Hacking Building a Game Cube SD adapter

[korn16ftl3]

ok so i am reading around and googeling (and as mentioned before am investing time in my GC) and found the following tutorial for making my own GC SD memory card reader:
http://ngc.scorpei.c...SD_adapter.html

so far i have eliminated 1 of the parts on his parts list as i am going to directly solder a micro SD card adapter to the memory card pins thus making it a micro SD adaptor and still maintaining removable memory (as well as im sure saving a buck or 2 as im sure the SD sockets are probably about $5 USD + shipping and waiting) BUT at the end of his guide he mentions the following:

I hope you now have a nice GameCube SD adapter . Remember though, this guide isn't perfect (it is possible to retain the normal save function of your memory card if you know how. I don't so I did not incorporate this into my guide).

i am looking (not that im sure if it maters it would just be nice) to find a guide that shows me how to keep the normal memory card functions as well. I have googeled and googeled and googeled and keep cumming up with guides for the same schematics and methods as he has shown so i was hoping some 1 here would be able to show me an alternative guide to keep the MC function.

Another Question i am curious about once i complete this adapter will i be able to use the SD card as a standard GC memory card for game saves and all that? I am assuming so as im sure that is what the whole original point of these devices was for but i wanted to ask to make sure,i have no intentions of loading homebrew apps from this memory card and have full intentions of chipping the system i simply want a really nice reliable huge Memory card.

i have also read on another guide ( i didnt book mark it as it was the same method) that it is possible to use a larger SD card than 2GB but i fail to see how that is because any thing larger than 2GB is SDHC and from my readings these devices are not SDHC compatible (go figure eh )

if any one would mind clearing up one or all of these things i would greatly appreciate it

i have full intentions of posting my altered Micro SD to GC guide some where for those that may still be ordering SD sockets and haven't thought of this method, as well as the fact i have intention of contacting the owner of the above listed site with the tutorial i create so (if they wish) may update there guide and/or picture archives or what ever

 

[tueidj]

I think you might need to reconsider, micro SD cards often don't implement SPI mode (they're not required to, unlike ordinary SD cards) which is used to access the card via the EXI bus.

And no, these SD adapters do not let you use the SD card as a replacement for a gamecube memory card. They are for homebrew purposes only.

 

[obcd]

Would this be the same as what you find in an sd gecko adapter, or is that different?

 

[DinohScene]

Would this be the same as what you find in an sd gecko adapter, or is that different?

It's exactly the same.

 

[PsyBlade]

micro SD cards often don't implement SPI mode

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital lists SPI as mandatory for the whole SD family.

Can you point me to a way to test a card for SPI mode using Linux or Windows?

 

[obcd]

All SD card families must support two signaling bus types at power-up: Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) bus and one-bit SD bus. Depending upon the card type, an additional four-bit SD bus type may be either optional or mandatory for the card.[17]

Now I am getting confused again...

 

[korn16ftl3]

All SD card families must support two signaling bus types at power-up: Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) bus and one-bit SD bus. Depending upon the card type, an additional four-bit SD bus type may be either optional or mandatory for the card.[17]

Now I am getting confused again...

me and you both but on the other hand if i cant use it for any thing but brews i might just scrap the whole project all i want is 1 big ass memory card

i dont understand why i wouldnt be able to format the SD card via the Game Cube Memory Card Utility in the Game Cube Bios tho... i mean i replaced the whole interface of the standard MC where my games save with an SD card how exactly does a GC know its an SD card and refuse to format it?

 

[lulwut]

cause you replaced the whole gc memory card internals.
you really think the GC mem cards are only some SD storage and nothing more? they do have a microcontroller to keep shit protected in a fail way you know.
at best i'd check what a gc mem card's storage ic pins look like and if possible, replace that with an sd card....

 

[obcd]

Some of these gc memory adapters have direct chip on pcb bonding. All you see is a black blob instead of a real chip in a housing.
I don't think finding the memory chip pins and replacing it with an sd is an option.

 

[impizkit]

Just buy this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GLPFRQ/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000RC51Q4&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1F2E5EJX91GT3M8C8DFQ

 

[obcd]

For homebrew applications or as giant wii memory adapter?

 

[Sicklyboy]

Just buy this.

http://www.amazon.co...EJX91GT3M8C8DFQ

Or this.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/wiikey-sd-card-adapter-for-wii-3993

Works just as well. I have one.

 

[korn16ftl3]

cause you replaced the whole gc memory card internals.
you really think the GC mem cards are only some SD storage and nothing more? they do have a microcontroller to keep shit protected in a fail way you know.
at best i'd check what a gc mem card's storage ic pins look like and if possible, replace that with an sd card....

right i was wondering what exactly those epoxy covered chips do and where i could possibly connect the SD card to make it detect as an actual memory card

 

[FAST6191]

Some links if you do fancy programming something. I did not look hard but nothing about the protocol jumped out at me (according to the links below electrically they are fine
http://www.gc-linux.org/wiki/Memory_and_Filesystems#Reading.2Fwriting_directly_to_SD.2FMMC_cards
The "broken link" can be found http://gc-linux.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=gc-linux/gc-linux-2.6.git;a=blob_plain;f=drivers/block/gcn-sd.c;hb=HEAD if you want.
http://hitmen.c02.at/files/yagcd/yagcd/chap10.html and http://hitmen.c02.at/files/yagcd/yagcd/chap2.html#sec2.4.1

Truth be told if it did not occur to grab a bunch of SPDT switches I would stop with just the adapter made.

As for the epoxy stuff I am not sure- can be many things. If you really want though http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html and I doubt signals analysis is going to be terribly difficult on this.

 

[korn16ftl3]

and I doubt signals analysis is going to be terribly difficult on this.

good time to learn to make my own mod i hate space limitations, largest GC MC = 1024 blocks i think and its only 64MB and i think its only a mad cats thing unsure tho that alone makes me leary about trusting the integrity of the MC its self

thanks for the links i will be reading into this a bit more and see what exactly i can grasp out of all this information

any idea where a good spot to post about more technical things like this would be? maybe a GC dev forum or something?

 

[tueidj]

You won't be able to make an SD card adapter return an EXI ID without extra hardware, let alone translate the GC memory card commands to SPI. Also according to yagcd: "The theoretical maximum size for a memory card is 128 mega bits (16 mega bytes, 2048 blocks)."
Patching the game (similar to NMM) is a much more feasible solution.

 

[Alex S]

How can i make one using the remains of this adapter and a official memory card? I have all the tools needed