Worklog Ginger's Wii Portable Worklog

[GingerOfOz]

Have you tested the regulators when they are not connected to the Wii?

I did before wiring everything up, and it worked just fine. I'll separate it from my terrible setup and test it tommorow.

 

[Shank]

The 1v uses a relatively large amount of power for being so low voltage, so a dropoff like that is to be expected. Im surprised it isn't more. I've had the Wii boot as low as .87v on the 1v line, so you should be fine.
The 1.8v line is powered by the 3.3v line, so your guess is correct. Once you fix your 3.3v line, it should be powered.

 

[GingerOfOz]

I am heckin bamboozled.

Found the short on the 3.3v regulator, some of the solder had managed to cling to one of the other shiny parts of the board when I swapped out the ground wire. Tested it, got 3.3v out of it, soldered it back up, but then got a reading of -0.1v from everywhere along the 3.3v line. (Yes, my multimeter polarity was correct.). 1.8v line is still receiving a .2ish voltage, which it was doing yesterday as well. What does my wacky reading mean?

The board heated up though, which it definitely wasn't doing yesterday. Does this mean that the board is booting? I don't get any image on my screen, so if the board is booting then my USB is probably the issue.

Thanks!

 

[jefflongo]

I am heckin bamboozled.

Found the short on the 3.3v regulator, some of the solder had managed to cling to one of the other shiny parts of the board when I swapped out the ground wire. Tested it, got 3.3v out of it, soldered it back up, but then got a reading of -0.1v from everywhere along the 3.3v line. (Yes, my multimeter polarity was correct.). What does this mean?

The board heated up though, which it definitely wasn't doing yesterday. Does this mean that the board is booting? I don't get any image on my screen, so if the board is booting then my USB is probably the issue.

Thanks!

I doubt it's booting if you're not getting 3.3v on the board. See if you're getting 3.3v from the regulator while it's connected to the board. If you're getting 3.3v reading on the regulator output but not on the board something might be up.

 

[GingerOfOz]

I doubt it's booting if you're not getting 3.3v on the board. See if you're getting 3.3v from the regulator while it's connected to the board. If you're getting 3.3v reading on the regulator output but not on the board something might be up.

Like I said, I'm getting -0.1v everywhere on the 3.3v line. I stuck the multimeter on every part along that line and that was the consistent reading.

 

[jefflongo]

Like I said, I'm getting -0.1v everywhere on the 3.3v line. I stuck the multimeter on every part along that line and that was the consistent reading.

Check to see if 3.3v on the board is shorted to ground

 

[GingerOfOz]

Check to see if 3.3v on the board is shorted to ground

Any particular places I should inspect?

 

[cheese]

Any particular places I should inspect?

Edges of the board and exposed pads that have 3.3v

 

[Spencer Richardson]

Any particular places I should inspect?

A good way to check if your 3.3v line is shorted to ground is to check for continuity between the two. That may seem super obvious to some(including you) but it took me awhile to figure that out when I first started. Haha so I thought I'd throw that out there. If there is continuity between ground and your 3.3v line, you have a short. I think this only works when all of your power is off though.

Edit: continuity is a function on your multimeter that lets you know if something is connected. So for example, if you put your leads on both ends of a wire, your multimeter will beep and let you know it is all continuous and connected. So in your case, you don't want a beep when you connect one lead to ground and the other to your 3.3v line.

 

[GingerOfOz]

A good way to check if your 3.3v line is shorted to ground is to check for continuity between the two. That may seem super obvious to some(including you) but it took me awhile to figure that out when I first started. Haha so I thought I'd throw that out there. If there is continuity between ground and your 3.3v line, you have a short. I think this only works when all of your power is off though.

What exactly does that mean?

 

[jefflongo]

What exactly does that mean?

Contunuity testing is a function on a multimeter which beeps if two points are connected. Looks like this

Alternatively you can check for resistance and see if there's 0 resistance (which implies they're connected).

By checking for contuinty between 3.3v and ground on the board you're checking if the 3.3v and ground are connected which would mean there's a short.

 

[Matthew]

What exactly does that mean?

Basically he means use your multimeter and put the ground probe on ground and the power probe on the 3.3v line or on any spots that have 3.3v (that are on the regulator) and if you hear a beep or seen some numbers pop up then they are shorted together. Which is bad.

edit: Jefflongo beat me to it.

 

[Spencer Richardson]

Haha both you guys beat me to my edit! thanks! Hopefully those explanations were helpful @GingerOfOz

 

[GingerOfOz]

Yup, it's a short. Thanks for the continuity help, that's a super useful tool!

exposed pads that have 3.3

Is there a place with those shown? They aren't on the six layer expansion guide from what I can see.

Also, I think I'm going to sand the board some more. Pictured in blue is the edge that I think could use more sanding, seeing ass I have a bit of wiggle room left. I think I stopped sanding when the board got flush with the video port, but in reality it looks like you're supposed to sand further.

Also, would half pads be causing issues? My sanding job cut some in half (examples are pictured in red) and I was wondering if those might be this issue. @Shank said that there's a little wiggle room with the trim, but I'm already cutting it pretty close on the red edge, so I don't want to sand that part anymore unless there's likely an issue there.

If you have any other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Thanks for all the quick help tonight, it makes this a whole lot easier.

 

[jefflongo]

Yup, it's a short. Thanks for the continuity help, that's a super useful tool!



Is there a place with those shown? They aren't on the six layer expansion guide from what I can see.

Also, I think I'm going to sand the board some more. Pictured in blue is the edge that I think could use more sanding, seeing ass I have a bit of wiggle room left. I think I stopped sanding when the board got flush with the video port, but in reality it looks like you're supposed to sand further.

View attachment 2159
View attachment 2160
Also, would half pads be causing issues? My sanding job cut some in half (examples are pictured in red) and I was wondering if those might be this issue. @Shank said that there's a little wiggle room with the trim, but I'm already cutting it pretty close on the red edge, so I don't want to sand that part anymore unless there's likely an issue there.
View attachment 2161
If you have any other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Thanks for all the quick help tonight, it makes this a whole lot easier.

It would be an issue if the sanding job isn't good enough, but definitely remove them. It's always a good idea to check for continuity between voltages lines and ground when you wire to voltage lines or trim to make sure you don't have any shorts before you turn on the system.

 

[cheese]

Half pads are fine. It doesn't matter if you sand a little outside, just that your sanding job is good enough to not have shorts between the layers.

 

[GingerOfOz]

Should I get some finer sandpaper then? The finest I used was 600, and I know people have recommended 800 and 1500, so I'll pick some of that up tommorow.

 

[cheese]

Yeah, the 6 layer boards have the outer layers pretty close to each other so you have to sand it super good to make sure they aren't shorting together.

 

[GingerOfOz]

After sanding for around five hours with super fine sandpaper, I have come to the conclusion that I did something wrong. I think I may have cut too deep on the U10 trace, but I don't know for sure.

So I've decided to use ShockSlayer's WiiWiring service because I'm running out of time. I have a school engineering fair in May and I'd really like to present my project then. I also wanted a four layer board so that my battery life could be better, so this should solve my problems.

I've also ordered every other part I'm going to need to finish my portable, from flash drives to tact switches, to GamePad buttons. In the meantime, I've been working with Autodesk Inventor to design my case. It's a party.

Thanks for the help, this project is getting somewhere thanks to it!

 

[GingerOfOz]

So I've made a bit of progress. Batteries and Gamepad buttons arrived. I've been working on operation GC+ revival, and the battle is hard.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE

As you can see, I managed to bridge six of the pins on the bottom of the IC. I also going out the Y pad, but I'm pretty sure I can just use the hole next to it. I've been using solder wick to try to coax the excess out from between the pins, but it isn't working as well anymore. Any tips?

Thanks!