GCN Project Picoboot install fail? Stumped

[codezer0]

Augh.

Well, the good news is I can at least confirm I didn't kill my GameCube. *if* I desolder the wires from the console and reassemble, it starts up fine.

But I cannot understand then, even with the shorter wires why it isn't booting up with the raspberry pi modchip. I might have to go see if I can find a place to help fix it because this feels above my skill grade. Like I'm doing something wrong but cannot work out what.

So packing it up for now.

Sharing these pics, hoping someone that's been successful can maybe see something I'm not and help me get this figured out.

 

[tech3475]

Some of the pictures make it look like there could be shorts in places e.g. the ROM pins and the red cable touching another pin.

There‘s also other potential factors I’d consider e.g. cable quality.

note: I haven’t done this myself nor checked the pinouts.

 

[Kioku]

It doesn't look like solid core (ymmv, but I've had better luck with solid instead of strand), and I see some potential shorts, as mentioned above. Is this wire something you've worked with before?

And that jelly bean...

Also, dumb question, but did you flash the Pico properly?

 

[codezer0]

It doesn't look like solid core (ymmv, but I've had better luck with solid instead of strand), and I see some potential shorts, as mentioned above. Is this wire something you've worked with before?

And that jelly bean...

Also, dumb question, but did you flash the Pico properly?

Never had access to, or could get, solid core solder, if that is what you mean.
I flashed it once and it did appear to pass based on the instructions. Looks like there is a new firmware, but right now it's just not wanting to boot into the mode for me to flash it while it's still attached.

As for the bean of solder, the guide deliberately states to bridge those two points together. And that was bout the only way I feasibly could.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Never had access to, or could get, solid core solder, if that is what you mean.
I flashed it once and it did appear to pass based on the instructions. Looks like there is a new firmware, but right now it's just not wanting to boot into the mode for me to flash it while it's still attached.

As for the bean of solder, the guide deliberately states to bridge those two points together. And that was bout the only way I feasibly could.

Makes it much easier to bridge points if you use a thin piece of wire (for example a few strands of solder wick)

 

[SodaSoba]

It's hard to see in the pictures but is your 3v line bridged? Recheck the solder work for any bridging.

Also in the updating picoboot section:

Important Due to current PicoBoot wiring method you should desolder 3.3V wire for the time of update. This is done to prevent supplying 3.3V to the console which results in overloading power regulator on Pico board. It'll get very hot if you don't desolder the wire. If you do it quickly enough it shouldn't do any harm to the Pico but it's recommended to just desolder the wire and resolder it once you're done updating.

 

[Fishaman P]

It's incredibly important to make the wires as short as possible. Even just an extra inch of slack can cause the PicoBoot to not work properly. The extra distance mounting the PicoBoot under the motherboard instead of in front of it is known to cause failures, for example.

 

[codezer0]

An update, for those interested.

Tried again, a couple more times. Consistently found that if I de-soldered the pico board, the gamecube was at least operating normallly again. Honestly after a couple of failed attempts, I just realized that if I kept going at this rate I'd have probably killed the console. Life being what it was, it took a while but eventually had someone willing to help. Surprisingly, with their skill set and tools I found I thankfully didn't kill either. But it's possible the gauge of wiring i was using was simply too thin, to be effective, along with unintended short(s). Either way, they got it fixed up.

The downer is that thanks to IRL stuff (like sorting out my car), I don't have mthe money yet to go get it one of those retrobit hdmi adapters, and whatever else to hook it up to the living room. But at least seeing the modded system working seems to even have the wife (who normally insists on keeping her consoles stock) rather excited and wanting to help where she can.


So yeah, in my case the situation made it feel like it was beyond my skill set. It was probably a mix of that and not having the right tools. Either way, I'm thankful to have had someone that could look in and help finish it right.

Now, my next lingering question.
I see that Swiss can allow loading cheats. but of course the download package for the program didn't come with any. How would I give it the cheat files it's looking for?

 

[Chaoticus]

so in the updating picoboot section:

Important Due to current PicoBoot wiring method you should desolder 3.3V wire for the time of update. This is done to prevent supplying 3.3V to the console which results in overloading power regulator on Pico board. It'll get very hot if you don't desolder the wire. If you do it quickly enough it shouldn't do any harm to the Pico but it's recommended to just desolder the wire and resolder it once you're done updating.

Is this for the Pico Pi W??

 

[SodaSoba]

Is this for the Pico Pi W??

I honestly don't know but I would just desolder as a precaution.