gc-forever - Gamecube/Wii Forums

In the case of the sundriver, it actually replaces the whole Wii disc drive. As that goes I would imagine that it will draw equal or less power in the case of the SATA version on account of not having to power the drive motor or laser of the Wii disc drive. In the case of the compact flash version which I intend to use for my portable I'm sure it will draw far less amps seeing as how there will be no moving parts.

EDIT: ignore my question, silly me, shoulda read the first post more closely

Yeah I have heard great stuff about the sundriver.

And I am computer science major as well, (freshman year), so I hope to one day be able to make the crazy stuff that Emu_kidid has made

O.K.

I can't find anything useful on this power connector so once I have some time I shall break out my trusty multimeter and have at it. Looking at the traces on the boards where the flat cables connect to it would seem only a few pins are actually used. The rest being ground or not connected. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I have a few other things I need to accomplish before I go taking my Wii apart again though so it may be a few days till I get to it. Post when I have some info.

likewise, it looks like they might just grab 5v or 12v from there and perhaps one or two lines to indicate when a disc is "in" or not. I'll have to get the stupid wii pinout online tonight!

I finally got around to it!

Awesome! Thx Emu.

Currently I have 2 dead laptops here that I need to get fixed up before the holidays for a friend. Which works out because my son is currently jamming away at the new Donkey Kong on the Wii. Once done I'll pull my Wii out and get the power pinouts for us (also will give me a chance to remove an old D2lite I have in there). Coincidentally it should coincide with the arrival of my sundrivers. Cheers

Edit:
I see pin2 is not marked in your diagram. It is unused?

So yea, I lied. Had some free time when I got home tonight so here we have it.

Pin:
1: 12v
2: 12v
3: gnd
4: gnd
5: 5v
6: 5v
7: gnd
8: gnd
9: 3.4v
10: 3.4v
11: gnd
12: gnd

Now I need my sundrivers to get here. Happy days ahead! ;P

awesome, what about the other connector though?

Also, Regarding Pin2, I'm not 100% sure.

Edit: I'm a bit concerned, if this Sundriver uses that 12v I think we'll have to draw it from some place else. I'm going to try hooking one up tonight - I have another 2 on the way

This is great stuff guys. Would be very cool to have a disc driver with the gamecube.

Sidenote Ashen, I assume you have heard of Benheck.com and Modretro.com? Good sites for portablizing info.

Also, Ashen, you will actually want to use the DOL-001 if you want a small portable. It can be trimmed down much more than the DOL-101. And a modder named "Zenloc" has shown a way to build your own voltage regulator that is just as efficient, can take as low as 7.4v AND is extremely small in comparison to the original power board. Its literally just 2 PTH08080's and 1 PTR08100, and a few resistors and caps to add on. Very tiny.

@Emu. What other connector? There are only the 2 going from the dvd controller to mainboard in the Wii as far as I can see. The Sundriver has another ribbon cable connecting to it but I think that its for firmware updates? Not 100% sure but I think its unneeded for our application. We should be able to work with the info we have.

@Tchay. I have been following the antics of Ben heck for quite a while now. He built the 1st or 2nd VCSP in 1999-200ish? when I stumbled on his site. Guy is awesome and an inspiration to geeks everywhere. He actually has his own bi-weekly web TV show now at element14.com if you haven't seen it yet check it out. I have seen all the mod's you mention and have considered all of them but my main goal for the moment is to see if we can get this working then go from there. Remember if this works not only will it eliminate the dvd drive but also the controller board for the dvd drive also.

@Ashen:

You're totally right, that's what replying to things after 8hrs of coding does :p

I've finally put aside some time to get this done tonight. I've matched up what I think are all the connections... should be very interesting

(I'm going to grab 3.3v from the EXI and 12v straight from the start of the power line before it hits the mainboard since those aren't available on the GC dvd connector. This is assuming DISC_IN(Wii) is the same as DICOVER(GC).) I'll let you know in about 24hrs how it goes.

Awesome man! I'm still waiting on my sundrivers. Not sure when they will get here as divineo has no tracking on international air orders. Gonna start wiring up my cube tomorrow though so I can play with them when they get here. Ill post some progress pics as I go. Got my fingers crossed for this to work. Thx for all your help so far Emu. Happy turkey day to all

Edit: btw Emu if you need 12v 5v and 3.4v power this site has a nice diagram telling which pins on the regulator board will give it to you. http://kyorune.com/modding/article.php?id=84

did I understand this right? the sundrive may work inside the cube for dvd replacement? If yes will there be a tutorial how to get it work?

yes, there is a chance, that the sundriver MIGHT work in a gc. i guess one of the guys who are trying this can easily write a tutorial for this, since it's not that "much" work. it's just a pain in the ass to solder all that stuff :/

Little progress update with a pic:

Got power wired up and the screen wired temporarily with composite for testing. I just need to solder up a gamepad port quick for testing when I get my sundriver and I'll be all set. More to come soon hopefully

removed

Ashen, I'm not sure, I'm going to leave the MO pins disconnected in my first attempt. I'm also leaving wii pins 1-4 disconnected. I'm thinking MO/IN/OUT could be extra (12v) for the motor on the DVD Drive?

Also, do you have a pin orientation of the GC DVD connector? I seem to have misplaced mine.

I do. Post in a few, putting the kids to bed atm.

If you still have the black plastic thing attached to the mainboard just move the two top rows of pins next to each other and same for the bottom two rows. ex:

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31
----------------------------------------------------------
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32

Removed...

Emu, Here's to hoping you have not wired anything up yet...

In my infinite curiosity and boredom waiting for my sundrivers to get here I opened up my Wii again to do some testing. I found when doing so that the pinout you supplied is correct in its labeling order but reversed as to which pins are which

Pins 2,4,6 and 8 on the GC provide 5v Power.
Pins 10,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30 and 32 on the GC are Ground and can be bridged together.
Pins 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18 and 20 coming from the Wii (Sundriver) are ground and may be bridged together and connected to said GC ground above.
Pins 29-32 coming from the Wii (Sundriver) will not be connected (for now).
Pins 28(MONI) and 30(MONOUT) on GC are in actuality just ground (All "even" numbered pins on GC are either gnd or voltage. Pins 12(DICOVER) and 14(DIRSTB) confirmed to both output 3.3v from GC mainboard. All "odd" numbered pins seem to be inputs/outputs).

Testing of the pins on the Wii this is what I found: Pin22(DIRSTB) and Pin23(DISC_IN) Confirmed to output 3.3v (same as GC counterpart connections). Pin 32(SENSOR_PWR) and Pin 30(DOOR_SNSR) I have confirmed to output 3.3v constant from Wii Mainboard (I know we previously talked about leaving these disconnected, but I'm thinking now the sundriver will be looking for/need this voltage/signal?). Pin 31(formerly the unknown Pin2) is most definitely not a ground as I suspected. I got an output of 0v from this pin. I did not have anyone around to help me push the front panel buttons while I held my meter at the time but I believe now that this may be a reset signal when the front panel reset button is pressed. Pin 29(DISC_EJECT) also got 0v output, again I believe that when the front panel button is pressed it probably supplies a 3.3v signal to this pin.

For clarity this is Pin1 on the sundriver according to all previously stated here:



Thats it for now... back to waiting :/

I didn't have much time on the weekend unfortunately, but I will hopefully some time this week. I got as far as removing the connectors from the Sundriver and the GC and connecting a single wire. Sadly, when I lifted the connector some pads came off with it so I'm thinking to solder to the traces or to the CPLD directly.

Well, just glad I got to ya before we fried something. Along with my sundrivers I also ordered 2 Wii DVD flat ribbon cables and 2 power connector cables just for ease of testing. I'd hate to get all this crap soldered up to the actual pins and then find out I have to change a bunch of wires around for some reason ><

emu_kidid wrote:I didn't have much time on the weekend unfortunately, but I will hopefully some time this week. I got as far as removing the connectors from the Sundriver and the GC and connecting a single wire. Sadly, when I lifted the connector some pads came off with it so I'm thinking to solder to the traces or to the CPLD directly.

emu you might want to look into one of these http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/C ... 7103034656. I have one that was my dads he got when the company was still Ungar. They work wonders for de-soldering surface mount parts especially connectors also for replacing whole chips like the CPLD. I've also found it useful when you need to re-flow solder on boards to fix bad connections like the xbox360 or a laptop GPU that's a BGA chip. If you find the gun to be too expensive I've also found the cheap $20 embossing guns you find at the local craft store to work well also they just take a little longer. Just be sure to constantly move the heat around or you'll blister the board and possibly burn it.