Opencube Gamecube

Subject: Opencube Gamecube Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:34 pm

I decided to take a crack at installing wiikey fusion into a gamecube. Let it be known that you should not attempt to solder to the ribbon cable you should use a breakout board for this project.

Opencube Gamecube NJGwXtP

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Wed Jun 12, 2013 1:22 pm

Cool.

Somewhat unrelated to the WiiKey Fusion, how do you have your video hooked up? S-video? Is it a DOL-101?

Mostly, I'm interested in how GameBoy games look on it. I'm curious, as I'm in the process of adding a GameBoy Player into my setup. Not sure if it's worth my effort/time/cash to go with RGB over S-Video. I trust your opinion on video quality, so I thought I'd ask before I blow wads of cash and time.

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:59 pm

Grambo wrote:: Cool.

Somewhat unrelated to the WiiKey Fusion, how do you have your video hooked up? S-video? Is it a DOL-101?

Mostly, I'm interested in how GameBoy games look on it. I'm curious, as I'm in the process of adding a GameBoy Player into my setup. Not sure if it's worth my effort/time/cash to go with RGB over S-Video. I trust your opinion on video quality, so I thought I'd ask before I blow wads of cash and time.

Yes s-video. It's a dol-001

*edit*

This morning I decided to tackle the video circuit of this thing. Thanks to a little reworking and asking around I figured out the luma and chroma pins on the video encoder. Luma the outputs has a cap to ground, followed by another cap to ground, followed by a cap in series, then a third cap to ground. I removed the second and third caps and all is good. However, removing the first cap results in the picture becoming extremely dark so don't touch that teeny cap. Soldering a tiny super surface mount cap back onto a pcb by hand is no fun.

Next my wiikey fusion started acting up and not working right at all. I toiled with the wiikey all day studying problems and fixes for it. I tried everything imaginable with this wiikey nothing seemed to fix it. As a last resort I decided to heatgun the hot glue and see if and of my solder work looked off. I found a lot of iffy solder work. I redid most of the solder work, that mostly fixed it but it still had some issues. I redid the solder work even more and now it's running perfectly.

I present to you people, how NOT to wire up a wiikey fusion:

Opencube Gamecube GuagbpX

Doing it this way is probably the dumbest thing I've ever done. It's a 100x better idea to use a ribbon cable and a breakout board.

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:50 pm

I made some improvements:

Opencube Gamecube KlwH665

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:53 am

That looks a little better!

This is on my to do list, but I can't seem to find a good source for a 32-pin ribbon breakout (AWM 2896). Thinking I'll just end up direct soldering to the ribbon cable.
I'd like to maybe come up with a good fanless solution too.

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:48 pm

"GramboThat looks a little better!

This is on my to do list, but I can't seem to find a good source for a 32-pin ribbon breakout (AWM 2896). Thinking I'll just end up direct soldering to the ribbon cable.
I'd like to maybe come up with a good fanless solution too."

Quote isn't working right for some reason. Don't solder to the ribbon it's a terrible idea. Just buy a 36 pin adapter and insert the ribbon to the far right. I'm really starting to hate ribbon cables. The ribbon to the sd card is acting up and it's driving me crazy.

Posts : 571 Join date : 2012-03-04

Drakon wrote:: "GramboThat looks a little better!

This is on my to do list, but I can't seem to find a good source for a 32-pin ribbon breakout (AWM 2896). Thinking I'll just end up direct soldering to the ribbon cable.
I'd like to maybe come up with a good fanless solution too."

Quote isn't working right for some reason. Don't solder to the ribbon it's a terrible idea. Just buy a 36 pin adapter and insert the ribbon to the far right. I'm really starting to hate ribbon cables. The ribbon to the sd card is acting up and it's driving me crazy.

very neat project, drakon.
if only someone could do this for the saturn. ive been waiting since the early 2000s for some kind of drive replacement.
I dont have the skills, better left to someone who does.

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:59 pm

Drakon wrote:: Quote isn't working right for some reason.

Same here; I noticed the change a few days ago. A workaround for now is the far right button in the tools (4 to the right of emoticons) with tooltip "Switch Editor Mode". Changes it back to the old way.

Subject: Re: Opencube Gamecube Fri Jun 14, 2013 4:12 pm

Grambo wrote:

Drakon wrote:: Quote isn't working right for some reason.

Same here; I noticed the change a few days ago. A workaround for now is the far right button in the tools (4 to the right of emoticons) with tooltip "Switch Editor Mode". Changes it back to the old way.

Oh thank you so much. I much prefer editor mode. It would be nice if my free forum host atleast asked me before giving me a free upgrade.

Anyway I tried a few hundred tricks, greatly improved the paths for the ribbon cable and the wiring into the console. It's now working great again. I'm sure one of the hundreds of things I tried fixed it, wish I knew which one it was.