How would this work out? (GCp)

[Jidan]

Well, I'm starting to make a Gamecube Portable. I'll be following ShockSlayer's design for the most part, but I want to make it a little bit thinner - if anyone could give me some tips or help to the case/battery/wiring/pretty much anything, I'd REALLY appreciate it.

So I've taken apart the 'cube and the only parts it now has are the Motherboard, power regulator board, disk drive + that little board thing and the front part with the controller sockets.
My plan is to rewire the the power regulator board to the motherboard so I can move it over to the side and it won't add to the thickness of the portable.
I'll be keeping the the plug to the disk drive board because I really don't think I could mess with that successfully...
I'll probably be keeping the power switch the same and sticking it somewhere

I for the most part need help with the case (looking at either the ZN-45 + some other polycase thing or the Datamax thing), the battery and how to connect all that stuff, and how to make it all fit in a case under (hopefully) about 2.75 inches in the thickest part and about 1.75 on the sides to grip it.

Any help is extremely appreciated!

 

[zeturi]

Use the batteries in hailraizer's li-po tutorial, get four of them and wire in series and parallel. You don't need the controller's board, you can easily just wire everything straight to where it connects on the motherboard.

Good decision on not rewiring the disk drive, by the way. Definitely not a good move in your first portablizing attempt. As for case thickness, it's a given that it will be very thick considering the monstrous laser assembly's thickness, and the inclusions of all those buttons and sticks. If you want something comfy in the hands, I would suggest to just copy what Shockslayer did for his ZN-45 GCp, and use the same jet-pack case. If you want something more custom, just buy some sheets of plastic and cut up your own design.

 

[Jidan]

Use the batteries in hailraizer's li-po tutorial, get four of them and wire in series and parallel. You don't need the controller's board, you can easily just wire everything straight to where it connects on the motherboard.

Good decision on not rewiring the disk drive, by the way. Definitely not a good move in your first portablizing attempt. As for case thickness, it's a given that it will be very thick considering the monstrous laser assembly's thickness, and the inclusions of all those buttons and sticks. If you want something comfy in the hands, I would suggest to just copy what Shockslayer did for his ZN-45 GCp, and use the same jet-pack case. If you want something more custom, just buy some sheets of plastic and cut up your own design.

Wait, so can I just wire the specific piece to the motherboard or do I need it from the board's in the controller?

Wiring the batteries in series /and/ parallel? I've read about them both but not both at the same time.

I'll probably just do what ShockSlayer did...did he get the JB-65 or JB-55? I think he said 55 in the video but he PM'd me saying 65...and I can't really tell by the measurements on the polycase site.

 

[zeturi]

Wire the controller's pcb directly to the gamecube's main motherboard, do away with the controller port pcb thingy. Don't throw it away though, you'll need the resistor and battery from it.

I'm totally unsure about which cases SS used. Just follow his advice, you should be fine.

Here's a good diagram for the battery wiring.

 

[Jidan]

Wire the controller's pcb directly to the gamecube's main motherboard, do away with the controller port pcb thingy. Don't throw it away though, you'll need the resistor and battery from it.

I'm totally unsure about which cases SS used. Just follow his advice, you should be fine.

Here's a good diagram for the battery wiring.

Cool, thanks a lot. So, the buttons...do they just go between the controller pcb and the motherboard in the circuit for each one?

 

[zeturi]

No. The gamecube has a believe about 3 or 4 wires that get connected from the controller pcb to the mainboard. On second thought, take a look at this guide. It gives a good overview of what you need and some wiring diagrams for making the entire portable.

 

[Jidan]

Yeah, I've read that a few times...I guess I'll just have to take apart the controller (which I'm waiting on my screwdriver for) and look at it myself to figure it out how to understand the diagrams. I know I'll be using his alternate ways, for sure. Sorry for being so newb

 

[zeturi]

No problem, we're all newbies at one point. (I still am.) I was just too dumb to ask questions or for advice, and ended up breaking three or four gamecubes, an nes, a genesis, two n64s, and four psone screens (maybe 5?). Reading the forums is key, and where that doesn't help you, trial and error will teach you the rest. It took me a loooong time before I could actually read a schematic.

 

[Jidan]

No problem, we're all newbies at one point. (I still am.) I was just too dumb to ask questions or for advice, and ended up breaking three or four gamecubes, an nes, a genesis, two n64s, and four psone screens (maybe 5?). Reading the forums is key, and where that doesn't help you, trial and error will teach you the rest. It took me a loooong time before I could actually read a schematic.

Wow, that's quite a bit of breakage...heh, at least you get plenty of spare parts to use..I think? Yeah, I've only started even getting interested in this stuff about a week ago but I think I'm making some pretty decent progress - I've taken apart the gamecube and haven't messed anything up yet, lol (of course, I've only had to solder once for the open switch circuit). I saw a schematic for an audio amplifier that Ben put in his "How-to make a Wii Laptop" thing and I think I may have had the biggest puzzled look on my face, hahah. Anyway, thanks for the help, if I need any help I'll probably ask for it I don't wanna mess anything up; I'm on a very limited budget of about 250$ at the most

 

[zeturi]

I posted an easy audio amp in the random electronic info section, if you need it.

 

[J.D]

As long as you are responding to the newest post, and it is on topic, there's no need to quote the whole thing (or quote it at all). Just a pet peeve.

Anyways, a good idea is to make the CD drive attachable, like, with 4 connectors or something. Just an idea, but I'm not sure how possible it is.

 

[Tchay]

I posted an easy audio amp in the random electronic info section, if you need it.

lolz I might just check that out zeturi. Audio amp, although a simple addition to the GC, is still on my to-do list.

 

[snowpenguin]

get four of them and wire in series and parallel.

I've been told by beta that lithium cells don't work this way with 2 cell PCBs.

 

[zeturi]

^ That's odd. Shouldn't matter, the pcb is only to spit out protected voltages. There's no way the pcb can tell there's two cells. I will look into this right away, because I wanted to do this for my current project.

 

[Tchay]

get four of them and wire in series and parallel.

I've been told by beta that lithium cells don't work this way with 2 cell PCBs.

http://www.batteryspace.com/highpowerpolymerli-ioncell37v4700mah706285-8c1739wh37arate.aspx
Hailrazer has used several of these batteries in series (4 I believe).

BUT he had to used special PCB boards, so SP might be right about that. Anyone who is curious, just check out Hailazer's guide about this (I can't find it right now )

 

[Jidan]

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=34576

That's hailrazer's guide on it. I'd love to use something like this but I wouldn't know the first thing to do (I wouldn't even with any other kind of batteries)