Question GC Portable Battery Setup

[amiinoo]

Hello everyone!

I'm new here (started in the Bitfix forums), and am working on my first portable, a Gamecube portable. I know everyone will tell me "build a Wii, it's much better," but I want to see this project to the end as I plan on doing a Wii portable second, using the knowledge gained from this project on my next one

I've done a bit of research, and am currently working on what battery I need to run the whole setup. Currently I've been thinking of setting up a 14.8V 18650 Li-ion cell structure, but I'm wondering how I would set this up with this charge-and-play circuit: https://www.batteryspace.com/cmb-fo...ck-10a-limit-rohs-compliant-with-dc-char.aspx
I want to have around 5000mAh in capacity, which by my understanding is a 4s2p setup - how would the 8 cells be wired up with that CMB? can it support 8 cells? and what/how many cells do I need to get (the 3.7v Panasonic cells in the BOM?) /how would I wire them up for this purpose? If the CMB doesn't support it, I am willing to step down to a 4s1p setup, but this wouldn't provide as much capacity.

Because of a lack of availability of tools (I don't have a bench power supply at my disposal), I haven't been able to test my screen for voltage and such. It's an RCA DRC69702, a screen taken from a DVD player set that accepts composite in. It runs off of 9-12V DC. Would it be able to handle 14.8V? could I run that off of the 12V power rail on the GameCube, or should I just run it off the battery?

For additional details, my GameCube is a Revision C motherboard with the built-in regulator. I've read it can handle 14.8V, but my main question is how would I wire this up? I want to make sure I have everything right in order to not fry my Dolphin.

If I have any more questions unrelated to batteries, I plan on starting a worklog soon, so I will post them there.

Sorry for all of the noobish questions, and thanks for your help!

 

[jefflongo]

Hello everyone!

I'm new here (started in the Bitfix forums), and am working on my first portable, a Gamecube portable. I know everyone will tell me "build a Wii, it's much better," but I want to see this project to the end as I plan on doing a Wii portable second, using the knowledge gained from this project on my next one

I've done a bit of research, and am currently working on what battery I need to run the whole setup. Currently I've been thinking of setting up a 14.8V 18650 Li-ion cell structure, but I'm wondering how I would set this up with this charge-and-play circuit: https://www.batteryspace.com/cmb-fo...ck-10a-limit-rohs-compliant-with-dc-char.aspx
I want to have around 5000mAh in capacity, which by my understanding is a 4s2p setup - how would the 8 cells be wired up with that CMB? can it support 8 cells? and what/how many cells do I need to get (the 3.7v Panasonic cells in the BOM?) /how would I wire them up for this purpose? If the CMB doesn't support it, I am willing to step down to a 4s1p setup, but this wouldn't provide as much capacity.

Because of a lack of availability of tools (I don't have a bench power supply at my disposal), I haven't been able to test my screen for voltage and such. It's an RCA DRC69702, a screen taken from a DVD player set that accepts composite in. It runs off of 9-12V DC. Would it be able to handle 14.8V? could I run that off of the 12V power rail on the GameCube, or should I just run it off the battery?

For additional details, my GameCube is a Revision C motherboard with the built-in regulator. I've read it can handle 14.8V, but my main question is how would I wire this up? I want to make sure I have everything right in order to not fry my Dolphin.

If I have any more questions unrelated to batteries, I plan on starting a worklog soon, so I will post them there.

Sorry for all of the noobish questions, and thanks for your help!

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but you shouldn't just make a Wii portable because it's better, but because (especially for entry level) it's easier and cheaper to build. You're correct that you would need a 4s2p setup to achieve 14.8V @ 5000-6000mAh. But do you realize how big an 8 battery pack would be in a *portable*? At that point you're making a laptop, not a portable. Not to mention it would be unreasonably heavy. With a Wii you would increase your battery efficiency about twice as much just because you're using a Wii instead of a GC and use half the batteries (7.4V instead of 14.8V). Using a GC with the stock regs with a 4s1p setup, you'll only get about an hour of battery life. With a Wii you can use 4 batteries and get a 3h battery life.

To answer your question about the screen, there's no way to know if it will handle 14.8V unless you just try it. Note that the 12V rail is not regulated on the GC, if you are using a 14.8V pack, the 12V rail will be at 14.8V. So using the battery voltage and the 12V rail are the same thing. You can run the screen off 5V most likely, refer to this guide.

As for your final question, you just connect the output from the CMB to the 12V input on the GC.

You haven't really started your project, so take some advice from someone who was building a GC portable (that died for no reason other than it was a GC) and switch to a Wii. Wii's are extremely cheap and you'll save yourself A LOT of headache and come out with a better product. Plus you'll be able to receive a lot more help from members on the forum since the Wii is so actively developed on here. Best of luck!