Projects

This is a way for me to organise the many projects I'll take on. This is an active workspace and many of the text here is just me thinking out loud.

Most physical projects done here involve some kind of hardware modification to Nintendo devices.

Current

Hardware

Nintendo GameCube

I need to mod the working GameCube I have with HDMI. After that, I need to give it a USB-C power supply, and then fit it with FlippyDrive. I removed the disk drive, so I wonder what I can fit in its place...

Nintendo Wii

I'm working on a few projects. I have a four-layer board I have already trimmed, and I think I want to put it in a portable. I have countless other Wii consoles with no need for the disk drive, and I will trim them all!

For the remaining six-layer boards, I'm thinking of:

GC Nano

To make a GC Nano, I need to create an OMEGA Wii trim, then use a NAND Relocation Flex from 4LayerTech alongside a wireless U10 relocation. AVE-HDMI also is required.

Short Stack

This is the type of trim I need to perform for the Short Stack.

The Short Stack is the smallest Wii (to scale).

It requires a few components:

A Wii Power Strip

A Periphlex

The Main Board by loopj

The Front Panel Board by loopj

The full bill of materials can be found here.

Software and websites

Blood-Stained Sanctuary

Blood-Stained Sanctuary is a story continuation of Cave Story, telling the events of what leads to the war on the surface that took place shortly before the events of Cave Story. It is hosted on its own website in the form of a rudimentary webcomic.

Crypted Stream

Crypted Stream is a global-scale puzzle that initiates via a simple question on its homepage. The viewer's purpose is to systemically decode hints to unlock the occluded second half of the website, which is the titular crypted data stream. The tests will resemble various "Capture the Flag" types of practices while simultaneously requiring a degree of creativity and intelligence to complete the challenge.

I am currently evaluating the primary aptitudes Crypted Stream will require.

Half-Lapdock Project

September 2024

These are a series of small projects meant to eventually come together for a final project. In essence, I am planning to design a half-lapdock meant for portable PCs, gaming consoles, and Android phones with desktop environments. The final product will resemble a 15.6" laptop, complete with all relevant IO, allowing the ports of the laptop to be used seamlessly, integrated that with the PCB of a general-purpose dock hidden internal within the laptop shell.

Why? For me, none of the lapdocks available have 120hz and OLED, but I incidentally own a random laptop that in fact supports these both. Lapdocks (or really, any keyboard with IO) is a much sleeker solution for modular microcomputing compared to lugging around a separate dock, keyboard, and display. Here, two (and up to three) of these items can be combined while still maintaining modularity and portability. It's also a fun electrical engineering project that can help build reputation, but will also ultimately finalise my Legion Go and Samsung DeX workflow, as well as making it much easier to manage. I genuinely cannot wait until this project completes.

I will use this page to document how the project is going. My first concern regards to I/O, as that is the crux of the entire project. In essence, all that really needs to be done is to converting the available I/O into data the host device can read.

This effectively means to convert the keyboard output from the ribbon cable into usable USB serial data, since we obviously cannot simply plug the ribbon cable of an existing laptop's keyboard into our external host device.

Then converting incoming DisplayPort or HDMI data from the host device into eDP serial data for the laptop's internal display to play back. This should be doable by fitting an eDP controller board in the half lapdock. Video source is transmitted from the host device via DisplayPort over USB-C, fed to the eDP controller board, and output on the laptop display via that board. I may need a middleman to convert the DisplayPort data into data the controller board can read, potentially via a generic laptop dock.

Then simply wiring the IO of the internal dock to the physical ports of the half lapdock. This results in the shell of a laptop that works to massively extend the functionality of the connected device, like a phone, handheld PC, or gaming console like the Switch.

The only concerns I have are regarding the display lag and touch functionality, really... everything else should be... doable.

Domains

I collect various domain names for different purposes. This is an ongoing practice that leads to other projects.

WHITE SPACE

WHITE SPACE is the webcomic you'll run into if you continue clicking the prompts on Halcove's home page. I do want to finish it in order to be more interactive and less cliched, so I really wish I had more time to focus on this project specifically...

Inactive

Unnamed Smash Mod

Unnamed Smash Mod is a unofficial modification to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS whose main goal is to increase gameplay speed, restore and introduce iconic Super Smash Bros. gameplay mechanics and tech, while also building upon the basegame of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS with custom artwork and new music. Its website can be found here. The latest updates were published in 2019.

Past

Graphical

I design logos for various projects, which can be found on the graphical design page.

Nintendo Switch hardware mods

Nintendo Switch (HAC-001) with both an RCMX86 and Tile installed.

My first hardware modification for the Nintendo Switch involved soldering a Tile tracking device into a Nintendo Switch to enable global tracking in case of theft.

These can be placed alongside a Trinket M0-style modchip which automatically injects a payload from the microSD when RCM is detected.

Nintendo Switch family

Device	Modification
Nintendo Switch	RCMX86 Payload Injector
Nintendo Switch	Tile
Nintendo Switch Lite	HWFLY Lite
Nintendo Switch OLED	SX Lite

Nintendo 3DS hardware mods

KTR-001 with a gold Circle Pad displaying an alpha USM-eM build.

Nintendo 3DS family

Device	Modification
New Nintendo 3DS XL	Capture Card
New Nintendo 3DS XL	NAND mod
New Nintendo 3DS	Capture Card

Mods for the Nintendo 3DS, across all models. The capture and NAND mods were not installed by myself, however, every other modification was.

Nintendo DS hardware mods

Many Game Boy Macro devices were made. One of them uses a Boxy Pixel shell of anodised aluminium and secondarily includes a custom bottom screen lens with Game Boy Macro "branding."