn a bunch of games there. Cheaper, at least. And I've got plenty of Taiyo Yudens.

[speedlolita]

A Fenrir looks like a better shout man. Of course you know my Saturn as you sold it to me many years ago. My cart slot is just a classic Saturn cart slot, incredibly unreliable (no hate/blame, I love the machine). It seems like I'd get games crashing just because the cart slot stopped reading.

Yeah, those slots are a crapshoot at the best of times. This far into the future we have no idea of the history of these machines and what has been inserted into them.

Shame the Satiator is so bonkers expensive. $260 is far too much.

Agreed. The Satiator looks like a wicked device but much too expensive.

I might go over to a mate's house who has a proper Windows desktop and just burn a bunch of games there. Cheaper, at least. And I've got plenty of Taiyo Yudens.

That doesn't seem like an unreasonable idea. I usually find it isn't too difficult to compile a list of games I'd like to chuck on an ODE so doing similar and burning a small batch of games every now and then is sensible.

[wakka]

Think it's the way to go. I find with the Saturn cart slot the advice is to not leave the cart in, which, okay, I get, because it bends the pins. But then if I remove it I have a devil of a time getting it back in with a solid connection. Then you've got the problem of the internal battery dying if you don't play often enough (unless you've got an FRAM mod), which of course leaves you pretty reliant on the cart unless you want all your saves periodically deleted. All a bit of a pain and I don't think I want to put game loading into the mix on that same slot.

Think it'll probably be an afternoon at my mate's with some cups of tea and a lot of disc burning to get some stuff down on plastic that I've wishlisted to play.