First Gamecube Portable - The PortaCube [Done!]

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sun May 06, 2012 11:20 am

Just taken a cable apart.. but there is only the resistor inside :/
so i just soldered a 75 Ohm resistor to the composite line... without success.. couldn't find a 220uF Elko yet :/

Will try that later! Thanks so far!

kel01 · Post by **kel01** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:53 pm

That's strange as I also just took a cable apart before my last post to make sure that I was correct and there was a small PCB with the cap and resistor on.

Was it the official composite cable that you took apart or a straight through RGB scart cable. The straight through RGB scart cable only has the resistor in the console plug side and the caps in the scart connector side but the official PAL composite cable should have both cap and resistor in the console side plug.

Have you tried connecting speakers to the motherboard or even headphones just to test if the GC boots the IPL? Have you also tried connecting to another display via composite. These, especially the former could help verify if the problem lies with the composite video or the motherboard itself.

PS. If your composite cable is infact the official nintendo one then it could possibly be that it is one from an older system like the SNES or N64. I don't think these older composite cable are forward compatible with the GC and would probably not have both the resistor and the cap.

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Sun May 06, 2012 12:54 pm

The resistor and cap in the PAL composite cables are not absolutely needed just for testing. You should be getting video regardless. Can you confirm that both chips are getting warm when powered on, along with the ram chips? Can you show a closer up pic of where you're pulling composite from?

kel01 · Post by **kel01** » Sun May 06, 2012 1:14 pm

Ashen wrote:The resistor and cap in the PAL composite cables are not absolutely needed just for testing. You should be getting video regardless. Can you confirm that both chips are getting warm when powered on, along with the ram chips? Can you show a closer up pic of where you're pulling composite from?

Good point Ashen, even without a resistor and cap he should still get some kind of picture but when it comes to fault finding you can't really count anything out. It depends what display he is using and how fussy it is with video signals, not all displays handle signals as well as others.

Not referring to the GC specifically but some displays or video equipment won't sync to the signal at all if you don't have the correct components in the cable.

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sun May 06, 2012 2:38 pm

Hooked it up to my tv .. no success...
Hooked up audio to tv.. no success...

All BGAs are getting warm... I guess i destroyed it again...

and i just tryed this composite cable (which is official nintendo).. it works fine on my gc...

kel01 · Post by **kel01** » Sun May 06, 2012 5:29 pm

_Nold_ wrote:Hooked it up to my tv .. no success...
Hooked up audio to tv.. no success...

All BGAs are getting warm... I guess i destroyed it again...

and i just tryed this composite cable (which is official nintendo).. it works fine on my gc...

Sorry to hear that. This hobby does end up costing us a lot of money and disappointment until we get it right but it's worth it when we do.

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:58 am

Might be best to just disconnect everything you've done so far and start over from scratch. Sounds silly, but sometimes it works. Are you sanding down the edges of your boards after you cut them? Check good for solder bridges/shorts/etc.

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Mon May 07, 2012 6:51 am

Ashen wrote:Might be best to just disconnect everything you've done so far and start over from scratch. Sounds silly, but sometimes it works.

I'll do so :/

Are you sanding down the edges of your boards after you cut them?

Yea.. and i'm always trying to check them in the light...

Check good for solder bridges/shorts/etc.

It feels like i did that about 1000 times but ok...

If it's fried it dosn't really matter.. next cube is on it's way ^^ got it for under 3€ ^^

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sun May 13, 2012 5:24 pm

I did the same cut to an equal board result = same.. Not Working board but warm BGAs..

So i unsoldered the Composite cable and tryed to hold it on a other spot... and it worked!!
The curious about it, it's the same point basically! (That's what my diode-tester tells me)

In german i would say "Wer misst, misst Mist!" (Who measures, measures bullshit!) ^^

So i can finally go on with the work on my gcp! ^^

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 5:58 am

After a long time without progress (because of i was moving) here is a little update..
Look what i've found at work these days:

All of them

Length
Width
@MB
Thickness

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Wed Jun 20, 2012 10:01 am

Nice man! Those are damn near perfect stock.

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:34 am

Good stuff

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 7:51 pm

Just a quick little update... (yes i'm still alive

)

Since i was moving there was not much time for funny stuff... now i got a lot of time and will continue on my portable!
But now i don't have some place to work on the case anymore

So this has to wait until everything else is working.. today i just quickly installed the wkf... Finally it works

Ashen · Post by **Ashen** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:50 pm

Awesome.

I was just wondering what happened to this. Excited to see it come together now!

Post by **liquitt** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:43 pm

_Nold_ wrote:Just a quick little update... (yes i'm still alive )

Since i was moving there was not much time for funny stuff... now i got a lot of time and will continue on my portable!
But now i don't have some place to work on the case anymore So this has to wait until everything else is working.. today i just quickly installed the wkf... Finally it works

so you finally moved to the big awesome city?

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:16 am

liquitt wrote:
_Nold_ wrote:Just a quick little update... (yes i'm still alive )

Since i was moving there was not much time for funny stuff... now i got a lot of time and will continue on my portable!
But now i don't have some place to work on the case anymore So this has to wait until everything else is working.. today i just quickly installed the wkf... Finally it works
so you finally moved to the big awesome city?

yea! We need too meet sometime

Post by **liquitt** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 8:18 am

_Nold_ wrote:
liquitt wrote:
_Nold_ wrote:Just a quick little update... (yes i'm still alive )

Since i was moving there was not much time for funny stuff... now i got a lot of time and will continue on my portable!
But now i don't have some place to work on the case anymore So this has to wait until everything else is working.. today i just quickly installed the wkf... Finally it works
so you finally moved to the big awesome city?
yea! We need too meet sometime

sure thing, hit me up!

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 2:49 pm

Soooo.. after just 5 years, I've nealy finished my GCp

(It was laying around, did work the last 5 days on it

)

As I sad, nearly everything is done! As you can see here:

I also have the battery done.. BUT...I just can't get the R/L-Trigger to work.... I don't even understand how they could have worked, in the first place... I'm totally frustraded right now, because, even if it's an 3rd party-controller, I still beleave I know how a potentiometer work...

Anyway.. Here is what I don't get.. the red traces ares the traces, connected to the trigger-pot... the yellow outline is where the pot would normaly sit, so the lower and upper two pins, are common ground / pot-case...

But both traces connected to the pot, are also connected to the analog stick?!?.. How should it work?!.. the traces on the right side look a little different, but there it also doesn't work.. I tried zenlocs method with an BC547 - no success... also a other verson of this schematic... I even connected a potentiomenter to the two pins L1/L2 and it didn't do nothing...

I was now thinking about removing R29 - but it has to work in this way... I just don't get it...

I hope you guys can save me, from building a whole new case...

YouTube · Post by **emu_kidid** » Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:35 pm

Good to see you back

I have no idea how to solve your problem, but nevertheless I posted to say hi

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Fri Jul 21, 2017 4:52 am

emu_kidid wrote:Good to see you back I have no idea how to solve your problem, but nevertheless I posted to say hi

Thanks

Yea, I guess I will use a pcb from another 3rd party controller, which layout makes much more sense to me ^^

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sat Jul 22, 2017 1:50 pm

It's done! I swapped out the Controller-Board & hooked it up to the parts of the other controller. Not I't working and I've nearly finished my PortaCube

Just some polishing here and there.. But ATM I'm happy it's working

Post by **liquitt** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:13 pm

_Nold_ wrote:
liquitt wrote:
_Nold_ wrote:Just a quick little update... (yes i'm still alive )

Since i was moving there was not much time for funny stuff... now i got a lot of time and will continue on my portable!
But now i don't have some place to work on the case anymore So this has to wait until everything else is working.. today i just quickly installed the wkf... Finally it works
so you finally moved to the big awesome city?
yea! We need too meet sometime

haha, never did. still here?

_Nold_ · Post by **_Nold_** » Sat Jul 29, 2017 6:52 am

liquitt wrote:
_Nold_ wrote:
liquitt wrote:
so you finally moved to the big awesome city?
yea! We need too meet sometime
haha, never did. still here?

Still the wrong city

But I'm moving this year again, guess I'll be a little bit closer to you - if you haven't moved the last years

Post by **liquitt** » Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:52 am

_Nold_ wrote:
liquitt wrote:
_Nold_ wrote: yea! We need too meet sometime
haha, never did. still here?
Still the wrong city But I'm moving this year again, guess I'll be a little bit closer to you - if you haven't moved the last years

just inside this city

First Gamecube Portable - The PortaCube [Done!]

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