Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

[megalomaniac]

manufacturer defect

as i was in process of building a few more V4's i noticed the rest of my available flex PCBs had a critical flaw from the manufacturer.
All other v4 PCBs which have already been shipped out (or awaiting shipment) were fully functional and did not contain this flaw.

I found a total of 3 in this condition....the last 3.


I will make a few design changes to add additional space width between traces and thicker traces to compensate for the manufacturer's shortcomings. These design enhancements will delay present and future (if future) orders of v4. I have not yet decided if i will continue the v4 product line due to the length of time to assemble.


as ive indicated before, previous v4's already shipped (or waiting to be shipped) are free of any defect and ready for use as intended.

[novenary]

Wow, indeed.
Is there continuity between those pins ?

[plasticrelic]

Sorry to hear your situation. I am interested in a V4 if that helps you decide to continue.

[megalomaniac]

Wow, indeed.
Is there continuity between those pins ?

no continuity, thats why its a defect

Sorry to hear your situation. I am interested in a V4 if that helps you decide to continue.

nothing to be sorry about...
was just an update as to what i found...


yes i post things that go wrong too....not just the things that work right...
its all about being informative good or bad...

[novenary]

Oh wait now I see it. Well I hope it's not a too big loss of money for you at least.

[brunops3]

What if you solder this specific contacts directly (only this), shouldn't it work? A want a megadrive v4 also. Hope you prosecute the production.

[xamphear]

Hey mega, how goes the battle? Any luck with the new PCBs?

[trevor403]

no pins required for V5...
pins are optional, but the holes are a lot bigger this time to allow fitting solder wire and just heating it in place...


V6 will need to use a technique of solder drag at low temp...about 440*F or 540*F..you need low heat not to disturb the filters
the MEGAdrive pads will have to be "bridged" to the filters...it might seem a little unusual, but after a bit of messing around, it becomes obvious how to do it and still faster than soldering wires to the WKF/WASP...



in comparison to V1?
well no pins so its an improvement, difficulty is still based on experience but more friendly this time...

This is so hard to solder! the pads are nice and long but the filters only have like a millimeter of space exposed! What soldering iron do you use for heat adjustment, and also what head would you suggest for a job requiring such precision? Having a little trouble on my end ahhaha

[emu_kidid]

I take the V6 and sand the pcb on an angle so that it gets right up to the filters without any gap, then flux and solder it flows on smooth.

[megalomaniac]

1mm pencil tip iron and 440*F temp works best for v6.
as i indicated before, difficulty will be based on soldering experience...

i suggest you practice on an old circuit board to develop your technique to make a solder bridge..
just find a couple of resistors really close together and try to make a bridge...
then try again to make the bridge thinner....
then again and thinner...
eventually you will develop the technique

[FriendofSonic]

Possibly a dumb question. Considering the Megadrive V3. If I took the drive out, and popped everything in, would it sit in there fine or would it be awkward? Would it be better to have the Wasp and ribbon cable running out the disc drive lid? (I'm assuming the lid shouldn't have any issues closing with the ribbon cable running out of it)

I'd love to do it cleaner, of course, but I have no skill in that area ;p

[badsector]

Just take the drive out, cut some black plastic, add holes for SD card slot, pin 29 and lid switch, screw and glue everything et voila.

[FriendofSonic]

Wow! That looks slick!

[megalomaniac]

i think the new version of MEGAdrive v4 is complete....
i will order an initial batch and test the design....

if everything works, then v4 will return again for a final run with limited quantity....

[plasticrelic]

Thanks for the update. I am ready to order a v4.

[Xesxen]

Yes, awesome! I can't wait to order one from you

[yamaharacer]

Hi
I have build an other Fusion cube. The wiikey works perfect. But when I connect the DVD drive from my gamecube to it, it doesnt work. The led oft the xeno GC keep red and the drive wants to detect the disc but stays in a loop of trying.

Maybe an lid switch problem? I have connected pin 23 of my cube without an switch directly to the wiikey and from there it goes to the DVD drive. Does someone have an idea?
Firmware is 1.3. also seems like the drive engine doesnt want to spin up.




Edit 1:
I have desoldered the Xeno GC and tryed to connect directly without Wiikey fusion. Same problem. "An error occured please....."

After That I have messured every Pin from the motherboard to the DVD drive. Every pin is ok. What do i wrong? Only the drive doesnt work for me. Rest works.

[megalomaniac]

This has been about a 2year ongoing issue...
I'm really curious what's going on here...

Send me the mainboard and DVD drive

[yamaharacer]

an other gamecube and another chip. but now the wiikey fusion works like charm. only the drive isnt working. I have completely made a new setup. I have soldered via wires on the board and used only your adapter for the dvd drive.

I have messured every pin completely from the gamecube bottom and the top pin to the disc drive. Also no bridges or any other rubish every pin goes there.
Its realy curious. The wiikey works without any problems but the disc drive doesnt load anything.

For my understanding. Does the drive only work when I boot swiss or does it also work in the original gamecube menu?

I show a video of my setup to show the situation.


Edit 1:
Video: http://www.vidup.de/v/AEJmp/

Like I said with the disc drive connected nothing works for me. Neither the Wiikey fusion nor the disc drive. Without the drive the wiikey fusion works without any problem. Without the wiikey fusion in it the xenogc doesnt go to green. It keeps flashing red and then an error appears. Is it normal after I started the Cube that the wiikey fusion has a low flashing blue light until I press the NC switch?

[megalomaniac]

in WKF menu, is WKF OFF?

are you sure you have WKF v1.3 loaded on flash?
this almost looks like similar behavior ive seen with 1.4/1.5 but never seen this with 1.3
on the MEGAdrive mainboard side connect pin31 to GND, see if that makes any difference

[yamaharacer]

pin 31 doesnt make any difference. yeah I have 1.3 installed at least its written in the wiikey menu in the upper right corner. In WKF menu I have changed the setting to WKF off. Is this correct?

[badsector]

Don't forgert to save the settings with "right" on the D-Pad (I think).

[yamaharacer]

OK. But am I wrong? Doesnt the DVD Drive also has to work without the wiikey in between? Because when I have disconnected the wiikey and only the drive is inside the drive does nothing. It doesnt spin up or anything. the Xeno keeps staying red and flashs a little bit.


Edit:

I have desoldered everything and started a new way. I have messured every pont against each other, bridges and if they are correctly connected. It seems that everything is correct. The Wiikey fusion works without problems. also with the drive connected to the fusion. But when I put out the SD card from the fusion and I put the Lid switch the DVD spins up wants to recognize the disc and it hooks up in an error.

When I put the DVD drive directly to it I have got the same problem like befor this whole session. It doesnt do anything and I get an error.

I have also desoldered the xeno for testing directly. Same problem.

[RazorX2014]

try just connecting your drive upto the gamecube normally just to make sure the drive still works because it may have got damaged and your doing all this for nothing lol

[yamaharacer]

The drive doesnt work with direct connection. Does this mean my drive is broken?