Modchip Question

[Oldewindmill]

HELLO MODRETRO FORUM!
There are Two types of humans on this planet.
The most inferior is the typical human. (Homo Sapiens)
Next up come Modretro Users (Homo Sapiens Awesomi )
I would Like to begin my rize to the higher kind.
HARK, MORTALS, FOR THE ADVENT OF YE OLDE WINDMILL HAS BEGUN!
Btw, that's how I say "hi". I have an odd sense of humor. llamas. (where I come from, that is the approximate verbal equivalent of a high five.)
ANYWAY... now that new member introduction formalities have ceased, Let us commence with the purpose of this particular thread: I want to make a Gamecube Portable. Like, REALLY badly. I cannot believe how AWESOME it would be to have one... I likely will not start until the summer, because I am still in school.
I was reading about that slick super-mini GCp on the Ben Heck forums and BAM! n00b attack! one dude who was like 13 wanted a step-by-step walk-through of how to do it. Rest assured, I am not akin to he, I will do the majority of it myself. however, I may need a few n00b questions answered. Thou hast been warned.
Oh, and to all you good folks who insist on telling me I am epic failure incarnate, read:

Wrong. A beginner can start off with a GCp and build it just fine. It's advised to start off with something simpler, but it's not a requirement. Harshboy's first portable was a GC.

Agreed. If you're a competent person, with the ability to read/study/ash intelligent questions, and have incredible patience. You could build a Xbox360 laptop.

But with no experience I would suggest trying something easier and then jumping in to a GCP.

Hailraizer is like, an amazing portableizer (did I spell that right?), so respect his opinion and give me a chance. Oh, and as for Snowpenguin, I'm sure he's pretty good too... but, technically, I can say nothing because I have yet to examine his work.
So yes, bear with me.
Oh, and Btw, should I put in a Qoob or not? It looks awesome; I would love some of the stuff it allows (I heard NES emulation and the ability to read burned discs are both possibilities), But I have never used it before. like, not even once. I have absolutely NO idea how to use it, or even how to burn discs. But it would be awesome if someone could send me a link .
EDIT: Nevah mind, I found a link myself: http://webpages.charter.net/mbcrump/cru ... ob_review/

 

[Jidan]

(where I come from, that is the approximate verbal equivalent of a high five.)

I now officially love you. Welcome aboard.

Anyway,
Welcome to Modretro! You seem like you'll fit in just fine...if..that's possible...

Anyway, I'm not really that far into the whole portablizing scene yet, but the advice I can give you is: BE PATIENT, AND DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ANYTHING. I've gone through two Gamecubes

Also:
There are a few people that you should ALWAYS listen to when they talk to you (lol). A few are hailrazer, PalmerTech, ShockSlayer, zenloc...there are a lot more, as they all know what they're doing. You'll pick out by the portables who here is a god and who...lurks..like me...

 

[Oldewindmill]

Thank you! I look forward to being a hopefully semi-active forum member.
As I have previously stated, I do not plan on starting until the summer begins. I posses little time to actually mod, but in terms of days I am rolling inlack of time pressure... no, not rolling in it, batheing in it, like Taft stuck in his washtub. I will use the time I have until summer to throw some money together and plan it. If all goes well, I will have my Portable cube 100% designed by the time I have the time to actually start building it. And yes, I am quite patient. I shall lie in wait like a ninja.
Strangely enough, I am not worried about the console. It's full of odd metal plates. I figure that if I remove those then I can cut down It's weight, and I will also nix the controller ports. The gamecube is a wonderfully compact machine, alone it would be fine for a leviathan handheld. I will have a super-bulky portable for sure... but as long as I can take it on a plane or a car or whatever, and have it in my hands and not in my lap, I will be happy. Also, I think I'll cut off the bottom of the disc drive to make it thinner.
But if I am to fully design the thing, then I really need the modchip question answered. And ShockSlayer's Gamecube Portable 2, the exquisite machine that inspired me to get into this business, has an SD card slot AND two memory card slots, which confuses me, being the simpleton that I am.
I understand the idea behind putting the slot in, to run homebrew and such things, But does the Gamecube see it as slot A or B? I thought homebrew could only be run from slot A, and most games run from slot A, and I don't think the games can load from and SD card while homebrew runs from the SD card only.
Another thing I have no idea how to do is the controller.
seriously... NO IDEA. I look at the infernal crapwad*'s circut board and I think "I have to cut that thing in half and move the two halves on opposite ends of the screen... and then reconect them remotely, with wires?" I have no idea how to do that. Yes, I am a n00b. Now shut your face, future readers. I can sense now you won't be as benevolent as Jidan.

 

[zeturi]

Welcome to Modretro, Windmill! I would strongly suggest practicing some basic solder until you actually begin, it will save some headaches.

Also, to rewire a controller, you cut it into two or more pieces, (being careful not to cut any components) and use wires to reconnect the traces. If you don't quite understand, I would suggest you read some work logs on here and on forums.benheck.com . You can also make your own controller out of some buttons, switches, pcbs, and another controller, which may be easier to do for you first time around.

 

[Oldewindmill]

That's what I thought. solder the wires form one side to the other... but I can't cut the controller right down the middle... I mean, look:

There's all kinds of crap in the middle! I was thinking of making the cut diagonally to the left of the ABXY buttons, but that would be a pain to wire... just not as painful as doing it down the middle...
And I learned how to solder in my tech class at school, we made miniature robots that were attracted to light for our more advanced porject and for our basic one we made an over-complected way to get LEDs to blink.and the irons there are pretty worn, so I do not know what it's like to use a good iron, haha.

 

[TheNineRings]

Welcome

 

[XCVG]

When I first saw your post I thought it was an ad, by the wording of the initial paragraph. Hello and welcome to MR. I'm XCVG, the most well-spoken whiner-troll you'll ever come across (probably).

Oh, and put a Qoob in if you can still find one. The GameCube is nice and small but it's pretty thick. There are ways to thin it out but the biggest issue is the disc drive, which is super tall.

 

[Oldewindmill]

Thank you for your advice. I have been looking for a qoob, actually, but I can't seem to find it. I found a Xeno GC, though. All I would use the modchip for is running back-up discs, so would a qoob pro really be worth it? It has, like fifty extra features that I do not need, and the Xeno GC is a heckuva lot cheaper and smaller. (not to mention easier to find) But I don't want to get it yet, because it could be a rip-off. What sayest thou, wise and powerful portable-izers? Doest the range of thine experience range to the Xeno GC?
Does anyone know how I can make the heatsink smaller and not risk the console overheating? sorry for the n00b questions.

 

[ShockSlayer]

SQUEEEEEEEE!

More people coming over from youtube, I feel like I'm making a difference!

Okay, so. You are starting off with a brain, that puts you ahead of most people that want GCp's, and is enough credit to make me want to help you. So here goes. (Also, thanks for the praise Jidan!)

Ok, where your removing everything make sure to keep the heatsik on, or replace it before you try to turn the cube back on. Easy nood mistake to make is to remove it, just a heads up. Heatsink is the metal with the fins and has the goo-stuff on the bottom on top of the chips. THere's only one, and you can't miss it, it's one of the last things you'll get to.

...has an SD card slot AND two memory card slots, which confuses me, being the simpleton that I am.
I understand the idea behind putting the slot in, to run homebrew and such things, But does the Gamecube see it as slot A or B? I thought homebrew could only be run from slot A, and most games run from slot A, and I don't think the games can load from and SD card while homebrew runs from the SD card only.
Another thing I have no idea how to do is the controller.
seriously... NO IDEA. I look at the infernal crapwad*'s circut board and I think "I have to cut that thing in half and move the two halves on opposite ends of the screen... and then reconect them remotely, with wires?"...

On my 2nd GCp, there were no mem card slots, they were both built in. They were hardwired straight to the GC, and the SD card slot was wired on top of the second mem card. Believe me it was by far the most complex and ridiculous and stupid thing on that GCp, albeit cool. In the end it had a shaky interface in which I had to simulate the internal mem cards being removed via the sense lines and that was just more hassle than it was worth, considering it limited certain apps. Bottom line? Don't bother with it. Make a gamecube SD card adapter, there are plenty of instructions on the internet, like these. Just extend the ports out and around to where you need them, and have external memory cards, because if you sell the portable(like I did) then you can keep your cards and precious data. eurddrue(a member here) has all my data, and I wish I had it back.

Now, the controller. The GC controller board is splittable, but it makes things way too hard. The way I do it, makes things easy. You'll need two controllers, one to use as the actual controller board(which you will be soldering wires to), and one to use for the contacts. Remove all the components from the contacts board, either by desoldering them or snapping them off. Desolder the big stuff like the joysticks and L/R pots. You'll need a desoldering iron if you want to keep them, and you should start a parts collection, because this stuff comes in handy later when you inevitably break something. Then scratch off the silkscreen with a knife or something sharp to get to the copper traces, and solder wires there, and be sure to connect your ground.

Like that.

Speaking of which, I highly suggest you read this guide: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1654

It's not perfect, and doesn't tell you everything, but it's a good place to start.

Moving on: Modchips. Fun stuff. I suggest you get a Qoob Pro. you can do more stuff with it, including flashing small programs to it, and changing the background. Very cool, and very custom. By far the best modchip out there. It'll let you run backup DVD's too. I suggest the Ritek brand, they are the only ones I can get to work well, they're orderable off the internet, and there are some pretty good deals out there.

The Qoob Pro's little brother, the Qoob SX, doesn't have any memory on it, so you cannot store programs on it or change the background, but you can still use it to load backups, and that's all you need anyway.

You'll want to get the Qoob Pro so you can put SD load on it, so you can put SD load on it and run all your homebrew from the SD card.

Phew.

SS

 

[Oldewindmill]

Thank you, Shockslayer, for the great advice. I would have taken out the heatsink for sure.

Now, the controller. The GC controller board is splittable, but it makes things way too hard. The way I do it, makes things easy. You'll need two controllers, one to use as the actual controller board(which you will be soldering wires to), and one to use for the contacts. Remove all the components from the contacts board, either by desoldering them or snapping them off. Desolder the big stuff like the joysticks and L/R pots. You'll need a desoldering iron if you want to keep them, and you should start a parts collection, because this stuff comes in handy later when you inevitably break something. Then scratch off the silkscreen with a knife or something sharp to get to the copper traces, and solder wires there, and be sure to connect your ground.

By "contacts" I assume that you mean where the controller comes in contact with the player, correct?
And thank you for the link!
EDIT: for future reference, I am freakishly ashamed of this post.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Not exactly. Open up a controller, and underneath the plastic buttons will be a meshy-type rubber almost thing. You'll notice under neath it are black circles, and on the controller board where they are located there are black strips of what appears to be the same substance. Those are contacts.

SS

 

[XCVG]

You don't necessarily have to hack up two GC controllers. You could use pieces of say a PS1 controller for contacts and such, or build your own button boards.

 

[Oldewindmill]

Thanks for the tip.
Which method would be easier for a n00b like me to accomplish?
EDIT: As far as modchips go, I have decided to use the XenoGC. It enables absolutely nothing but the use of burned disc, and that's all I need. Not only that, but it's cheap, super-small, and easy to install... plus I actually found one, for about 20 bucks including shipping.

 

[XCVG]

Doesn't really matter. If you want authentic GC buttons use a GC controller. Wiring up a button board isn't done as much as it used to, but if you do use squishy tacts like these.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/PKG50-Tactile-Push-M ... 1c0c90bcd9

 

[PalmerTech]

I like your sense of humor.

Welcome! Glad you seem to have half a brain, and being willing to read is a great asset here.

 

[Tchay]

Welcome my friend! Love the intro

Shockslayer (SS as we call him), has you off to a great start. Listen to EVERYTHING he says.....unless its flax

If you haven't already, check out this link:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=793

You can TOTALLY have a GCP (GameCube Portable) as your first portable! Thats what I did (am still doing technically). It is hard work and very scary at first. You will feel overwhelmed and confused most of the time. THAT WILL GO AWAY.

My advice? Don't rush into anything. I cannot tell you how many times I broke a motherboard because I didn't wait to get an answer from the forums. Also, you will most definitely break a motherboard at some point, everyone does . So, be sure to always have at least one working gamecube that you never touch - along with a "working" gamecube game. That will make troubleshooting and testing much easier.

Getting supplies is the least fun part of portablizing IMO. Don't get impatient and jump on the first deal you see on ebay or amazon. Be thorough in your search for motherboards, PS1 screens, tools, etc. If you play your cards right, you can find stuff for dirt cheap. Or you can be cool like Shockslayer and buy broken gamecubes and fix them - seriously, that is a great way to get gamecubes for cheap!