Cloning the GameCube component cable

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Extrems
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Wed Aug 17, 2016 5:48 am

I've checked. NES is 256x232, main menu is 608x448 and the rest is 640x480.
Guilt
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Guilt » Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:45 pm

Unseen wrote:GCVideo-DVI 2.2, now with:
  • Infrared remote support (alternative to Pad)
  • Wii support (don't even think about it unless you found that soldering the Paddata-Via on the Cube was really easy)
Oh, and no - I don't have any videos or screenshots available and I can't make them any time soon because my Dev-Wii is a wiring mess and the board is currently on the Cube for the final "did I break anything"-checks.
FANTASTIC. You have no idea how excited I am about this. Project M will look amazing. Noob question: will the Pluto work for Wii as nicely as for GC? Also, is there a Paddata-via for the OSD again, or will it rely on the new IR compatibility?

Fucking amazing work Unseen, you're a champion. Now make it Dreamcast compatible.
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Unseen
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:56 pm

Guilt wrote:Noob question: will the Pluto work for Wii as nicely as for GC?
Yes, but I don't think you'll be able to fit it in the Wii's case. Also, you need to flash either the Wii or the GC bitstream to it, so using the same Pluto for both Wii and GC isn't really an option.
Also, is there a Paddata-via for the OSD again, or will it rely on the new IR compatibility?
There are some nice test pads for it, so if your Wii has Gamecube ports you do not need IR.
Now make it Dreamcast compatible.
Someone else is already working on a solution for the Dreamcast, so I probably won't do my own unless I don't like what he offers.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Guilt » Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:24 am

Unseen wrote: Yes, but I don't think you'll be able to fit it in the Wii's case. Also, you need to flash either the Wii or the GC bitstream to it, so using the same Pluto for both Wii and GC isn't really an option.
Oh boy is that the trick. I just finished reassembling my Wii and if there's a way to stick a Pluto in there I have NO idea where it's gonna go.
Someone else is already working on a solution for the Dreamcast, so I probably won't do my own unless I don't like what he offers.
Is OzOne still working on that? I wonder if that's almost release worthy yet...

So I was poking around in my Wii to try and see if mine is the same board revision. Surprise, it's not. Here's a picture of my NTSC Wii from like a few months after the NA launch. I tried to match the two photos you have of the motherboard on GitHub. I've taken these images to try and follow the traces and see if I can figure out which vias go to which pins, but I'm nervous that my chip's pinout might be different. If you can answer any of these questions, I'd be grateful. If these images help you in any way, I'm happy to help.
http://imgur.com/a/T25Y0
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:35 am

Guilt wrote:Oh boy is that the trick. I just finished reassembling my Wii and if there's a way to stick a Pluto in there I have NO idea where it's gonna go.
I still find it a pain compared to the Gamecube... and I still have no idea where that tiny foam block goes that fell out when I took out the board.
Is OzOne still working on that? I wonder if that's almost release worthy yet...
As far as I know he does, he posted an update not that long ago on Assemblergames.
Here's a picture of my NTSC Wii from like a few months after the NA launch.
Oh, tented vias (covered with solder mask) - annoying. A fiberglass eraser will probably be helpful if you want to solder to these vias, IMHO it's much easier to remove solder mask in a very controlled way with these compared to other scratching implements.
I've taken these images to try and follow the traces and see if I can figure out which vias go to which pins, but I'm nervous that my chip's pinout might be different.
Based on the other components around it and the way the pins are connected I think it would be a reasonable guess that the pinout is the same for AVE-RVL and AVE-RVL A. Your markings on the vias also look reasonable to me.

All of these signals are inputs on the Pluto board, so even if some of them are miswired, it is unlikely that the Wii gets damaged from it.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Guilt » Sun Aug 21, 2016 2:51 am

Okay, so I've tested my markings using a multimeter and some sewing pins. If our pinouts really are the same, then my marks are all correct. I believe I may also have found a place that I can stuff the Pluto to make this mod wholly internal. HOWEVER. There's one thing in the way. The heatsink. So, I've taken some careful images and did a little MS painting to show my idea here. My thoughts are, if the heatsink's fins are already partially removed in a stock Wii, and much of it isn't even behind the fan, then how much will it really hurt if I take off a 8th to a 5th of the volume and stuff a Pluto in there? Will it overheat? I sure don't understand enough of the science to say, and I don't know if you do either. But I hope someone here has done some internal Wii modding before and might have a spot to hide this board?
http://imgur.com/a/xAV9r
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ghostavel
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by ghostavel » Tue Aug 23, 2016 4:35 pm

Hi Unseen
will the gc-dvi 2.2 on the shuriken v2 work on the wii? i would like to test it out this weekend if it does.
thanks in advance.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Tue Aug 23, 2016 6:06 pm

ghostavel wrote:will the gc-dvi 2.2 on the shuriken v2 work on the wii? i would like to test it out this weekend if it does.
If it doesn't have "wii" in the file name, it does not work on the Wii. I haven't built bitstreams with Wii support for the shuriken variants because I didn't have their schematics available to check which pins could be used for the IR remote and its config button.
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ghostavel
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by ghostavel » Tue Aug 23, 2016 7:47 pm

thank you Unseen
got exited as i have a couple of assembled shurikens...
is it something that will be available in the future or is the pluto ii my only option for the wii?
thanks again
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:48 pm

ghostavel wrote:got exited as i have a couple of assembled shurikens...
is it something that will be available in the future or is the pluto ii my only option for the wii?
I can easily add Wii-builds for the shuriken, but I need to find a bit of time to locate their schematics first.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Wed Aug 24, 2016 4:24 pm

Guilt wrote:My thoughts are, if the heatsink's fins are already partially removed in a stock Wii, and much of it isn't even behind the fan, then how much will it really hurt if I take off a 8th to a 5th of the volume and stuff a Pluto in there? Will it overheat? I sure don't understand enough of the science to say, and I don't know if you do either.
I'm not really the right person for that either, but after reassembling my Wii to get a better view on its internals I would guess that it might be a viable option? In testing, I usually had only the heat sink screwed onto my bare board with no fan and the system didn't seem to mind, at least in the main menu.

Mounting the board inside the airflow of the fan might increase noise though. You could also try to shorten the Pluto board a bit, I suspect that nothing between the large capacitor on the bottom on the input side and the closest short edge of the board (the one with the white connector) is needed if you program via JTAG - but this is just a guess and not verified in any way, especially since I don't have a schematic for it.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by bytesaber » Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:23 am

andre104623 wrote:If the shuriken video had the XC3S200A instead of the XC3S50A it would be perfect. I really liked the OSD with ability to use scanlines
Unseen wrote:Just replace the chip, they're almost pin compatible with each other and on the Shuriken Video board the differences do not matter.
Any chance this idea works for the current Shuriken V3 board? I am late to this game, but I would like to build a V3 with case. However I really want to have a full working GCVideo DVI with OSD working.

Will just be going by the information found here for the V3:
http://www.retro-system.com/shuriken%20video.htm

@andre104623 Your Youtube videos describing your trials and experiences, were really helpful. Hope you have been able to recover from November.
@Unseen Infinitely grateful for your work!
@happy_bunny Infinitely grateful for your work!

Looking forward to diving into this project.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Xaranar » Thu Sep 01, 2016 2:57 pm

Hey Unseen, purely out of interest, are you going to keep releasing updated versions of the GCVideo firmware, even after the release of Mega's plug and play version, despite their lack of means to update like us with Pluto boards can?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by bytesaber » Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:03 pm

Shuriken can't be updated?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Thu Sep 01, 2016 3:05 pm

Xaranar wrote:Hey Unseen, purely out of interest, are you going to keep releasing updated versions of the GCVideo firmware, even after the release of Mega's plug and play version, despite their lack of means to update like us with Pluto boards can?
If I find a reason to release an update, I will. Currently I have no plans to do so though, except for the IR remote pins for the Shuriken boards.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:10 pm

When's Y'CbCr passthrough over HDMI?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Thu Sep 01, 2016 10:56 pm

Extrems wrote:When's Y'CbCr passthrough over HDMI?
Never. To do this properly, GCVideo would need to check the EDID data from the display to determine if it supports non-RGB formats and that is too much of a pain to implement and probably won't fit in the remaining space either.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:49 pm

It's part of the HDMI 1.0 specification, is checking the EDID really necessary?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:55 pm

Extrems wrote:It's part of the HDMI 1.0 specification, is checking the EDID really necessary?
Just because it is specified in HDMI 1.0 does not mean that every device with an HDMI input is required to support it.

Also, why do you think it would provide any advantage over the current RGB conversion in GCVideo?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Fri Sep 02, 2016 1:05 am

The conversion is lossy and limited.

What if I want to upscale chroma using jinc or bilateral filtering, or the super-resolution algorithm of the year?
What if I want to use different matrix coefficients?

Can you at least add an unfiltered option?
It'd reduce loss with Y'CbCr 4:2:2 capture devices, and provide near-R'G'B' quality when using square pixels in GBI.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:15 am

Extrems wrote:What if I want to upscale chroma using jinc or bilateral filtering, or the super-resolution algorithm of the year?
Even if I would implement YCbCr outout, it would be 444 and not 422. The current code is not able to handle reduced-resolution chroma in most of the modules, for example the OSD and fixing that would be a major undertaking.
What if I want to use different matrix coefficients?
There are correct matrix coefficients and wrong matrix coefficients. Why do you want to use wrong ones?
Can you at least add an unfiltered option?
422-to-444 by repetition instead of filtering? It looks a tiny bit worse, but you need to look very closely to see it, even with test patterns.
It'd reduce loss with Y'CbCr 4:2:2 capture devices
Do you even use a capture device that puts the color samples in the correct location?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:33 am

Unseen wrote:There are correct matrix coefficients and wrong matrix coefficients. Why do you want to use wrong ones?
So what if I want to output YCgCo, or something wacky like xvYCC?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Unseen » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:14 am

Extrems wrote:So what if I want to output YCgCo, or something wacky like xvYCC?
Install Xilinx ISE and implement them yourself?
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Extrems » Fri Sep 02, 2016 11:59 am

Unseen wrote:Do you even use a capture device that puts the color samples in the correct location?
I've checked and it's indeed using left, oh well.
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Re: Cloning the GameCube component cable

Post by Xaranar » Sun Sep 04, 2016 1:47 pm

Okay so I just updated my Pluto II to the newest 2.2 version of GCVideo, and it's completely broken. I have a checkerboard pattern on the output visuals, and the overlay won't appear with the controller button combination anymore.
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