GamecubeC

Sir Games-A-Lot · Post by **Sir Games-A-Lot** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:12 pm

OK my parent's want me to install a GCN in the car so my kid brother can play it.

1: powering it from the car's lighter system is pretty much out since atleast 50% of the time the car will be parked and I don't want to have the it not start after a long playing session.

2: battery life must be well huge since the point of this is to give him somthing to do so he's not a pain in the *** when we're at the lake, on car trips, etc.

3: I have about a 500 - 600 dollar budget for this thing.

Here is what my materials list and plan of action are at the moment:

Two of these suckers for power (one for the screen one for the 'Cube)

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2069

A simple set of hacked cables to connect the batteries to the screen/GCN

This or any other comperable head rest screen.
link

And a plain jane GCN and controler, mem-card, etc.

my only other idea was to get an inverter to charge the batteries on the go.

And now some questions:

1: Are my batteries overkill? The 'Cube needs 12v at 3.25A acording to its power supply. I need atleast 2-4 hours of playing time out of these things.

2: should I power the screen with seperate batteries as I had planned to conserve power?

3: will the movement of the car cause problems loading due to skipping?

Any help or tips from those who have built GCp's or any one else would be very welcome indeed.

elementxmaster · Post by **elementxmaster** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:47 pm

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:48 pm

I once had played my GCN in a car before and there was no skipping.

OMG! We all posted at the same time!

elementxmaster · Post by **elementxmaster** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 12:49 pm

Sir Games-A-Lot · Post by **Sir Games-A-Lot** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:33 pm

Sorry maybe "install" was the wrong word it's not going to to be modded into the car or any thing.

I had thought of using the official batteries but most of the reviews I have seen rate them as pretty much a "you get what you pay for" deal or as complete crap.

As for a case this is meant to be a K.I.S.S. (keep it stupidly simple) project. There is really no need for it to be anything more than luggable and self powered with its own screen.

AND NO!!! you are only gonna get 2hrs of gameplay with the battery. and if you decide to increase the gameplay then you're gonna fry the components. And if you do manage to do it, you will increase the weight by a whole load.

I'm not sure how increasing the battery capacity would fry the components could you be more a little more specific?

elementxmaster · Post by **elementxmaster** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:53 pm

Sir Games-A-Lot · Post by **Sir Games-A-Lot** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:57 pm

Thanks for the help and the links, but the battery is still confusing me and I am affraid I have not been very clear about what I was planning, any way I will probably start a sperate battery thread in F42 and perhaps I will be able to explain better what I meant.

P.S. thanks very much for the link to emachineshop I have never heard of them and may use them to try and get a case made for my NOAC based portable.

Metroid fan · Post by **Metroid fan** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:31 pm

No those batteries will work fine on the gamecube they have 12aH they should last about 6 hours if my caculations are correct... for the screen however no those won't work without a 7808 regulator for the screen just go and get a 7.2volt battery.

*o* · Post by ***o*** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:45 pm

sir games a lot your idea is sound and simple. go for it you dont need to change it.

Klefmung · Post by **Klefmung** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:03 pm

This shouldn't be a hard job, as both the gamecube and the car run off of 12 volts. You are just gonna have to run it through the bottom of the car to the battery, which would require skill. And as for the screen, I suggest any miniature one!

Post by **marshallh** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:26 pm

Let me put my word in here, I've done a number of things involving car electronics and car computers..

You need a lead-acid battery, plain and simple. That Ni-MH battery just won't cut it after a while. Unlike most people say, they DO have a memory. It's not as noticeable as with Ni-Cd, but it's definitely there and with this setup, the battery would be zilch in no time at all.

A decent 12v 24,000mAh lead-acid battery can be had for way less than that Ni-MH, probably around $40-50 or so. But the biggest reason for getting one is because they are well-suited for float (standby) charging. In other words, you can get a cheap 12v lead-acid charger and let the battery charge off the car alternator, and then the gamecube can run off it when the power is off.
You'd also get more playing time this way.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:08 pm

yeah marshall, i was totally going to say the same thing.

basically, just put a second car battery under the hood, in parallel with the one thats there, and maybe with an isolation switch. it charges when the car is on, and drains independantly of the other one. done.

MaDnEsS · Post by **MaDnEsS** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:42 pm

wow THose are masive batteries

that would have made my N64p 3 times as big as it already was

elementxmaster · Post by **elementxmaster** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:16 am

psychotic_mechanic · Post by **psychotic_mechanic** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:01 pm

You would have to play for weeks to drain a decent sized car battery. If you and your parents are still worried about it though you could buy one of the emrgency reserve car batteries that has a switch on it to switch to secondary cells if you run the main battery dead or buy one of the jump-start packs and keep it in the trunk.