Building a GCp (The GoCube) (Worklog)

[Wes]

Ok, cool. Well now I have had my first maybe a major problem, the gamecube won't turn on any more, so here's the story, I got my gamecube all hooked up with the wiikey and then I decided to test it, the first time I tested it, the gamecube loaded great, and I kept trying to get the wiikey to work but it never did (always errors), then after many tries the gamecube stopped working altogether the controller light turned off and all that runs is the fan . So... I need to know whether I can fix this issue or not so I will put some pics below and see if there is any issues with my setup (I know my soldering probably isn't the best). So here ya go:
Regulator Board (I know its not custom)

Gamecube spot for regulator board

Wire for 3.43 Volts

Breakout board

Breakout board more open view

Disc Drive Port area

Where the controller board is

The Eject Switch

The Disc Drive Switch (don't know if this is right)

Overall View

Well thats all of it hopefully I can fix this somehow and get it running again if not well I guess I will get on ebay.

Thanks, Wes

 

[Crazy Inventor]

It looks like in your second picture that the positive and negative (if you're following basic color-coded wires [i.e. red=positive black=negative]) are touching try resoldering the red wire so it isn't so sloe to the black one and then try it.

Also please try to resize your images. It took me awhile to get to the bottom of the page.

 

[DcMc]

Your Wiikey is wired incorrectly. Go look at the diagram on the wiikey guide. there are a bunch of pins that you dont have grounded.

 

[hailrazer]

Your Wiikey is wired incorrectly. Go look at the diagram on the wiikey guide. there are a bunch of pins that you dont have grounded.

Nope it's grounded correctly. The pins that need to be grounded are soldered together and to ground on the ffc adapter board.

 

[Wes]

Ok thanks guys for responding, and sorry about the massive images just wanted to show the full image. Anyway for the positive vs. negative thing no I am not following the regular way. I just used what wires I had, and that spot where you see the black and red on the same is the 3.43v pin and it said it needed it on the breakout board so I wired it on. But other than that I still have no clue what to do, I don't know if its fried and I don't know how to fix it. So please help me I really want to save this gamecube + the work involved in wiring it.



Thanks, Wes

 

[superben51]

do you still have the original disk drive? maybe you should try booting it up with that pluged in and the wiikey unpluged and see if it works

 

[Wes]

But it was working just fine... I have a feeling it has something to do with the regulator board and also that orange light doesn't come on anymore. :/ But I will test the wiikey on my wii to make sure it works before I reboot the gamecube up again.

Thanks, Wes

 

[public-pervert]

wow! you've striped too much your wires! you're in a serious risk of short anytime...

 

[Wes]

Oh so I guess its fried

Fix it next time then.

Thanks, Wes

 

[vskid3]

wow! you've striped too much your wires! you're in a serious risk of short anytime...

This. I would work on your striping and soldering skills on some spare boards before you try again. On your wires for the Wiikey, it looks like you had the iron on them long enough to melt the insulation pretty good.

 

[DcMc]

According to the diagram on ashens wiikey page, all ground pins need to be bridged and grounded on the gc side, and the wiikey side.

 

[Wes]

So what should I do get a new gamecube and take off the wiikey and rewire the FFC board?


Thanks, Wes

 

[DcMc]

Just wire your current cube according to this

 

[Wes]

Ok but hailrazer said it was fine? But if you insist I am only confused by this part of it, I don't know if I am supposed to bridge them all together or what. Also that is what I have followed, I think it may have shorted sadly but if this will fix it I will try.

Thanks, Wes

 

[PRXVII]

Ok but hailrazer said it was fine? But if you insist I am only confused by this part of it, I don't know if I am supposed to bridge them all together or what. Also that is what I have followed, I think it may have shorted sadly but if this will fix it I will try.

Thanks, Wes

Bridging them is unnecessary, they're already connected to each other.

 

[DcMc]

I was under the impression that you are supposed to bridge them. I could definitely be wrong, though.

 

[hailrazer]

I was under the impression that you are supposed to bridge them. I could definitely be wrong, though.

Yep you're wrong.

I've done 5 WiiKeys. No need to bridge anything on the Gamecube board. They are bridged together already on the board. It would be redundant.

 

[Wes]

So is my gamecube most likely fried?



Thanks, Wes

 

[Ashen]

Most likely its not fried. I wish I had every GameCube someone on these forums thought they fried. The GameCube regulator has built in protection against shorts, so aside from you possibly running it to long without a heatsink its probably ok still.

Don't think I'm being mean here because I'm not, but your soldering job on just about everything is horrendous. Also, you have exposed wire leads and other conductive flax touching other conductive flax.

My suggestion. Undo EVERYTHING you've done so far and start over. Remove all the wires from the regulator board and test it while its not hooked up to anything, see if its putting out the correct voltages with a multimeter. From there, (if its still working proper) rewire the regulator to the motherboard and test it. If its working, then try the wiikey again. You need to be especially careful with the wiikey as they are easy to fry. Also, the original GC lidswitch will not work like you have it unless you tape it closed, as the connection on pin 23 is normally closed.

Try not to leave so much exposed wire this time and try to do a bit of a cleaner soldering job. There are multiple spots in your pictures where it looks like exposed ends of your wires are touching ground, or other voltage spots.

Again, not trying to be mean or anything, just trying to help.

 

[Wes]

Thank you so much I will definitely try that, could I leave my wiikey alone or do I need to re-wire that again too?

EDIT: Never mind thanks

Thanks, Wes