Wow I’m loving this, cravings for Sunshine coming back again.

Posted at 12:17 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Andrew

That open disc drive seems incredibly risky.

Posted at 12:26 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Anthology

looks great except for the disc drive, i killed a gamecube’s disc controller board by manually stopping a disc, the spindle motor is a stepper motor.

Posted at 12:40 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by griffon

The fact that there is no cover over the optical drive is severely scary. A disk cutting someone has nothing to do with it.

Potential problems:
Partially exposed laser = eye damage
Accidentally stopping disk = read errors

Posted at 12:55 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by cyrozap

ya you shouldnt cover the disc drive so no one will get hurt, you should cover it so you dont damage the drive itself, anything can get in that thing. also you should make a headphone jack cuz usually people don’t like to hear the game your playing

Posted at 12:58 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by roshamboe

Fair enough the disk isn’t going to hurt you, but what happens if you put the device down on a table or something while it’s on and the disk is spinning?

Or what happens if you do that without a disk in and something presses against the laser assembly, bending it out of alignment?

There’s also the small matter of lasers and reflections.

Posted at 1:03 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by piku

Switching jack.

Posted at 2:10 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Adam Ziegler

The exposed optical drive reminds me of an old psone portable(perhaps an early Ben H. mod). Neat idea of using a donor case rather than starting from scratch. Couldn’t tell if it had this already but controller port(s) + composite video could come in handy!

Posted at 4:20 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Skitchin

Posted at 4:24 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Skitchin

“…our favorite feature is the totally exposed optical head mounted on the back.”

Really? This is a serious hazard. At least provide SOME protection between your fingers and the rotating disc.

Posted at 4:33 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by ngth

I’m surprised nobody has pointed out the real error here.
With a 3 hour battery life he’s going to play for those 3 hours resulting in potential damage to his thumbs.
Won’t somebody think of the thumbs???

Posted at 4:38 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Thumbs

This is just asking… no screaming for a SSD or something like that.

Posted at 6:47 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by xoin

Thumbs… Poor thumbs. All over impressive. Seriously duck tape a box over the disk while it is in use.

Posted at 7:00 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by mic

I question whether Bondo is safe after it dries.

“Despite the fact that Bondo is far safer to work with than its lead-based counterparts, it still poses significant health risks. The fumes are quite toxic, and the hardeners can create burns in cases of prolonged skin contact. The use of gloves, a mask, and proper ventilation are all recommended when mixing and applying the filler.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_%28putty%29

Posted at 7:12 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Chuck

@Chuck: well if you paint over it when you’re done, who cares?

Posted at 7:25 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by andrew

@Chuck
I recommend you don’t look at the chemicals used to build the house or apartment where you live.

Posted at 8:01 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Sam

Hmm well chuck instead of bashing you I will say that you are right. But people who can’t exercise common sense don’t belong in the gene pool anyway. Smart people don’t inhale poison when avoidable. Happy trails.

Posted at 8:11 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by mic

It’s… beautiful.

Ben Heck, eat your heart out!

Posted at 8:39 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by jaek

wow, if you guys really worry about getting hurt from a spinning disk then i dont se how you even manage to pick up a soldering iron.

However, without protection you will need to hold the device in the air for for your 3 hour playing period, unable to rest it at your lap

if you do you will interrupt the reading and maybe even hurt the disk or the motor..

and the bondo paranoia is also a bit over the top.
sure you should be careful when applying it, but at this stage i believe its as safe as anything

Posted at 9:02 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Borgar

I’m worried about the fact that you have to play GAMECUBE games on the thing.

THE HORROR!!

Posted at 9:17 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by xrazorwirex

Hey guys, I know! Lets all just sit in a safe padded-room! Then we won’t be hurt by:
a. Not wearing helmets.
b. Laser eye-damage.
c. Rotating disks.

Wow guys, I’m sure glad I have you all to help me not kill myself with mildly dangerous everyday items. Now, back to using arduinos (on breadboards of course, soldering is dangerous).

Posted at 9:30 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Pilotgeek

without a cover he will:

1: risk damaging the disks
2: risk damaging the motor and CD drive
3: risk exposing the optics to dirt and dust
4: have very tired hands/arms!

Posted at 9:44 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Paul

I worked for a furniture retailer fixing furniture for two years and fixing things with bondo, even large amounts, is common practice. I wouldn’t worry about it.

and a spinning CD is not going to chop your fucking fingers off.

sweet hack. I <3 HAD

Posted at 11:07 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Jesse

jaek, Ben Heck will never EVER eat his heart out.

He would probably give advice about covering the exposed optical drive components.

Posted at 5:36 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by strider_mt2k

Yes, but Ben Heck consoles tend to be huge. I’m personally not scared of the hardener used for Bondo or three inches of rotating plastic and a 1mw laser, but then again I’m crazy.

I’ll take utility over a giant case any day. My gripe is that I dislike the speaker holes; I’d have found a way to make those look better.

Posted at 7:47 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by jim

Don’t heckle the Heck.

Posted at 8:39 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by JD

Problems: Speakers are mostly covered by your hands, Z switches are too small and awkward to press, C-stick should be switched with the button pad – most gamecube games I played don’t use it that much, and it’s in the way of the buttons.

The exposed disc problem isn’t about danger, it’s about function. The laser lens will get extremely dirty, extremely fast. The rotating disc will rapidly build up static and *attract* dirt and stuff. Setting it down puts undue stress on the disc and motor assembly.

Your hand will block the power cord port if you’re holding it like he was, and the plug for the power cord was *not* the original gamecube plug.

Finally, the thing looks *heavy*. I wouldn’t hold that for an hour, let alone 3.

Posted at 12:24 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by M4CGYV3R

Boy you guys are pretty tough critics for people that have never built a portable and probably never could.

Now to address your issues.

1.In playing for over 20 hours I have never hit the c button accidentally.
2.Speakers are so loud they will blast you out of the room even with them fully covered which they never are.
3. I didn’t use bondo, I used Abs cement and professional plastic bumper filler.
4. The disc drive will be covered eventually. I have not found anything that works great right now, so it is functioning as-is for now.
5. The disc CAN’T hurt you. It spins slowly.
6. It is light enough to hold for 3 hours. But real nice to know that you guys can tell how heavy it “looks” LOL
7. The power adapter is the original Gamecube power adapter with a new plug soldered on the end. And my hand doesn’t block it while in use.

Thank you guys for the compliments.

Posted at 6:39 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by Hailrazer

@Hailrazer: Thanks for weighing in on the questions/criticism. I’ve updated the post to correct the remark about using Bondo.

Posted at 6:40 am on Nov 10th, 2009 by Mike Szczys

Added a disc drive cover. Don’t know if I am 100% satisfied with it. But it works perfectly and the clear look is cool.

Pics on the Benheck site or the Modretro site

Posted at 1:57 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Hailrazer

http://jonjandran.com/pics/jonjandran/cover4.JPG

Posted at 2:04 pm on Nov 10th, 2009 by Mike Szczys