Zack's NEW Gamecube Portable Worklog

[zack]

Hey guys, I'm coming to you with a new worklog for a Gamecube portable. I've had two worklogs in the past, one for a GCP that I failed multiple times at, and one for a Wii Portable, which also failed. But I'm not giving up! Recently I recieved two free Gamecubes so I am revisiting my Gamecube portable project, and hopefully using everything I've learned to finish it this time.

Anyways, specs:
I'll be using the ZN-40 or ZN-45 case for simplistic reasons. I don't want to screw up while doing any major case work. I will be removing the disc drive entirely and using a Wiikey Fusion to load games from SD. Most likely I will use a PS1 screen because, for the Gamecube, the image is sharper than on a higher-res display. My GCP may or may not have built in controls. Batteries I haven't figured out yet.
Right now I'm just doing the basics, stripping the board of it's ports and memory card slots, and planning how everything will fit together. I also have mounted the motherboard to the case.

Here's my first video update to get started


And here's some pics

One other thing worth noting is that I'm attempting to design the cutout for the controls using Inkscape, and then laser-cutting the case with the laser cutter at the lab. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Gamerlolwind]

hay zack,
nice gap project! I'm glad your attempting to make a gcp again
i hope you succeed this time, man
gcp buliding is hard, but very awesome at the end

also, im working on a another gcp (star fox cube, a DD portable made just for playing starfox adventures (as starfox advent doesn't work at all well with my wkf gcp (cubefusionpal and swiss)

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=12099

um, question, how did you remove the botoom 3 ports? GBA/serial/high speed?
and was it relatively easy to do?
I'm thinking of doing that.

also the gc works fine without a slot b attached and just slot a?
i'll be removing slot b aswell.

nice custom reg, there

also, inscape is a great program for designs etc, i used it on my imac for designing my portable designs for cubefusionpal. it works great for portable designs!
ccan't wait to see more of this GCP.

 

[zack]

um, question, how did you remove the botoom 3 ports? GBA/serial/high speed?
and was it relatively easy to do?

So to remove the ports, I just chopped on em with a heavy duty wire cutter (carefully of course) until I got off the metal shielding and loosened the port a bit. It's kind of messy but basically I just pulled the port off but left the actual pins behind. The plastic slips off like a jacket and now the entire metal pins are left so I can de-solder them each one by one.

 

[zack]

Worked a bit more at the lab today and confirmed that this case can indeed be used on the laser cutter.

Also, I fried my PS1 screen today by connecting it to an adjustable power supply, setting the voltage and current properly, but in the confusion of wires I accidentally connected to the wrong channel; sending 22v into the screen rather than 7.5v Whoops.
Good news is I was able to revive it by bridging a tiny fuse, although I still can't get over that fact that the entire screen smells like fried components, and yet somehow, someway, it works.
Anyways I'm not complaining. My next step is finishing that case design and solving a problem in which the Gamecube seems to be lacking proper grounding from the custom regulator. (The video output is a bit wonky)

 

[tom10122]

I did something similar, the zn is great because it needs no trimming for the board , is big yet feels nice in your hands and looks good( well mine DID look good BTB , before the Bondo)

 

[zack]

I'm at the lab and working on this design for the face of my GCP. The red line represents the ZN-45 case and the black represents the cuts I will be making with a laser cutter. I'm about to do that now and I'll post more updates soon on how it turns out.

 

[zack]

This is how it came out. The LCD itself for the PS1 screen fits in the cutout, but the driver board does not. I might make some cuts to get it to fit, but I also now have the problem of keeping room for the controller buttons. It'll be interesting to see how this all fits together...

 

[Fluxedo]

Pretty sure you can trim PS1 screens.

 

[Bum]

Exactly what Fluxido said. If you want to do an LED Mod, I believe Zenloc has a guide loating around that will allow you to get the board to fit all behind the screen. I can see if I can find a link...

 

[Diminuendo]

i remember an ancient FS thread by zenloc where he has pre-trimmed ps1 screen boards for sale, maybe he still has them

 

[Bakuku]

Hey Zack,

The PSone lcd board can be trimmed quit a bit. But I think the first thing you should do is the LED-mod!
Saves battery and gives you the option of trimming the top of the board.

I'll post some pics of my trimmed board later for refference.

 

[bud]

The psone screen board is stupid easy to trim (besides relocating the audio circuit). There's should be some pictures of a trimmed board in the commissions thread in my sig. You can trim the same amount with an LED mod and rewiring the AV/power to different points.

 

[zack]

Yes I'll definitely be trimming up the PS1 screen. I'll be reading up on instructions, getting some help from a friend, and doing this very carefully. This screen is a working miracle, I don't want to break it. (again)

 

[zack]

I made some minor adjustments to my case design and laser-cut another case today. (The thinner ZN-40 one). The buttons are positioned in a more comfortable layout, and I fixed some issues with the holes being the wrong size.
I taped in the buttons and screen just to see how it looks, and I must say it looks quite nice for minimal effort.
THIS IS IN NO WAY THE FINAL DESIGN. I'm still just testing.

Also I tried doing the LED mod. Got the screen taken apart a couple days ago, and went to the lab thinking they had 3mm white LEDs. They didn't. So I ordered some from ebay. Shipping will take awhile so I'm just waiting on that to do the LED mod.

 

[zack]

Removed memory card slot B and the digital video out port.

 

[zack]

I'm going to the lab tomorrow. This is my checklist of what to do next.

• Test LED's with lab's potentiometers to create brightness control on PS1 screen.
  Test PS1 with with relocation points for video/audio/speakers/etc
  Transfer wiikey fusion and adapter board from my old gc motherboard to my new one.
  Drill holes for mounting gc motherboard in case
  Finalize the position and wiring for the custom regulator

 

[zack]

Did some more work at the lab today:
- Removed memory card slot A.
- Repared some damaged components on the board by switching with the ones from my old GC motherboard.
- Cut out some pieces of acrylic to be used as custom washers for mounting the GC motherboard in the case.
- Overall tested the Gamecube with the PS1 screen. (It's all working well!)

Also, Here's my second video update, which I meant to post sooner but was having video issues when rendering.

 

[zack]

I have a question about the GameCube motherboard. In order to squeeze the Wiikey Fusion in underneath the board, I removed these three components. Not sure if they're capacitors or resistors but I removed them and the GameCube seems to function fine without them. Still, I want to be sure that these aren't important parts that might cause damage to the GameCube by being removed.

BASICALLY: Anyone know what these are??

Here's a nice High-res version: http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/323/dhb1.jpg

Btw, this isn't the motherboard I'm working on right now. Like I said, I already removed the components so I just took a pic of one of my older (fried) motherboards with components still intact.

 

[public-pervert]

They are all ceramic caps. Look, they all goes to GND. These capacitors are normally used to reduce some noise, but I believe you should be fine without them. Why not relocate? These caps doesn't have polarity btw.

 

[zack]

They are all ceramic caps. Look, they all goes to GND. These capacitors are normally used to reduce some noise, but I believe you should be fine without them. Why not relocate? These caps doesn't have polarity btw.

Alright sweet, I'll probably relocate those just to be sure.
Also, to make room for the custom reg, can I just remove this thing or what? It looks like its only use is for the digital out port, but I can't be sure.