Cube64 Pro: SD Loading Madness

[Billxor]

Pretty basic updates for today: just attaching more connectors.

Tapped onto all the necessary pins on the GC front panel. I decided to reinforce these with some hot glue just to be safe, since this part will be getting jammed around the most.


Got connectors attached for the controller inputs and a separate one for the GC battery.


Here's the GC side of the battery connection. Just tapped off the little legs on the front panel connector.


Relocated the N64 controller ports and added some hot glue to keep the wiring neat.


Finally, got all the controller relocation and Cube64 interfacing setup and assembled all the pieces. The connection to the GC from the Cube64 board is a little short, so that might have to be modified in the future, but otherwise it all fits together nicely.


Only soldering / wiring left is the power switch, Everdrive64 SD slot, and whatever I decide to do about fans.

 

[t1m1d]

Awesome! Have you progressed on your case plans yet?

 

[Billxor]

Well t1m1d so far it is still just in my head. The basic idea is to use the N64 as the top and bottom, the GC front panel for the front side, and the GC rear panel for the back side. Some kind of fan will be attached to the side, not sure what kind yet though. After that the rest of the blank space will just have to be filled in with extra GC plastic pieces. It'll basically look like an extruded N64. I'm planning to remove the power and reset button from the N64 top panel and use those spaces for the SD loading. Finally the system select switch should be able to fit into the old N64 expansion pack slot.... Should be interesting!

As of today all the relocation is complete (aside from the fan) and now I'm on to the assembling and casing process. Everdrive64 is on it's way, and I'm still messing around with programming the PICs for the Cube64s. I don't have a proper programmer so I'm planning to use an Arduino and some software.

Major project today was finishing the SD car slot relocation for the Everdrive64. Basically I took apart an old SD card and used it's male pins to complete my female slot relocation. This way the slot can be permanently mounted to the case, and the male end can be removed from the Everdrive64 for servicing.

Cut a hole in the board to fit the new wires first.


Then carefully attached each pin as far back on the pads as possible.


Stuck the top back on with some bits of glue.


Here is the fully assembly with the female slot on the left and the male SD card on the right. Basically an extension cable for an SD reader.



One last thing was to setup the wiring for the system select switch. This is just switching +12V between the GC and the N64 with the grounds tied together.



I was hoping to get some pictures or maybe even video of both systems working with the switch today, but I'm having some trouble with the GC power supply board. Something to mess with tomorrow...

 

[Billxor]

Quick update this morning: swapped out the GC power supply and now it all works!

This mass of wires and connectors is the fully functional guts of my project! Well, minus the Everdrive64, the WiiKey, and the Cube64s... But the switching and relocation is all complete.



I put together a quick list of what still needs to get done:

1. wire WiiKey switches and 3.3V supply
2. install and test WiiKey on GC
3. program Cube64s with Arduino
4. install and test Cube64s on N64
5. install and test Everdrive64
6. mount switches to case top panel (system select, SD slots, WiiKey switches, N64 reset)
7. mount AV and power ports to case rear panel
8. mount various boards to the case bottom panel
9. mount and wire fan to case side panel
10. construct remaining case panels and fill with bondo
11. paint case
12. enjoy!

 

[Billxor]

I apologize for lack of updates on this project, but I've been pretty busy mentoring a local FIRST robotics team. Really cool program for high school kids if you haven't heard about it before. The kids have six weeks to build a robot to compete in competition, and I'm acting as the head design mentor. That being said, I probably won't have much time for this project until later in February

One little update I forgot to upload before was the addition of toggle switching and power input for the WiiKey


Unfortunately when I tested it out on the GC I was getting some system errors I'll have to go back and double check my wiring, and I may end up using a custom regulator to grab 3.3V for the WiiKey instead.

I also finally got my Everdrive64! The board is super great quality, kudos to krikz for his quality work.

 

[Billxor]

I'm back from the dead! Finally "done" with this year's FIRST season so I've got some more time for this project.

Today's plan was to install the new FFC adapter board I got from the awesome guys over at ProtoAdvantage (for anyone interested I used their FPC050P040 with Digikey's WM8858CT-ND and asked for no pins attached). I decided in an effort to eliminate variables I would just directly wire the board to the GC motherboard and supply the WiiKey with it's own dedicated power supply off the main 12V lines.

Cute little 3.3V regulator down from the 12V input using the design mentioned here by bugman


Did a much better job this time around wiring to the GC motherboard. I actually bought a new tip for my soldering iron with a 1/32" end which made it a lot easier!


This connector was so much easier to work with than one with the pins! Nice large pads that are already in numerical order


Despite all the great progress I'm still not getting any response from my WiiKey I tested this GC motherboard with a disk drive instead and it all works fine. Check my wiring a few times over and I'm 99% sure I got it right. At this point I'm afraid I might have busted the WiiKey itself with my old FFC adapter board attempt and it's questionable wiring job... At this point it isn't even getting it's happy blue light when I power up the system. Hopefully I'll have some time tomorrow to further diagnose before I have to buy any new hardware.