Tchay's and Zenloc's breakthrough in Gamecube portablizing

[Tchay]

ZENLOC HAS ADDED GREAT PICS!!! SEE A FEW POSTS DOWN!

THE CONTROVERSY
Although many of you already know, I feel this should be clarified for all the portablizers. The Gamecube motherboard, being 4 layered, has hidden traces in the inner two layers. That is a fact. That is why sound goes away so easily if you trim too much. That is why you see so many seemingly pointless vias on the motherboard. Each and every one of those vias goes to another via.

THE IDEA
Thanks to an idea presented by Palmertech, I am going to map out these hidden traces by sanding down the outer two layers (on either side) of the motherboard.

THE PROOF
After 3 hours of sanding, I have found some astonishing traces that explain why the "AV-out" edge of the board is so sensitive. Think of the gamecube as having 4 different motherboards that all intertwine. We already know the outer two layers and can relocate traces with ease.

I have seen with my own eyes the hidden traces and they are just as complicated as the traces on the outer two layers. I would take pictures except my camera would not do you justice.

Once I sand off these outer layers and map out the inner two layers, we will be able to cut off much more from the gamecube motherboard and be able to relocate those vias that don't seem to go anywhere. I may even be able to help some of you get your sound back! SO DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR SOUNDLESS BOARDS!

DA CREDITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Palmertech for this great idea
- Zenloc for his mad sanding skills and because he is Dutch
- Me for typing words on a page

[nevermind1534]

Can you maybe get some scans?

[Tchay]

Can you maybe get some scans?

yes, but I will have to find someone with a better camera. I have about 1/8th of the inner layer on the "chip" side of the board exposed. It is pretty exciting. The hard part is just showing these traces. After that, we will never have to worry about losing sound ever again.

And yes, Raizer04, I am a mad scientist

[zenloc]

Why don't you check the traces that make the sound break and rewire them on one of your soundless boards. I'm curious to see if it would really work. I could also sand some boards down which I have laying around if that would help...

[Kyo]

Can't you at least take a picture with a bad camera for now? Really curious about this

[Tchay]

Why don't you check the traces that make the sound break and rewire them on one of your soundless boards. I'm curious to see if it would really work. I could also sand some boards down which I have laying around if that would help...

My only soundless board at the moment is inside of my first portable
EDIT- actually I have 2 other rev c boards but they are cut up a lot. Maybe I can get them working again...we will see

I would encourage any of you portablizers to sand down some of your old DOL-101 (rev c) boards. Keep in mind that it will take around an hour to rip off all the chips/resistors/etc.

Then it will take a lot of tedious sanding to get off the first layer of copper. Underneath the copper is some sort of gray/non-conductive material. Make sure your sanding is done EVENLY so that you don't accidentally sand off the inner layer of copper. That is the layer we need pictures of.

And yes, I will take a picture RIGHT NOW and upload it for you guys. I still have a lot of sanding to do....

[Tchay]

Here is a comparison. The right mobo is broken (obviously). It is not much, but this little bit of sanding took a few hours tbh.



This is the very first hidden trace I found. This one is VERY significant because cutting off too much of the ground strip BREAKS this connection. Now we know that those two little holes go elsewhere on the board. Unfortunately, I sanded too much on the edge so I can't confirm that the trace only goes to the right along the board (it might go left but we can't tell from this pic). After I sand more on another DOL-101 board, I will be able to tell if this trace goes left at all.



Towards the top right of my sanding domain (right of center), you can clearly see quite a few hidden traces. These are directly beneath where the onboard regulator (Rev C) would be. These traces aren't that significant since we probably won't be cutting off that area of the board, but it is proof that the inner layer is more than just ground.


I am very curious to see what those "ground strips" that you see along the edge of the board have underneath. I will do a lot more sanding today. I will also sand on one of my other boards to get a better look at the inner layer along the edge (where I sanded off too much by mistake).

FYI - I used normal, coarse sand paper (normally used for plastic but it worked on the board). Doing this kind of sanding will eat up your sand paper, so make sure to have a lot. I did it by hand, but maybe an electric sander would speed up the process and keep the sanding more even.

[zenloc]

Hmmm mmm that first trace is indeed probably the problem for sound not working. I'll sand some of my board I have laying around tommorow and post some pics.

Good work!! Finding out which traces are cut will make it possible to make mini gc mobo's!!! I'm def gonna invest some time in this!

[Tchay]

Great! The more people we have doing this the better. Then we can put all our pictures together and make a diagram for what to cut and what to relocate.

I just bought a really cheap electric sander on ebay (19 bucks including shipping). I am hoping it will speed up the sanding process quite a bit. Here is the link if any of you are interested:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ELECTRIC-PALM-SANDE ... 2591161443" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- If you do buy it, make sure they don't rip you off with shipping. Just click the parcel service, NOT ground shiping.

[nevermind1534]

I just bought a really cheap electric sander on ebay (19 bucks including shipping). I am hoping it will speed up the sanding process quite a bit. Here is the link if any of you are interested:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ELECTRIC-PALM-SANDE ... 5176037002" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- If you do buy it, make sure they don't rip you off with shipping. Just click the parcel service, NOT ground shiping.

and leave a 1-star rating for shipping when you leave feedback.

[zenloc]

I alread have a sandmachine so i'm good. Thanks anyway

[zenloc]

Tchay by joining our forces we have discovered how to resolve the "dead" audio issue!!!!!!

This is a rev A board but B and C boards will have little differences. Rev C has the onboard regulator though so like you see on Tchay's pics their are more hidden traces. Now due to me sanding down a broken board I had laying around you wil notice that the memorycard ports and the discdrive pins are cut from the board. Note by cutting around that section will not break the board!! You just have to rewire everything. So I don't think there are any hidden traces there. This is also just to give you an idea of what is exactly in the hidden layers.

OK enough chitchat on to the PROOF!!!

Rev A Top:


Rev A Bottem:


Top (visible layer):


Top (hidden layer):


Bottem (visible layer):


Bottem (hidden layer):


Top hidden layer voltage diagram:



I can say with 100% certainty that the bottem hidden layer is ONLY used for ground!! Based on what I've sanded down it seems that the top hidden layer is only used to divide the voltage over the board.

Why my board uses 2 12v spots is because one is used for the sound chip and the other is used for the digital port. Meaning that we should be able to cut of the entire port connectors strip of the board with little rewiring!!!!

Seems my GCMini can be made even smaller than it already was

Anyhu Tchay I won't be making a new thread here since you were the one who discoverd the hidden trace but i'll also make a thread on modretro (giving you credit ofcourse ) so everybody can enjoy our findings!!

[Tchay]

AWESOME SMILEY TIMES A THOUSAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew....it felt good to type that

Zenloc, I could be wrong, but I am thinking that the "?" area of your rev A board is 1.9v (dark blue). Not sure if it matters but oh well.

You know...I am starting to think that Rev A/B boards may be better to cut than the highly praised Rev C boards. Meaning that the Rev A/B boards are more slimmable

My ultimate goal is to have every version (A,B, and C) sanded completely to show their differences. I have a Rev A board (no cuts) with fried chips so I might as well sand her down to show everything just to be sure we haven't missed anything. Don't want to kill another board

After I sand down the Rev C, I will compare it with the Rev A. I am seriously thinking that Rev A boards can be cut more because the Rev C boards have the built in regulator which NONE of us want to mess around with, I'm sure.

It might take me a few days to do all of this, so feel free to beat me to it and post some more pics, Zenloc

EDIT - there is one more thing I am unsure about. On every GC mobo, you see long, straight traces on the sides of the board that don't seem to do anything....But I didn't see any hidden traces for them in your pics, Zenloc....BUT, they could still be there, just more on the edge. We should definitely show the inner top layer closer to the edges of the board to make sure we haven't missed anything.

***Zenloc and I are posting pics, but ANY of you are welcome to post your findings if you have some sanding equipment and some dead mobos (don't we all )

GAH! EDIT AGAIN - everyone needs to keep in mind that Zenloc's board is a PAL motherboard. I have only seem minor differences but, I would wait until an NTSC rev A board has been thoroughly sanded, just in case any new hidden traces are discovered.

[zenloc]

You didn't have to change the name of the topic Thanks though I higly doubt there are any hidden traces on the sides due to me cutting them en the cube still functioning perfectly. I have yet to cut up the board as small as I can with this new discovery so I wouldn't advise people to do this yet...

It is indeed a PAL board altough I don't think there are much different from US versions. But extra pic's are always good. I also have to agree that the REV A/B boards are the best to slim down. Instead of using the standard regulator i'm going to perfect my custom regulator and have the cube running of 3,7v.

So just like the n64 i'm busy with my goal is to make the GameCube as small as possible and powering it with a single 3.7v cell. Note that this is only usefull if you use a screen which can run on lower voltage like the 3.5" screens. If you have a psone screen, running the system on 7.4v would be a better solution.

Anyway we'll see how everything goes since i'm busy with rebuilding my workplace so can't really do anything at the moment

Edit: Don't plan on sanding any boards anymore this one took me 2 to 3 hours to do Just a little tip first sand the top layer until everything is copper, then scrap the copper of with a sharp tool (knife or chisel). Once all the copper of the first layer is completly off and you see the black/gray suff just sand that down evenly to get to the next layer. Do that on the top and botem sides of the board and you should be good

[Tchay]

Well! Sounds like you have your hands full! I guess custom regulators will be the next big adventure in Gamecube portablizing. People tried it and gave up, but I am sure its possible and you sound pretty confident about the 3.7v idea. I will try for the 7.4v regulator since I want PS1 screens on my new portables.

I am pretty busy this week and next, but I will try to get some more mobo pics up this Sunday (it all depends on whether the lady ditches me for the weekend or if she wants to spend some romantic time together )

Either way, all you Gamecube portablizers can expect some great things comin up!