Worklog My first GC Portable!

jefflongo

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@jefflongo
No space for Z button? Do not disappoint me!
I've done all Original Gamecube buttons on smaller cases!

Just do it!
The problem lies within how I planned the side panels. Here's a schematic of the side panels (not at all drawn to scale).

Untitled.png

If I had done this project again, what I would have done was move one battery to the other side of the case which would have let me move the motherboard over to the left more which would have gave me more clearance for a Z button. I didn't anticipate how much more room I would have on the left side because I have only recently built these shoulder buttons which are much smaller than the one's I was originally going to use, and putting a Z button on the left side is not acceptable to me. All in all, I'm happy sacrificing a bit on the Z button to have all of the other I/O I have built in. That being said, I will still have a Z button, it will just be a tact switch.
 

Shank

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My method of choice for z buttons is to use a 12mm tact switch. Its a great compromise between space and comfort.
 

Bakuku

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@jefflongo
Try 2 tact switches and then glue a hollowed out Z button over them. Fake Z button?
 

GingerOfOz

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Could you maybe make it so that your Z button is sticking out the back of your case near the top?
 

jefflongo

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Cut off that metal bit, or trim it so you can fit a tact there lmao
Of course I'll get rid of it if I need to, I'm not worried about fitting a tact switch in there I'm just saying that's all I can fit there. The metal piece doesn't get in the way of anything and thats not what's causing a lack of space.
 

jefflongo

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Just got my package in the mail from @Shank ! The front of the case is gorgeous. I'm so excited to build in it!

20170610_165603.jpg

Over the past few days while I've been anxiously waiting for the mail I've been doing a bit of work on the bottom of the case. I finished cutting and epoxying all of the I/O aside from the AV out connector. The process for cutting out a square shape consisted of a smaller rough cut with the dremel and then a LOT of time with a flat file. I think the shoulder buttons, Z button, and SD card slot turned out pretty good. Now that I know I the small tact switch for the Z button fits, I just barely have enough room for the AV connector so I will cut out that hole and epoxy it in soon.

20170610_165446.jpg 20170610_165504.jpg

I have also been trying to organize the inside of the case a bit more. I cut up some 3M square pads to use for support on the right side of the WASP and to mount the audio amp. Here's a look at the cleaned up wiring.

20170610_165424.jpg

So the things that are left to do are as follows:
  • Cut out and mount AV connector
  • Wire up the GC+/sticks/buttons
  • Mount the screen, buttons, switches, and speakers
Can't believe how close I am! Very excited!

Bonus goodies from @Shank

20170610_165635.jpg
 

Shank

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Bonus goodies from @Shank
Context:
-every was asking about colored 30awg wire so I sent him some

-he has never been to wataburger before. He made a joke about how axe will jump off screen when he has 68 damage to get 69. After talking with him, I went to go eat. Nothing was open but wataburger. They gave me number 68 so I took it and sent it to him.

-I have a metric shit ton of altoids that I don't know what to do with
 

jefflongo

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Um.. I'm pretty much in shock right now. It seems my portable has just died, and I have no idea why. I turned it on to test it and was playing (off wall power) for about 10 minutes when all the sudden the video turned to a green/purple interference and the audio turned to this horrible screeching noise and it smelled like burning. Now it won't boot and it still smells when turned on. I'm really at a loss right now. I was about to close this up and I have no idea what went wrong. I've played on it for more lengthy periods without issues. If anyone could help me diagnose what went wrong... I really don't even know what to do. If I redo all the work on the motherboard that doesn't guarantee the issue is resolved..
 

cheese

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Got any idea what popped? That would probably help, since you'll know what to fix...

Scorch marks and melted stuff is a great sign of what went wrong
 

jefflongo

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Got any idea what popped? That would probably help, since you'll know what to fix...

Scorch marks and melted stuff is a great sign of what went wrong
Well I went ahead and unscrewed the heatsink and inspected the board and nothing appears to be damaged in any way. I turned on the console and I'm getting the appropriate 3.3v and 1.7v across the board but turning on the console almost immediately results in the burning smell and I believe I saw a bit of smoke around the GPU area. Still lost as to what the cause of this could be.
 

JacksonS

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I've run into weird issues like this a few times with the GameCube and never found anything wrong. Seems like they just randomly die. Can you detect abnormally high current on any of the voltage lines with your meter?
 

Bakuku

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@jefflongo
Happend to me a couple of times. Nothing you can do about it really.
Best thing for you now would be to trim another board and maybe slim it even further than your' first trim ;)
 

Shank

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@jefflongo
Best thing for you now would be to put a Wii in instead;)
Ftfy. Wii Master race.

In all seriousness, I think it would be better to stick with a GameCube because of how far along everything is. @jefflongo and I spent a few hours last night on discord troubleshooting and couldn't find any abnormalities that caused the magic smoke. Voltage was stable on all lines, and no visible signs of damage. Voltage dropoff through his thin meter leads was too great to accurately measure current. The 1.8 and 1.55 lines were merged, but that would break the CPU if anything, and the symptoms he described before meltdown seemed like GPU/AVE failures. Hopefully the new mobo won't self destruct, but GameCube mobos sometimes do that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

jefflongo

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@jefflongo
Happend to me a couple of times. Nothing you can do about it really.
Best thing for you now would be to trim another board and maybe slim it even further than your' first trim ;)
Are you saying this exact same thing happened to you where it worked for awhile then randomly started screeching and smoking? Is this just random or is there something which helps to prevent this?

Also, I will probably trim another board with the same trim (the reason I chose this trim is to use the MEGAdrive I have) and wire it back up and hope it doesn't happen again. I'll make sure to play test it for ~10 hours before I close it up because I don't want anything smoking when it's closed up!!

Again, if anyone else has any suggestions of things to check for to avoid this, feel free to comment.

This was pretty demotivating, but hopefully I can bounce back. The wiring will probably be much easier now that I don't have to use obscure relocation points from components I broke off due to noobiness! Haha
 

Bakuku

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Are you saying this exact same thing happened to you where it worked for awhile then randomly started screeching and smoking? Is this just random or is there something which helps to prevent this?
Yes, exact same problem.
Happend to me 2 or 3 times. Never fully understood what went wrong.
Solution: - Start over
 
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