The definitive GC motherboard trimming guide

[Ashen]

Pretty much finished up renovating the first post. Everything should be much clearer/cleaner and less scattered about. Less wordy also, if that's possible with me. If the new pics aren't showing or look all *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ed up try reloading/refreshing the page, they should all look nice and uniform for the most part.

Would appreciate if someone trained in the ways of the GC Jedi arts could check my work also. Was a lot of stuff to redo, I'm sure I *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ed up at least something little.

 

[bud]

All the pics are working on my end now. Let me be the first to say that it's the prettiest guide I've ever seen.

 

[SonyQrio]

Thanks Ashen, I really love the new guide.

 

[demonicfox666]

EDIT: Resolved

 

[ShockSlayer]

Looks amazing Ashen, thanks a ton!

SS

 

[nuke]

The new guide is awesome Ashen! Thanks bro!Your the man!!!

 

[Tchay]

I've been having trouble getting the controller transistor relocation to work. I'm also confused as to how many wires need to go from the tiny transistor, to the board.

Would it just be ground and the transistor line going to the transistor? And could I then just wire the dataline of the controller straight to the via of the board??? or does the dataline need to be connected to the dataline pin of the transistor as well (meaning 3 wires total going from the transistor cutout board to the motherboard).

Also, can you use any transistor from any motherboard? Or does it have to be the transistor that was originally on the board? I am trying to recycle old boards and cut out their transistor spots to use that for relocation. Nothing is working so far

 

[Ashen]

This is exactly how to wire up P1. It HAS to be the transistor from the same spot on the board. None of the other transistors on the GC board are the same as the controller ones. But ones from the same spot on other boards should work too.

 

[Tchay]

Thanks, I'll try to see what I messed up.

 

[SonyQrio]

Where do you relocate the bios battery for the Almost WTF cut?

 

[Ashen]

I knew I forgot something.

I'll update the main post later.

 

[Alie]

On PAL gamecubes composite video is on pin 7 of the audio/video chip, not on pin 9, please add that...

 

[Tchay]

It should be noted that you need AT LEAST 5v to properly power the on board AMP.

Many of you have been having issues with the sound be staticy in terms of bass. I just toggled 3.43v versus 5v and when using 5v, there is no sound problem. However, using 3.43v causes the sound to have a staticy bass to it.

Now, according to Zenloc, you should be able to get rid of the on board amp and use your own amp. Most amps require 5v, but maybe you can get away with 3.43v and properly power the amp.

Later on, I'm ganna try 7.4v to the amp to see if it fries it. Since I don't wanna buy another regulator just for 5v to the amp.

 

[Tchay]

Okay I tested 7.4v. The on board amp appears to work fine. No sound distortion or anything like that.

I will be using the full 7.4v in my Gamecube Envision. Hopefully there isn't any longterm damage from using a higher voltage.

 

[Ashen]

Why would 7.4v hurt the audio amp? It normally takes 12v.

Edit: Also, if your considering JUST using the GC's built in audio amp to run your speakers it will work, but you won't get very loud volume I think. The onboard amp is only meant to be a preamp.

 

[SonyQrio]

I think he might mean his actual audio amp... not the preamp. Like an ipod audio amp that takes 5v.

 

[Tchay]

Why would 7.4v hurt the audio amp? It normally takes 12v.

Edit: Also, if your considering JUST using the GC's built in audio amp to run your speakers it will work, but you won't get very loud volume I think. The onboard amp is only meant to be a preamp.

Yeah right after posting that I realized it normally takes 12v

And I will have another amp besides the preamp.

 

[Tchay]

*****It should be noted that in some cases, if you DO NOT have the filtering caps for L and R audio wired up, you WILL NOT get sound.

More testing needed to see if this is always the case, but with my current motherboard, wiring directly to the AV chip will not yield sound. I have to wire sound the filtering cap which then is wired to the AV chip.

 

[Ashen]

*****It should be noted that in some cases, if you DO NOT have the filtering caps for L and R audio wired up, you WILL NOT get sound.

More testing needed to see if this is always the case, but with my current motherboard, wiring directly to the AV chip will not yield sound. I have to wire sound the filtering cap which then is wired to the AV chip.

I find this EXTREMELY odd man, it makes me think that you are either doing something wrong, or you are doing something wrong.

 

[ShockSlayer]

It doesn't make any sense, no, unless the chip can sense power draw or something.

SS