Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:59 am

i think im ready to announce that development is officially complete for this wkf/wode project...i think ive beat the piss out of my demo boards for long enough and except for the occasional wireporn issues, everything has been running perfect...

i will be tearing down my setup soon to prepare my work space for production...
any last questions about this before i tear down??

milh0use · Post by **milh0use** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:14 pm

Hi, i'm from Brazil and i would like to know if you can send it to my country? I followed you project since the begin and i liked it a lot!

Thanks!

Post by **liquitt** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 2:38 pm

megalomaniac wrote:any last questions about this before i tear down??

i can haz cheezburger??

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Thu Nov 22, 2012 4:02 pm

milh0use wrote:Hi, i'm from Brazil and i would like to know if you can send it to my country? I followed you project since the begin and i liked it a lot!

Thanks!

yes shipping to Brazil

liquitt wrote:
megalomaniac wrote:any last questions about this before i tear down??
i can haz cheezburger??

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:12 am

designs have been sent off for production of the PCBs

NO PMs

Post by **liquitt** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:36 pm

megalomaniac wrote:designs have been sent off for production of the PCBs

NO PMs

together with a batch of IDE-EXIs? nice

MetroidPrime · Post by **MetroidPrime** » Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:37 am

Hello to everyone here on gc-forever!

I've been searching for an adapter for a while now,
glad to see someone is actually building one.
Great work!
I am also interested in buying one when it becomes available.

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:34 pm

yea!! got the cables today

the cables may look extremely long in the pic, but they are about 1cm to 2cm shorter than the long wode cable...
this cable length should work out perfect for GC...

Post by **liquitt** » Mon Dec 17, 2012 6:58 pm

megalomaniac wrote:the cables may look extremely long in the pic, but they are about 1cm to 2cm shorter than the long wode cable...
this cable length should work out perfect for GC...

finally, you're learning!

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 6:59 am

look what else arrived
ignore any fingerprints and dust...

edit: i just noticed, i plugged in the drive connector shown in the bottom left, you can clearly see the pin contact it make with the DVD connector....all contacts fit perfectly center onto the pads

MetroidPrime · Post by **MetroidPrime** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:11 am

That's well done. Fantastic!

werejag · Post by **werejag** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:44 am

looks nice. cant wait to see these in action

Jexion · Post by **Jexion** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:48 am

one word... stunning

Post by **liquitt** » Tue Dec 18, 2012 10:43 am

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:20 am

i didnt take the time to clean up the board, i wanted to hurry up and solder it in and test it out...
works perfect...

as seen, all i currently have is 1 wire for the pin29 switch, and i quickly jumpered the lid switch together...
installation is fairly straight forward...i would recommend starting from the top where the ffc connector is and work your way back...
quick tip, you really only need one 5v and one GND soldered... i chose to solder them all in but its not a requirement...

if anyone feels like trying: it might not be a requirement to desolder the dvd port...instead, maybe cutting the dvd port and pushing the board thru the existing pins might work much faster...(assuming they are still inline??)

either way, i recommend reusing the original pins so dont destroy em too much...

a tutorial will come out later...
i have a lot of soldering to do...

YouTube · Post by **emu_kidid** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:39 am

very nice. but you melted some of the controller port

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:08 am

um...thats the exi port...

and it was melted during the wireporn testing fiasco

MarSAttK · Post by **MarSAttK** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:06 pm

I admire your work megalomaniac!
Those boards look awesome.

Post by **liquitt** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 5:13 pm

nice! really like it, but i guess you got that by now hah

MetroidPrime · Post by **MetroidPrime** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 8:04 am

Brilliant design

Hucklebuck · Post by **Hucklebuck** » Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:01 pm

Hey megalomaniac is it too late to get one of these adapters? Those look professional! Perfect!! If it's not too late I would like one.

Diminuendo · Post by **Diminuendo** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:27 am

I like, random interest though, would a FCC connector that sits flat against the board (pointing outwards) be used instead of the one use used?

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 5:53 am

Diminuendo wrote:I like, random interest though, would a FCC connector that sits flat against the board (pointing outwards) be used instead of the one use used?

good question...actually, a flat ffc connector was the original design idea...
after the board was designed i printed it to a sheet of paper just to check fitment and sizing...
just a small part of the connector would be right under the heatsink...which means (pointing out) the cable would also be under the heatsink then have to wrap/fold back out from under the heatsink (directly touching the heatsink)...and the cable could not be directed thru to the other end of the heatsink as it would interfere in cooling the sysram...

i was thinking maybe this idea could work out by folding the cable back out from under the heatsink but then after thinking about it more i was a bit concerned...
heatsink = heat...
plastic connectors = potential melt...

i didnt want to take that risk in the long run and have connectors melting away and GC owners looking for to seek vengeance...

the next idea was to try to have the connector pointing in...
given the small amount of board space, it was almost impossible to create the necessary circuit paths to "reverse" the pin contacts to make proper cable connection...
...i said "was almost impossible"...i was able to design a board but was not an ideal design and the connector would be located under the heatsink even more than the original..and with the cable now pointing in, it would interfere with the dvd drive insert board...

ultimately, the only solution was to use a vertical ffc connector to eliminate these problems...

the current pin pattern of the board will not allow for a horizontal connector in replacement of the vertical connector...but i think i know why you ask...and ive thought about that too....measuring from the bottom of the board to the top of the connector, its only a 5.5mm total height...it should still fit with no issues and would still be a lot easier, and less time consuming in the long run...heh, and a lot less headaches...

Diminuendo · Post by **Diminuendo** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:04 am

too bad, although, maybe with a strip of kapton tape as a mask it could still work? or to trim that section of the heatsink with a CNC machine?

megalomaniac · Post by **megalomaniac** » Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:36 am

trim the heatsink, um....maybe if it only required cutting some fins, yes
but in this case, to clear a flat connector you would need to cut part of the base of the heatsink...
that just sounds too much like an unnecessary risk...

tape, maybe could work...but tape is kinda a poor work around for what is suppose to be a permanent solution...

either way, a flat connector wont fit on these boards because of differences in connector pin footprint...
you would need a different board designed for a flat connector...something like this: viewtopic.php?p=14594#p14594

edit: the flat board measures 3.5mm height compared to the current design of 5.5mm
is 2mm really gonna make that much of a difference??

Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Which connector strategy is preferred?

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea

Re: Plug and play drive replacement adapter Idea