Hacking Homebrew GCN PicoBoot - GameCube IPL replacement modchip using Raspberry Pi Pico

[Kioku]

I used 26AWG solid insulated wire for mine and it works fine. wires are about 5 inches long and I have only had Swiss fail to boot once when I first installed it and it has been fine ever since.

Will look into that if the reinstall does not yield positive results. Thank you!

Edit: Reinstalled it just now. Wires are about 4 inches long. Connections seem fine. Roughly 1 out of 4 boots is black screen. Sometimes the Pico doesn't have power? Time to get some heavier duty wire.

 

[master801]

Will look into that if the reinstall does not yield positive results. Thank you!

Edit: Reinstalled it just now. Wires are about 4 inches long. Connections seem fine. Roughly 1 out of 4 boots is black screen. Sometimes the Pico doesn't have power? Time to get some heavier duty wire.

I recommend using thinner gauge wire (30 AWG) and not "heavy duty wire".

Data lines tend to be picky when you up the wire gauge and will not respond well, if at all. For ground and power lines, this doesn't matter much, however.

 

[SodaSoba]

I should be safe with some think kynar I assume it's never seen me wrong, my Pico arrived today so I'll be attempting a install later, Ive seen removing the heatsink can be tricky but heating it up helps with removal but if all else fails I'm sure I have thermal pads from a GPU fix I did.

 

[tech3475]

I should be safe with some think kynar I assume it's never seen me wrong, my Pico arrived today so I'll be attempting a install later, Ive seen removing the heatsink can be tricky but heating it up helps with removal but if all else fails I'm sure I have thermal pads from a GPU fix I did.

Be careful, according to one video I saw you need thermal pads of different heights.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Be careful, according to one video I saw you need thermal pads of different heights.

That is my main concern as well: Do I have to order a bunch of different pads just to install a modchip? How likely is it, that the original pads tear and become unusable?
Arguably it does more than XenoGC (Raspi pico already arrived and I plan to try it since I became aware of this breakthrough), but I wouldn't say PicoBoot is easier to install than XenoGC.

 

[SodaSoba]

Be careful, according to one video I saw you need thermal pads of different heights.

Machonacho yeah seen that video 0.5mm 1mm & 2 mm

@KleinesSinchen I've seen if you heat up the heatsink first it pulls off without damaging the thermal pads

 

[tech3475]

That is my main concern as well: Do I have to order a bunch of different pads just to install a modchip? How likely is it, that the original pads tear and become unusable?
Arguably it does more than XenoGC (Raspi pico already arrived and I plan to try it since I became aware of this breakthrough), but I wouldn't say PicoBoot is easier to install than XenoGC.

When I get round to it, my plan is to try the heatgun method and only order pads if I mess it up.

 

[Kioku]

I recommend using thinner gauge wire (30 AWG) and not "heavy duty wire".

Data lines tend to be picky when you up the wire gauge and will not respond well, if at all. For ground and power lines, this doesn't matter much, however.

Using 30 AWG stranded. The same stuff I used when I installed the Xeno. Tried the install twice now to face the same issue. So, I'm buying new, slightly larger wire.

 

[SodaSoba]

I can confirm heating up the heatsink makes it a lot easier and cleaner to remove!

Ok so I got to installing and everything went smoothly, my soldering isn't amazing but I managed it

I mainly followed machonacho install

I isolated the Pico with more than what was probably required in heat tape

No double sided tape so it just sits here

After putting it back together I switched it on and Swiss instantly loaded


I updated my gcvideo and I ran into a few hiccups


After it updated my GameCube only loaded into normal GC bios.
After trying a few times it decided to boot into Swiss again, so I tried to load GCinterface.via holding B

And it worked.

So it's either my wire length being slightly too long or too thin but it does work and works better than shinehax



It's weird why it doesn't always boot I'm hoping it's down to the payload more than my soldering as I can't be bothered redoing it, I'm lazy.

 

[master801]

Using 30 AWG stranded. The same stuff I used when I installed the Xeno. Tried the install twice now to face the same issue. So, I'm buying new, slightly larger wire.

How long are your wires? 30 AWG tends to like being short.

 

[Kioku]

How long are your wires? 30 AWG tends to like being short.

As short as I could get them so I could mount the Pico right on the fan, about 4.5".

 

[Kioku]

View attachment 317054
I can confirm heating up the heatsink makes it a lot easier and cleaner to remove!

Ok so I got to installing and everything went smoothly, my soldering isn't amazing but I managed it
View attachment 317055
I mainly followed machonacho install
View attachment 317056
I isolated the Pico with more than what was probably required in heat tape
View attachment 317058
No double sided tape so it just sits here

After putting it back together I switched it on and Swiss instantly loaded
View attachment 317059

I updated my gcvideo and I ran into a few hiccups
View attachment 317062View attachment 317063

After it updated my GameCube only loaded into normal GC bios.
After trying a few times it decided to boot into Swiss again, so I tried to load GCinterface.via holding B
View attachment 317060
And it worked.

So it's either my wire length being slightly too long or too thin but it does work and works better than shinehax

View attachment 317061

It's weird why it doesn't always boot I'm hoping it's down to the payload more than my soldering as I can't be bothered redoing it, I'm lazy.

My problem is kind of similar. Except I also get black screens. Roughly 1/2 of the boots are successful. The other half is either black screen, or no power to the pico. Will be redoing the install next week with some 26 or 28 awg solid core wire (I ordered both).

 

[hdx]

My problem is kind of similar. Except I also get black screens. Roughly 1/2 of the boots are successful. The other half is either black screen, or no power to the pico. Will be redoing the install next week with some 26 or 28 awg solid core wire (I ordered both).

Wiring issue. Use shorter wires and maybe thicker ones too.

 

[SodaSoba]

Wiring issue. Use shorter wires and maybe thicker ones too.

Do you think it's all the lines or just the 3v line? My issues seem to have stopped, for me it might personally be a gcvideo issue trying to run the wrong resolution for the wrong title.

I can get Swiss to use IPR.dol to reset fine but reboot will make the cube boot into normal bios, gb-interface also doesn't reboot but I don't think it ever did worked with IPR reset

And sometimes if I enable the setting "load through IPL" in Swiss to get the GameCube logo to "boot" before the game it resets and just loads the normal bios, I believe this is a gcvideo/Swiss but the issue but it's just a gimmick as it's not really required, but I do miss the GC boot logo.

Aside from that this method is vastly superior to shinehax (quickest softmod method) and the xenogc with Swiss burnt to disc,the takeover buttons to load different dols is awesome and works brilliantly.

I appreciate your efforts & make this easy to do & opensource for anyone and the diagrams you have provided are clean & clear.

As a tip for anyone trying to remove the heatsink using a heat gun/rework station to heat up the heatsink makes it a lot simpler to remove and the thermal pads can usually be saved/reused.

 

[splatool]

So if a gamecube had broke disc door sensor meaning lid always detected as open, would this mod bypass that problem?

 

[SodaSoba]

So if a gamecube had broke disc door sensor meaning lid always detected as open, would this mod bypass that problem?

I do believe it would work. You could bridge the connection of the sensor to make the cube think the tray is always closed too.

 

[splatool]

I have reason I'm trying to avoid doing that, but hopefully the Pico will actually bypass that issue. (If anyone can confirm that, please do so!)

 

[SodaSoba]

Yes it does I tested my cube with the tray open

 

[Esdeath]

So if a gamecube had broke disc door sensor meaning lid always detected as open, would this mod bypass that problem?

Since it will boot straight up into swiss you should be fine, there was also an option in swiss that disables the drive I would additionally activate.

 

[splatool]

I've been trying to find out for hours if Swiss happened to have an option like that, THANK YOU! And cheers for confirming that it'll bypass the issue.