The Dolphin: A cube in a fish tank

[GadBeebe]

I have acquired an extra gamecube (and in fact a third) and I plan to recase it in a spherical fishtank, immersed in mineral oil*. The disk drive will sit at the top, closing it off and any ports will be around the edge of that, above the level of the oil.

I foresee a few problems with this plan and as such, any advice would be appreciated:

-Fitting the motherboard in the top of the tank. how narrow can I get it? (not thin) Does the PCB have more than two layers? ie Do I have any chance of cutting it in half and reconnecting?

-Ports need to be kept to a minimum and repositioned:
-Is there any reason to keep memory card slot B?
-Can all the controller ports be wired directly to he MOBO?
-Is there any reason to keep any serial ports? I reckon I'll survive without a GBA player.

I'll probably be removing the fan, leaving a power supply more convenient than any I can imagine. Any ideas for this? Already under consideration are bubbles the eternally cliched LEDs.

Currently everything is out of the casing and disconnected. Off I go to desolder the unnecessary ports. Goodbye Digital AV!!

*This idea first sparked in my head after reading the following:
http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php
which was itself as a result of reading gizmo4126's post(8th):
http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=27970

[XCVG]

-Fitting the motherboard in the top of the tank. how narrow can I get it? (not thin) Does the PCB have more than two layers? ie Do I have any chance of cutting it in half and reconnecting?

Pretty much uncuttable, but pretty small so you shouldn't need to cut it.

-Ports need to be kept to a minimum and repositioned:
-Is there any reason to keep memory card slot B?
-Can all the controller ports be wired directly to he MOBO?
-Is there any reason to keep any serial ports? I reckon I'll survive without a GBA player.

Memory slot B is only needed for copying from one card to another, or using two cards. But you can just swap cards. So it's pretty much only for copying. OK to ditch if you have another cube, or only one card.

I think the controller ports can be wired directly but I'm not expert.

There's a serial port modem, but only one game uses it.


In any case, make sure you use a PLASTIC fishtank. Make sure to keep oil out of the optical drive. Here's an idea- build a waterproof compartment for disc drive and ports. Put it in the top with the cube underneath.

[HotDog-Cart]

I dont get it. Wouldnt the oil damage the board?

[nevermind1534]

I dont get it. Wouldnt the oil damage the board?

Mineral oil is corrosive

[vskid]

I dont get it. Wouldnt the oil damage the board?

Mineral oil is corrosive

Source? I've never seen that, I've even read that it isn't corrosive.

[collinE]

and it doesn't conduct like water does, correct?

[nevermind1534]

and it doesn't conduct like water does, correct?

It does not conduct.

I dont get it. Wouldnt the oil damage the board?

Mineral oil is corrosive

Source? I've never seen that, I've even read that it isn't corrosive.

I can't remember where I read it. It can also leak into caps and other parts over time, but the gamecube has those solid capacitors. I don't know how those are affected.

[vskid]

This site has had a mineral oil cooled computer going for a year (as of the last update) with no problems. If it damages anything, I assume its no faster than what would happen in air.
I really want to try cooling something with mineral oil...

EDIT: Just realized the site I linked to was in the first post, I knew it looked familiar.

[palmertech]

But why? The GC does not overheat.

If I were to do this, it would be using something more prone to heat/noise.

[thewise1]

Because you can make it look cool, shove a few blue leds and fake fish and you have yourself an awesome console. And a bubble maker, there's an idea.

[ZN13]

or a couple of real fish
The computer repair class at my school built an oil cooled computer, and it's been running for about a month. No corrosion yet lol

[thewise1]

Yes, it would be nice to find fish that can swim in mineral oil, or not too stupid to get caught in a fan, if you decide to keep the fan still in.

[GadBeebe]

In reply to a couple of things:

Why would it have to be plastic? I imagine it would be easier to work with, and less liable to break, but I think glass would add a sense of quality to the finished product.

The project is mainly for the sake of appearance but I don't think it would be true to say the Gamecube never overheats. True it won't during normal use, but if your single-sitting a long game it can get a touch unstable. My experience of this is limited, and the problems I've seen might be due to the game, but certainly from around 6 hours into Majora's mask I was getting rather frustrated with the limited save function.

There will be at least a fake dolphin in the tank. Real fish have been considered. The tank used would be big enough to accommodate a "tank inside a tank" with the external tank filled with water so the fish could survive and the internal tank filled with oil so the cube could survive. However the temperature probably wouldn't stay stable enough for most kinds of fish without control systems being used. This would be awesome but I can't see it offsetting the work of making it reliably and looking after the fish (which not only would need fed but would need their tank cleaned). Additionally, the whole system would become much larger and heavier.

I should also not that between my commitments at university, my church and my work, this is going to be an extremely slow project.

[XCVG]

Put a little motor and battery in the fake fish so it swims around!

[eurddrue]

Yes, it would be nice to find fish that can swim in mineral oil, or not too stupid to get caught in a fan, if you decide to keep the fan still in.

edit: after closer examination, this appears to be my 1000th post. Rather odd way to waste it, but, oh well.