Worklog g-wii build

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well heres the front of it now - i need to apply a little bit of epoxy around the buttons to get rid of any gaps. aside from that i need another coat of primer before the final paint job.
i asked for help on an audio amp, but i was suggested to build my own so i guess thats that, gotta get a hot air station and a programmer...
Photo on 8-3-19 at 3.43 PM.jpg


EDIT: got the tri wing i needed to take apart my wii too
 
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performed the trim and made sure to use 1500 grit sanding paper along the edges of the board, but following gmans image for reference keeping the 4th screw post. if i remember correctly someone said that the console ports (av out/power) won't work if the board is still attached. can someone answer that because i don't have any other usb ports at the moment and i can't desolder anything until i get a desoldering iron. after i get confirmation ill be testing the power regulators as well, ill probably end up saving the power mii lite board i got which looks awesome.
Photo on 8-4-19 at 5.56 PM.jpg
 

Stitches

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performed the trim and made sure to use 1500 grit sanding paper along the edges of the board, but following gmans image for reference keeping the 4th screw post. if i remember correctly someone said that the console ports (av out/power) won't work if the board is still attached. can someone answer that because i don't have any other usb ports at the moment and i can't desolder anything until i get a desoldering iron. after i get confirmation ill be testing the power regulators as well, ill probably end up saving the power mii lite board i got which looks awesome.View attachment 9190
If you trim neatly around the ports and give the edges a good sand, you can totally use the original ports while they're attached to the PCB. I think the person who told you that may have meant that you can't use ports that are still connected to the mobo proper. You can cut the board closely around the ports and they'll work just fine.
 
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If you trim neatly around the ports and give the edges a good sand, you can totally use the original ports while they're attached to the PCB. I think the person who told you that may have meant that you can't use ports that are still connected to the mobo proper. You can cut the board closely around the ports and they'll work just fine.
ok cool that makes things easier. i just now did the u10 swap, but I'm skeptical that i cut the trace properly, the pin that runs the wire on the transistor makes contact after the wire is attached, the back three pins on it also make connection to ground which i assume is normal.
i will test the output voltages on the regs tomorrow after work, gotta get some sleep now.
EDIT: today ill be working on the power regulators, so ill wire those and see what my output voltages are after that ill hook up av and that should be enough well i mean ill probably wire usb too just to troubleshoot it
 
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going to prep the ports for a/v and main power later after i get the voltage readings on these regs. u10 is also soldered in place but I'm still skeptical about the cut trace. if i read the resistors correctly and not like an idiot i should get the voltages spot on (minus 3.3v i got 1.8k)
ill have more to add to this later or tomorrow or something what do you guys think of this i know the quality lacks.. and it doesn't help that the image is mirrored i should fix them.
Photo on 8-7-19 at 6.41 PM.jpg
 

Stitches

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going to prep the ports for a/v and main power later after i get the voltage readings on these regs. u10 is also soldered in place but I'm still skeptical about the cut trace. if i read the resistors correctly and not like an idiot i should get the voltages spot on (minus 3.3v i got 1.8k)
ill have more to add to this later or tomorrow or something what do you guys think of this i know the quality lacks.. and it doesn't help that the image is mirrored i should fix them.View attachment 9198
You can always lift the trace cut leg off the pad and solder the wire directly to the leg itself if you're concerned.
 
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Photo on 8-8-19 at 8.26 PM.jpg
Well...i tested the board today (just got done with that) and it didn't boot :p
although i read the outputs on the custom regulators and those look great. everythings spot on except 3.3 - i get 3.4. although when i hooked up the power to test the unit i noticed the output for the 1.15v isn't outputting that when i read it from the pin on the board. well it is, but only when i put the black probe on a regs ground and not when i put it on a gnd pin on the board. any help would be appreciated.
EDIT: scratch that non of the outputs minus 5v i didn't wire that up yet show up correctly, they do on the reg pins, but not on the board.
 
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Noah

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Are you getting any voltage from the 1.15V reg? I would check continuity between the ground on the Wii and the ground on the regulator just to make sure they're connected.
 
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Are you getting any voltage from the 1.15V reg? I would check continuity between the ground on the Wii and the ground on the regulator just to make sure they're connected.
ok so i went ahead and did that, ground between the regs and wii make continuity, but the ground pin on the input line doesn't make connection with the ground line on my video input, does that make a problem for my video line?
EDIT: but yea i was getting voltages out of all the board pins i was reading but they weren't the same as the readings straight from the regs themselves, 1.15 i think read around 1
DOUBLE EDIT: i got the back case half for this build too i forgot to add that, but shout out to @GingerOfOz he made the cases and they are pretty crispy
did more continuity testing around the board and this is my final verdict, basically the pins i solder to for 1v and 1.15v are bridged on the wii, and they're connected to ground cause i get continuity from the regulators too when i poke around those pins. how do i fix this type of problem??
 
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jefflongo

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The 1.15v line often will cause your multimeter to beep for continuity because the resistance is around 30 ohms. This is normal, just make sure it's not less than 10 or so. As for the 1v line, if it is in fact bridged to ground, disconnect it from the board and check if the short is on the board or the regs. If it's on the board, you probably need to sand more.
 
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The 1.15v line often will cause your multimeter to beep for continuity because the resistance is around 30 ohms. This is normal, just make sure it's not less than 10 or so. As for the 1v line, if it is in fact bridged to ground, disconnect it from the board and check if the short is on the board or the regs. If it's on the board, you probably need to sand more.
so wait disconnect the regs to the wii and check for continuity with ground and the output lines on the wii? or take the whole component off the board? I'm assuming you're talking about the first option ill be sure to do this when i get off work today
EDIT: i forgot to mention that it did the same reaction when i thought about trying other regulators, i got the powermii lite board so i tried seeing if it was the regulators (although i didn't try running it) i just ran continuity on the same pins and everythings the same, so ill just disconnect the wires and sand more if the ground pins are still bridged.
 

Noah

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The 1.15v line often will cause your multimeter to beep for continuity because the resistance is around 30 ohms. This is normal, just make sure it's not less than 10 or so. As for the 1v line, if it is in fact bridged to ground, disconnect it from the board and check if the short is on the board or the regs. If it's on the board, you probably need to sand more.
yes
 
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Here's a pic of the board with the case in it's current state the case should look nice but i still need a decent amount of work left all together. Now I'm kinda confused, I had sanded the edges more, I feel like I noticed a small change on the edges afterwards, now I then read the resistance again and then got a reading of around 31 ohms. Then I rewired power and av again, but didn't get a different outcome, read the resistance again and saw that it went back to under 10 ohms. Also, I wasn't getting continuity from 1v during the time I got 31ohms, did again when it went back. Now sanded it again lightly, am getting 34ohms now. Is there anything I should be concerned about work ground between av and power? I used the power mii lite this attempt.
 

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Ok. I dont think I sanded the edges as well as I thought? I was reading the multimeter wrong, I remember getting .007/.008 ohms thinking that was 7 or 8 ohms? Well tonight I did some more and now I'm getting 30.2 ish ohms. Sounds more reasonable if I'm not mistaken, anyhow I'll be able to test it tomorrow after work, fingers crossed cause that I'm sure wasn't the same reading from before.. I'll also have the front ready to be painted then clear coated. Going for 2 to 3 layers of paint and clear coat.
Also started on the back, making the base leveled, theres small gaps and the air vent is a little iffy on one part.
 
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Ok. So I went over the board some more, I am getting around 3.2v, .9v and 1.10v when the powermii lite board is hooked up, when I disconnect it the 1.15v line reads around 25 ohms. However, I still don't get any video signal (no USB error screen) should I solder the usb port? Or would that make it harder to troubleshoot. The 1v line doesn't get continuity with gnd when the regs are off, I'm not even sure this is the problem now?
Probably gonna spend some time finishing up the front case half I think I can get that ready for the first layer of paint by tonight
 

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Noah

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Those wires look really long. Try shortening them up. It's also worth disconnecting the voltages from your regs and powering them separately. If you get constant voltage on the regs, then the Wii is the problem. It sounds like the Wii is drawing power though, so make sure your U10 connection is solid and that you're getting ~3.3V out from that as well.

Also, what are you testing the video on? I don't see a ground wire running from the Wii to whatever that composite line is attached to, so that could be your problem as well.
 
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Those wires look really long. Try shortening them up. It's also worth disconnecting the voltages from your regs and powering them separately. If you get constant voltage on the regs, then the Wii is the problem. It sounds like the Wii is drawing power though, so make sure your U10 connection is solid and that you're getting ~3.3V out from that as well.

Also, what are you testing the video on? I don't see a ground wire running from the Wii to whatever that composite line is attached to, so that could be your problem as well.
That thick black wire with the yellow mark is the ground connected to one of the pins on the input line from the original Wii port. I assume the grounds are all the same on the av port. And which pin on the u10 outputs 3.3? I know the pin that doesn't run the wire gets continuity with the 3.3v line but I took stitches advice and just bent the pin upwards instead of It being soldered to the pad on the mobo and just ran the wire through, But the wire seems to make connection to the pin without being bridged to any other vias. I was thinking of separating the av and power ports from each other, but I wouldn't believe that to be an issue. I'll shorten the wires, but I started testing with the power mii lite board so I don't understand what you mean by powering them separately, but I'll do that with the custom regs if I still use those for this.
Edit: I thought I added a yellow marker on the image, but it wasn't on there, but it's the wire that's across from where I hooked up the line for 3.3v. I ran out of black wire so I used a red 22 awg for ground to the regs.
 

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Gman

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Have a close-up pic of the U10 and also the back with the via wiring?

Just keep it basic testing. Power + U10 + Video + short reset to ground to boot to priiloader. We can probably assume the Powermii lite is functioning as intended.
 
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