Hey, I go by xy007. This is my progress so far on my portable game cube:
What I am Using:
5" lcd screen
ZN40 case
MC25100V2 Mini Fans x2
1 official and 1 3rd party controller
Rev C board
wasp
audio amp from walmart
v5 megadrive
12 ebay tact switches
Need to do as of 8/5/2015:
Solder abxy,triggers,analog sticks to the IC of controller board.
Some how mount the motherboard.
Fan Placement.
Re-wire gamecube internals. (AV, power, controller ports, clock battery)
Questions that need answering:
5/22/2015
My NZ40 case and 5" LCD came in:
Looks like I won't have to do any mother board trimming?
Testing the LCD without a disc drive hooked up:
5/23/2015
Today I worked on ideas on how to arrange the system (buttons/screen/which side to use)
General layout on one of the sides idea:
I haven't decided which side will work/feel best yet.
Button mounting:
ABXY:
I ended up with this cut out of the abxy section:
I've got a bunch of ideas for this, here are the main two:
Cutting off the top lip and mounting it from inside:
Or, having the top lip stick out the front of the case,(I would not have to have a perfect cut hole in this case):
I want to use the original housing so that the buttons can move perfectly up and down. (I haven't decided yet if I want to use tact switches or the original green board with the abxy yet. Any input/past experiences/tips on this subject?
Analog stick:
I think I am more or less going to do the same thing with them as I did the abxy:
Triggers:
I am undecided about this part so far. I have a bunch of xbox 360 controllers laying around that I can salvage the triggers from. I belive they just use a single pot for each trigger:
If anyone has idea or tips, I would gladly take note.
5/28/2015-55/31/2015
Tried working on the trigger situation. First I was trying to use the xbox 360 triggers, then game cube:
Ended up not fitting in my case so I scraped that idea. Probably going to end up using buttons for full and half press.
Worked on my audio amp some:
Still need to wire up +and - volume buttons and maybe power.
Worked on frankencasing:
Still got to smooth out bondo and add more.....
6/10/2015
Continued work on Frankencaseing:
Did the left hand side.
Notice how I left the mounting pegs, Im think about doing this to hold stuff in place:
Metal tape is good for holding stuff....
6/12/2015
Worked some on the controller components. I am using ebay 3rd party controllers that are single sided circuit boards.
After the incision: (you may notice the absence of left analog stick, I will be using a second controller board for that)(I may even use a first party Nintendo controller for the better quality stick, idk yet)
Worked on the inside of the case a bit.
I felt there wasn't enough support with just one peg, so I made something. Notice how I had to mount the dpad upside down previously when frankencasing. So I will have to condensate for this later when re-wiring.
I will also add a peg to the c stick and abxy portion eventually:
I may be using this for the start button:
Regardless of what I use for the start button, I think I will put it just above the left analog stick.
And speaker wise, I am going to have to deal with this x2:
6/13/2015
Made a C-stick support (stronger than a regular controller) and raspsing the d-pad (holy cow that was difficult):
6/15/2015
Ok so I compared the quality of my original Nintendo controller's analog sticks vs the 3rd party's controller's and instantly decided to scrap the third party controller sticks. My original plan was to use two 1st party controllers for separating the left thumb stick and abxy board. Well that wasn't going to work since I had 3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF 1ST PARTY CONTROLLERS, I didn't even know there were more than 2 versions.
This meant I couldn't interchange the thumb sticks between boards since they all had different resistance values. But I am glad to say this worked out for the best. Since the analog sticks I would be using are through hole, I was able to de-solder and mount one to a prototype board.
It is going to be pretty tight in this case I think"
I will be trimming the main controller board some eventually:
I just ordered a bunch of parts from digikey, I'm going to experiment with different buttons for triggers.
Order list:
Something else that I may be getting, I can't believe I forgot about them when I placed an order(duel action tact switch): https://www.digikey.com/product-highlig ... tches/2123
Soon I will be able to begin work on GC mobo, this Thursday I should be getting my megadrive and spare gc mobo in the mail.
6/21/2015
Turns out one of my main older gamecubes have a rev c board in it so the past couple of days I have been interchanging out a cpu60 (rev c) with a cpu30 in a new cube and added a wasp for practice. Turns out one of the two wasps I own seems to messed up.
Out of all the buttons/switches I got, I think I found the perfect ones to work for triggers.
This one from digikey:
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... =search_go
They almost have a henge like mechanism system that presses a momentary contact switch. They come in 5 different colors, but I just got the black ones.
I plan on using two buttons per trigger:
(The little piece of plasitc next to it is the case thickness to show how far they will stick out.)
They will stick out on the bottom where some of your fingers will rest, They will be mounted from the inside.
I am even thinking about having a third switch like these of the right side that would be used for the z button.
6/28/2015
Mounted a MegaDrive v5 to my rev C board. It was my second time soldering a v5 megadrive and I have some tips if you are going to do the same.
-Only desolder the bottom 16 pins, Leave the top 16 so that the bottom side of the pins stick out through the megadrive holding it in place.
-Or instead of desoldering, you could just carefully grind off the bottom 16 pins with a dremel.
Working wasp
also if you use a megadrive v5, make sure that one of the memcard gnd mount pin isnt shorting on the ffc cable. Mine was and caused the wasp to first tell me that the region switches were incorrect and then after a restart from that it would freeze each time I rebooted.)(This could also be caused by the megadrive not getting a solid ground connection.)
Got the bottom side triggers in place:
I also desided that I will cut up the controller board even more.
Im going to be useing the abxy and dpad portion cut from a 3rd party controller, and the c-stick, left analog stick and IC from a official controller.
ABXY portion:
Here is the IC board cut I plan on doing: (Hopefully I can solder directly to the vias, with this cut I will get around an average of ~2 vias per trace. Just in case I mess up)
I also worked on how I am giong to wire the triggers. I am going to have 2 pushbutton switches for each trigger. I was originally planning on having one for half press and the other for full press with a transistor method. I tried some optocuopler ideas but didn't get anything to work. I then tried some different ideas with the transistor method and using diodes but the drop across the diodes caused some problems.
So I ended up just tring out the old school 2 tact method, which is what I am going to use for now. I tested it out on super mario sunshine and I like the effect it caused. You aim with one press and then shoot with the other button almost as if it is like a new feature.
I also tested on mario kart and the power slide works just fine. I am not sure what other games will be affected.
Let me know if any one has recommendations if I should or shouldn't use the original gc regulator board to power my 2 5v fans and audio amplifier.
I am getting close!
7/12/2015
I have got alot done but this will seem like a small update.
First off, most of my time has been trouble shooting and fixing my wasp problem on my rev c board. There is a separate thread for that if you want to look at that.. Anyway long story short my megadrive v5 was not getting a very good ground signal (which is through the two outer support pins.)
This week I have added more bondo and have been working on the outer case. I added a section for a z-button (which will be like the trigger push buttons) and a spot for the start button. I also mounted the 5" lcd screen on the case by using plastic type epoxy. Tomorrow I will be adding primer and painting:
I also went ahead and soldered a ~1000 block memory card to slot A:
For now I will only be using a single card.
I think I have figured out where I am going to derive the power for each component. For my two 5v fans I will get it from the 5v rail that is unused by the memory card and 12v from the connector of the stock fan used for my lcd screen:
As of right now I have 4 days to complete this project, well not necessary completed but working non of the less. I can add things later after my trip to Florida.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/30/2015
Well I didn't complete my project in time for my trip, but I'll show what I got done before I left. And also I'll show what I through together for the trip.
I got the case painted black and the start and z-button glued in:
I needed to make an air intake vent so I use the top of a xbox 360:
Finally cut up my controller board: (united states of controller)
Top of inside of case, so far:
Pics of the mostly finished outside case:
This is where (below) I decided to call it and build a temp cube for the trip. I didn't want rush and screw something up because I was in a hurry on my portable.
I was afraid there was not going to be enough air flow, and am not sure how I am going to make a wind tunnel for the fans.
Since I had a test mother board with a megadrive v5 mounted on it, I decided to put a mix match of parts gc together for my trip.
I temporarily placed the unmounted sd card holder here:
Since I only had 1 working wasp at the time and didn't know when I would get another, I needed some way to easily retrieve the wasp from this setup.
So I made it accessible through here:
The wasp is right under the electrical tape:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8/10/2015
Got the controller all wired back together:
The wire mess:
I did the wiring in layers:
Layer 1:
Layer 2:
Layer 3 & 4:
The triggers on the bottom side of the case connect with a makeshift connector on the left analog stick prototype board:
Today I mainly worked on taking off the av port on the mobo and solder some wires to it. And have begun on the stuff I have been putting off. I am about to make a thread with some general questions that I will link here.
imgur galleries with more images:
http://xy007.imgur.com/all
http://imgur.com/a/cqgHR
http://imgur.com/a/Z6gQX
What I am Using:
5" lcd screen
ZN40 case
MC25100V2 Mini Fans x2
1 official and 1 3rd party controller
Rev C board
wasp
audio amp from walmart
v5 megadrive
12 ebay tact switches
Need to do as of 8/5/2015:
Solder abxy,triggers,analog sticks to the IC of controller board.
Some how mount the motherboard.
Fan Placement.
Re-wire gamecube internals. (AV, power, controller ports, clock battery)
Questions that need answering:
5/22/2015
My NZ40 case and 5" LCD came in:
Looks like I won't have to do any mother board trimming?
Testing the LCD without a disc drive hooked up:
5/23/2015
Today I worked on ideas on how to arrange the system (buttons/screen/which side to use)
General layout on one of the sides idea:
I haven't decided which side will work/feel best yet.
Button mounting:
ABXY:
I ended up with this cut out of the abxy section:
I've got a bunch of ideas for this, here are the main two:
Cutting off the top lip and mounting it from inside:
Or, having the top lip stick out the front of the case,(I would not have to have a perfect cut hole in this case):
I want to use the original housing so that the buttons can move perfectly up and down. (I haven't decided yet if I want to use tact switches or the original green board with the abxy yet. Any input/past experiences/tips on this subject?
Analog stick:
I think I am more or less going to do the same thing with them as I did the abxy:
Triggers:
I am undecided about this part so far. I have a bunch of xbox 360 controllers laying around that I can salvage the triggers from. I belive they just use a single pot for each trigger:
If anyone has idea or tips, I would gladly take note.
5/28/2015-55/31/2015
Tried working on the trigger situation. First I was trying to use the xbox 360 triggers, then game cube:
Ended up not fitting in my case so I scraped that idea. Probably going to end up using buttons for full and half press.
Worked on my audio amp some:
Still need to wire up +and - volume buttons and maybe power.
Worked on frankencasing:
Still got to smooth out bondo and add more.....
6/10/2015
Continued work on Frankencaseing:
Did the left hand side.
Notice how I left the mounting pegs, Im think about doing this to hold stuff in place:
Metal tape is good for holding stuff....
6/12/2015
Worked some on the controller components. I am using ebay 3rd party controllers that are single sided circuit boards.
After the incision: (you may notice the absence of left analog stick, I will be using a second controller board for that)(I may even use a first party Nintendo controller for the better quality stick, idk yet)
Worked on the inside of the case a bit.
I felt there wasn't enough support with just one peg, so I made something. Notice how I had to mount the dpad upside down previously when frankencasing. So I will have to condensate for this later when re-wiring.
I will also add a peg to the c stick and abxy portion eventually:
I may be using this for the start button:
Regardless of what I use for the start button, I think I will put it just above the left analog stick.
And speaker wise, I am going to have to deal with this x2:
6/13/2015
Made a C-stick support (stronger than a regular controller) and raspsing the d-pad (holy cow that was difficult):
6/15/2015
Ok so I compared the quality of my original Nintendo controller's analog sticks vs the 3rd party's controller's and instantly decided to scrap the third party controller sticks. My original plan was to use two 1st party controllers for separating the left thumb stick and abxy board. Well that wasn't going to work since I had 3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF 1ST PARTY CONTROLLERS, I didn't even know there were more than 2 versions.
This meant I couldn't interchange the thumb sticks between boards since they all had different resistance values. But I am glad to say this worked out for the best. Since the analog sticks I would be using are through hole, I was able to de-solder and mount one to a prototype board.
It is going to be pretty tight in this case I think"
I will be trimming the main controller board some eventually:
I just ordered a bunch of parts from digikey, I'm going to experiment with different buttons for triggers.
Order list:
Something else that I may be getting, I can't believe I forgot about them when I placed an order(duel action tact switch): https://www.digikey.com/product-highlig ... tches/2123
Soon I will be able to begin work on GC mobo, this Thursday I should be getting my megadrive and spare gc mobo in the mail.
6/21/2015
Turns out one of my main older gamecubes have a rev c board in it so the past couple of days I have been interchanging out a cpu60 (rev c) with a cpu30 in a new cube and added a wasp for practice. Turns out one of the two wasps I own seems to messed up.
Out of all the buttons/switches I got, I think I found the perfect ones to work for triggers.
This one from digikey:
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... =search_go
They almost have a henge like mechanism system that presses a momentary contact switch. They come in 5 different colors, but I just got the black ones.
I plan on using two buttons per trigger:
(The little piece of plasitc next to it is the case thickness to show how far they will stick out.)
They will stick out on the bottom where some of your fingers will rest, They will be mounted from the inside.
I am even thinking about having a third switch like these of the right side that would be used for the z button.
6/28/2015
Mounted a MegaDrive v5 to my rev C board. It was my second time soldering a v5 megadrive and I have some tips if you are going to do the same.
-Only desolder the bottom 16 pins, Leave the top 16 so that the bottom side of the pins stick out through the megadrive holding it in place.
-Or instead of desoldering, you could just carefully grind off the bottom 16 pins with a dremel.
Working wasp
also if you use a megadrive v5, make sure that one of the memcard gnd mount pin isnt shorting on the ffc cable. Mine was and caused the wasp to first tell me that the region switches were incorrect and then after a restart from that it would freeze each time I rebooted.)(This could also be caused by the megadrive not getting a solid ground connection.)
Got the bottom side triggers in place:
I also desided that I will cut up the controller board even more.
Im going to be useing the abxy and dpad portion cut from a 3rd party controller, and the c-stick, left analog stick and IC from a official controller.
ABXY portion:
Here is the IC board cut I plan on doing: (Hopefully I can solder directly to the vias, with this cut I will get around an average of ~2 vias per trace. Just in case I mess up)
I also worked on how I am giong to wire the triggers. I am going to have 2 pushbutton switches for each trigger. I was originally planning on having one for half press and the other for full press with a transistor method. I tried some optocuopler ideas but didn't get anything to work. I then tried some different ideas with the transistor method and using diodes but the drop across the diodes caused some problems.
So I ended up just tring out the old school 2 tact method, which is what I am going to use for now. I tested it out on super mario sunshine and I like the effect it caused. You aim with one press and then shoot with the other button almost as if it is like a new feature.
I also tested on mario kart and the power slide works just fine. I am not sure what other games will be affected.
Let me know if any one has recommendations if I should or shouldn't use the original gc regulator board to power my 2 5v fans and audio amplifier.
I am getting close!
7/12/2015
I have got alot done but this will seem like a small update.
First off, most of my time has been trouble shooting and fixing my wasp problem on my rev c board. There is a separate thread for that if you want to look at that.. Anyway long story short my megadrive v5 was not getting a very good ground signal (which is through the two outer support pins.)
This week I have added more bondo and have been working on the outer case. I added a section for a z-button (which will be like the trigger push buttons) and a spot for the start button. I also mounted the 5" lcd screen on the case by using plastic type epoxy. Tomorrow I will be adding primer and painting:
I also went ahead and soldered a ~1000 block memory card to slot A:
For now I will only be using a single card.
I think I have figured out where I am going to derive the power for each component. For my two 5v fans I will get it from the 5v rail that is unused by the memory card and 12v from the connector of the stock fan used for my lcd screen:
As of right now I have 4 days to complete this project, well not necessary completed but working non of the less. I can add things later after my trip to Florida.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/30/2015
Well I didn't complete my project in time for my trip, but I'll show what I got done before I left. And also I'll show what I through together for the trip.
I got the case painted black and the start and z-button glued in:
I needed to make an air intake vent so I use the top of a xbox 360:
Finally cut up my controller board: (united states of controller)
Top of inside of case, so far:
Pics of the mostly finished outside case:
This is where (below) I decided to call it and build a temp cube for the trip. I didn't want rush and screw something up because I was in a hurry on my portable.
I was afraid there was not going to be enough air flow, and am not sure how I am going to make a wind tunnel for the fans.
Since I had a test mother board with a megadrive v5 mounted on it, I decided to put a mix match of parts gc together for my trip.
I temporarily placed the unmounted sd card holder here:
Since I only had 1 working wasp at the time and didn't know when I would get another, I needed some way to easily retrieve the wasp from this setup.
So I made it accessible through here:
The wasp is right under the electrical tape:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8/10/2015
Got the controller all wired back together:
The wire mess:
I did the wiring in layers:
Layer 1:
Layer 2:
Layer 3 & 4:
The triggers on the bottom side of the case connect with a makeshift connector on the left analog stick prototype board:
Today I mainly worked on taking off the av port on the mobo and solder some wires to it. And have begun on the stuff I have been putting off. I am about to make a thread with some general questions that I will link here.
imgur galleries with more images:
http://xy007.imgur.com/all
http://imgur.com/a/cqgHR
http://imgur.com/a/Z6gQX
.
