Tchay's Prestigious Gamecube Portable(awaiting resurrection)

[Tchay]

Oddly enough, I'm posting this far from my work station in TX. So I'm a little late but about a week ago, I finally cut my GC mobo in half! It was insane, but I followed my guidelines to the exact millimeter. Next I will make a list of all broken traces that need reattaching (estimate 150?).

Then I will use my millimeter thick wires (pulled from a gamecube controller wire) to reattach each trace. Im sad to say that my $15 dollar radio-shack soldering iron has lived its last day (had a good 2-year run).

I'll upload pics of my mess eventually, worth waiting for believe me

Tchay

[kasar]

half-size? ohh, this is gonna be nice

cant wait for the pics ^^

nice work man

[Tchay]

****Update****




IM STILL HERE....





-thts all for now-

[Tchay]

OKAY, I'm back! I successfully moved all my parts/workshop from Texas to California! Yeah, that shows the effectiveness of our airport security (well, I did have to check the gluegun and jewelers saw).

I can't upload pics tonight, but tomorrow I'll show you guys some snibbets. No this project isn't dead; it was in a coma for a few months but is now waking up.

New supplies: (I got some of these during the summer)
portable TV - $5
2 clamps - $10
Another gamecube w/ 2 controllers - $30
Jewelers saw w/ blade - $15
more blades - $10
***new work desk - $30
wire cutters & multimeter that I "borrowed" from my old school - priceless

[Tchay]

Today I completed all of Section one of my Mobo Relocation Mod. 10 wires total (1/5 mm thick). Took me 3 hours to set up and do. I'll post pics...eventually.

Also, I am shooting for a portrait GC portable. I was "shaping" it all out today to get a feel for the size. I'm still not satisfied with the thickness so I may have to do some more surgery.

As you all know, there is a fake image of a portable gamecube (google it) that looks beautiful...but its fake. But that sort of "gameboy SP" look is what I'm going for on this portable project. Plus, I have not seen a single portable GC made that way yet, or really any hack handhelds for that matter.

Oh, and I would like to delete some of my older posts, since they are rather useless, how can I do that?

EDIT: Done with Section 1 and 2, should be done with 3 pretty soon here. Btw, I am starting to like the smell of solder....I may have issues. Oh and I am going to try out another crazy idea; I call it Bending the Motherboard - because thats all there is to it. I'll let you know if it works.

[Tchay]

I want to delete some older posts, can I get permission to do that?

[snowpenguin]

Don't think so. That's the mods' job I believe.

[Tchay]

Don't think so. That's the mods' job I believe.

Bummer, ah whatever.

Okay everyone, so I am done with all 3 sections! I am now ready to attach the wires to the other chunk of the GC motherboard that I cut off (see previous posts if you are confused). If this works, then I will consider myself the greatest hacker on BenHeck. com...which is why it probably won't work.

More good news, I found several different sized plastic cogs that will be useful slimming the GC disc drive. Yes, that's right folks, I'm slimming everything on this baby.

No pics yet cuz I'm too lazy to get the camera, probably pics tomorrow.

[Squidlekins]

News:
I've decided to not use my 2.5" PS2 game screen (I'm just too noob to figure it out) so I'm going to have to get a small PS1 screen and then follow some tutorials.

are you talking about the screens attached to the gamepads? If so they are really easy to use I was given this link to a pinout for them. http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1446" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Try that. Even though 2.5" for a gamecube may not be that great, although they work fine for NOAC and SNES

[Tchay]

News:
I've decided to not use my 2.5" PS2 game screen (I'm just too noob to figure it out) so I'm going to have to get a small PS1 screen and then follow some tutorials.

are you talking about the screens attached to the gamepads? If so they are really easy to use I was given this link to a pinout for them. http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1446" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Try that. Even though 2.5" for a gamecube may not be that great, although they work fine for NOAC and SNES

this is what I have
http://www.amazon.com/Playstation-2-Con ... 516&sr=8-6" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Its a PS2 Game Screen (intec). I checked that topic, but it has a lot of wires mentioned and I am not sure if it applies to my screen (which has 6 wires - red,black,white,aqua, light blue, and purple)

Edit: I am going to buy a dashboard screen for like 30 bucks! It looks amazing and I don't really care about sound, hell its my first portable.

[Tchay]

EDIT!!! - This method below IS TERRIBLE AND DOESN'T WORK. Hehe I was a noob at the time, can ya blame me? but I am now a gamecube master and have devised a new method that is sure to work!

I am nearly finished with all the tiny wires and am about ready to attach them to the other piece of the mobo. Below you will see my current design for the portait "gameboy SP" style setup. The DD is no longer an issue. This design will heavily depend on my ability to trim ALL the circuit boards, and have a heat sink so thin that its barely even there. All subject to change of course.

Here you can see sections 1,2, and 3 (My camera sucks at zooming in btw)


This will be the bottom half of the "SP" style portable. I am going to reattach both joy sticks and sink them down so the screen can close over top easier. I am also going to try to squeeze the DD circuit board in between the DD and the controller board (very tight squeeze). And that is a lovely "Phoenix" deodorant btw. I've always gotten positive feedback although Guess Swede Cologne will always trump it.

Another view of the trimmed Mobo. The soldering was a NIGHTMARE...at first. But then I got down a routine for putting solder on the tips of each of the 1/5mm thick copper wires. I even did all this with a crappy $10 soldering iron; although, I will say I had to use a magnifying glass to see what I was doing I will probably do this on another mobo in the future.


Here is the bottom view. I gave room for the laser to move freely. Keep in mind that this IS NOT a landscape. I will be cutting the excess you see below the DD. Its times like these when I wish I had a vacuum case maker (whatever-the-hell-you-call-it)


Proof of concept for a portrait design (like a gameboy advance SP). I was going to use this for a frankencase but it looks very ugly so I am making one from scratch.


Here are both parts of the mobo. Keep in mind, I've already done the impossible part. Now I just need to reattach the traces (NOT as bad as it sounds) - actually its as bad as it sounds



I try to keep my images small, but this needs to be bigger to see what the heck I actually did. You can't see a lot of the wires cuz there so thin, but you can see the solder dots.


NOT as bad as it looks, although I pat myself on the back for this. I may have to take another break (3 weeks at MOST) because of money issues, school, SAT subject tests, blah blah blah you Guys dont care

Peace out Napoleon

[zenloc]

Looks promising Altough I have to warn you before you put in all that work. I have trimmend down many gamecubes that all failed to work if I cut of too much. The gamecube is a multilayer(4) board so that doesn't mean all the traces are visible. I hope in your case that it'll work because IF it does that'l be one hell of a size reduction!

[Tchay]

Looks promising Altough I have to warn you before you put in all that work. I have trimmend down many gamecubes that all failed to work if I cut of too much. The gamecube is a multilayer(4) board so that doesn't mean all the traces are visible. I hope in your case that it'll work because IF it does that'l be one hell of a size reduction!

Are you 100% sure about that? Because it was my understanding that it had ground in the center? And also, I've looked at every single trace I broke with a magnifying glass and they all go somewhere...

EDIT: I am pretty sure you are mistaken Zenloc. Techknott said "You can cut off whatever you fancy. They ARE multilayered boards(4 layers), but the inner layers are only for GND." back in his old work log.

For any noobs reading this, listen to what Zenloc is saying the GC motherboard has hidden traces. That is a fact. I am currently working on discovering these traces, but until I do, avoid cutting off too much near the AV out side of the board. - posted 2/1/2010

Zenloc and I have found the hidden traces in one of the inner layers of the motherboard. Zenloc has posted it in his "Gamecube layer Info" thread.

[zenloc]

Well I also did a cut like the one your doing but on the av port side. I rewired everything but the audio never worked anymore. Could be ground is going somewhere and now it isn't... there is no way to see it. when you cut of that side you might have the same effect.

I can not tell you 100% certain if the multilayer is only ground. But if you look at the voltage input the 12v line has no trace going anywhere. Meaning it is in the other layer. But like I said don't know if it applies for anything else. I'm also talking about a pal board ntsc might be differen but I doubt it.

And no offense to Techknott but he never got a working version so I'm not to sure about his worklog info.

[argelfraster]

Bare wire is not a great idea when the wires are so close together.
They might touch and.....