I've been working on this for a long while, probally since january - i procrastinated a lot, and finally have got on the ball, and started working on it again. I planned to mod a gamecube (region switch, and paintjob, with the possiblity of some extras) to go along with my zelda pc case. However, I havent finished it yet, but took a break, and went back on this. anyways on with the log! this is pretty much what you need to work around inside a cube, the gamebit isnt the entire screwdriver, but regardless. I also like using one of the bigger phillips head bits that comes with that screwdriver, as it provides more leverage. The small screwdriver is great for getting at the heatsink though. switch used for region changing, and some wire that was far too large of a gauge (i shouldnt have boughten it, but oh well, i ended up using some wire from a scrap 486 machine that i originally used for a pc powerswitch) the insides of a cube, just after taking the 4 specialty screws out on the bottom of it. the heatsink, below it is the magical area containing both the vpu and cpu, as well as some ram i'd imagine after taking everything completely apart, here are the basic elements that will be painted (the only one i dont plan on painting is the handle, because black matches my theme) I originally planned to use one of these pc fangrills instead of the gamecube jewel, but i ran into a snag. the screw i would use to adhere the fangrill on would run into trouble with that area, so i decided i might as well just leave it stock. I dremeled out an area in the little vents for the region switch, and it seemed to work great MORE TO COME TOMARROW
will do Update: This was the first time i tested the switch i attempted to solder on (let me tell you, the first time i did it, i had no advice, and ended up going solder crazy and slighly ruining the first board.. first i tried the point method, which was incredibly hard because my soldering iron sucks, and then i went to the hole method. Unfortunally I soldered in one of the holes that you need to put a wire through doh!) Luckily I finally got the switch done yesterday, and it was totally easy. If you're interested in working on a cube mod, i've compiled a large list of useful links (which are hard to find, took me many hours of googling to find these) take a glance here: http://www.drxandy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16 I thought it'd be cool to have a controller extender painted up to match too, so i preped it and covered up the non purple areas with masking tape and a plastic baggie. I used krylon fusion (i'm a huge fusion whore, due to its ease of use without prepwork, and nice finish) Time for the actual case to be painted! whoo The case and fusion I used black vinyl dye for the front faceplate, it looks very nice in real life the picture makes it look a little dull, but thats because its a matte finish the bottom ports as well as the power,reset, and eject buttons The main event, everything turned out excellent, as i have checked this morning - paint is pretty evenly distributed and very smooth. Looking great, too bad i'm going to wait a day or two to put it back together (for drying purposes) That's all I have for today, but maybe monday they'll be another update
Update: This'll give an idea of what it might look like completed.. i think it turned out awesome, practically stock if i were to keep it that way however due to requests of the fangrill being used on top, i'm really really concidering it (because i do agree, it'd look great up there.) Notice the black border around the area where the cube fits together, that'll be remedied as i just finished painting it half an hour ago I also applied another coat of vinyl dye to the front panel, it looks a bit more washed out with more light hitting it - and more vinyl dye should fix that. what'd you guys think hehe, should i be so bold as to not use the stock jewel and just go with the fangrill? i'm afraid to work with glue on the nice paintjob sofar, but i might concider it hehe any reccomendations on a good glue to use that'll adhere plastic to metal properly (superglue is out of the question, as it sucks) now i just need to get working on painting up a controller
I've actually seen people sand and polish off the paint to make a sort of DVD window with the jewel... you could do something to that effect http://www.hardmods.net/index.php?act=gal&code=00&cat=15 BTW you definliy need to mod that xbox I see in the background
thanks for the link no way i'll mod the xbox though, i'm a huge collector and i need to have at least one original of the console before i decide to mod anything (and that xbox has over 3 years of saves that i dont want to lose) i got this cube specifically to be modded haha, i ended up paying under 30 bucks for it, mixed with trades of duplicates of my game collection
You could just leave the jewel, but replace the "NINTENDO GAMECUBE" logo inside with your own Zelda picture or whatever. You should be able to get a template for it on a Gamecube site.
Thanks for the great comments everyone nope, never been in a tony hawk comp why, someone use the name drxandy?
Update time: I worked for many hours last night basically screwing everything back in and a bit of touchup painting, as well as work on a memorycard here we go The front, everything screwed in - memory card slots look brighter because i cheaped out and used a sharpie on them instead of actually painting. I actually like the contrast, haha, i hate dealing with spring mechanisms, they're a total pain The back, with switch. It was incredibly hard to get that switch in there properly - it took me several tries, firstly because it wouldnt stay on between the holes - and secondly, it was too close to the digital av port Finally managed to get it on, buy just pushing the panel in with the switch not screwed in, then pulling the switch up and screwing it in. Worked great, and fits perfectly. fun fact: the gamecube wont boot if the switch is touching other metal (or maybe it wont boot if something is pushed against the digital av in *shrug*) Taking apart the jewel is pretty tough too - managed to do it, but now i'm having second thoughts about it haha, regardless i could just get another one from nintendo for $2 Before anyone comments that 3rd party memory cards are rubbish, let me just say I know I got this one in trade with the cube, and wouldnt ever use it normally- so i formatted it to JPN and use it for my import saves. For the record, i have 3 other nintendo brand memory cards, 2 251's and 1 59 (came with animal crossing) I didnt want any of the mad catz logos or any of the other writing, so i first used some 400 grit sandpaper, and took them off, then i finished up with some 1500 grit I didnt just want it blank however, i had a plan to make a triforce so i masked off the area with professional masking tape (the other kind is rubbish for painting, dont even bother with it) and cut out triangles with my exacto knife I like the results, and i think they pretty much speak for themselves: Thats all I have for this update, hope to do more today
its funny that fusion worked for you. about a month ago, i sprayed my ti-83 plus with the same green stuff. (i had cleaned it with rubbing alcohol first, shaken the can, and let it dry in a dry area). a week later the stuff was still not dry. hmmm. Well, glad to see its working for you! the gamecube looks great!
nope never heard of it Update: Tonight I completely finished piecing the cube together, putting all the stickers back on and screwing things in. The Lid was probally the worst part, as the spring mechanisms were insanely hard to remember how they went back on. After trial and error (over an hour of it.. grah!) and taking apart my main cube to figure out how the spring mechanism pictured above worked, I finally got it back together properly. Here is the magical secret LED color (its going to be the lighting scheme of my zelda pc case as well, whoo) It looks spectacular with the green and black, but my camera isnt the best, and it shows up blue. The led was originally positioned a little far back, so i decided to open it back up and reposition. This became very frustrating, because i ended up messing up the lid switch. A note to all possible cube modders - when you put the top part back together with the bottom, make 100% sure that the lid is ejected up, because you will crush the lid switch (the switch that recognizes if the lid is closed or open). After anger subsided, i decided i might as well waste some more time fixing my mistake. I took the entire switch assembly out, and found out my problem - the switch's internals opened up and the 2 little tiny metal pieces inside fell out. I fixed this, and with a sigh of relief got it working properly again. After finally finishing up with the lesson in frustration, I sat down to enjoy the fruits of my labor. Now to work on the jewel, and do up a controller, and this mod should be complete I think i've decided not to do a window, or actually adhere the fangrill to the case - but instead paint its silloutte on the jewel... i'll let the pics explain it better than i can later hehe I hope to complete it by june 7th in lieu of four swords. As of now, its completely operational and looking great in my opinion.
It's kind of a shame that you can't see the entire Triforce on the memory card when it's inserted. ): My roommate's a Zelda nut; he wants to get a Triforce tattoo, but his girlfriend is so far vetoing the back of his hand as a possible location. Anyway, looks good, and I'm definitely looking forward to the finished jewel and your PC. Oh, and a pic of the LED would be fantastic if you can talk your camera into it... I'd love to see where you put it and all.
hehe The white led replaced the orange stock gamecube one, basically the crest between the reset and eject buttons when i get the jewel finished, i'll be sure to include more pics
You may find that it doesn't like conductive objects (e.g. your hand) in close proximity either. I think you need to ground it, i.e. connect the metal outer housing to the GND. Personally, I would get a nice square plastic rocker switch instead, that looks more factory fitted, or something like the one below: Still, mod on, dude!
update: This won't be that big of an update, because i've been lazy hehe, but its a slight one, and i thought this was a nice touch to the overall system. I saw the power plug sitting lonely, and thought to myself, hey wait a tick, this brick can be taken apart! so i did and added a dash of paint to the equasion i also decided to fill in the letters with a fine tipped perminant marker - of which i didnt have the steadiest hand, but it worked out none the less (had to keep cleaning the tip of the marker off heh) thought it had a nice touch to it, all the details count
