First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:03 pm

Hello all. I finally have some parts in and would like for the final out come of all this to result in a disc-less gamecube. I have a wasp fusion, a ffc36 and a gamecube with a purple start menu which to my understanding from reading through gc forever and other places should have the ipl I want. Here's a parts pic, I'll update later after I've done some work on it.

junits15 · Post by **junits15** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 11:54 pm

Good luck man! It took me three attempts to get it working

Take your time and keep the wires short!

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:37 am

anything shorter that about 180mm is good...
any problems will be soldering related, or lack of user experience of what to expect from how a WKF/WASP is suppose to work....not wire length...

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 4:57 am

megalomaniac wrote:anything shorter that about 180mm is good...

Thanks I made the wires 6 inches long so I can wrap the board around to the the other side. When I put these parts together I did not know of the megadrive :/ if this route proves to troublesome I'll be ordering a megadrive. Here's pics of the only progress I was able to make today.

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 6:25 am

Looking good so far.

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 3:21 pm

That might not work...or might have intermittent issues
6in wires + 3in adapter + 4in FFC cable = over 30cm

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 8:47 pm

megalomaniac wrote: 6in wires + 3in adapter + 4in FFC cable = over 30cm

Sometimes it's the simplest of things that get us lol. Your absolutely right. Luckily I've only soldered what I've shown in the pics. When I get home from work I'll take care of that and hopefully get the ffc all wired in.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:03 am

Quick update. I removed the disc drive connector and found it easier to solder the ffc in. I shortened the wires up quite a bit. Not the prettiest job but I believe it's done other than wiring up the two switches on pins 29 and 23, connecting power and ground. I need to read up on flashing swiss and using it as the initial startup(assuming that when I plug the wasp in everything works lol). More updates to come.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 8:06 pm

Hooked everything up and did a quick test. Appears to be working correctly

time to clean things up and make it all tidy. Next step is to flash swiss. Guess I'll try my hand at a portable cube next time around.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:38 am

Update. I knew this seemed too easy. I know am having intermittent issues. Everything was working fine, I updated the wasp to 1.5 no problem, then when trying to flash the wasp with swiss it went back to the gc menu. Now the wasp flashes the blue light intermittently at times and appears on the menu screen at random. If left alone for a bit it will boot up just fine and load swiss. My other issue is I changed the swissflasher gcm to an iso and when the wasp does load it it say "init wii fusion". I'm going to move the ffc and wasp to the top of the board and shorten wires even more. I'm not sure if it's getting to hot under the board for it :/

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:30 pm

intermittent issues can be related to just about anything...good luck troubleshooting...

"init wii fusion" is because you have a WBFS card in the fusion slot rather than FAT/FAT32.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:49 pm

I ran a few more tests. Seems when the system is cold the wasp works just fine. When the system gets up to operating temperature the wasp acts funny and gives me intermittent issues. Not sure if anyone has had issues with heat before but I'm definitely moving the ffc and wasp to the top side of the motherboard instead of sandwiched underneath.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 6:21 pm

And as far as the "init wii fusion" I format the same card I'm using for wbfs as fat 32 and still get the same message. I'll try a different sd card or use a format utility to properly format the cards.

HomelandReloaded · Post by **HomelandReloaded** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:08 pm

bizzyb wrote:Seems when the system is cold the wasp works just fine. When the system gets up to operating temperature the wasp acts funny and gives me intermittent issues. Not sure if anyone has had issues with heat before

Yes, the heatsink cooling depends on the "wind-tunnel" effect of being covered (speaking from experience). in the image you posted the heatsink is uncovered and it will eventually get too hot like that. You will get an message like "An error has occurred".

EDIT: According to a thread I came across recently on modbook, it is the temperature of the motherboard that is most critical.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:38 pm

I had the system all buttoned up last night but without the top inside plate and the issue began after some use. I haven't received any error messages just the wasp working intermittently and not loading anything do to that fact. I'm pretty sure my placement of everything was not ideal and heat is definitely an issue.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:02 pm

Reading is my friend

after reading through some more tutorials and such on here I'm going to use Ashens tutorial on wiring the ffc cable directly to the wasp and not using this breakout board. Secondly I'm using stranded ide cable and I should be using solid core wire :/ more updates to come.

HomelandReloaded · Post by **HomelandReloaded** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:28 pm

Nothing wrong with your cable length or breakout board if you look at my clumsy first attempt at soldering on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74&start=144

If you look further down that page you'll see a very neat example by harvey263.

From the image you just posted I'd say the wasp is almost certainly getting too hot. You need both the fan and an enclosed heatsink unless you are using a laptop fan right on top of the heatsink. If you re-use the same thermal conductive pads like I do, there is a possibility of an air gap between the pad and the chips due to the spacer feet on the heatsink.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 8:43 pm

HomelandReloaded wrote:Nothing wrong with your cable length or breakout board if you look at my clumsy first attempt at soldering on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74&start=144

If you look further down that page you'll see a very neat example by harvey263.

Originally that's what I was going to do with the wires but was worried about wire length. After seeing others with working units and longer wires it makes me wonder :/ I'm going to relocate the breakout board and wasp to the expansion slots like shown in an example from the link.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:39 am

I relocated the board and wasp the the expansion bays, still same issue. I put the top and bottom shields on and had it all closed up. Think I'm going with the experts here, ditching the board and keeping all wire length under 180mm using solid core wire. A pic of my switch setup lol, I think that's the problem as it's longer than 180mm by far. Some pics of the system playing twightlight princess, and the expansion bays. And a short video of the intermittent wasp. Also I'm drawing power from the port way back is there an alternate power point? http://youtu.be/XH_d-lltv8k

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:47 am

remove the switch and twist the two wires together to close the circuit...
that will eliminate a potential faulty switch...

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 5:21 am

megalomaniac wrote:remove the switch and twist the two wires together to close the circuit...
that will eliminate a potential faulty switch...

Removed the switch and twisted both wires together and still the same problem, played fine for about 5 minutes like all the other times then reverted to the intermittent state. I'm just going to re-wire the whole thing eliminating the board and using solid core wire. I'm determined to get this working correctly.

Plastic · Post by **Plastic** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 5:57 am

Hope you get it working and awesome to see someone near by on the board, I'm in Batavia.

Duhasst0 · Post by **Duhasst0** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 4:04 pm

If I were you I would grab a mega drive adapter from mega, the ffc board your using is shit. Especially since it's ffc connector is 36 pins and not 32. Soldering to the wasp directly can be a pain in the ass. Good luck

iamdablasta · Post by **iamdablasta** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 7:00 pm

Duhasst0 wrote:If I were you I would grab a mega drive adapter from mega, the ffc board your using is shit. Especially since it's ffc connector is 36 pins and not 32. Soldering to the wasp directly can be a pain in the ass. Good luck

i have a 64pin breakout, and it's not really an issue. i did triple check if ffc ribbon was not wrongly inserted of course.
Keep wires extra short and it will be working as long as you've checked board for deficiency beforehand.
I have maybe 12cm wire (this is including ribbon and ffc) and it's been no issue for me. Most important is the connections themselves.

bizzyb · Post by **bizzyb** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 12:17 am

I fixed the issue. Instead of rewiring everything(which I still might do to place everything better) I went to RadioShack and bought some normally closed switches. I cut 100mm of wire off the switch pins which shortened the wires drastically. Soldered the new switches on and everything has been working without a hitch. I played almost an hour of twightlight princess before the game crashed which could just be the image I'm using. Keeping the wires as short as possible is definitely key. I'll definitely be back and post a portable cube worklog soon. Everyone here has been extremely helpful and friendly

First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.

Re: First attempt at a disc-less gamecube.