Question Is Wii Mini Portable now possible?

[Erimill]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I was debating on taking my old Wii Mini and try to make it a portable Wii without trimming the board. From what I've seen, the last time this was talked about was about two years ago, and the biggest complaint was the lack of an SD slot. Since then people have successfully added SD to the Wii Mini, so I thought I would bring this back up. Essentially, my idea is to run it off a 12v system, a 7 inch tft screen, 2 built in IR LEDs, and retain enough of the Wii Mini that it can charge of its original power brick and still be plugged up to a big screen as well. Is this plausible now? Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[Wesk]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster. I was debating on taking my old Wii Mini and try to make it a portable Wii without trimming the board. From what I've seen, the last time this was talked about was about two years ago, and the biggest complaint was the lack of an SD slot. Since then people have successfully added SD to the Wii Mini, so I thought I would bring this back up. Essentially, my idea is to run it off a 12v system, a 7 inch tft screen, 2 built in IR LEDs, and retain enough of the Wii Mini that it can charge of its original power brick and still be plugged up to a big screen as well. Is this plausible now? Thanks in advance for any input.

There's no documentation on trimming a mini because there is no benefit to it. It can't be trimmed any smaller, they are more rare and more costly.

 

[Erimill]

There's no documentation on trimming a mini because there is no benefit to it. It can't be trimmed any smaller, they are more rare and more costly.

I guess I wasn't specific enough. I don't plan on trimming at all, just making it a handheld portable. I would want to add and SD card slot, a screen, a battery bank, and IR LEDs in the face of it to replace the sensor bar. With the advances over the last two years in modding the Wii Mini, I was wondering if this was a possibility now. I couldn't find any Wii Mini portable handhelds.

 

[Wesk]

I guess I wasn't specific enough. I don't plan on trimming at all, just making it a handheld portable. I would want to add and SD card slot, a screen, a battery bank, and IR LEDs in the face of it to replace the sensor bar. With the advances over the last two years in modding the Wii Mini, I was wondering if this was a possibility now. I couldn't find any Wii Mini portable handhelds.

Sure you could make one without trimming, it'll be much larger than most Wii portables and you'll be limited to composite video which is less than stellar.

 

[Erimill]

Ok, so continuing on this, I got the last of my components in today to start this mess. I've bluebombed the wii mini, dropped the homebrew channel on and added the d2x cIOS that allows external hard drive support. Afterward, I soldered on the SD card slot breakout based on DeadlyFoez Test Point diagram. Next issue: How do I enable the SD slot in the software? I've been digging for hours and can't find anything on it.

 

[Stitches]

Sure you could make one without trimming, it'll be much larger than most Wii portables and you'll be limited to composite video which is less than stellar.

Apparently you can install the stock Wii menu IOS modules onto a mini to enable component video output from the AVE legs, but someone said you also need to solder in a wifi module or it'll shit itself. I wonder how RVLoader's installer would behave on a mini..... if you installed the nowifi patch and enabled VGA output, would it just work? I'm feeling some science needs to be done!

Ok, so continuing on this, I got the last of my components in today to start this mess. I've bluebombed the wii mini, dropped the homebrew channel on and added the d2x cIOS that allows external hard drive support. Afterward, I soldered on the SD card slot breakout based on DeadlyFoez Test Point diagram. Next issue: How do I enable the SD slot in the software? I've been digging for hours and can't find anything on it.

I'm afraid I have no idea how to enable the SD slot if it isn't just immediately functional. Perhaps that too needs some stock Wii IOS modules to function?

A few people have also installed Wii-HDMI boards like this in minis to have easier output to modern hardware. What you've proposed is entirely possible, and I'd be very interested to know how it goes if you do attempt this build. You can also wire in GC controllers for ports 1 and 4, so technically you could make a fully functional "normal" portable from a mini as well.