A new GCp project : cube²

[kill00man]

Hello everybody !
Let's introduce myself, I'm 16, french, living in Austria, and I like crazy projects
I decided tu make a GCp, and already have some few ideas of what I want !
I just got my first gamecube yesterday for 15€, but 3 others should arrived during this month for...0€

I want kind of an hybrid GC, in fact, I want to be able to use it also like a normal GC (4 players, 2 memorycards etc etc). But, obviously, I'm not that good in electronics so I have lots and lots of questions...
I'll use a 5" LCD from good displays, an original controller, the original memorycard slots, 3 controller slots, Li-Po's battery, self-made vacuum formed case?, a XenoGC (cheap chip ) and it should be enough

I think it should be in 2 parts, one part containing all but the batteries, and the other part with only the batteries (linked in between with a cable similar to the original power supply cable, to switch them easily).
Depending one what mobo rev I can get, the gamecube would be powered with 12 or 7.4V, but at the moment the Gamecube I have is a Rev C so...12V batteries

I've made a little "drawing" :

And some pictures of what I have for now :

The beginning

Cutted DVD drive

What I plan for the mobo, I want to cut on the red line, good or bad idea?

What I plan for the daugther board, I want to cut on the red line too, not much but it's always better...well, it's better if it works of course

And finnaly the controller, I think I'm going to cut along the red line and then wire all that stuff and finally relocate the sensitive button.
And now some questions :
How all of you are trimming the boards ? With a saw ?
According to you, how can I train myself for soldering?
Other questions soon

Well I hope I had express myself in a clear way, and without too much mistakes
See you soon !

 

[Bush]

If its a simple cut, you should be able to use some decent quality scissors. I'm not sure that everyone else is using, but scissors have worked for me pretty well on other things. For help with soldering, just watch a few youtube videos. And buy some stuff called soldering flux, its a lifesaver. You put it on each end of whatever components you're wiring, and add solder to it. It will fizz up and the solder will stick perfectly; you might as well look that up on youtube too. Good luck!

 

[Abb_eliten]

I've successfully trimmed 2 GC boards using aviation snips, preferably straight ones.
If you do this, remember to sand the cut edges to avoid bridging between the layers.

If you have some old/broken electronics containig circuit boards you could practice on them + what Bush said.

Looking forward to see what you come up with

 

[kill00man]

I'm back !
So, today after talking with a friend we made little deal, so I now have a Rev A/B mobo
What's the differences between rev A and B ? 'caus I don't know which rev it is...

Many thanks for the tips, the aviation ships method looks quite dangerous...
I'll train myself with soldering this weekend I think !
I have also changed the design, this one doesn't look that great I think
I may do a 3D simulation of the whole thing soon, and still wondering where I'm going to cut the PCBs !

 

[Abb_eliten]

Rev B boards are missing one of the ports on the bottom, can't remember which one.

Well, personally I feel like I'm having more control when using the snips.

The safest way would probably be using a Dremel to cut the board with,
but I think it will produce quite a lot of fiber glass dust.
That's why I didn't do it that way.

For reference, Ashen has posted a picture of roughly where you can trim A/B boards in his worklog
You could make it smaller, but it's not tested thoroughly yet.

 

[Ashen]

Just note, Even with the cuts I've made in my worklog you still have to solder to some VERY TINY components to reconnect the DVD drive connectors/memcards/controllers and such. If I have some free time when I get home tonight I'll try to throw together a quick cutting guide for rev A/B boards and include a variety of cuts to make the boards smaller with varying difficultys.

 

[kill00man]

Yep I saw what Ashen has posted but I think we can do a little better without too much problems...
I'm just having a closer look on some sanded mobos and really don't understand the aim of some components.. some GND traces are juste surrounded by some "FIL" components and capacitors (??? near the big NEC chip and the Sharp voltage regulator)... If someone has an idea...

I don't really get what the NEC chip do... I first thought that it was creating digital video and sound (digital AV out) and then sending them back to the ATI processor which should convert the signals into analog (or just use them, I don't know), but according to the cuts that made zenloc... it's not that 'caus he just cutted half of the nec "wires" (sorry, I don't know how to say that in english...), those same which go back to the ati processor...

I noticed a little thing about the SHARP regulator ! it sends a varying voltage (between 1.5 and 7V, depending of the NEC chip's signal) to the "?" area on the bottom left of the following picture

So don't even think about cutting the whole NEC chip or SHARP regulator, or you'll get both "MoSys" chip not working...well I think

EDIT : little question, does anybody can provideme a little drawing of how to wire the powerboard to the mobo ? I don't manage to find something clear

 

[lyberty5]

Je crois qu'on est les seuls francais a faire des gcp ^^ bonne chance en tt cas

 

[unicycler17]

if you're using such a big case, you probably won't need to cut the motherboard

 

[kill00man]

@lyberty5 : Oh un compatriote ! Effectivement ca court pas les rues
@unicycler17 : I changed the design, it's going to be smaller !

After all, I think that the way zenloc has cut the board is really dangerous ahah !
My cut should looks like Ashen's one I think... I think it's one of the safer way to trim the mobo !

Thinking about using PSP analog sticks !

So nobody can provide me infos about the powerboard ?

 

[Ashen]

Stickies man, its all in the stickies.

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1654

 

[lyberty5]

Bah si t'utilise une rev C tu peux rien faire pr la "powerboard", elle est intégrée a la carte mère. Mais je te conseille d'utiliser une rev A ou B, moins chère, et de supprimer complètement la powerboard séparée, et d'utiliser le régulateur de zenloc, regarde les megastickyies, lit les plusieurs fois, Ca te paraitra facile. Pour ce qui est des composants du régulateur de zenloc, ils sont gratuits en échantillon sur TI.com, commande les maintenant, c'est gratuit mais le temps de trajet est long

 

[kill00man]

Many thanks Ashen I just missed it

Jai une Rev A maintenant donc pas de soucis ! J hesite encore pour le regulateur de zenloc... Le temps de jeu sur batterie est relativement faible, et si cest pour achete tout de meme 3-4 batteries LiPo pour avoir une capacite suffisante ca vaut pas le coup, autant aller direct en 11.1V ou 14 et quelques et garder la powerboard d origine qui a moins de pertes!

For english speakers, we are just talking about the way to power a GCp and the advantages/disadvantages of the zenloc regulator ! Nothing quite new and I ll tell you when I will have made the choice

 

[Hackerbilly]

for the english speakers (like me) we can use Google translate or at least it is what i have been doing

 

[lyberty5]

yeah but space wise, i'd go with zenloc's since you can run it out of two cells, makes it even easyier whan using a psone screen

 

[kill00man]

@Hackerbilly : just thought it was annoying for you to do such a thing, seems like I was wrong

Well, I think I've decided how to trim the board, looks a lot like Ashen's board, here's 2 pictures but please don't use them as a guide for now... don't even know if it works... but it should
For Rev A DOL-01 (PAL) mobo !

(front view)

(back view, yep, it's twisted )
Not sure for the top part of the mobo... I'll verify later, about memcards and players2/3/4, I'll follow the traces later, and for the daugther board, I'll follow some pictures that techknott has made !

I'll use the original power board (playtime reasons), won't use the PSP sticks (bad memories of their accuracy) and I hesitate for the screen...
Should be all for a while, as I won't cut anything untill nearly one month (waiting other gamecubes), so I'll spend it trainig myself !

 

[guillou]

Moi aussi je suis français et je fais des consoles portables mais je vais très rarement sur modretro,je vais plutôt sur le forum de benheck, J'ai fais une psone portable que je suis entrain de fignoler, je mettrais de photos bientôt et j'ai commencé une gcp, pour les batteries je te conseille des batteries pour caméscope canon que j'ai trouvé sur ebay, c'était 15€ les 2 batteries de 2100maH (7.4V) avec le chargeur normal et voiture mais pour utiliser ces batteries, il faut le régulateur de zenloc qui n'est pas trop difficile a faire.

 

[kill00man]

Little update
I killed my mobo so waiting for my new gamecube ! I changed my plans for the design, I'll trim the mobo more, and may use a wiikey fusion (or wode, i'm hesitating).
For now I started to relocate the triggers, here some pics-guide (just "soldered" each parts of the triggers all together ) :

 

[lyberty5]

guillou si tu pouvais envoyer un lien pr ces batteries

 

[ShockSlayer]

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