First Gamecube Portable - The PortaCube [Done!]

[emu_kidid]

if only I could putty that well!

[_Nold_]

if only I could putty that well!

You will sand it anyway ^^ and i did this for the first time

It's really not hard to do ^^

[megalomaniac]

since the wiikey has not not arrived you can always use the time to work on the case...
i spent many days/hours of sanding, priming, and fine sanding while modding my full size case

and i still have not been able to finished it yet...

[_Nold_]

i spent many days/hours of sanding, priming, and fine sanding while modding my full size case

Yea, i just did some fast sanding, that will really take some more time ^^

And the edges between the Analog-Stick/D-Pad and the Buttons and the C-Stick are really hard stuff :/
i guess i need to fill them again >.<

[_Nold_]

yesterday my wiikey arrived and i wanted to put it in and give it a try.. I soldered it in as i remembered that my controller is still in pieces -.-

So i guess i really need to finish the case before working on the hardware again -.-'

[infact]

or use an external controller i had the problem too, and just plugged in the front board again

[_Nold_]

or use an external controller i had the problem too, and just plugged in the front board again

Yea, but i didn't want to solder on my "brand new" frontboard

[infact]

okay, but i said plugged (no soldering involved )
but i guess you removed the small black connector from your mainboard...

pics

[_Nold_]

.. I guess my project died today... i wired everything up to test the wiikey... Power on - Nothing happend..

then i saw just a little bit of smoke comming out of one part... (see pic, it's this blue DR7 thing in the middle)
It's just glimmering for a half-second and that's it... no idea what this part is.. resistor?
It's connected to 12V on both sides... i removed everything except the FFC Cable from the wiikey..

I trimmed the psu just a little bit, like this: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=130
But i only removed the 2 coils that would normally be on that picture.

I guess i just killed it..

[Ashen]

Bummer, I hope nothing bad happened to your Wiikey in the process. One thing I've learned is to test the motherboard after every step. Never test multiple modifications at once as its so much harder to pinpoint where you've gone wrong if something bad like this does happen.

New board and try again I hope? Don't give up!

[_Nold_]

Yea.. i normally would do it like you said, too... hm new board.. If i find one.. in the meantime i will work on the case. there is just too much money in this project to give up.. i just have no idea why this f***ing board is broken now.. I'm really disapointed of myself :/

Send from my Android Phone xD

[Ashen]

It happens man, don't let it get ya down.

If you keep an eye on ebay, you can find lots of "broken" gamecubes for super cheap. I got a lot of 6 cubes recently for $9 + $19.99 shipping. Most of these "broken" cubes just have sticky power buttons or are scuffed up or get disc read errors becuase the DVD drives are failing. Still totally useable for our intents and purposes.

[Ploggy]

Shame, luckily GC's are pretty cheap now. Don't know if you have a shop called Cash Generator where you are but by me they sell GC's for around £10 (some even less + they are all fully working too)

[infact]

unfortunately, most of the time they are expensive here on ebay germany.

EDIT: btw. this thingie should be a resistor, as you said.

[_Nold_]

Got a new one xD 6€ with broken dvd drive


I'm back in the race! XD

[liquitt]

next time a board dies, i might have another one for you
i'll exchange for other parts

cheers on the project and keep going!

[_Nold_]

Thanks mate!

Yea, then i would have 2 cubes in pieces, so there should be something interesting for ya ^^

[liquitt]

yeah i always need that plastic bullshit, i'm messing around with a dremel lately

[inukaze]

Someone have a full tutorial or walktrought to made this modification by my hand ??? i really wanna try it

[emu_kidid]

Have a read around, google is VERY helpful.

[_Nold_]

Just a quick status update
Still waiting for my new cube to arrive.. At the weekend i did a little bit more sanding and filling.
The Car-Putty is really nice to get everything in shape, but it's pretty rough. So i applied some of the model-filler after 2 sanded layers of car putty.
The filler is not as easy to use as the car putty but gives a much better surface after sanding

After sanding it again i applied just a little bit more so some spots that were still uneven. Now i hope that i only need to sand it one more time before it's ready to get painted.. at least after i cut the holes for the SD-Slots, Powersupply, Headphones, Shoulder-buttons,.... ^^

[Ashen]

Nice! Throw a coat of primer on before you coat with paint, its amazing the imperfections a coat of primer will show. Then you can easily hit any problem areas before you put on final coats of paint.

[_Nold_]

Hey, good news: New Cube arrived and works fine
It's a DOL-101, too.. That's fine but i was hoping for a 001.. but it dosn't really matter ^^

I hope i'll find some time at the weekend to trim it down.. but this time i will not trim as much as last time, because i now know how small it has to become ^^

[_Nold_]

Sooo..

Trimmed down new DOL-101 board.. And it works
I didn't trim that much this time, because i now know how big the case is i'm using..

/EDit:

Just installed WKF.. it's getting recognised, blinks blue if i press the pin 29 button but nothing happens :/
Gamecube dosn't show any game... i formated the SD with WBFS and did only put on the Ver. 1.5 Update on it :/
Guess i need to check my wireing/adapter -.-' ..

"Disc could not be read" ... yea.. guess need to check wireing -.-''''


//Edit 2:
Problem found! One pin was connected to gnd -.-
Now it's directly booting into the wkf-menu, but then seems to freeze.. can't start the update or move the arrow :/

//Edit 3:
i booted the wkf-recovery and noticed that it dosn't freeze.. it just dosn't like my gamepad xD
Don't know why.. it works fine in the gc-bios


...... F*** it.. just read that this is an compatibility issue... (my?) DOL-CPU-20 is not working with WKF....
This is really starting to become a mess.. guess i need yet another mainboard.....

Source: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=120

[emu_kidid]

Or.. you can be the first to test Swiss as the wkf flash..give me a few days to prepare