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The Nintendo GameCube requires only three voltages (compared to the previously thought four).

1.9v
6600mA
This line is used to power the CPU core. There has been previous confusion about just how much this line really consumes, but recent study shows that the current draw is quite high, so it takes a fairly strong regulator to handle this line. The power ratio is 12.54W.

3.3v
900mA
The 3.3v powers the peripheral chipset. The power consumption for this line is 2.97W.

5.0v
400mA
This line is only used to power the DVD motor. It only draws (up to) 400mA when the motor is spinning and the disk is being read. At times when the drive is idle, no current is drawn. The max consumption on this line is 2.0W.

12.0v
50mA
This line has caused much confusion in the past. The 12v line is used for two things: running the cooling fan built into the GameCube's case, and running the audio line. Once the fan is removed, the line only draws 5mA to power the audio. However, the audio does not actually need 12v, it is only labeled so. Removing the fan, this line only takes 0.06W. The audio only needs 5.0v @ 12mA.

Information in this thread has been discovered by Electric Rain, zenloc, ShockSlayer, and me.

And before any noobs ask, yes, 4 AA batteries would provide enough volts, but no, you can't use them for a portable gamecube! You'd barely get past the startup screen before they died.

eagle5953 wrote:And before any noobs ask, yes, 4 AA batteries would provide enough volts, but no, you can't use them for a portable gamecube! You'd barely get past the startup screen before they died.

On that note, once we get the power consumption of all the systems solidified, would it be feasible to set up a little app people could use to see how long x system would last with y battery (and have it in plain sight)? Just to avoid questions like that.

once we have fairly concrete ammounts of power draw for each board and voltage for said boards setting up a program like that would be fairly straightforward!

Do we have any ballparks of what the Gamecube draws? It'd be nice to be able to make an estimate as to how long battery-life would be.

17.57W just by adding up what's up there

So, off of one of these:

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2334" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You could power JUST the GC for: ~4 hours

+ 2.8W for the Psone screen: 20.37W

Meaning, it would last: ~3.5 hours

+ .6W for the fan = 20.97W

Meaning, it would last: ~3.5 hours

+ .44W for the low battery life indicator = 21.41W

Meaning, it would last: ~3.3 hours

---Something isn't right here.

Using that battery pack, I only got about 2 hours, maybe 2 hours and 10 minutes. And unless a qoob modchip and a controller takes off 1.4 hours of battery life, then I'm calling shenanigans on this one. There is, however, one unknow factor: Those are the individual draws of the gamecube's voltage lines, but I was not powering them individually, but instead, I was powering them off of the powerboard. I doubt it worked at 100% efficiency, so..... Skyone, (or someone else who knows thier stuff) you wanna check this out for me and tell me whats wrong?

SS

...Ahem....

Assuming you're right with your calculations and measured time, that means the GC powerboard is only ~65% efficient... Is it linear?

SS, find the real power draw of your GCp. Maybe your batteries aren't working right or something is eating power.

Considering I don't have it anymore, that'll be hard.

in any case, I'd like to see someone else confirm these are right through testing.

SS

I know this is kind of a bump, but it's in reference.

Anyway, doesn't the gamecube controller's rumble motor take some power?

kylechu wrote:I know this is kind of a bump, but it's in reference.

Anyway, doesn't the gamecube controller's rumble motor take some power?

yep, it does take some power, and it may need an huge ammount of power,especially when you use more than 1, thats why I made a led mod for rumble at my GCp

diagram

topic

kasar wrote:especially when you use more than 1

Why would you use more than 1? Those things are HUGE!!!!!!!!!
If you have a giant portable then I guess you could get away with it, if you want some REAL force feedback.

64M320N3 wrote:Why would you use more than 1? Those things are HUGE!!!!!!!!!
If you have a giant portable then I guess you could get away with it, if you want some REAL force feedback.

well, a good example is the GC controller, it is small and it have the rumble located at the middle.

it is a good example of a good rumble system, but when converting a normal gamecube into a laptop, the most common option is split the controller, and integrate it with the entire system, even the smaller portable gamecube I saw, them have to separated sides for controls, one of them generally have dpad and joystick, and the other one have the c joy and other buttons.

place a rumble under the screen or the middle part probably will not be as efective as place them under the "action parts" (the one you use the buttons and hold the system.

this is even more necesary on bigger portables or portables with more space bettwen the "action parts"



well, I know there are lot of people that removed the rumble feature out from their portables, but as a gamming lover I decided to keep that feature on my portable.

and yes, my portable is GIANT

Well, if you used two smaller rumble motors on each side, like the small motor from a dual shock 2, then you might save a little space... and power.
I agree though if the portable is huge then you need some really nice motors to actually feel the vibration instead of using, say motors from a cell phone.