Page 1 of 1

The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:32 am
by lyberty5
Hey everyone, first worklog here, one of my first posts also, hope this will be interesting enough for you :D

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)
Image
Squeleton of the portable : (note that I use a pth8t241 and note a ptr08100)
Image
Mobo brought back from the dead :
Image
Cut :
Image
And still working !
Image

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 ?

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2012 2:49 am
by emu_kidid
That's some nice mainboard cutting - I'm sure this one will be another amazing portable GC too :D

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 1:04 am
by megalomaniac
what board version is that??

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:18 am
by Joeyjoe9876
rev A/B
PAL board?

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:24 am
by 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...

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 5:25 am
by emu_kidid
PAL should be fine for the WKF :D

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 6:04 am
by Ashen
Actually, with Swiss flashed to the WKF ALL boards are compatible. :D

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

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2012 1:52 pm
by 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 :

Image
Image
Image

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 :
Image

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:02 am
by lyberty5
quick update you might like :
tryied to make it look stock, but much thinner :
Image
Image

And I cut that mold also :

Image
Image

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:25 pm
by lyberty5
Alright, so a little casing update :

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

FRONT :
Image
& Back :
Image

Then, superglue + epoxy + Bondo :

FRONT :
Image

& Back (had to increase thickness there) :
Image

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 ?
Image

Close up : (so you can see imperfections)
Image

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:06 pm
by _Nold_
Nice Stuff! Keep it up!

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:06 pm
by Ashen
OMG... Dat fan grill. So, so sexy beyond words.

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2012 10:32 pm
by emu_kidid
very nice :)

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

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:02 am
by megalomaniac
nice idea for the vents...
i really like it

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:02 am
by liquitt
dat grill!! so nice!

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 12:41 am
by lyberty5
emu_kidid wrote: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 ^^

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 8:49 am
by lyberty5
Update :

Shortening wires and adding screwposts :
Image
Image

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

Image

A bit more Casework :
Image

And first coat ! How do you like that color?
Image
Image

Re: The ThildCube ZE, lyb's second Portable Gamecube

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:39 am
by _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...