Worklog Unnamed Wii Portable 2nd attempt

[Green_Saint]

About over a year ago I attempted to make my very own portable for the first time, however things went pretty badly and it was mostly due to the fact that I was trying to do this without the proper tools I needed, so here I am to try again, however this time I'd like to do this properly.
I've still got some of the parts that I used last time such as my screen and capacitors but there were some tools that I didn't get and will be now.

Here is a list of things that I will be buying;
PTH08080WAH (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/6617948/)
800 Grit Sandpaper (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7975973/
Dremel (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/7722902/)
7.4V Rechargeable Lithium Battery Pack (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/lithium-rechargeable-battery-packs/8114687/)
600V AC 10A DC 600V DC Multimeter (https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/digital-multimeters/1231939/)

If there are other things that I will be needing to buy alongside these or problems with the items I've listed then please let me know, I also have some questions about the items that I listed above.
With the Dremel is the cutting disc that is supplied with this set good enough to be used for trimming my board and with the battery pack listed above would I need to buy a separate board to charge it or not as it has listed in its specification that the pack has a "safety board" already included

Thread will be updated when I've received everything I need to get the ball rolling on this project
(just wanted to say a quick thanks to Gman who helped me out with my first attempt, here's hoping things get better this time )

 

[Crazzyleprechaun]

The cutting disk will work just fine for trimming the board I used the same one for my trim. As for the battery it most likely doesn’t have the capacity listed in the description. I would recommend checking these batteries out most people use them and they have the capacity advertised. You would have to wire your own protection circuit to these though https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DHXY72O/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_bgckAb2F4S9B9

 

[Green_Saint]

Nice, and yeah those were the batteries that I attempted to use before. The thing is is that I'd rather go the route of getting a pack just due to its convince (and being noobie friendly), by capacity are you referring to the mAh? because on the pack I listed it does state that its 5200mAh.
Does the mAh stack though? like the Panasonic ones have 3400mAh so would 2 of them stack to 6800mAh?

Edit/
If I was to go with the Panasonic ones, would this work for my charge protection unit https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP4056-Lit...1512581061&sr=8-3&keywords=lithium+protection

 

[MasterNate]

Just as a general rule, try to stay away from anything wrapped in blue tape. That is what the chinese battery companies use to wrap their stuff, and chinese companies like to lie about the specs of their battery packs.

 

[Green_Saint]

Lol noted, guess I'll go with the Panasonic ones XD.
So i'll need a charge protection unit, I think the one that I listed earlier was for only one battery, This one is for 4 batteries but I'm assuming It would work with just 2? I wouldn't mind if I have to use 4 though since I'm not interested in making the smallest unit possible but if it works with 2 then I can save some money on batteries

 

[MasterNate]

Uh no. That is for 14.8v which is 4 batteries in series. 2 batteries in series would only be 7.4v. You need a different protection circuit board for that. There is a link in the BOM.

 

[Green_Saint]

BOM? Sorry for my noobism

 

[MasterNate]

BOM stands for bill of materials. Gman and some of the guys put a list together of stuff they use all the time. It is guaranteed good quality. Here is a link.

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/portablizing-bom.367/

 

[Green_Saint]

Oh yeah I do remember that, I Just realised that eBay is a thing, only reason I listed those other ones as they had better delivery times, I've found a UK equivalent to the one in the BOM, this bad boy should be good right?

 

[MasterNate]

That board does not look like it balances the voltages of the batteries. You need one that balances the battery voltages

 

[Green_Saint]

Fourth times the charm, for some reason I thought that it needed to be a 2A one and not any of the other but I checked out the other PCB mentioned on that list and it was a 3A one, it is basically Identical to the one that is UK based, if not I'm gonna give up and just get the one from the US, I'm just a little impatient

 

[MasterNate]

That one says it is a battery management system, which is good. But there is no proof in the specs. I would try it out and see how it works. It will most likely work just fine. Just make sure you are really careful with your batteries. We dont want anything to happen. Just solder very quick. Dont leave heat on the battery for too long.

 

[Dave Mackintosh]

Fourth times the charm, for some reason I thought that it needed to be a 2A one and not any of the other but I checked out the other PCB mentioned on that list and it was a 3A one, it is basically Identical to the one that is UK based, if not I'm gonna give up and just get the one from the US, I'm just a little impatient

I've got a bunch of these for Arduino projects, they're fine to use. One gotcha though is you may need to short it with 8v to enable them. If you get no current an 8v short will fix it. Good luck portablizing!

 

[Stitches]

I've got a bunch of these for Arduino projects, they're fine to use. One gotcha though is you may need to short it with 8v to enable them. If you get no current an 8v short will fix it. Good luck portablizing!

That, or you can connect the smart charger to turn the safety off.

 

[Green_Saint]

Nice that's all good then, I'm assuming it's a one time thing or am I going to need to short it every time?
I've received most of the things I'm going to need, now just waiting on on a few more bits and then I can begin.

 

[Stitches]

Nice that's all good then, I'm assuming it's a one time thing or am I going to need to short it every time?
I've received most of the things I'm going to need, now just waiting on on a few more bits and then I can begin.

One time thing.

 

[Green_Saint]

Okay so I know it's been a little while but uni got a little hectic before my Christmas break.
Anyways, I received everything that bought just under a week ago and to be honest I was pretty worried how things would turn out so I put it off for a few days, but I finally started and finished the regs. I went off how the GC ones were done, if they are wrong/need fixing up let me know

 

[jefflongo]

Okay so I know it's been a little while but uni got a little hectic before my Christmas break.
Anyways, I received everything that bought just under a week ago and to be honest I was pretty worried how things would turn out so I put it off for a few days, but I finally started and finished the regs. I went off how the GC ones were done, if they are wrong/need fixing up let me know
View attachment 4607 View attachment 4608 View attachment 4609

They should work as is, but to clean up/prevent shorts I would shorten the legs of those caps/resistors and remove the pins in the regulator through holes. Note that you need a lot of heat to remove those pins, especially the ground pin. I generally use ~400C on my iron and gently tug it while heating. Also, if it's easier, you can solder to those two big caps instead of the through holes. The inside portion of those caps are both connected to gnd and the outsides are connected to the respective through holes next to them (Vout and Vin). Here's a pic of how I do my regs

View attachment 3323

 

[Green_Saint]

Yeah, I'll definitely get to shortening them and removing the legs.
Yeah I noticed that you could solder to those by looking at others but that was after I had done mine I'll give it a go tomorrow. Thanks

 

[Green_Saint]

Okay, been a while since I last was here but life kinda got busy. I've been back working on my portable for about a week now. I got the board cut and power regulators wired up so I could test the board. Got nothing onscreen unfortunately so I'm guessing I got a short somewhere, here are some pictures too.