The definitive GC motherboard trimming guide

[kill00man]

My board is PAL, so the resistor may be needed for everybody

 

[Ashen]

Awesome! Good to know. I'll add it in tonight when I update the first post.

 

[Gameinator64]

this would be helpful, but my mother board looks slightly different

 

[Ashen]

It can't look THAT much different unless its a rev C board, in which case you can only use this guide for the memcard/controller/dvd connector side of the board.

 

[Σigma]

Ashen, speaking of Rev C's, shouldn't it work just fine, except that you would have to build a custom regulator? Or is the board itself different?

 

[kill00man]

Sigma, the inner layers of rev c boards should be way more complicated than rev a and B, a sanded board may bring us a solution !

 

[Σigma]

Ok. I didn't know that...

 

[Ashen]

Finally found a few mins to update the first post with more info on the OMG cut. Sorry for the delay, been super busy lately.

 

[kill00man]

Ashen, I've noticed a little "mistake" on the Aram chip bridgind method, 3 other pins might need to be bridged (not sure, but we should bridge them, just in case of) and the GND on the last pin is not needed (look to sanded mobos http://i48.tinypic.com/eio7r.jpg, it's already grounded)
Here's a little pic :

Need confirmation though (sorry for the bad pic, but I don't have a untrimmed mobo to take a photo)

 

[Ashen]

I'll look into that later, gotta head to work soon. Thx for picking that up though!

 

[Tchay]

I'm pretty sure you don't need to do any of that bridging. As long as you cut EXACTLY along that red line, leaving the pins actually soldered down, you won't need to do any bridging. I've played numerous games on motherboards that have been cut that much without any bridging performed.

 

[kill00man]

I'm pretty sure you don't need to do any of that bridging. As long as you cut EXACTLY along that red line, leaving the pins actually soldered down, you won't need to do any bridging. I've played numerous games on motherboards that have been cut that much without any bridging performed.

I admit that it works without bridging, but I have a sneaking feeling that it must have a reason for the traces to exist

For french speakers, here's a VERY interesting link about filtering capacitors and all that stuff (page 2-3, voir les condensateur de filtrage et de découplage, un peu compliqué si on a pas de bases en électronique) :http://membres.multimania.fr/cepls/condensateur/condensateur.pdf
To sum up, we have to take care of the capacitors that we take off... Some boards might not work after taking off to much of them (the power supply might become unstable and the voltage might oscillate...). But all that stuff is only security The more you have a good quality power supply, the less those capacitors are needed (more or less) !

I think it's quite a good think to know why you can take off some components, so I advice most of you to read the different uses of capacitors (as we take off lots of them when trimming).

I have a little question for experienced trimmers, do you think that U15 is needed on the mobo (SIDE-B, between the big AV chip and the power connector, it's a 5pin component) ? An answer will be greatly appreciated ! Thanks !

 

[LOCtronicz]

Been busy rewiring everything to the VIA's.

Here's a pinout for anybody interested. I edited Techknott's pics from Ashen's cutting guide:

Ashen maybe you could add this to your guide.

NOTE!!! the discdrive pinouts are wii connector pinouts!!! so no need to mess about with finding what the wii pin is. Just wire the wiidrive connector according to this pinout with the eject switch and your set.

 

[Ashen]

Updated the first post, thanks Zenloc!

 

[kill00man]

I m afraid the memcards pinout doesn't correspond to anything in the guide
Can someone take a picture of how to wire the controller's transistors or explain it clearly ?
Many thanks !

 

[Ashen]

The memcard pins correspond to the pin #'s printed on the curcuitboard where the memcard ports are before you cut the board.

The transistors zenloc has colored the legs of need to be relocated and rewired to the points he's shown.

 

[kill00man]

Oh yeah, thanks

And where do you wire the data line from the controller then ?

 

[LOCtronicz]

Ashen I made a big mistake!! the pinout Tecknott uses is a completely different one and makes no sense when your connecting with the original pinout numbers.

So I edited the pic to have the wii connector pinouts that way you can just follow the pin numbers without messing about with any diagram.

Please change this in your guide asap before people start doing things wrong!!!

 

[Ashen]

Gotcha, thx for that Zen, good catch. I should have time soon to start experimenting with my board.

 

[LOCtronicz]

Ashen you are not going to believe it but I've changed my pinouts again. I shouldn't have followed techknotts one as his numbering is not based on the original.

So here again and this time with the original memorycard pinouts. Now every noob can understand it. Please update your guide again. Thanks!