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

[Donnie-Burger]

To each their own, but I've bent the chassis and had zero issues. There's far more than enough room for the cables.

And im using small cables compared to most, keep that in mind if bending. This is safest way so far. Ty to all! Theres many ways to eat a vegan sandwich.

 

[hdx]

No matter the wire length and thickness I'm just unable to make the intermittent boots go away (tried 24AWG, 30AWG, kynar, made the wires less than 15cm, tried to give the pico an alternative ground, etc).

It's not a dealbreaker, as it does work most of the time, but 'ts still kinda annoying.

On the original diagram it says to bridge GP6&7, you can bridge 6, 7 and 8 and see if that resolves the issue.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

I had this once. Only time I used stranded wire. I changed to kynar single core and it went away. Been using kynar so far all good. Are you using sd gecko or sd2sp2?

 

[ghjfdtg]

Fwiw i would personally go the other way around. Put the Pico or whatever RP2040 board fits inside and route the USB port outside. Keep in mind USB uses a differential pair so keep D+ and D- together (twisting will work). The only remaining issue is how to enter bootloader mode without the button but i believe you can force the RP2040 in bootloader mode via software.

Why would i do that? Because USB is virtually immune to noise and the wires going to the mainboard should be as short as possible.

 

[skawo]

On the original diagram it says to bridge GP6&7, you can bridge 6, 7 and 8 and see if that resolves the issue.

Hm. Maybe it's booting more frequently now? Not entirely sure - still got a couple instances of just a black screen or IPL booting despite B being held down (I have it set-up so that the IPL is what's meant to boot by default). Power light on the Pico appears in both cases.

Thanks for the help, in any case.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Don't cut the chassis, you can bend it a little bit and let cables through. Bending is reversible, cutting is not.

Just for you I always forget to slide the heat shrink tube Next time Really digging all the gamecube mods!
Finally got these setup - working:
In game reset (Z+A+Start)
GBi
Disc Ripper
Controller tester
Nes
Snes
Genesis
Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy advance
Master system
Game gear

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Went back in and tubbed up

 

[MisakiRol]

Okidoki guys, here’s the 411... I'm not new to modding. Have done some pretty hairy PS2 modding back in the day. I don't like going and asking for assistance at every bump in the process... I tend to do my research and try to tackle it again... Order my Raspberry Pi Pico, correct wire, I already had flux and a very nice soldering station... The Gamecube I installed it in were two. One Japanese Orange Spiced console with the gameboy advance player and a Japanese Silver with same... I installed both chips after flashing the Pico. Prepped my microSD popped in SP2 and Bob's your uncle! It worked... Played a little bit of Luigi's Mansion, turned it off and on again and the DAMN thing boots into the Vanilla GC... Turned it off and on again same thing... I did my research, reinstalled SWISS to no avail... I also shortened the wires greatly and even went so far as to try different wire. This changes nothing... SWISS will boot cold first time but the minute you turn it off and on again it boots GC Vanilla... Wait some time and it'll boot into SWISS again... This is on both the Orange and Silver... I know both BIOS batteries need replacing and was going to do so after I got the PICOboot to work properly every time... Could this be the problem? Seems very unlikely... Or did I just get a crap shipment of Raspberry Pi Picos? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Okidoki guys, here’s the 411... I'm not new to modding. Have done some pretty hairy PS2 modding back in the day. I don't like going and asking for assistance at every bump in the process... I tend to do my research and try to tackle it again... Order my Raspberry Pi Pico, correct wire, I already had flux and a very nice soldering station... The Gamecube I installed it in were two. One Japanese Orange Spiced console with the gameboy advance player and a Japanese Silver with same... I installed both chips after flashing the Pico. Prepped my microSD popped in SP2 and Bob's your uncle! It worked... Played a little bit of Luigi's Mansion, turned it off and on again and the DAMN thing boots into the Vanilla GC... Turned it off and on again same thing... I did my research, reinstalled SWISS to no avail... I also shortened the wires greatly and even went so far as to try different wire. This changes nothing... SWISS will boot cold first time but the minute you turn it off and on again it boots GC Vanilla... Wait some time and it'll boot into SWISS again... This is on both the Orange and Silver... I know both BIOS batteries need replacing and was going to do so after I got the PICOboot to work properly every time... Could this be the problem? Seems very unlikely... Or did I just get a crap shipment of Raspberry Pi Picos? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

I only see this on sd2sp2 and never on sdgecko. Took me a while to figure this out. Try cleaning the port with ipa and then drying / testing again or get a sd gecko

 

[MisakiRol]

sd gecko

Got one and it does the same exact thing... Blah

 

[Donnie-Burger]

Got one and it does the same exact thing... Blah

Just remembered on that one I changed wires to kynar and boots 100%. I use kynar on all and havent experienced this issue again.

Solid Kynar 30 Gauge

 

[MisakiRol]

Just remembered on that one I changed wires to kynar and boots 100%. I use kynar on all and havent experienced this issue again.

Solid Kynar 30 Gauge

Thanks I'll try it...

 

[mrdude]

FYI Pico W is released, I imagine the code that sits on the pico can easily work on that as it uses the same chip - however with the PICO W you should be able to upgrade the firmware via wifi.

 

[Gallaer]

I tried doing Picoboot and all the wires were soldered to the correct places. But the Gamecube doesn't even turn on now. Idk what happened. I'd pay for a professional modder to install it properly for me at this point cause I just don't think I can handle this. I just don't know who to turn to.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

I tried doing Picoboot and all the wires were soldered to the correct places. But the Gamecube doesn't even turn on now. Idk what happened. I'd pay for a professional modder to install it properly for me at this point cause I just don't think I can handle this. I just don't know who to turn to.

Test without dvd drive to make sure no pinches. Re-check all points and make sure no bridging, solder splash and of course make sure they are all going to the correct points. Make wires as short as possible.

 

[Gallaer]

Test without dvd drive to make sure no pinches. Re-check all points and make sure no bridging, solder splash and of course make sure they are all going to the correct points. Make wires as short as possible.

I didn't do the ipl.dol. I did z.dol. So it should just turn on to the stock gamecube menu.

 

[Donnie-Burger]

I didn't do the ipl.dol. I did z.dol. So it should just turn on to the stock gamecube menu.

Yeah it should. Rename swiss.dol to ipl.dol in root of sd. Check your sd gecko and or sd2sp2.

 

[Gallaer]

Yeah it should. Rename swiss.dol to ipl.dol in root of sd. Check your sd gecko and or sd2sp2.

I think what may have happened was I lifted a pin inside when trying to solder. Is there any professional modder I can just send my Gamecube too?

 

[hdx]

I tried doing Picoboot and all the wires were soldered to the correct places. But the Gamecube doesn't even turn on now. Idk what happened. I'd pay for a professional modder to install it properly for me at this point cause I just don't think I can handle this. I just don't know who to turn to.

You shorted something because you can see how power LED goes off which means overcurrent protection trips in. Show your soldering job.

 

[aphexacid]

So I’ve done 6 of these so far. The first 3 pack of pi’s I bought off Amazon installed without a hitch. 5 - 6 inches of 26awg wire. No problems.

The next 3 pack off Amazon I got were different. Inconsistent boots on all. And sometimes it won’t find the SD card whether it’s in sp2 or in a gecko.
Out of 10 tries, they would boot to Swiss 50%. Was going nuts!

So I shortened the wires to 4 inches maybe even a touch less. 2 cubes now are working great. But I have still a unit that deviates. It doesn’t boot to anything occasionally. It’s better, but not perfect. I shortened the wires to the max. Anything shorter will be very difficult to disassemble if it was needed.

So, could be wonky batch of pi’s? Particular GC versions? Or maybe location needs to be as close to solder points as possible with extremely short wires.

To be clear, when the boot doesn’t not go to Swiss, it’s just a black screen game cube an fan are 100% on.

I thought also it could be a tv handshake problem maybe.
I’ve tried oem av cables. Official Nintendo component cables with ossc and rt5x. And a prism hdmi adapter with GC video 3.1. All same.

Also one thing I found interesting is that if you don’t have a dvd drive installed at all, and you have to go adjust calendar or manage memory card, it won’t allow you. It will tell you to consult the manual there was an error. So I find my self keeping dead drives installed just to a sound that problem.