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

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:27 pm

Awesome news! I might be getting a job so I can totally afford to buy this when it comes out...do you really know how much money you'll be making when you buy all of this in bulk...I'm scared at the thought....0_0

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:39 pm

Not as much as you'd think. I won't be able to buy in EXTREME bulk... I can't imagine there being more than a few people at a time that want one of these, and bulk prices on, for example, the FX2, are only a few bucks cheaper if I buy 25 at a time!

We'll see... I'll work harder on cost projections when the time comes, but again, the prototype comes before anything else. I don't even know if I'll be able to build this thing for sure!

MrTroy · Post by **MrTroy** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 8:31 am

Electric Rain wrote:Not as much as you'd think. I won't be able to buy in EXTREME bulk... I can't imagine there being more than a few people at a time that want one of these, and bulk prices on, for example, the FX2, are only a few bucks cheaper if I buy 25 at a time!

We'll see... I'll work harder on cost projections when the time comes, but again, the prototype comes before anything else. I don't even know if I'll be able to build this thing for sure!

You'll easily be able to get an order of 25 though... In concept it works. So I don't see any real reason why this thing cannot be built. If I knew anything about making hardware I'd help you.

64M320N3 · Post by **64M320N3** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:27 pm

Aww, sweet!
That is perfectly awesome!
I'd be tottaly intrested!

That's cool thanks for all of your work on this.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:59 pm

W00t! Finally! The status is now, "Label Printed." If I understand correctly, this means that my boards have arrived to BatchPCB from Gold Phoenix, and BatchPCB should be shipping them out to me in a few hours!

I 'ought to have them in a few days.

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:42 pm

Electric Rain wrote:W00t! Finally! The status is now, "Label Printed." If I understand correctly, this means that my boards have arrived to BatchPCB from Gold Phoenix, and BatchPCB should be shipping them out to me in a few hours! I 'ought to have them in a few days.

How many boards did you order that it took so long..or does making PCBs just take awhile...

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:37 pm

Dark-Aries wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:W00t! Finally! The status is now, "Label Printed." If I understand correctly, this means that my boards have arrived to BatchPCB from Gold Phoenix, and BatchPCB should be shipping them out to me in a few hours! I 'ought to have them in a few days.
How many boards did you order that it took so long..or does making PCBs just take awhile...

I only ordered one! That's why it took so long!

It's the prototype... why would I order more than one prototype? Silly 'Aries.

And yeah, it takes a while when you go with the cheapest possible company, which in turn actually uses another company on the other side of the world to fab the boards.

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:54 pm

Electric Rain wrote:
Dark-Aries wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:W00t! Finally! The status is now, "Label Printed." If I understand correctly, this means that my boards have arrived to BatchPCB from Gold Phoenix, and BatchPCB should be shipping them out to me in a few hours! I 'ought to have them in a few days.
How many boards did you order that it took so long..or does making PCBs just take awhile...
I only ordered one! That's why it took so long! It's the prototype... why would I order more than one prototype? Silly 'Aries. And yeah, it takes a while when you go with the cheapest possible company, which in turn actually uses another company on the other side of the world to fab the boards.

I would of thought you would of ordered atleast 2....in case one doesn't work you have the other, or if it does work make another and test if it does infact work again

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:13 pm

Dark-Aries wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:
Dark-Aries wrote:
Electric Rain wrote:W00t! Finally! The status is now, "Label Printed." If I understand correctly, this means that my boards have arrived to BatchPCB from Gold Phoenix, and BatchPCB should be shipping them out to me in a few hours! I 'ought to have them in a few days.
How many boards did you order that it took so long..or does making PCBs just take awhile...
I only ordered one! That's why it took so long! It's the prototype... why would I order more than one prototype? Silly 'Aries. And yeah, it takes a while when you go with the cheapest possible company, which in turn actually uses another company on the other side of the world to fab the boards.
I would of thought you would of ordered atleast 2....in case one doesn't work you have the other, or if it does work make another and test if it does infact work again

...I'm really cheap.

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:04 pm

Alright, SS just PMed me about giving an update... I suppose I should.

I'm working on it right now, actually, so I'll be brief. I got the boards yesterday, I got everything soldered onto it with some effort, and my computer is in fact recognizing the FX2 properly. However, I'm getting the TDO Mismatch error GreenGiant was getting on page 10 of the Dextrose thread when using the USB JTAG programmer. I can't seem to work past it no matter what I do, so I don't know what to do from here. The PC Server program (that lets you stream ISOs to the 'cube rather than loading it from the hard drive) recognizes the FX2, which is good, but when I try to stream an ISO, it just says "waiting for input," which means input from the Gamecube... but I dont' know exactly what that means, either. If I put it in automatic mode, it just keeps "refreshing." I think it's polling the 'cube or something. I don't know how this is supposed to work, but the Gamecube shows no signs of recognizing the device whatsoever. It acts just like it does when the DD is disconnected completely. "Please insert a NINTENDO GAMECUBE DISC."

I didn't post because I knew nobody here would be able to help me, except maybe Marshal. I'm waiting for him to hopefully sign in AIM/MSN so I can ask him WTF to do now. If somebody has any insight, please, prove me wrong.

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:26 pm

Electric Rain wrote:Alright, SS just PMed me about giving an update... I suppose I should.

I'm working on it right now, actually, so I'll be brief. I got the boards yesterday, I got everything soldered onto it with some effort, and my computer is in fact recognizing the FX2 properly. However, I'm getting the TDO Mismatch error GreenGiant was getting on page 10 of the Dextrose thread when using the USB JTAG programmer. I can't seem to work past it no matter what I do, so I don't know what to do from here. The PC Server program (that lets you stream ISOs to the 'cube rather than loading it from the hard drive) recognizes the FX2, which is good, but when I try to stream an ISO, it just says "waiting for input," which means input from the Gamecube... but I dont' know exactly what that means, either. If I put it in automatic mode, it just keeps "refreshing." I think it's polling the 'cube or something. I don't know how this is supposed to work, but the Gamecube shows no signs of recognizing the device whatsoever. It acts just like it does when the DD is disconnected completely. "Please insert a NINTENDO GAMECUBE DISC."

I didn't post because I knew nobody here would be able to help me, except maybe Marshal. I'm waiting for him to hopefully sign in AIM/MSN so I can ask him WTF to do now. If somebody has any insight, please, prove me wrong.

It's atleast good to heat that...maybe the GCN doesn't read it becasue it isn't flashed yet? I got lost on how this exactly works but....maybe that's why?

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:44 pm

I think I'm gonna build a cheaptag interface and try to program the PROM that way... wish me luck...

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:12 pm

Well, we know the circuit works, now just to solve the firmware/software problems.

Congradulations!

Oh, and I ask for updates because without them I consider the project dead. Which is bad.

I'm sure marshal's input will be good. Did the Green Giant ever find the solution?

Oh, and the best of luck!

SS

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 8:28 am

Okay so, Marshall is awesome, and he was able to compile a new XSVF file that worked properly with the USB JTAG program. The solution was pretty much exactly as GreenGiant said... I just didn't know how to do it.

Anyway, in a little over 4 hours, the FX2 fully programmed the PROM via USB; awesome. It got about 3/4 of the way the first time, then it froze for some reason.

But, it finished the second time I tried it.

That's out of the way now, but now I'm stuck again. I still can't get the USB stream server program to work, and I can't figure out how to load games onto the HDD. See, the loader program is supposed to be able to load games onto the HDD over USB, through the FX2. But, the program is designed to open drives like any other directory on your computer (like when you're downloading a file from the internet or opening a Word document... standard file browser type thing). It doesn't have any sort of special connection to the FX2. In theory, you can put a hard drive in your computer, assign it to say, drive letter Z, then open up the program, open drive Z, and load the games right on. I've actually tested this with an SD card in a USB card reader, but of course, that doesn't really do me any good. Then, you could take the drive out of your computer, attach it to the interface, and you're done. But... I'm using a laptop hard drive, and I have no way to attach that to any of my computers. If I can't figure out how to directly load games onto the HDD over the FX2, I may have to buy one of those 2.5" to 3.5" hard drive adapters off eBay. They're really cheap, so... Anyway, I think what I need to do is load firmware onto the FX2 that will make it act like a USB Mass Storage Device... then I should be able to open it up through destop's loader program.

I'll have to ask Marshall what he thinks I should do next when I get a hold of him again... In the mean time, does anyone else have any ideas?

R3ason · Post by **R3ason** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 11:59 am

Electric Rain wrote:Okay so, Marshall is awesome, and he was able to compile a new XSVF file that worked properly with the USB JTAG program. The solution was pretty much exactly as GreenGiant said... I just didn't know how to do it.

Anyway, in a little over 4 hours, the FX2 fully programmed the PROM via USB; awesome. It got about 3/4 of the way the first time, then it froze for some reason. But, it finished the second time I tried it.

Can anyone else taste victory? When do we get a video (or at least some pictures)?

Keep up the good work!