gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

Well the topic asks it all. I am an avid hardware hacker and always loved mucking about with my game consoles. I have a few spare Cubes' I would like to dust off and play around with. My in-use GC Is pimped out with a ViperGC Extreme with USB expansion. I dont think my memory serves me correctly but shouldn't it be possible to hook the IDE-EXI into the "BBA" socket under the GC, much like the USB EXI interface the ViperGC offers? If it is just a matter of PCB design, or if someone can point me in the direction of needed details via schematic I can likely whip something up and even make some in-home prototypes to test out before any beta/final designs are contemplated for release. Mind you I will be doing my own PCB etching, not an out-sourced bulk order. But if they work I am always fond of open-source so the PCB files should also be made open to the public same as the IDE-EXI.

If this is possible it would be nice to have something like a GBA Player that mounts under the GC that can host a hard drive and the supporting hardware, both PSU for the drive, perhaps fan for minor cooling, and the IDE-EXI

FoxxOTG, it's 100% possible and that's in fact how the original design worked. Lookup the GC Serial Port 1 vs Memory card port pinout, it's identical apart from serial port 1 offering 12v too (quite handy for a IDE HDD )

hardware wise you'd be fine, I'd just need to add support (very easy) to Swiss to read from the device in that slot.

...i have a feeling thats it good to have you here on these forums

Thanks liquitt. Its a bit of a surprise to me, I have helped Emu_ back in the day beta testing some of his work. Its nice to see familiar names I have fond memories of. Love working with stuff like this. I admit I lack in the coding department but I make up for it with hardware ability. Life is hectic right now but I have something new to get some seed money for. Making a BBA style IDE-EXI and maybe even one for the never-used port under the cube. A few people on IRC expressed an interest in that, I hope to iron out some time and expenses to get that started. I likely wont post to the forums much unless I have something positive to report though.

FoxxOTG wrote:Thanks liquitt. Its a bit of a surprise to me, I have helped Emu_ back in the day beta testing some of his work. Its nice to see familiar names I have fond memories of. Love working with stuff like this. I admit I lack in the coding department but I make up for it with hardware ability. Life is hectic right now but I have something new to get some seed money for. Making a BBA style IDE-EXI and maybe even one for the never-used port under the cube. A few people on IRC expressed an interest in that, I hope to iron out some time and expenses to get that started. I likely wont post to the forums much unless I have something positive to report though.

the unused port... yeah, why don't you try to use the serial port 2? I told that to emu_kidid once, but I lack the necessary skills to implement it myself.
I think it would be neat to finally use that port

If i look on the YET ANOTHER GAMECUBE DOCUMENTATION the Serial Port 2 wouldn´t be possible to use for EXI

http://hitmen.c02.at/files/yagcd/yagcd/ ... ml#sec10.1

If your project is getting more serious i could offer you my help..
I just got little knowledge in (low level) Coding and PCB design, but i'm willing to lern and am pretty good at soldering ^^
(I guess that's the only thing i'm at least a little good in :/ )

I love this IDE-EXI stuff, would love to build one but just to build a single one is not worth the work.. Would be cool if we could build a complete new (professional) batch of IDE-EXIs.. I got a lot of soldering paste lying around so i could solder a lot of them together really cheap..

sumas, well yagcd has not been updated for ~6 years, so there might be some bugs, but you can see here it is an EXI port.
So it could be used with usbgecko, memcard, sd, ide-exi, bba, vua and some other SPI-compatible hardware (given that we have/create a compatible software)

Yes it can definitely be used. If you guys go the professional way, make it support SATA and DMA

emu_kidid wrote:Yes it can definitely be used. If you guys go the professional way, make it support SATA and DMA

oh yes please!

sata ssd

It's not SATA I'm worried about. DMA has been a pain in the *ss for a while now..

DMA has been fixed by isobel: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/EXI:IDEHostAdapter

Once I have the new version I can make Swiss work with NO stutter

emu_kidid wrote:DMA has been fixed by isobel: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/EXI:IDEHostAdapter

Once I have the new version I can make Swiss work with NO stutter

Great news!! This will improve just about everything IO-related.

That would be quite handy freeing up slots a+b
Maybe you could add support for sd via BBA port whie your're at it?
If its just as simple as the exi wiring then I'll make an SD-BBA adapter and test it

he, I just programmed my bluechip v9 with the jed file. thanks to liquitt again for the bluechip , now I wanted to ask befor I connect it to my memory card slot if there will ever be a chance that swiss will work with the ide/exi installed to the BBA slot?

yamaharacer wrote:he, I just programmed my bluechip v9 with the jed file. thanks to liquitt again for the bluechip , now I wanted to ask befor I connect it to my memory card slot if there will ever be a chance that swiss will work with the ide/exi installed to the BBA slot?

you're welcome, good luck with your project!

@yamaharacer: you need a special build of swiss for that (different hdd patch code, with other selected device)

yeah I know and cause of this I am asking if there will ever be a version of swiss for using ide/exi out of the bba slot.

hmm I have an idea..
I can make use of the old modem adapter, take it apart and use it as my IDE-EXI plug, and rewire my Memorycard IDE-EXI adapter to the old modem pins.

Might be the best possible use for the old GC modem adapters?

Great idea Jaecus

Yeah I can add in support for that port if anyone out there has one ready to test.

a SATA -> IDE adapter builtin would be cool so you could use the space that was made for the RJ11 plug as a SATA Plug and don't have to have the ugly IDE plug on the bottom

liquitt wrote:a SATA -> IDE adapter builtin would be cool so you could use the space that was made for the RJ11 plug as a SATA Plug and don't have to have the ugly IDE plug on the bottom

Yeahr, that would be really awesome
I will build my one in normal MC-format.. at least i hope i can get all the wires inside of that MC-Case >.<

But a modem-adapter-case would be just perfect!

emu_kidid wrote:Great idea Jaecus

Yeah I can add in support for that port if anyone out there has one ready to test.

I will take the iron to my modem adapter as soon as I have some time at home, Ill be sure to post with pics when its wired.
just had a quick look at the pinout. Shame it doesn't also include a 5v pin, I guess i'll just have pass a wire through a gap in the case for my 5v line.

emu_kidid wrote:DMA has been fixed by isobel: http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/EXI:IDEHostAdapter

Once I have the new version I can make Swiss work with NO stutter

will there be a new xilinx firmware file released so I can re-flash my ide-exi with DMA support? or is this unrelated /unnecessary..

liquitt wrote:a SATA -> IDE adapter builtin would be cool so you could use the space that was made for the RJ11 plug as a SATA Plug and don't have to have the ugly IDE plug on the bottom

that would be ideal, however I made my own IDE-EXI and its in an external case.. I daren't tare it apart too much, i'll just perform minimal mod just to try it for now..

Yes there is a new xilinx file I'll have to release when things get tested and are supported in Swiss.

Does the modem adapter not use the 5v/12v lines? would've been so ideal if it used them