The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

[lyberty5]

Hey everyone, first worklog here, one of my first posts also, hope this will be interesting enough for you

I am currently in the process of making an actual portable (batteries in) and not an handheld like I have before.
The casing should be zelda themed, should house a 3.5 in screen and a wiikey fusion if all goes as planned..

Progress so far :

Wired the regulators, after having the caps of one blow up in my face (now working just fine, thankfully I have spares)

Squeleton of the portable : (note that I use a pth8t241 and note a ptr08100)

Mobo brought back from the dead :

Cut :

And still working !


That's all for now, I also cut the heatsink, However I have a problem, I lost part of my thermal paste that originaly was on the cube, however I do not have a viable solution to this problem other than buying an entire cube, which would suck, especially since I managed to save a mobo, and therefore not buy one...
Anybody has a more clever solution to offer ?

[emu_kidid]

That's some nice mainboard cutting - I'm sure this one will be another amazing portable GC too

[megalomaniac]

what board version is that??

[Joeyjoe9876]

rev A/B
PAL board?

[megalomaniac]

hmmm...
it does appear to be a PAL board because of the little resistor bank on the topside of the board right behind the digital port...

[emu_kidid]

PAL should be fine for the WKF

[Ashen]

Actually, with Swiss flashed to the WKF ALL boards are compatible.

Nice work so far liberty! What kind of case design are you going for? Can't wait to see more.

[lyberty5]

Yep, all boards I own are PAL, it rarely is a good thing (especially with 50-60Hz stories) but in this case, I don't have to worry about my IPL ^^
I just recently cut the heatsink, here it is presented with the tools I used, if anyone is interested, I cut with a huge saw which's name I don't know in english, then dremmel with in order : Cutting wheel (consumed about 4 of those), sanding drum, then small grit sander, then the polishing tool of the dremmel.
It looks iregularly cut but good enough for me, however I'm affraid I cut too much, tell me what you think (everything is under 1cm, feets of the heatsink counted in)

PICS :





As for the case, ashen, I was thinking of something similar to my previous cube, much slimmer, but with a few surprises I'm not sure about yet. I definitly will try to do something special with the paint.
Here's a mockup of the case, on top of my old mold :

[lyberty5]

quick update you might like :
tryied to make it look stock, but much thinner :



And I cut that mold also :

[lyberty5]

Alright, so a little casing update :

I got around my vaccum issue so, we have a shell :

FRONT :

& Back :


Then, superglue + epoxy + Bondo :

FRONT :


& Back (had to increase thickness there) :


And finally, I cut these, as vent holes, took more than an hour, but it was worth it, still have to poke it a little to get rid of imperfections, but you get the idea right ?


Close up : (so you can see imperfections)

[_Nold_]

Nice Stuff! Keep it up!

[Ashen]

OMG... Dat fan grill. So, so sexy beyond words.

[emu_kidid]

very nice

do you guys put a primer over the freshly sanded case or just straight to paint?

[megalomaniac]

nice idea for the vents...
i really like it

[liquitt]

dat grill!! so nice!

[lyberty5]

very nice

do you guys put a primer over the freshly sanded case or just straight to paint?

If the paint used requires it then yes, although, in my very small experience, those typeS of paint are not going to stick as much as montana or other, that do not require a primer. So in those cases, no primer
Although the first coats I do are usualy extra light, so I guess they act as a kind of primer, in addition to allow checking imperfections ^^

[lyberty5]

Update :

Shortening wires and adding screwposts :



Wired my wkf, on the first try, I'm pretty happy about that, since last time it took me about four tries scattered on about a month...
However, Weird ass wiikey problem : It works, but doesn't allow me to choose the game, it automatically starts with the firts on the list.. And one out of two times, the blue led stays on and there is a dd error.. Could it be because of :
-my unusually large (3x2x0.8 cm) SPDT switch
-my unusually long wire for pin 29 ?
Please help... Thanks



A bit more Casework :


And first coat ! How do you like that color?

[_Nold_]

However, Weird ass wiikey problem : It works, but doesn't allow me to choose the game, it automatically starts with the firts on the list.. And one out of two times, the blue led stays on and there is a dd error..

The Autoboot is normal for old Firmware Versions...
To the "can't select game" problem: I had the same Problem with my DOL-101 Board, it has something to do with the CPU-Revision as far as i remember, maybe Ashen knows a little more...
Also once I had a pretty log pin 29 wire, which made some problems, too...