Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:53 pm

Oh wow indeed, the board is barely thicker than the cable but the contacts are damn thick. O.O

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:09 pm

yup..suppose to nice and thick...
thickness + the gold plating will help dissipate heat during the soldering process allowing the board to survive a bit of abuse / rework...

soldering abuse and rework is something an FFC cable cannot handle

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Sat Apr 19, 2014 7:15 am

Yup, I learned that the hard way and destroyed a WKF at the same time by breaking some pins on the fpga. It is probably recoverable but not by me. That's what you get for using a 30W AC iron.

public-pervert · Post by **public-pervert** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:33 pm

Mega, you changed my mind in almost every point, nice words.
These PCBs are really not that thick

One last question (I think): Will you be implementing alternate solder points for the pins 27 and 28? Since the QSB will need to be cutted for OMGWTF boards..

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:26 pm

He said in the video you don't even need them.

public-pervert · Post by **public-pervert** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:55 pm

My fault! I have no audio on my pc, sorry. Thanks

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:20 am

V5 install

by far the easiest installation...
i spend about a good minute to make sure it was positioned correctly and to solder on the first point to hold the board in place...
after that it was like 1 or 2 minutes to solder the rest of the contacts...
...super simple...

word of advice: use caution on the pad closest to the FFC connector so you dont melt the connector or bridge the connection...just hold the iron away from the connector and everything will by fine...

YES, YOU MUST REMOVE THE DVD PORT CONNECTOR!!!

Code: Select all

if you try to install V5 with the DVD port connector still attached then you are an idiot and will run into problems because the board will be floating above the pins instead of laying flat on the mainboard making it harder to create good solder joints and run the risk of the pins slowly piercing the soldermask to GND which will short your GC making it catch on fire or explode...

...you have been warned

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:07 am

It's pretty cool too, I'm looking forward to v4 though.

YouTube · Post by **emu_kidid** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:30 pm

I'll make a thread about a GameCube I need to revive, it'll be perfect for a v5 if it can come back to life!

siphoned · Post by **siphoned** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 4:06 pm

Are the pads for the 'Lid' bridged together? (in the v5 install video)

and does that give function to the original lid switch on a cube?

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:02 pm

LID pads are bridged
and
P29 is soldered to GND

NOTE: this was only done for purposes of functionality testing to mimic the exact connectivity requirements for a NC switch...

iamdablasta · Post by **iamdablasta** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:11 pm

Oh my god I can LITERALLY wait patiently for this genius design.

Zer0-2k11 · Post by **Zer0-2k11** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:54 am

Awesome work mega.

Looking forward to the V3. Friend of mine wants me to set up a Wode+Wii DVD Drive home cube and this would make things hell of alot easier.

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:50 pm

V4 install

one hell of an install process...
very complex integration with satisfying ease of use results...

high res shots

v4-1.jpg: Step 1; (1.92 MiB) Not downloaded yet

v4-2.jpg: Step 2; (1.69 MiB) Not downloaded yet

v4-3.jpg: Step 3; (849.88 KiB) Not downloaded yet

v4-4.jpg: Step 4; (1.9 MiB) Not downloaded yet

v4-5.jpg: Step 5; (1.62 MiB) Not downloaded yet

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:16 pm

some quick technical notes about v4:

- Pot Adjustment
original laser resistance was read at ~275 ohm, this one was adjusted to ~100 ohm. Only reason to adjust was to ensure the buyer would not have to come back later and attempt to set the impedance for DVDr

- No Xeno required
Swiss will patch the DVD drive to read backups, so booting into swiss menu and then reading a DVD from within swiss will allow all DVDr backups to be playable with audio streaming functionality.

- no 3.3v regulator
since the DVD drive board has its own 3.3v regulation i have placed a pad ( seen in "step 2" ) which solders onto a capacitor on the drive board to provide 3v power to the WASP.

- 5v & GND passthru
the design does not cover the drive board pads for 5v or GND. This allows POWER and GND to pass thru from the mainboard to the drive board on the connector as originally designed by Nintendo. This also allows for a more solid connection of the drive connector.

- FFC blue backing
The flex design does not come from the factory with the FFC cable type blue backing. I removed these tabs from an actual FFC cable and applied onto my design with superglue.

- Design untested before production
HA...thats right..
I designed this version and send it off for production not knowing (and hoping) everything was designed properly. Until this first installation, i had no idea if the design was accurate or if everything was spaced and aligned properly or is the drive connector would attach back onto the drive board as i "visioned"

- inverted surface mounting
WTF is inverted surface mounting? ( Step 3)
I searched the web for days to see if anyone had done anything like this before in hopes of finding some design notes or tech documentation. I could not find anything. I had no idea if this type of soldering would even work as ive never done or seen anything like it before. I wonder if the soldering industry would consider naming this soldering method "MEGA mount"

- Very complex design
I had to go back several times and look at my original design schematics to remember how i was suppose to put this together. This sucker is so complicated i cannot imagine anyone trying to install one.

- not tested for WKF
since WASP has a smaller footprint it actually fits better into the target area. i tried to get a WKF to fit in to the same area and it did not seem to sit well..so this is WASP only

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 1:40 am

V3 install

simple
so damn simple...

its a complete plug n play solution to replace using a DVD drive..
connect pin29 switch and lid switch or just jumper the pads together and plug it into the GC...
it cant get any easier than this...

deckard · Post by **deckard** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:17 am

Fantastic stuff man, keep up the good work

badsector · Post by **badsector** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:05 am

I don't even know, how to solder this (V4). At least until now

Will have to try it, because I need DVD support for most of my projects ^^

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:22 am

V4 will be sold as a complete plug n play DVD drive because its just so damn difficult to assemble....

iamdablasta · Post by **iamdablasta** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 7:59 am

Out of curiosity, how do you handle shipping to EU?
I am always concerned about international pricing due to our insane taxes.

brooksyx · Post by **brooksyx** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:06 am

megalomaniac wrote:V4 will be sold as a complete plug n play DVD drive because its just so damn difficult to assemble....

Any idea what the general price will be? Any trade in program where we can send in our current dvd drive? (I imagine you will need dvd drives)

YouTube · Post by **emu_kidid** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:50 am

he won't need DVD drives any time soon...

badsector · Post by **badsector** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 8:56 am

In this case, I would totally take some more

tesla246 · Post by **tesla246** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:19 pm

You, sir, are amazing. I dont post much on these forums, but read everythin, but this time I have to chime in and say that megalomaniac is an amazing contributor to these forums.

That being said, any indication when these go on sale and shipping costs to europe etc?
V3 looks amazing for someone who still hasnt installed his WKF because of soldering skille...or lack thereoff

novenary · Post by **novenary** » Mon Apr 28, 2014 5:29 pm

Well seeing how it's installed, v4 looks like it's gonna be expensive.

I hope v1 will still be available as a budget solution for those who want to keep their drive and have more or less decent soldering skills like me.

Also same as the others for shipping to EU.

Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Which connector strategy is preferred?

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