Introducing, the Creamsicle Cube!

[RedmagnusX]

Hey guys,

Here's another portable that I finished up a couple months or so ago. I call it the Creamsicle Cube. The case was made by Gman. I bought it from him since I was interested in making a small portable Gamecube and I hadn't yet received my vacuum former to make my own. Well here it is folks and feel free to tell me what you think.









Features;
3.5" screen
Dual 3ds Sliders
Stereo Audio with switching headphone jack and Digital volume control
Single Tact Modded L and R buttons
Wiikey Fusion flashed with the latest Swiss
8 Sunon Mighty Mini fans with trimmed GC heatsink for cooling
OMGWTF cut CPU 11 motherboard with IPL 1.1

 

[cheese]

Dang that's nice! Do all those tiny fans get kinda noisy or are they muffled/slow speed/quite in general?

 

[grossaffe]

I'm trying to decide if that's a tiny portable, you have gigantic hands, or some combination of the two. The pics of the portable alone make it seem fairly big, but in your hands it looks like a GBA micro. Either way, that's a nice, clean looking portable.

 

[ttsgeb]

What the...?

 

[lyberty5]

That's really impressive
It looks a bit thick but is definitely extra small by comparison to the screen cutout..

Really amazing job fitting all tha in there !


By the way I'm really curious about those extra thin sunon fans, how noisy are they ? And how good of a job are they doing?

I'm really hoping you don't actually "need" all 6 on them on the heatsink + 2 exhaust to keep the gc relatively cool.. How much did you trim the heatsink?
I'll be sure to try them out for myself sometime, they juste are a little pricy :/

 

[RedmagnusX]

I'm trying to decide if that's a tiny portable, you have gigantic hands, or some combination of the two. The pics of the portable alone make it seem fairly big, but in your hands it looks like a GBA micro. Either way, that's a nice, clean looking portable.

It's tiny. My hands are an average size at best. The overall measurements are 138mm (W) x 75mm (D) x 38mm (D). It may even be one of, if not the smallest GCP around. Here are some size comparison pictures next to a GBA.

Dang that's nice! Do all those tiny fans get kinda noisy or are they muffled/slow speed/quite in general?

They're fairly noisy, but it was unavoidable. I was really paranoid about having heating issues with this one, so I went the safe route. To compensate, I put the loudest Amp I had in this portable. It drowns the noise out fairly well.

That's really impressive
It looks a bit thick but is definitely extra small by comparison to the screen cutout..

Really amazing job fitting all tha in there !


By the way I'm really curious about those extra thin sunon fans, how noisy are they ? And how good of a job are they doing?

I'm really hoping you don't actually "need" all 6 on them on the heatsink + 2 exhaust to keep the gc relatively cool.. How much did you trim the heatsink?
I'll be sure to try them out for myself sometime, they juste are a little pricy :/

It's not really all that thick actually. It's measures only 38mm thick. I don't really think I needed all the fans, but I wanted to be safe when it came to cooling this one. So much so that I ended up cutting out the small 2000MAH internal battery that I had originally planned on including.

They are pricey. I was able to find them on ebay for about $10 each. The heatsink is trimmed to be 5mm thick. I also trimmed a bit of it to accommodate the L and R buttons. The fans really do a great job cooling the system. They really do move a lot of air for their size.

 

[lyberty5]

I maintain that it "looks" thick. But only in comparison to its ridiculous height...

 

[RedmagnusX]

I maintain that it "looks" thick. But only in comparison to its ridiculous height...

Yea, it does have a bit of a stubby look to it.

 

[Shank]

"Oh its just another boxy- jesus christ that thing is tiny"

Good job man. Looks very nice, and very clean.

 

[RedmagnusX]

"Oh its just another boxy- jesus christ that thing is tiny"

Good job man. Looks very nice, and very clean.

Hahaha Thanks man.

 

[Keirstin Bloom]

I know I'm way late on seeing this, but this thing is AWESOME. It's stuff like this that makes me want to keep chugging away at modding hoping someday I'll be this cool.

What are those things with the silver circles on them? I've never seen anything like that.

 

[RedmagnusX]

I know I'm way late on seeing this, but this thing is AWESOME. It's stuff like this that makes me want to keep chugging away at modding hoping someday I'll be this cool.

What are those things with the silver circles on them? I've never seen anything like that.

The things with silver circles on them are cut out pieces of breadboard with solder pads. Breadboard is often used for mounting hobby electronic components for the purpose of prototyping. I use them to solder my soft tact switches to and to provide a sturdy surface to mount them into my case.

The best advice I can give you is to keep at it. Push yourself each time. Was your last portable a bit big? Try to make the next one smaller. Did you have a lot of unnecessary wiring? Try to cut back on it. I say this cause I often see excessive amounts of wiring for both Power and Ground on portables and wiring takes up a TON of space ergo, the project is larger overall.

Essentially, always try to look for ways that you can improve upon your last portable project. Eventually, you will start to weed out the stuff that doesn't quite work and you will figure out the stuff that does work. Portable building in general is about refinement. Once you learn what works and what doesn't (parts, techniques etc.) the whole entire process becomes much easier.

Tools are also very important, too many people try to make these portables with an inadequate Soldering Iron, without a multi-meter or without a de-soldering iron and then they end up ruining components. It really is a pay now, or pay later scenario. The same can be said for components. Reusing components is great, don't get me wrong, but nothing beats fresh components in terms of the ease in which you can incorporate them into your design. Regardless you will have to design your portable around your components, but it can be much trickier designing around re-purposed components.


If you want some insight into my process, feel free to check out the thread below. Just try to ignore the riff raff part way through.

http://modretro.com/xen/index.php?threads/crimson-cube-v3-for-commission.14257/

 

[Keirstin Bloom]

The things with silver circles on them are cut out pieces of breadboard with solder pads. Breadboard is often used for mounting hobby electronic components for the purpose of prototyping. I use them to solder my soft tact switches to and to provide a sturdy surface to mount them into my case.

The best advice I can give you is to keep at it. Push yourself each time. Was your last portable a bit big? Try to make the next one smaller. Did you have a lot of unnecessary wiring? Try to cut back on it. I say this cause I often see excessive amounts of wiring for both Power and Ground on portables and wiring takes up a TON of space ergo, the project is larger overall.

Essentially, always try to look for ways that you can improve upon your last portable project. Eventually, you will start to weed out the stuff that doesn't quite work and you will figure out the stuff that does work. Portable building in general is about refinement. Once you learn what works and what doesn't (parts, techniques etc.) the whole entire process becomes much easier.

Tools are also very important, too many people try to make these portables with an inadequate Soldering Iron, without a multi-meter or without a de-soldering iron and then they end up ruining components. It really is a pay now, or pay later scenario. The same can be said for components. Reusing components is great, don't get me wrong, but nothing beats fresh components in terms of the ease in which you can incorporate them into your design. Regardless you will have to design your portable around your components, but it can be much trickier designing around re-purposed components.


If you want some insight into my process, feel free to check out the thread below. Just try to ignore the riff raff part way through.

http://modretro.com/xen/index.php?threads/crimson-cube-v3-for-commission.14257/

Thank you for all the advice I ordered some breadboards because in your worklog they seemed really useful not just for wiring but for organization too. (My first gcp was a bit messy inside).

You do really amazing work

 

[RedmagnusX]

Thank you for all the advice I ordered some breadboards because in your worklog they seemed really useful not just for wiring but for organization too. (My first gcp was a bit messy inside).

You do really amazing work

Thank you I really wish I had more time recently to build more, but unfortunately there haven't been enough hours in a day as of late.