TheOnlyOneHeFears' Gamecube Worklog! (56k killer!)

Electric Rain · Post by **Electric Rain** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:12 pm

LEDs in the fan would be awesome.

I've never been much for cosmetic mods... I always wrote them off as impractical and worthless if they didn't DO something... but this... for some reason... is still cool to me.

Keep up the mods man. The more LEDs, the better.

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:49 am

Cheers man, I really appreciate everyone's comments

I'm glad its turned out so well.

Updates
---------
Only did one major thing really yesterday, and that was fixing the sticking memory card slot A. I realised that I hot glued the LEDs too close to the slot springs, so they were blocking it swinging back down. I got rid of the old hot glue, moved the LEDs back a bit, and re-hot glued them down. Worked perfectly! I had a bit of a scare though, because at two points, the GC wouldn't turn on. Plus the LEDs weren't getting any power, so I assumed the power supply was the problem. I think I soldered the power lines back on with the GC power supply plugged in, so I shorted it out. I fixed it by unplugging it and grounding it. Luckily, it worked again

I've been looking on eBay to try to find LED fan replacements, as I figured that this would be easier than putting LEDs in the fan itself. All I've found however are regular 50mm case fans, none with LEDs. I'll have to think some more about how to do it...I did find an external clip on GC fan...I might get that, and LED mod it instead

I'm practically finished with cosmetic mods on the Cube itself. I've done LED mods on my memory cards, which took about 10 minutes per card. The next things I want to do are the internal Wavebird, and the mod chip.

~TheOnlyOneHeFears

Jongamer · Post by **Jongamer** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:50 am

TheOnlyOneHeFears wrote:Cheers man, I really appreciate everyone's comments I'm glad its turned out so well.

Updates
---------
Only did one major thing really yesterday, and that was fixing the sticking memory card slot A. I realised that I hot glued the LEDs too close to the slot springs, so they were blocking it swinging back down. I got rid of the old hot glue, moved the LEDs back a bit, and re-hot glued them down. Worked perfectly! I had a bit of a scare though, because at two points, the GC wouldn't turn on. Plus the LEDs weren't getting any power, so I assumed the power supply was the problem. I think I soldered the power lines back on with the GC power supply plugged in, so I shorted it out. I fixed it by unplugging it and grounding it. Luckily, it worked again

I've been looking on eBay to try to find LED fan replacements, as I figured that this would be easier than putting LEDs in the fan itself. All I've found however are regular 50mm case fans, none with LEDs. I'll have to think some more about how to do it...I did find an external clip on GC fan...I might get that, and LED mod it instead

I'm practically finished with cosmetic mods on the Cube itself. I've done LED mods on my memory cards, which took about 10 minutes per card. The next things I want to do are the internal Wavebird, and the mod chip.

~TheOnlyOneHeFears

Yeah just look for LED modded computer fans and put that in the Gamecube, may require some splicing of wires.

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:20 pm

Quick Update

I've decided on how to do the LED fan mod. I've taken the idea from the Max Console forums. There's a hole you can drill behind the fan, and an LED placed there diffuses light around the fan blades. I tested it out with my stock LEDs, but they were far too dim, so I'll go to Maplin at the weekend and pick up a supermegaultraubersausage bright green 5mm LED. I'll put up pics after I'm finished. I will also write a quick tutorial for this, as I've had trouble finding one, and it may help other people wanting to do this. It's good to help right?

And THAT will be the end of the cosmetic mods for the time being...Unless I decide to light up the back grill and ports...actually...there's an idea...

Bass Creator · Post by **Bass Creator** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:28 pm

i just ordered my gamebit hoping to get it soon and mod my cube

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:07 am

_____ _______ wrote:i just ordered my gamebit hoping to get it soon and mod my cube

Cool. It's good to see more people modding Cubes, they're sorely neglected next to the masses of Xbox mods. Good luck!

More Updates
-Drilled holes in the player 1/2/3/4 dot indicators above the controller ports. I might put LEDs behind them to light them up more, but at the moment, they are well lit by the light from the port LEDs. That took all of 10 seconds, but it looks great!

-Had to re-route a few wires around the case, as they were obstructing the top half, you know, same old same old...

-Got me a bigger memory card yesterday from Gamestation for homebrew and gamesaves, and I LED modded that. It has a clear case, and I drilled two 3mm holes, stuck two green LEDs in there, and hooked them up to a 3.3V source. From what I've seen, thats the max voltage you can get from a memory card. If you want to do it, you will need to use a multimeter to find a voltage source. You can often find them on one side of resistors.

That's it for now. I've decided I'll try the back port light up, just because. And I need to do the fan LED as well. I'll hopefully do those this weekend!

Pic:

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/T ... G_0014.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>

At this rate, I'll just buy my own camera, instead of trying to find my brothers

You can just about see the port LEDs shining through the indicator holes. The memory card looks cool too.

Oh, and I totally agree Electric Rain. Gamebit FTW!

EnterTheHatrix · Post by **EnterTheHatrix** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:22 am

That LED mod on the ports is piss poor, and if pictures are going to be this bad, I'm not going to bother looking at this topic again.. Don't use a webcam to take your pictures.

If you want to do a better LED mod, get a dremel and drill out the top of the metal plating on the top and bottom of the controller port, and stick the LED through each side.. It will light up really nice.

Sand down the LEDS to diffuse the glow before using them.
The dots at the top of the controller ports, use hot glue to plug them from the back with LEDs attached. This will distribute glow through all of the holes.

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 am

Whilst I appreciate your advice, I don't particularly like being subjected to what almost counts for abuse simply because I've done a few mods my way...I accept the point about the camera...I just though people might apprectaie some pictures, no matter how poor they might be.
If my mods cause you so much offense I suggest you take your own advice and not look at this threat again.

EnterTheHatrix · Post by **EnterTheHatrix** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:21 am

TheOnlyOneHeFears wrote:Whilst I appreciate your advice, I don't particularly like being subjected to what almost counts for abuse simply because I've done a few mods my way...I accept the point about the camera...I just though people might apprectaie some pictures, no matter how poor they might be.
If my mods cause you so much offense I suggest you take your own advice and not look at this threat again.

Done.. Have fun with your crap lit gamecube.. Maybe one day you'll do a good job of it, or actually be original!

jeroen · Post by **jeroen** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 7:42 am

Hatrix common if he wants to do it ike this he can. I know plenty of peope that wouldn't even know how to hook led's up.

Bass Creator · Post by **Bass Creator** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:44 am

Yes i bet they look pimp in real life but made sure you sanded the leds a little bit so they dont just shine in one place

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:04 pm

Most cameras can make the best lighting job look like crap.
Keep it up, just don't make it so bright that you blind yourself while playing.

Rellizate · Post by **Rellizate** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:02 pm

You could try looking through these. There should be at least some 50mm LED fans there.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... p=1&fsoo=1

Gamerdude · Post by **Gamerdude** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:31 pm

Try using a cold cathode. It is a really small and bright light tube thing. It is like a neon but smaller and brighter. They do need an inverter and come in 4" and 6" lenths (Yes, don't kill me, they make them bigger but 12" to 24" is pointless to a GC). They reqire little power and they are wonderful to use in PS2s with clear cases (colored clear). I am sure they would look cool on your GC.
I know how a camera can screw up a light job, I have had it happen almost everytime I try to take photos of my PS2 or other custom console. It is possible to fix this problem but with a cheap camera (any point-and-shoot basic camera which does not really come that cheap will do this since it sets the settings and not you). Just expierment and send in your best pics. If you are using a webcam it will look all the worse. Do not feel bad, it is a common problem and I would like to see Hatrix send in a pic of

"His GameCube"

. Get used to this, people do this on the fourms. If he doesn't want to see your GC then he shouldn't come to this thread anymore.

TheOnlyOneHeFears · Post by **TheOnlyOneHeFears** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:28 pm

EnterTheHatrix wrote:
TheOnlyOneHeFears wrote:Whilst I appreciate your advice, I don't particularly like being subjected to what almost counts for abuse simply because I've done a few mods my way...I accept the point about the camera...I just though people might apprectaie some pictures, no matter how poor they might be.
If my mods cause you so much offense I suggest you take your own advice and not look at this threat again.
Done.. Have fun with your crap lit gamecube.. Maybe one day you'll do a good job of it, or actually be original!

Fine with me...Condemning someone's Gamecube as 'piss poor' and 'crap lit' on the basis of a few webcam pictures is hardly fair. It looks so much better in real life.

This is my first major console mod, and I'd rather do mods that I know I am capable of doing, rather than attempting something original, and messing it up. I'm sure if I rushed into it, trying to do something far to over-ambitious, you would criticise me then, with perfectly good reason. I want to gain experience from doing a few minor mods, which will then lead up to some more original ones...practise makes perfect, right? Or am I weird in the fact that I wasn't born with God-like modding skills?

I respect your mods and your portables, they speak for themself. But I think you should be a little more considerate and a little less condemnatory towards someone who has just started out, and is trying to do it well.

Thanks to everyone else for their support

Anyway. I did my other memory card in the same way as the one in the previous picture. I'm going to Maplin tomorrow to get the green LED for the fan light up.

You could try looking through these. There should be at least some 50mm LED fans there.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... p=1&fsoo=1

Trust me, I've looked on eBay, and through Google. The only 50mm fans I can find are not LED modded, and it would be so much easier just to use an LED to illuminate the stock fan than to try to hack up a 60mm fan to fit. Another guy who did this over on MaxConsole said the same thing. Still, I appreciate you looking though