Solved Portable Gamecube Help - What to do with power board

[Tech Flare]

Okay so I'm making my first portable console, (a gamecube obviously) and I am not sure what I should do with the power board!

So here are my questions:

1. How do I connect the battery to the power input?
2. Will the battery power button turn on power or will the power board button turn on power?
3. There is another tiny board that connects via a white two pin connector to the power board and It has two black prongs that you can push. Do I need that board and what does it do?

 

[Matthew]

Okay so I'm making my first portable console, (a gamecube obviously) and I am not sure what I should do with the power board!
View attachment 1950

So here are my questions:

1. How do I connect the battery to the power input?
2. Will the battery power button turn on power or will the power board button turn on power?
3. There is another tiny board that connects via a white two pin connector to the power board and It has two black prongs that you can push. Do I need that board and what does it do?

Just throw the whole thing away and make a wii portable.

But honestly with Custom regulators and switches you don't need this power board, unless you are planning on using wall power.

You will need the switch to cut power from the regulators to the board.

 

[Tech Flare]

Just throw the whole thing away and make a wii portable.

But honestly with Custom regulators and switches you don't need this power board, unless you are planning on using wall power.

You will need the switch to cut power from the regulators to the board.

I would make a custom regulator board, but i'm too new to stuff like that :/ so do I really need the switch, or can I just scrap it all together?

 

[Luke]

You don't need to "make a custom board", you just need to get the regs and wire them properly. Explanation.

Obviously you're going to want some sort of power switch on your portable, and no it doesn't HAVE to the same switch that's on the gamecube already.

Please do as much of your own research as you can before you dive in. There is so much documentation for all of this.

 

[Madmorda]

No, you don't need that. The only thing that does is take power from the plug, run it through an on / off switch, and then on to the gc. You can take the 12v from your battery circuit to the gc motherboard directly and put your own switch in between to turn it on and off.

I would also suggest considering building a wii portable since they are all around better and probably easier for beginners since the info for wiis is more up to date. Wiis have better video output, no modchip is necessary, they can run emulators, they are much smaller, get better battery life, generate less heat, and need fewer relocations. Plus the wii community is very much alive, while gcps are kind of dying out since wii portables are basically upgraded gcps. It's entirely up to you, but you should at least look into wiis

As far as gamecube portable info, there is a guide on bitbuilt but I believe it's only for Rev A and B motherboards. If you don't want to do custom regs, you probably want a rev C board. Modretro is dead community-wise and much of their info is out of date, but if you're set on a gcp without custom regs, that might be your best bet.

 

[Tech Flare]

No, you don't need that. The only thing that does is take power from the plug, run it through an on / off switch, and then on to the gc. You can take the 12v from your battery circuit to the gc motherboard directly and put your own switch in between to turn it on and off.

I would also suggest considering building a wii portable since they are all around better and probably easier for beginners since the info for wiis is more up to date. Wiis have better video output, no modchip is necessary, they can run emulators, they are much smaller, get better battery life, generate less heat, and need fewer relocations. Plus the wii community is very much alive, while gcps are kind of dying out since wii portables are basically upgraded gcps. It's entirely up to you, but you should at least look into wiis

As far as gamecube portable info, there is a guide on bitbuilt but I believe it's only for Rev A and B motherboards. If you don't want to do custom regs, you probably want a rev C board. Modretro is dead community-wise and much of their info is out of date, but if you're set on a gcp without custom regs, that might be your best bet.

Okay, thanks for the tips! Maybe my next portable will be a Wii...