Official Gamecube IDE/USB interface thread (PROJECT BEGUN!)

[R3ason]

Hmm, yeah.... Interesting stuff!

[ShockSlayer]

Well, I dont know if you've read through the whole topic at Dextrose, I'm on page 7

SS

[Electric Rain]

I dont know if anyone else has noticed, but, on the guy who did it's website, at the very bottom, there is a blue line. It takes you to file folder of project files. Schematics or something. Seen it?

SS

Right, I was gonna point that out. And by the way, your avatar scares the **** out of me. It's cool that you're reading through that thread too... I think I'm the only one that has so far.

TheOnlyOneHeFears (we really need to come up with a nickname for you... people sometimes call me "rain"... ), if you read Destop's second post on page 2 of the Dextrose thread, he says something about the Gamecube not letting you access more than 1.4GB (the size of a GC disk). I don't know if this means that you can only put a single game on the a HDD at once... I'm pretty sure that's not it... but... I think it would probably be easier if we only had to deal with one game per storage medium. Thus the CF cards. *shrugs*

R3ason, there's NO way I'm gonna fade away from this project... unless the NNN gets me. I will still help in any way I can, and thanks for your support. You too, TheOnlyOneHeFears. We're probably gonna end up moving (not too far away from where we are now) even though our landlord called today apologizing for threatening to kick us out... meh... she's always been a female dog... ever since she divorced her husband. It's okay though... we move all the time for one reason or another. Sooner or later we'll find a place that we stay at for more than a few years. I never get attached to much of anything wherever we live, because I'm homeschooled, thus I don't really have any friends. No friends can be a good thing, see?

Anyway, I want to thank everyone that is contributing to this project, and I hope we can get it all figured out. Hmm... now that I think about it... I do have one good skill... I'm a webmaster, and I have tons of space on my server. Domain names only cost a few bucks, so once this WHOLE THING is figured out and we know everything we need to know, I can take the scraps of information floating around and actually create a completely documented website on it. It's not much, and it doesn't help us NOW, but... *shrugs* Hmm... Up to now the websites on my server don't get more than a few dozen hits a day... if I put this up on there and it ends up getting dugg or something, my bandwidth could be screwed. Ah, I should be okay, I've got 999GB of bandwidth.

Anyway... er... um... I guess, AGENTS ARE...

[R3ason]

@Electric Rain
Cool, I was homeschooled as well

Multiple games wouldn't be a problem, I don't think, as the dev carts that Nintendo uses have room for 4 games on them (maybe it's 6, can't remember of the top of my head....)

That's good to hear about the webspace! We'll have to make use of that in the future!

[vskid]

TheOnlyOneHeFears (we really need to come up with a nickname for you... people sometimes call me "rain"... ), if you read Destop's second post on page 2 of the Dextrose thread, he says something about the Gamecube not letting you access more than 1.4GB (the size of a GC disk). I don't know if this means that you can only put a single game on the a HDD at once... I'm pretty sure that's not it... but... I think it would probably be easier if we only had to deal with one game per storage medium. Thus the CF cards. *shrugs*[/img]

How about partitioning the hard drive/CF card into 1.4GB sections? I suppose thats the least of your worries right now, though. Good luck to you guys, and remember that if you need help, others on the forum might be able to help, so don't just stay in a little circle.

[R3ason]

@vskid
Thanks for stopping by, and making us welcome to asking for help! I won't hesitate to ask for assistance, if needed (I'm sure I'll be having some questions soon!) I love the quote "If you want it done as well as you can do it, do it yourself. If you want it done better, have someone else do it." I've found that to be pretty true

[vskid]

@vskid
Thanks for stopping by, and making us welcome to asking for help! I won't hesitate to ask for assistance, if needed (I'm sure I'll be having some questions soon!) I love the quote "If you want it done as well as you can do it, do it yourself. If you want it done better, have someone else do it." I've found that to be pretty true

Thats a good quote, its just that its hard to find someone else to do the job sometimes.
And the reason I mentions you guys asking for help here is that sometimes when groups are working on something, they don't include anyone else, so when they get stuck, the project grinds to a halt, so I didn't want that to happen to this, its too cool of a project to die over someone not asking for help.

[R3ason]

I agree. If anyone has an idea or a better way of doing something, please mention it, and we will welcomely embrace it!

[Electric Rain]

@Electric Rain
Cool, I was homeschooled as well

Hey, sweet! No wonder you know what you're talking about.

Good luck to you guys, and remember that if you need help, others on the forum might be able to help, so don't just stay in a little circle.

Hey, I'm not trying to stay in a little circle. This is an open thread that anyone can join in if they have something to contribute, and I want to keep it that way. It just so happens that there is currently only a small group of people interested, so I can see how it can look like that.

[TheOnlyOneHeFears]

Hah, sorry for choosing an un-nicknameable name
Regarding the schematic/info folder, I've found it too, there's a link on Mod that Cube for it, here. I think you have to sign up to 'the' Skeen to download it, but that's not too much trouble. I think it's a collection of everything related to the original prototype.
I'll read over the Dextrose thread again, I only had a quick scan last time, maybe I'll understand a bit more.
Like I said before, I'm cool with whatever storage medium works. So I'll go with whatever seems the most viable
The website's a great idea! But seriously, if we get this done, people will be like "OMG liek GC harddisk!" and KILL your bandwith

Elite Beat Agents FTW!!!

[R3ason]

@TheOnlyOneHeFears
Hey, it's all cool with the name!

Eh, I think we'd be able to afford more bandwidth at that point (hopefully from some kind donors).

Quick update: I just placed an order for the Qoob Pro chip and an extra SD adapter (and an Xbox 360 chip I couldn't resist getting ). Got it all from foundmy.com which, btw, has some pretty great prices!

[Electric Rain]

... You're just like... buying stuff, aren't you...? By the way, I meant to ask you... you said you were just finishing up a "contract"... what did that mean by that? What do you do? Wait... *gasp* It all makes sense now! You're working undercover for the NNN, aren't you?! That's why you have money, that's why you know stuff about the 'cube... oh noes! We're the contract! Quick, everybody, hide! He's coming to kill us all! *ahem* That was way too much...

Anyway, I'm gonna go check out this "t-e-h Skeen" thing. Were did you find that, anyway?

Oh, and R3ason, what are you getting a mod chip for, anyway? Or a second SD adapter? Er... wait, I thought we were doing CF? Okay, now I'm confused... have you guys been communicating through PMs? Did I miss something important? And TheOnlyOneHeFears (That's the first time I didn't just copy and paste your name! ), I hope you know I'm just joking about the name; no need to apologize.

Edit: Oh, hey... this stuff looks useful. Nice find! More documentation, w00t! I've put up that zip folder on my server so you guys can download it without having to sign up with the forums. I'm doing all I can to help.

Edit 2: Alright... about the FPGA... according to the Destop's parts list in that zip folder, Digikey part numbers 122-1229-ND or 122-1225-ND can be used. The problem: Not only do we need to buy 60 at a time, which we obviously would lack the cash for, they're out of them anyway. However, there are very similar models of the "Spartan-II" brand that we can probably use in their place. But... I wouldn't know which ones. It seems as though Digikey has 81 models of the Spartan-II FPGAs, though most of these either have to be bought in bulk or are out of stock. R3ason, would you be able to tell what one can be used instead? The only thing I can do is compare numbers...

The 122-1229-ND has the following specs:

Code: Select all

Number of Gates	100,000
Number of I /O	92
Number of Registers	2700
Number of Logic Blocks/Elements	600
Delay Time	5.00nS

While the 122-1225-ND has lower specs overall:

Code: Select all

Number of Gates	50,000
Number of I /O	92
Number of Registers	1728
Number of Logic Blocks/Elements	384
Delay Time	5.00nS

The parts list said you can use either. So, this tells me two things: One, the code is not written only for ONE specific chip... and if it is I'm sure only a few very minor changes to the code are needed to adapt it to a different chip. And two, as long as you get a "Spartan-II" FPGA with AT LEAST the specs of the 122-1225-ND, you should be set, right? Well... I'm probably wrong... that's why I'm asking you, R3ason, if you know whether or not a different chip will work in place of these. The XC2S50-5TQG144C, perhaps? This is Digikey part number 122-1321-ND, and is only $12.85 for one. It seems to be very similar to the XC2S50-5TQ144C (122-1225-ND) with only the addition of a "G" in the part number. My concern is this: The XC2S50-5TQG144C doesn't list a "Number of Registers". The XC2S50-5TQ144C does. What does this mean? I'm going to look at the datasheets to get a better idea of how similar they are... wish me luck.

Edit 3: -_- I feel like an idiot now... here's a little piece from the datasheet:


What does that tell you? Well, basically, the "G" doesn't mean a d@mn thing to us. Digikey clearly just didn't have the "Number of Registers" field filled in, and presumably they got rid of the XC2S50-5TQ144C since they have the newer, "Pb-free" XC2S50-5TQG144C model. Okay, so it looks like the XC2S50-5TQG144C will work great for us then, right R3ason? I'm so glad it's only $13 bucks. I thought I read of the Dextrose forums that peppers or someone had to pay $30 for it.

*looks at clock* ... Okay, it's 6:06AM... and I haven't slept... so... enough research for now, I guess. G'night everyone... er... g'morning I guess... >.> I hope this post has come in handy... sorry it's so long! You all know my posts tend to get very long when I'm excited about something.

[R3ason]

Hmm, wouldn't you like to know what sort of contract it is; More importantly, though, is WHO I work for.... (actually it isn't exciting at all).

Again, you are right on about the mod chip; I don't think it will be of much use. I want to see, though, if we can avoid reinvinting too many wheels (probably not though). SD adapter? Same story More interesting is the IDE to SD adapter that's on its way (or did I get an IDE to CF.... Can't remember; It's been a long week!).

You probably already found it, but http://tehskeen.com/ does have some interesting tidbits.


Yeah I'll look at those FPGA's and (hopefully) find a good substitute this weekend.


Ok, I'll be back later!

[ShockSlayer]

Cool, This is looking good.

I guess I should change my avvy.

I'll pitch in if we have to buy in bulk.

SS

[Electric Rain]

We shouldn't have to buy in bulk, if the XC2S50-5TQG144C will work. But of course, we'll get a cheaper price on them if we do... probably not much though.

Edit: Wow... I've read though just about everything I've found on this thing, and I just now realized a separate PROM is required to program the FPGA. R3ason, tell me... would you happen to have a JTAG programmer? You'll need one to program the XC18V01 (PROM for the Spartan). I hope you do... because they're pretty expensive. ... Ah, I guess they're not too bad if you get a cheap third party one... maybe $50. But, I know you can build one for even cheaper. They're not that complicated. Let me look into it some more and I'll get back to you guys with a programmer schematic. (Watch, it'll be just my luck R3ason already has one and doesn't end up telling me before I find the schematic. )

Edit 2: *3 minutes later* Okay... that was easy. Here's a programmer schematic... and here's a $50 programmer if you don't want to be bothered with building your own.

So, SS, I assume you've finished reading the Dextrose thread, yes? Any thoughts?