Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

[megalomaniac]

look what else arrived
ignore any fingerprints and dust...








edit: i just noticed, i plugged in the drive connector shown in the bottom left, you can clearly see the pin contact it make with the DVD connector....all contacts fit perfectly center onto the pads

[MetroidPrime]

That's well done. Fantastic!

[werejag]

looks nice. cant wait to see these in action

[Jexion]

one word... stunning

[liquitt]

[megalomaniac]

i didnt take the time to clean up the board, i wanted to hurry up and solder it in and test it out...
works perfect...


as seen, all i currently have is 1 wire for the pin29 switch, and i quickly jumpered the lid switch together...
installation is fairly straight forward...i would recommend starting from the top where the ffc connector is and work your way back...
quick tip, you really only need one 5v and one GND soldered... i chose to solder them all in but its not a requirement...

if anyone feels like trying: it might not be a requirement to desolder the dvd port...instead, maybe cutting the dvd port and pushing the board thru the existing pins might work much faster...(assuming they are still inline??)

either way, i recommend reusing the original pins so dont destroy em too much...



a tutorial will come out later...
i have a lot of soldering to do...

[emu_kidid]

very nice. but you melted some of the controller port

[megalomaniac]

um...thats the exi port...
and it was melted during the wireporn testing fiasco

[MarSAttK]

I admire your work megalomaniac!
Those boards look awesome.

[liquitt]

nice! really like it, but i guess you got that by now hah

[MetroidPrime]

Brilliant design

[Hucklebuck]

Hey megalomaniac is it too late to get one of these adapters? Those look professional! Perfect!! If it's not too late I would like one.

[Diminuendo]

I like, random interest though, would a FCC connector that sits flat against the board (pointing outwards) be used instead of the one use used?

[megalomaniac]

I like, random interest though, would a FCC connector that sits flat against the board (pointing outwards) be used instead of the one use used?

good question...actually, a flat ffc connector was the original design idea...
after the board was designed i printed it to a sheet of paper just to check fitment and sizing...
just a small part of the connector would be right under the heatsink...which means (pointing out) the cable would also be under the heatsink then have to wrap/fold back out from under the heatsink (directly touching the heatsink)...and the cable could not be directed thru to the other end of the heatsink as it would interfere in cooling the sysram...

i was thinking maybe this idea could work out by folding the cable back out from under the heatsink but then after thinking about it more i was a bit concerned...
heatsink = heat...
plastic connectors = potential melt...

i didnt want to take that risk in the long run and have connectors melting away and GC owners looking for to seek vengeance...



the next idea was to try to have the connector pointing in...
given the small amount of board space, it was almost impossible to create the necessary circuit paths to "reverse" the pin contacts to make proper cable connection...
...i said "was almost impossible"...i was able to design a board but was not an ideal design and the connector would be located under the heatsink even more than the original..and with the cable now pointing in, it would interfere with the dvd drive insert board...


ultimately, the only solution was to use a vertical ffc connector to eliminate these problems...


the current pin pattern of the board will not allow for a horizontal connector in replacement of the vertical connector...but i think i know why you ask...and ive thought about that too....measuring from the bottom of the board to the top of the connector, its only a 5.5mm total height...it should still fit with no issues and would still be a lot easier, and less time consuming in the long run...heh, and a lot less headaches...

[Diminuendo]

too bad, although, maybe with a strip of kapton tape as a mask it could still work? or to trim that section of the heatsink with a CNC machine?

[megalomaniac]

trim the heatsink, um....maybe if it only required cutting some fins, yes
but in this case, to clear a flat connector you would need to cut part of the base of the heatsink...
that just sounds too much like an unnecessary risk...

tape, maybe could work...but tape is kinda a poor work around for what is suppose to be a permanent solution...



either way, a flat connector wont fit on these boards because of differences in connector pin footprint...
you would need a different board designed for a flat connector...something like this: viewtopic.php?p=14594#p14594



edit: the flat board measures 3.5mm height compared to the current design of 5.5mm
is 2mm really gonna make that much of a difference??

[Diminuendo]

want to use it for a portable, and the wiikey will be mounting taped to the back of the GC board, I have a battery over the top of that area so I would not rather the ribbon cable not be leading straight into it. having it pointing out twoards the controller ports so it can be folded around the bottom of the board is perfect. grinding a couple of mms of the bottom of the heatsink is a very low cost to achieve what I want.

that prototype in the picture you just linked to, is it for sale? exactly what I want. (minus the high connectors for the lid switch, but that is easily fixed)

[megalomaniac]

I won't sell that prototype, it's been beat up pretty good and not really ideal for use anymore...
I don't really have any time to make another prototype at the moment as I am currently all tied up with assembly of all my current projects.


If your willing to wait for at least a month maybe I can try to make a few after I'm done..

[Diminuendo]

if you have to make it from scratch anyway how much would making a single board, or a small run cost professionally? I might be able to fund that instad if it's within my budget

[megalomaniac]

cost of a single board or small run all depends on specifications, options and manufacturer set limitations (or cost to upgrade the limitations)...also, just to make a single design requires at least a minimum order of 5 boards...


some places will charge about 30$ - 45$ for a single design prototype board...with a minimum of about 5 orders...
so your already looking at about 150$ - 225$ for about 5 boards...then add in any drilling/tooling charges...and a service charge...and then prices may vary based on turn-around time...then add delivery charge...
Prototype might not have soldermask, or limited to X amount of drill holes within given area, or minimum trace width/spacing...

so a rough cost estimate, maybe 200$ - 300$ for only 5 boards...



Kinda a kick in the nuts huh??

[Diminuendo]

yeh, I was thinking it might be like, $80, lol

[megalomaniac]

i wanted to take a bit of a break from soldering...
didnt realize it would actually take a lot of time to put all these boards together...


during this mini-break time, i decided to go back and revisit the crash issues i was previously having with cleanrip dumping and wode as i previously mentioned here viewtopic.php?p=14856#p14856

there does not seem to be any issues afterall....
cleanrip was completed flawlessly with matching md5sum...
multiple rips were performed with no duplication of the crashes observed during the development testing of these boards...
since everything is now working and no further troubleshooting required to determine the cause of those crashes, i would have to assume the issue may have been due to my wireporn becoming very unstable towards the end of development testing...



Status update:
wode with dvd drive and cleanrip verified fully functional

[MetroidPrime]

Good News

[kel01]

Very interesting... I wonder, if the problem with cleanrip is now gone then is there a chance that the problem with the WODEs internal ripping feature may be gone also? I can't check this myself as it seems that my wireporn suffers the same problem that yours did and neither cleanrip or the internal ripping feature work for me.

[Diminuendo]

disregard, wrong thread, sorry

man I'm such a noob