Zack's NEW Gamecube Portable Worklog

[zack]

Surprise! The Gamecube's custom regulator is outputting the correct voltages again. (I posted more about this issue here viewtopic.php?f=36&t=12264)
Problem is, now I'm afraid to hook it up to another motherboard and risk it suddenly outputting higher voltages again and killing yet ANOTHER motherboard. So I think I'm just gonna redo some of the wiring and possibly build it over again with a new perfboard.

Anyways here's a pic of my portable. I know this case looks like crap (Cause I laser-cut it twice, with a new design). But imagine it with a fresh case, no extra holes, non-crap engraving, some of that speaker grill fabric, and a properly-fitting screen cutout, and I'd say it's starting to look awesome.

Larger size here http://imageshack.com/scaled/large/7/weq4.jpg

 

[thecasperrojas]

Hey zack can you give me a link to that 5" screen am pretty sure you said you bought it a ebay

 

[zack]

Hey zack can you give me a link to that 5" screen am pretty sure you said you bought it a ebay

Sure, here's the one I got. www.ebay.com/itm/5-TFT-INNOLUX-AT050TN2 ... 3f1f97b0a6
Also it's worth noting that I spray-painted the metal frame black. It's super easy to take off the frame and paint, so now it matches my case.

 

[thecasperrojas]

Hey i didnt notice the black painted metal cover nice work also thanks for the link man

 

[Ashen]

Looks pretty boss man. Nice with the laser cutting.

 

[zack]

1. Started wiring up the adapter for the Wiikey Fusion. I'm using a Newhaven NHD-FFC36 adapter board, which was leftover from my past GCP attempt. I ordered a wiikey from megalomaniac, so until it arrives I'm preparing the adapter. Both the adapter and the Wiikey will be mounted underneath the motherboard, just barely fitting between the gap of the mobo and my case. This will take up almost no extra room in my portable.

Note that most wires aren't attached yet, so if it looks like they're connected to random spots, it's just an illusion.

2. Removed some ports and whatnot

3. I officially fried my custom regulator... should have known not to leave a custom reg connected to a GC while it's powered on with an official regulator. I think I'm gonna go batteryless for now, putting an official regulator in there and running from an official power supply. Soon I'll add batteries, but for now, just having it functional is a good start.

4. I ordered all the parts necessary to build an audio amp for the TPA6021A4 amp from TI, including speakers. Here's what I specifically ordered in case anyone's interested.

I also ordered a 25mmx25mmx10mm fan to fit sideways in my case. It's pretty small, so I hope it's powerful enough.
Next I need to get my hands on another ZN-40 case.

 

[zack]

Hey i didnt notice the black painted metal cover nice work also thanks for the link man

No problem

Looks pretty boss man. Nice with the laser cutting.

Thanks ashen, I'm pretty lucky to have such nice tools at my disposal. Perhaps I could do commissions soon

 

[zack]

Starting making progress today by mounting in the mobo and regulator.

I wired up the reg once, then switched the positioning and hastily soldered it all again. Turned it all on and got nothing but a puff of smoke.

As you can see from this picture...I accidentally bridged the 1.9v with ground!! ARRGH
That solder glob attached to the yellow wire should have been shifted one space to the right.

Such a stupid mistake. I need to buy another gamecube or I might be able to get one for free from a dude I know at the lab.
Motherboard #7 here I come...yay

 

[zack]

Got the parts from digikey a couple days ago, and just finished building the audio amp. One problem, it doesn't work. When testing it, nothing happens at all.
In other news, I started working on my 7th gamecube motherboard today. AND FREAKIN FRIED IT. It's cuz I accidentally bridged the 5V line and 12v line when soldering while the gamecube was powered on.
This whole modding experience has been nothing but learning the hard way, and I'm really kicking myself for ruining the whole thing which such simple mistakes.
Fortunately I had just ordered two spare gamecubes. 8th time's a charm?

 

[public-pervert]

I accidentally bridged the 5V line and 12v line when soldering while the gamecube was powered on.

Soldering while GC was powered on? THAT is your big mistake, not accidentally bridging anything.
Never solder anything while it's powered on again. Specially power lines..

 

[zack]

I accidentally bridged the 5V line and 12v line when soldering while the gamecube was powered on.

Soldering while GC was powered on? THAT is your big mistake, not accidentally bridging anything.
Never solder anything while it's powered on again. Specially power lines..

Yep, it was a dumbass mistake, I'm not gonna lie. Let's just establish that and move on hehe

 

[zack]

I assembled all of my life's work, and took a picture of it.

Each motherboard represents an attempt at my portable gamecube. They're all fried and in order of when I worked on them.

In other news, I did some more troubleshooting on my audio amp. I resolved a few issues of which pins to connect the POT and headphone jack, and also attached PIN 15 to ground, but bottom line is it's still not working. It may have something to do with the Fade pins on the IC chip.
I don't have a pic of the completed version, but here's a pic from when it was halfway built. It'll give you an idea of what it looks like

 

[megalomaniac]

to minimize the chance of accidental damage to your GC, when testing stand alone circuits like the audio amp, you can use anything that outputs audio...a 3$ ebay mp3 player or something else you are willing to sacrifice other than a gamecube..


also ever try using a breadboard?
you can plug things in all over the place and test out your circuit without soldering it all together...messing it up...shorting leads accidentally with solder...easy to replace suspected parts....tweaks and redesigns...testing results and configurations...

lots of advantages...not only for beginners, i still use one all the time for quick testing before i design a board and solder it all together...

here is an example of two breadboards in action:
the little one is a xeno modchip circuit...
the larger one is a component cable circuit...
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1962/dscn2872k.jpg

 

[zack]

to minimize the chance of accidental damage to your GC, when testing stand alone circuits like the audio amp, you can use anything that outputs audio...a 3$ ebay mp3 player or something else you are willing to sacrifice other than a gamecube..


also ever try using a breadboard?
you can plug things in all over the place and test out your circuit without soldering it all together...messing it up...shorting leads accidentally with solder...easy to replace suspected parts....tweaks and redesigns...testing results and configurations...

lots of advantages...not only for beginners, i still use one all the time for quick testing before i design a board and solder it all together...

here is an example of two breadboards in action:
the little one is a xeno modchip circuit...
the larger one is a component cable circuit...
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1962/dscn2872k.jpg

Yes good idea, that's actually what I have been doing to test the audio amp. It's not connected to the gamecube, nor has it been responsible for frying any of them. Just a note, the fried gamecubes and the audio amp really have nothing to do with each other, they're just in the same post.

And ah yes, a breadboard... that is not a bad idea for testing. I need to try taking things slower and utilizing such tools, because I do own a breadboard and the lab has some as well. I guess I got too caught up in assuming the amp would work and wanting to finish the final product.

 

[Blargaman91]

I think remember from using that amp that the fade pin can be left alone or grounded, but when grounded it just creates a kind of "fading" effect when turning the amp on or off or changing volume.

 

[zack]

I think remember from using that amp that the fade pin can be left alone or grounded, but when grounded it just creates a kind of "fading" effect when turning the amp on or off or changing volume.

Grounded or ungrounded, the amp should work. Right now I'm basically getting no output from the amp or any sign that it's working. I might just buy another amp and redo my project, this time testing it all on a breadboard first.

 

[zack]

I started working on modding this controller. So far I just have the analog stick relocated.

I also got my two replacement gamecubes today. One of them works fine but the other was listed as having a disc read error. I figured the only issue would be the disc drive, but apparently not because I tested it with a working disc drive and it still gives me the error. Anyone know why it wouldn't read a disc if the disc drive is fine? The cube IS kinda dirty, as you can see from the picture (it's the one on the left). Looks like rust and some type of weird white oxidation.

Regardless, I'm using the other mobo right now. I already got all the ports removed (not shown in pic). Expect progress very soon.

 

[zack]

Another gamecube fried... another lesson learned... Double check the output voltages for your regulator before wiring it up. For some reason both of my original regulators are suddenly outputting voltages too high. The light lights up and the disc drive's xeno chip lights up, but I get no audio or video from the cube. This is the same issue that all of my fried mobos have had.

 

[zack]

All of those problems aside, I've started working on the other gamecube motherboard.

1. I fixed the issue where I kept getting the standard gamecube error. Turns out it was just a bad connection between the disc drive and mobo.
2. I removed most of the ports and cleaned the board up.
3. I wired up my wiikey fusion! I did it all in about an hour, it was extremely easy since I re-used the wires from my previous GCP attempt. Not to brag but I am extremely proud of how well the wiring came out. And I am extremely happy because...
4. It actually works! Got swiss running on my gamecube just fine. Thanks to megalomaniac for providing the wiikey and installing swiss for me. It's working great

 

[zack]

Wired up the Slot A memory card. It's beautiful.