The definitive GC motherboard trimming guide

[Ashen]

Please note: Duplication in part or in whole of any part of this guide, its contents or visual references is strictly prohibited without the express consent of the author.

This thread is a MAJOR work in progress and should be considered incomplete until noted that it is. I will do my best to update this post with all new and relevant info.

Included in this guide are motherboard cuts for a variety of difficulty levels. Of course you can always combine a few of the different methods suggested if it suits you. Even a small trim job can save you some space and not make wiring things back up that much harder.

Before you go any further I suggest that if you have not done it yet familiarize yourself with Kasar's GCp guide: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1654 It really is an invaluable tool for GC beginners and if you haven't read it yet you should not be reading this. Put your dremel away!

There are MANY different revisions of the GC motherboard and they all vary at least a little bit. Even though you will have this handy little guide telling you roughly what is safe to trim off you will still need to do a lot of your own tracing of leads to the tiny components they go to and checking to make sure what you are cutting wont kill your cube. Please don't expect this guide to do all the work for you. Always look before you leap!

Lastly, it needs to be said that some of these trim jobs require soldering to VERY tiny components... If you are a novice at soldering you should probably go practice a bit more as you are just going to end up killing your gamecube...

For cutting I recommend a dremel and cut off wheel or a similar rotary based cutting tool. Scissors or tin snips or w/e else you think of will not do a very nice job.... The GC mainboard is a 4 layered PCB!! What this means is that after cutting it you will need to sand ALL of the edges and make sure none of the layers are touching so you don't kill your little cube!

So yea... I've talked enough... Lets get to it!

Here we have an untrimmed GC motherboard in all its glory:

Its tiny already, yea. Lets make it smaller though.

Minimalist GC cut:

You will not have to relocate anything or solder to any small components with this cut except for some of the controller connector connections which have some nice convenient test pads right there for you to solder to. You will buy yourself roughly 4mm on each side you cut with this particular cut.

Medium GC cut:

With this cut you've bought yourself a significant amount of space that was wasted before. You will need to relocate: Memory Card Connections, Controller port connections, Bios Battery connection, Video/Audio Connections and the 3.3v power input from the GC's regulator.

Maximum safe GC cut:

This cut is exactly the same as the previously mentioned cut except that we have now also trimmed off the DVD drive connector. This cut will require all of the relocation of the previously mentioned cut plus the relocation points of the DVD drive.

The Cuts shown past this point remove a lot of tiny components (filters, resistors, capacitors, etc.) from the GC motherboard that may or may not be critical to long term system operation. Make these cuts at your own risk!

AlmostWTF cut:

No controller transistor relocation required. Disc Drive relocation to "maximum safe cut" points possible. Requires memcards relocation directly to GPU via's.

OMGWTF cut:

Controller transistor relocation required. Requires memcards and DD relocation directly to GPU via's. Also requires clock crystal (tubular thingy) relocation. This cut has been tested for a while now by multiple people and no problems have been reported as of yet. At this point its still not recommended to try this unless you have some GC's to kill.

Relocation methods:

Controller port connector relocation for basic trim:

I've circled the corresponding GC pin #'s in red. Those nice shiny test pads below where the connector used to be are prime for soldering to. Trace your needed leads back to them and solder right to them.

Before we get into power relocation lets take a look at the power pin out of the GC motherboard:

For the simpler trims where you can still wire to this input connector all like connections may be bridged together if needed.

The original GameCube regulator provides a built in thermal protection circuit. What this does is protect your cube from catching fire or melting down if you do not have it cooled properly by cutting the power if the cube gets too hot. I highly recommend hooking this line back up if you are keeping the original GC regulator. Like so:

You may solder to the traces or to the chips pins that I've shown above.

For the more in depth trims I highly recommend to just relocate the main power lines as shown here (please make sure to use a thicker gauge wire):

These points are all you need to get your GameCube running again (-audio for some cuts). If for whatever reason you still wish to regulate the 5v line you can just input 5v to whatever needs it (Original GC DD, Controller rumble) straight from the regulator. You do not need to input 5v to the GC motherboard.

Medium/Max cut 12v power relocation:

Connect your "12v" power to the diode shown above to get audio back. Shockslayer has shown this line can run on anything from 5-12v, higher voltages are reported to sound better though.

Capacitor Functions and suggested relocation's:

Medium/Max cut memory card relocation points:
These traces may vary slightly with board revision, please test with a multimeter to make sure these are correct for your board before you start cutting. Both slots points marked white below are the memory cards "sense" input line, input 3.3v to these points to tell the GameCube that a card is inserted.
Slot A:

Slot B:

The points labeled above are only the memory card data line relocation points! Your memory card will also require the proper 3.3v/Ground connections to work properly.

Medium/Max cut controller ports/reset/bat relocation points:
These traces may vary slightly with board revision, please test with a multimeter to make sure these are correct for your board before you start cutting.
Motherboard Top:

Motherboard Bottom:

Medium/Max cut Audio/Video relocation points:
These traces may vary slightly with board revision, please test with a multimeter to make sure these are correct for your board before you start cutting.
Motherboard Bottom:

These connection points don't bypass any components at all.

Medium/Max safe cut DD relocation points:
Original GameCube Disc Drive Pinout #'s - The points labeled in these pics represent the GC pin #'s as labeled on the top of the GC motherboard.
Top of Motherboard (medium cut only):

Bottom of Motherboard:

Wiikey/Wode to GameCube Disc Drive Pinout #'s - The Points in these pics represent the Wii DVD Drive/Wiikey/Wode mod Pinout #'s
Top of Motherboard (medium cut only):

Bottom of motherboard:

Original GameCube disc drive daughterboard pinout #'s shown for reference:

AlmostWTF/OMGWTF Audio/Video Relocation:

AlmostWTF Controller Relocation:

The memorycard relocation of the AlmostWTF relocation (Memcards/Disc Drive) is the same as Zenlocs pinout shown below. "Maximum safe cut" alternate solder points may be used for the Disc Drive.

AlmostWTF/OMGWTF Memorycard/Controller/Disc Drive via & transistor relocation points:
Memorycard Pinouts correspond to the #'s printed on top of the GameCube motherboard. Other are denoted in the pics. All credit to Technott/Zenloc for the original pinout. Redux by me.
Via Pinout Original GC Disc Drive:

Via Pinout Wii DVD/Wiikey/WODE:

OMGWTF Clock Crystal Relocation:
The little tubular thingy below is needed for the system to keep time properly. You will need to relocate this to where I've shown:

Other OMGWTF Notes:
You may cut directly next to the pins of the ARAM chip. However if you break the traces I've labeled you will need to re-bridge them. I won't say I told you so if you don't do this step, I promise.

I have put together the information contained in this guide through my own work and from piecing together bits of information contained in other peoples posts scattered about on the 3 major portablizing forums. Credit where its due:

Much Thanks to:
Kasar - For making THE best complete GC portablizing guide for n0Obs.
Zenloc & Tchay - For being pioneers of GC motherboard cutting and showing the hidden layers of the boards in detail and just how small GC mainboards can be!
Techknott - Also for being a pioneer of GC motherboard cutting and showing his awesome DD relocation method.
ShockSlayer - For his work with the gamecube regulator and showing how the Audio amp can run off as low as 5v!
The rest of the portablizing and gc-forever community - For being awesome and helping test all the exciting new developments in GC portablizing!

Comments/Contributions/Suggestions welcome!

 

[samjc3]

Excellent.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Added to the sticky.

This is awesome, as more and more stuff like this rolls in, the more and more tempted I am to pick up a gc motherboard again.

SS

 

[techknott]

Good work Ashen. I have a load of diagrams detailing pinouts and relocations for the ultra small version that I did a few days ago. I was gonna put them up in a new thread but was wondering if you wanted to merge them into here so they're not all over the place?

 

[Ashen]

Thanks everyone!

SS, My whole reason for putting forth the effort into all of this gamecube stuff is because there are so many great portablizers here (and there >.>) I'm super excited to be helping and cant wait to see what different people come up with. Everything is in place now for some super epic last gen hardware portables to be made. No one is going to emulate this hardware on a tiny device anytime soon. So IMO its worth the extra effort

Technott, I would love for this thread to become a collaboration of our efforts and anyone else who wants to contribute also. We can never have enough information on this stuff! I will of course make sure to give credit where its due to anyones who contributes or anyone's information I have drawn from. PM me your pics or post them here and I'll add them to the guide when I'm free ^_^

 

[Σigma]

I wonder if Zenloc would be willing to show everyone how exactly he made that much of a cut continue to work. Or a guide possibly. Either of which would be very helpful.

 

[Ashen]

I wonder if Zenloc would be willing to show everyone how exactly he made that much of a cut continue to work. Or a guide possibly. Either of which would be very helpful.

It will be shown here. Zenloc has already shown how to. This is why I'm working on this. The information is out there. But its really scattered all over the place. I will add all of this stuff when I get time. W.I.P guys

 

[techknott]

Moved

 

[Ashen]

Done! Techknott that is beyond awesome man. Thanks for sharing your work!

Edit: I'm curious though. have you hooked up a DD or wiikey to run games with those relocation points. For one thing I'm curious if its safe to bypass all those filtering capacitors the data lines for the DD run through. The other things is that I noticed you said the memcard required none of the tiny components to be relocated. Tchay has said in another thread that the memcard shows up with this type of cut, but you may not be able to actually save and the memcard becomes corrupted?

 

[Σigma]

Techknott, that's absolutely unbelievable! What screen are you using? Because I've never seen one like it before.

 

[kill00man]

Techknott, you may have some BIG problems while playing games... You have cut a big part of the RAM of the Gamecube (maybe ALL the memory), be carefull, you should test your board ingame !

 

[techknott]

The memcard has been tested to the extent that I can copy erase and manipulate the memory card through the dash. I havent actually tested it in-game yet, but I would assume that everything will be ok as its working fine in the dash. Its still reading and writing so I cant see why it wouldn't. The disk drive pinouts have been hooked up to these points and works fine, however, that can change with different revisions, I dont know. But, no big deal, just solder them back in line but further in. The screen is a necvox fd5869. Its just used for testing purposes.

Im nowhere near the ram.

 

[samjc3]

The memcard has been tested to the extent that I can copy erase and manipulate the memory card through the xmb

Its not an XMB. XMB is Xross Media Bar, and is a sony thing. The gamecube just has a UI/menu/whatevs.

As for the trim; holy flax. When you guys finish with gamecube, move on to PS2, will ya?

 

[LOCtronicz]

That board cut looks almost exactly like mine Good work on the guide Techknott as I'm too lazy to post all that stuff. It's too experimental at this time to show others how to cut it this small in my opinion though. But still good to see the info is available for others who want to mess about with it.

One problem is the ARAM chip you removed. Some games will not work due to certain things in game stored on the fly on that chip. My cut board for my GameCubePocket is also not working properly with the pins cut off. I also use PAL boards so I doubt yours will work without that chip. Note that some games will work but most games won't. Also some games start up but when in game the hang after they are supposed to load certain data.

An other small thing is the MX chip on the topside of the board which holds the date and time will not hold the time even when you connect a 3v battery to it. I think it has to do with the small longish cap that's gone after you cut it that small. Might be my board though. Could you connect a 3v battery to the chip and change the date and time settings then turn off and on again and see if it's still the same??

I can also verify that both memory cards and all controllers work with this small cut. I have them all wired and haven't had any issues with it. I can save in game erase in game just like normal.


Can't wait to see what kind of tiny design your gonna come up with Techknott!!

 

[techknott]

It never really occurred to me to alter the date and time. The only thing missing from that particular side of the MX chip is the battery and quartz crystal. If you're not putting the crystal back on aswell, it wont keep time. Ill do a bit more tomorrow as i'm off to work in a bit. As for the ARAM, I only removed it with a hot air gun so when I get around to some really intensive testing, it wont be difficult to re-locate it and put it back if need be. As long as you dont cut through it, only the side facing the ram is actually connected to the gpu, the other side is just for expansion.

Agree that its really experimental, but I really wanted to have a go after seeing your version and I was pretty sure others wanted to aswell. Im going to try and get it even smaller in the week. I think it can be shrunk down to the same footprint of the heatsink, what do you think?

 

[LOCtronicz]

Ah yes that's it the quartz crystal. Yeah that's what I thought. Well I'll rewire it and see if it works. As for the ARAM if you look closely you will see that the bottom right side is connected to the GPU and that it is used. When I tested some games without that side of the chip connected the games wouldn't work properly. As seeing you cut away the actual pin connections you can't solder it back unless you hardwire to the components itself. Would not surprise me if you do that as you are a master in tiny soldering

I would say test it and see maybe it does work and something else was wrong with my board... I doubt it though but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now

If your board works without the ARAM chip then it can be cut smaller if you relocate the small regulator and relocate the audio/video chip.

But doing all that extra work just to make it a bit smaller is not worth it for me. The fact that this small cut only needs a few components rewired makes it worth it. Also that fact still stay's that is sucks big amps. So you will need a strong battery if you want some decent time. Strong batteries tend to be big.

Definitely keep us posted on any new result you may have. I will do the same. Good work Ashen with all your posts on the gamecube. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.

 

[Tchay]

wow. I wake up to this MADNESS!?!

Techknott, you just ripped the whole freaking ARAM chip off!?!!?!?!? You guys are worse than me! And that's saying something.

on to business

My biggest concern is still the memory card. And I just found out that "CPU - DOL - ##" doesn't necessarily tell us what kind of cube we are working with. The IPL could be different, Ashen has told me. You have to run a program called "Swiss" made by emu_kidid to find out the IPL.

So, I've gotta do more tests to see which boards can handle the removal of the filter caps. Good news is, I'm preeeetty sure that the CPU - 20 is universal and will have a working mem card regardless of the cuts, and work with wiikey fusion.

As for the battery problem, my thoughts are always the same: if I never plan to take it outside, why not plug it in? Also, I believe we are getting close to having a new batch of battery tech available. Then again, it may take a year or more for marketing purposes.

EDIT: technkott, did you relocate any of the big caps on the AV side??? I thought there was at least one we needed to relocate for the sound to work. I tried it on a board of mine and the sound gets crazy bad without it. I don't know if that has to do with the on board amp or not...

 

[hidiosoman]

YES!!!

I was waiting for this! Thank you!

 

[techknott]

@tchay, no I haven't relocated any of the caps and the sound seemed to be working fine on this particular board(since took sound off). I'll test more in the week.

@zenloc, do you know of a specific game that has problems in-game like hanging etc? I'm going to wire up a wiikey tomorrow and would like to check it out further to see if the ARAM removal causes me any issues.

Apparently the ARAM(auxiliary ram) is used for non cpu-addressable storage. Mainly to store audio info and at a guess, a buffer for add-ons like the gameboy player.

I'm off on my hols in a week and would love it if we could get this all rigged up and 100% confirmed working and tested by then. It'll be a while before I get around to portablizing it though

 

[LOCtronicz]

Just tested a couple of things with the ARAM. When you cut the pins or lift it up from the av side sound will go all screwy on you in the dashboard and also in game.

Here you see zelda windwaker PAL being booted into that screen. You see it's mentioning the ARAM chip. So you cannot remove that chip nor cut of lift the pins from the av side!! This is the same for PAL and NTSC!

Also made a little mistake about the date and time chip. If you don't relocate the quartz it will not continue counting when you turn it off. If you just connect the 3v battery it will remember what time and date you set it at and always start from there every time you boot. So you need to relocate the battery and the quartz if you want the time and date to function properly.

Another thing. Just remove the pre amp! It does nothing usefull!!! If you are getting crackling sound after you cut it like this it's because the pre amp is the problem. Just wire sound directly from the audio/video chip and you'll be good to go.