GCN DIY SD2SP2 installed internally soldering a micro sd adapter to GameCube Serial port 2

[ANG3LK1LL3R127]

I have a dol 001 with no serial port, and a broken JP motherboard that has one. Can i transplant the port itself to my working modded gamecube?

Im a beginner at this stuff so thank you in advance

All I had to do was jump the missing bead filter on FIL22 and that delivers power to the port and it worked fine for me.

 

[iiTzSamurai]

All I had to do was jump the missing bead filter on FIL22 and that delivers power to the port and it worked fine for me.

So just read the post where you can solder an adapter and i edited the photo and If i read correctly the guy said you didnt need the cap so if I just solder the wires as shown in the photo I provided it should work right? Or maybe you could show me what you're talking about with the missing bead filter. I have a dol-101 with no sp2 or cutout for it

 

[Shadow#1]

So just read the post where you can solder an adapter and i edited the photo and If i read correctly the guy said you didnt need the cap so if I just solder the wires as shown in the photo I provided it should work right? Or maybe you could show me what you're talking about with the missing bead filter. I have a dol-101 with no sp2 or cutout for it

The cap would be a good idea

 

[iiTzSamurai]

The cap would be a good idea

the other poster said that adapter already had a cap soldered directly on it

edit. Bought some anyway just in case

 

[iiTzSamurai]

I’ve pre made this wire and added a connector on the end for easy disconnection to be able to fully take it apart without it being fully soldered to the chip and motherboard

 

[O_xTanjax_O]

I tried doing this to my d101 for the picoboot mod but...I have no idea if this works at all. I have been trying since yesterday and nothing. Confirmed with some firmware that the pico does infact work so it isn't that. Can someone help me out with figuring this out. ;-;

*Figured out a way to do this. I soldered a SD adapter to the Sd2sp2 and it now reads swiss for the picoboot mod . SUCCESS (so far)

 

[_MegaMan_]

I tried doing this to my d101 for the picoboot mod but...I have no idea if this works at all. I have been trying since yesterday and nothing. Confirmed with some firmware that the pico does infact work so it isn't that. Can someone help me out with figuring this out. ;-;

*Figured out a way to do this. I soldered a SD adapter to the Sd2sp2 and it now reads swiss for the picoboot mod . SUCCESS (so far)

I'm trying the method from this thread also, but I don't have that red sds2p2 you showed. It seems like Pico Doesn't notice it if its just the regular microSD adaptor with a 64GB microSD card with swiss on it. The gamecube boots up for me but stays on a black screen with the pico installed. I think the pico can only work with actual sd2sp2 like yours.

When you first tried to boot pico with regualr adapter like the one in this thread, did your GC turn on and stay on with a black screen too? Also, how has the your pico been working with the alternate way your using the the sd2sp2, had any issues so far?

 

[Solo761]

So just read the post where you can solder an adapter and i edited the photo and If i read correctly the guy said you didnt need the cap so if I just solder the wires as shown in the photo I provided it should work right? Or maybe you could show me what you're talking about with the missing bead filter. I have a dol-101 with no sp2 or cutout for it

I'm not sure this would work. You're missing two wires from motherboard to SD, CS and INT, while this adapter has CS point it doesn't have connection for INT. Without it SD will work in SPI mode, not in SDIO mode. I think it needs SDIO to communicate with SD card.

 

[Konan1337]

Out of curiosity, what gauge is better for this SP2 Mod? 28 or 30awg? Just got my gamebit in today and GC torn apart, just to realize that my 22awg isn't going to cut it

 

[Wheels35]

I tried doing this to my d101 for the picoboot mod but...I have no idea if this works at all. I have been trying since yesterday and nothing. Confirmed with some firmware that the pico does infact work so it isn't that. Can someone help me out with figuring this out. ;-;

*Figured out a way to do this. I soldered a SD adapter to the Sd2sp2 and it now reads swiss for the picoboot mod . SUCCESS (so far)

So im running into the similar issue you originally mentioned...What do you mean you soldered a SD Adapter to the SD2SP2...if you have any pictures that would be great

 

[ObsidiousBlade]

Is the 22uf 10v Capacitor an audio capacitor?

 

[sonicscrewdrover]

I am also trying to do this on a dol-001 without a serial 2 port using pico boot and my soldering looks good but it doesn't boot into swiss using the SD adapter it does work using a memory card to SD. I did buy a Sd2sp2 before I knew about the serial port would soldering to that instead like O_xTanjax_O did work?

 

[sonicscrewdrover]

No dice. I tried soldering in the adapter and it still just boots to the GC menu not swiss. I must be missing something somewhere

 

[MagNeato]

I attempted to wire a SD2SP2 into my DOL-001 (a unit without the serial port) and found I had to do two things to make it work.

1. The 3.3v pin in the empty serial port did not have voltage, so I had to run a jump wire from a nearby capacitor.
2. The DI/DO (data in/out) pins on my SD2SP2 are MISLABELLED so I had to swap them around. I tested with a multimeter to be sure after some...frustration.

 

[MagNeato]

My SD2SP2 is a blue circuit board version.

 

[sonicscrewdrover]

I attempted to wire a SD2SP2 into my DOL-001 (a unit without the serial port) and found I had to do two things to make it work.

1. The 3.3v pin in the empty serial port did not have voltage, so I had to run a jump wire from a nearby capacitor.
2. The DI/DO (data in/out) pins on my SD2SP2 are MISLABELLED so I had to swap them around. I tested with a multimeter to be sure after some...frustration.

When checking the data pins how should that be done? I'm guessing checking resistance to ground or something like that

 

[mooglazer]

OK I figured it out. Took a while to test everything.

So my board is a DOL-001 NTSC Revision 1.1 with no SP2 Port. It has all the traces and the through-holes for the plug, but the plug is not there. The plastic housing has a hole in the cast for it, but the aluminum shield does not, so you cannot see the board from the outside.

The issue I had was this: FIL22 (the ferrite bead filter) was not soldered in manufacturing; I assume because it'd be a waste if the port isn't even used. It is on the underside of the board near where the plug would be. The nearby bypass capacitor is also not soldered, but being that we are using a capacitor already, I don't expect this to ever be an issue. So the result was the 3.3v line was broken. Because it's only a bead filter (honestly overkill for the most part and can safely be ignored), I just bridged the filter pads with a little piece of wire to get power to the port. It worked perfectly after that.

Also, I used ADA254 to hook it up instead of a leftover SD card to microSD card adapter.

If anyone wants to use this in the future, here's some general guidance: the 5v and chip detect (CD) pins can be ignored; The INT (interrupt) line on the gamecube can be ignored (it was never getting used anyway); you don't need two ground lines, only one; when using the 3.3v pin, the built in level shifter is not used, so you don't have to worry about the extra chip on it messing with anything; lastly, it has a bypass capacitor already soldered on, so you can just forget the 22uF cap.

The result is that it really simplifies things in my opinion and I rather like it as it feels more professional. Also, the width of the breakout board happens to be the perfect size to fit in the hole where the broadband adapter would go. So it's a nice little convenient place to mount it with access to the card from the outside.

Hope this info helps others in the future.

Thanks for the detailed post, same console here! I tried this when the sd2sp2 came out, but did not <!!> catch the FIL22 connection missing, so I never got it working initially. Thank you for pointing this out.

I used the same Adafruit board (had one handy) and confirmed INT is not required. Got my junker purple console going, now on to my other consoles!

Cheers!

 

[MagNeato]

When checking the data pins how should that be done? I'm guessing checking resistance to ground or something like that

I found the problem by comparing a microSD pinout to the silkscreened labels on the SD2SP2. The traces on the SD2SP2 were pretty easy to follow back to the microSD slot to spot the flaw. In other words, verify the circuit labels on the SD2SP2.

 

[mooglazer]

No dice. I tried soldering in the adapter and it still just boots to the GC menu not swiss. I must be missing something somewhere

I didn't have any luck initially with an official red SD2SP2 soldered into the port. The Adafruit adapter worked fine.

Also happy to report that the DOL-101 pinout for SD worked great for adding the missing port back to my black console. Thanks all!

Post automatically merged: Oct 21, 2022

Out of curiosity, what gauge is better for this SP2 Mod? 28 or 30awg? Just got my gamebit in today and GC torn apart, just to realize that my 22awg isn't going to cut it

Not sure if still helpful, but if it helps anyone 30 awg seems to be behaving normally for me.

Also, the internal DOL-101 mod definitely depends on wire length, and/or shielding. It took some experimentation to get my SD adapter up to where I needed it.

If the cables are unshielded, you've reached the length limit when swiss will boot but your entries will have no icons. Or they may attempt to load and then complain about your file being too fragmented. Shielding definitely helps.

Good to see life breathed into some of these DOL-101s.

 

[themine1500]

I have two DOL-101 that have failed disc drives.. they do not have SP2… but I have 2 SD2SP2 and 2 picoboot .. this hardwire will work for DOL-101 that doesn’t have the SP2 port? I don’t want to let these consoles go to waste. Thanks!