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My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:12 am
by marcus9199
I'm getting antsy waiting on my mega drive stuff so I figured I'd build an SD gecko out of a gamecube mic.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:20 am
by emu_kidid
not bad, how does it look closed up again? I prefer to use cheap memory cards personally.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:32 am
by marcus9199
Thanks I usually use cheap ones too, but I've been wanting one for a while that the SD card would sit almost flush with. I still need to button it up but this is it closed up.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 5:43 am
by emu_kidid
looks great from the top. I would stick a activity LED where the hole for the cable was!

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:08 am
by marcus9199
Yep that's what I have. First one I've built with an led, it's stays on all the time but it does flash brighter when it's accessing.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:28 am
by marcus9199
One more with SD card ejected.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:35 am
by emu_kidid
Not sure if it should be always on, although I haven't done a LED mod myself before, I assume you're using this diagram:
http://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.php?title=SDGecko

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 7:17 am
by marcus9199
Yeah that's the one I'm using no resistor though. I am having trouble now though I should have checked before I got out the super glue swiss reads the contents of the card fine but crashes when I try to load, same SD card in my other SD geckos runs games fine. So I have screwed up somewhere. But I'm tired so I guess I'll try tommorow. Thanks for the comments.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2014 10:44 am
by iamdablasta
marcus9199 wrote:Yeah that's the one I'm using no resistor though. I am having trouble now though I should have checked before I got out the super glue swiss reads the contents of the card fine but crashes when I try to load, same SD card in my other SD geckos runs games fine. So I have screwed up somewhere. But I'm tired so I guess I'll try tommorow. Thanks for the comments.
You need the resistor.
When not being accessed the power is lower than when being accessed.
By using a resistor of correct size it will only turn on when being accessed.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:06 am
by marcus9199
Okay I did get the correct resistor and it worked but I guess I'm kind of weird I like the light being on and flashing brighter as it access it. So now it's all working with led included. And once again I'm amazed by SWISS. Is great loading of my SD card like this.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 1:10 am
by megalomaniac
put a 100 Mohm resistor on that thing before you go blind

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:14 am
by marcus9199
Ha ha. I'm about to make it worse I got an led strip kit for the inside.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:16 am
by marcus9199
Okay for the next try!

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:28 am
by marcus9199
Prepping the men card. Trying to keep pin 1- 12 trace in tact. But I'm a screw up so we will see.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:48 am
by megalomaniac
on that last pic...

look at the pads....see the scratch marks where the pins contact the pad....
below the scratchmarks are clean and untouched...
if you can keep tight precision, you can solder a pad to pad wire jumper in the untouched area

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:50 am
by marcus9199
And its still in tact!!!

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 5:12 am
by marcus9199
Okay my solder skills are crap but leads are attached

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 5:43 am
by marcus9199
SD socket connected. Sorry mega I didn't see your post until I moved on. Thanks for the comments.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 6:04 am
by marcus9199
Okay I'm tired I'll continue tomorrow.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:58 am
by iamdablasta
Looks good to me, well done :)

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 10:51 pm
by marcus9199
Thanks hopefully it will work.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 2:11 am
by marcus9199
Okay I had to make another go at it. I melted some wire insulation and the wires were shorting.

Re: My take on SD gecko

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:57 am
by marcus9199
And hours later finally done.