Mooper's GCP

[Mooper]

Hey everyone, this will be my first portable. I've just about got everything I need, just waiting on some odds and ends to arrive from China. So far the biggest set back has been time, but here's what I've got so far.

Built a vacuum former with wood I had lying around. It worked better than I expected.

The case work is tedious but it's coming along. Still have to form the other half. If you can't tell I'm basing my design on the Gamecube revolution by Ashen. Don't know if "basing" is the right word.

I've since cleaned up the nasty paste and ground down the screw posts some.

As for the electronics, I've done a cut similar to Ashen's hybrid cut he used in his Revolution. However I kept the digital video header holes. I plan on using a GCVideo Lite 0.9, if the board ever gets here. I figured it would be more simple to line up the holes on the GCvideo with the GC mobo. But if there's any space constraints I'll ditch that idea. The soldering points, not the GCv.

Soldered an FFC cable to the filter pads for the WKF. Soldered a 128 memory card to slot A and the wires to be used with the SD gecko on slot B.

Some of the wires are temporarily there for testing.

This is just my test screen, I'll be using a 5" dalian good display.

So far everything is working.

I'm off work the last 2 weeks of July so I hope to get a lot done then, hopefully even finish it.

 

[Blargaman91]

I'm off work the last 2 weeks of July so I hope to get a lot done then, hopefully even finish it.

I'm sure you can get a lot done but try not to rush anything. It really helps to spend time on every detail.

 

[bentomo]

I like the vacuum forming, hope this one goes well for you.

 

[xy007]

I plan on using a GCVideo Lite 0.9, if the board ever gets here. I figured it would be more simple to line up the holes on the GCvideo with the GC mobo. But if there's any space constraints I'll ditch that idea. The soldering points, not the GCv.

Whoa your just buying a pre-made component cable clone? or are you actually building it from an fpga?

 

[Ampz]

You can try it out if you want but be careful its not compatible with every screen, still being tested on some, hopefully it works on your dalian display screen.

 

[Mooper]

Whoa your just buying a pre-made component cable clone? or are you actually building it from an fpga?

Building it. Got all the components, just waiting on the board from oshpark.

You can try it out if you want but be careful its not compatible with every screen, still being tested on some, hopefully it works on your dalian display screen.

Here's hoping. I think it's the DVI version that has more compatibility issues, but we'll see.

I like the vacuum forming, hope this one goes well for you.

Thank-you

I'm sure you can get a lot done but try not to rush anything. It really helps to spend time on every detail.

I'll try not to.

I've got the top half formed. I've started to frankencase some.

The voltage regulators are ready to go as well.

I've had 1 minor set back so far. Turned on the dalian screen to measure for the screen bezel. That went fine, however on the second power up the 5V step-down IC blew. So I've ordered a replacement IC.

 

[Ampz]

Yeah it's the DVI version which people have been having with.

And this portable is looking really nice already. Good luck with the rest of it.

AZ

 

[Noah]

Dang, looks like it's going to be a beauty.

 

[Mooper]

Dang, looks like it's going to be a beauty.

I hope so.


Little update, my back half didn't form as well as I thought. The sides came upwards at an outward angle. There was no way I could join the two halves together nicely. So I made another one.

A little tip to anyone vacuum forming for the first time; make sure your two halves fit together nicely before going through the trouble of making a ton of holes and slots.

Also got some more work done on the front half. It looks kinda rough atm, but it's getting there.
I used a 1/2" round over bit when I made my form, which left me with less flat surface area. So things are a little closer together than I'd like. But it feels comfortable.

I finally got my gc video lite boards from oshpark. The soldering wasn't too bad. The programming was straight forward too, once I found out that the programmer can't supply enough power to program the board without an external 3.3v.

Then the real fun began, troubleshooting this:

First I tried a few different monitors. Nope. I noticed that the longer the GC was on, the worse it got. So I tried removing caps, one by one to see if that was the cause, as per megalomaniac's advice. Nothing. So I put together another gcvideo, I figured I must have *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ed up somewhere while putting together the first one, even though it looked fine. Nope, 2nd board same problem.

So I tried it on another GC. Voila problem went away. But why? Because the 2nd GC was being powered by the stock reg. So I tried again, this time with everything but the gpu being powered by the stock reg, and the gpu being powered by the custom one. The problem returned. After bumping up the voltage from 1.69v to 1.76v on the custom reg, the picture was clear as a bell.

Also put together a low voltage board.

I'm using an SMD led that has a seperate green and red led. I'm also going to attempt to make it smaller using a transistor array.

TL;DR: Made progress.

 

[legofan623]

Nice find with the VGA issue, I know a lot of people are having trouble with that.

 

[Blargaman91]

As you found out, your GPU voltage was too low. You probably would have experienced the same problem with composite video. Sometimes the GPU or CPU need more than the very bare 1.7v.

 

[bentomo]

What programmer did you use for the gcvideo lite?

I'm looking into making one myself but I need to pick the proper one. It's a freescale fpga correct?

 

[Mooper]

As you found out, your GPU voltage was too low. You probably would have experienced the same problem with composite video. Sometimes the GPU or CPU need more than the very bare 1.7v.

Actually composite was working fine.

What programmer did you use for the gcvideo lite?

I used a lattice programmer clone, the same one mentioned in the gcvideo thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-ISP-Downloa ... 419321cc19

 

[Shank]

Love the roundness and chasis shape. Looks comfortable. Real cubes have curves.

 

[Ampz]

I love where this portable is going, and great find about the Gcvideo lite,
i might make one myself
if i have the time.

 

[Ampz]

One question, may I see an image of how you wired your stock regulator for testing?

 

[Mooper]

One question, may I see an image of how you wired your stock regulator for testing?

Here it is on my uncut test GC.


If you meant on a cut board, you can kind of make it out in one of the first post pics.

 

[Ampz]

Nope, this is perfect, thank you.

 

[Ampz]

Hey Mooper,
How would you change the voltage on a custom regulator from 1.69 to 1.76 or anything above?
Would you have to swap out the resistor or capacitors?

 

[Mooper]

Hey Mooper,
How would you change the voltage on a custom regulator from 1.69 to 1.76 or anything above?
Would you have to swap out the resistor or capacitors?

Just swap out the resistor.There's tables in the datasheets that show what value resistor is needed for what voltage.

PTH08080W
PTR08100W

Little update,
I received the replacement IC for my screen. Replaced it and the screen is up and running again.
I̶'̶m̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶w̶a̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶b̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶r̶u̶m̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶t̶o̶r̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶. ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶l̶i̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶m̶o̶r̶r̶o̶w̶.̶ Got everything now. The case work is nearing completion. I'm in the painting process. Once I get results I'm happy with, I'll post some pics. Then assembly can begin.