Worklog Bayjose's Wii Portable

jefflongo

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I did see it on there, it seems a little daunting, do you guys have a hot air gun recommendation for getting the chips off the board, like the U10 and MX chip? or should I just use my trusty Weller with a thin tip, some flux and some Chip-Quick?
It's probably much easier to just cut out the part of the board
 
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Today I got my sound board working inside my case, the case seems to be a constant work in progress, when I need something new I just print it. The volume control works for both the speakers and headphones.
 

Stitches

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I did see it on there, it seems a little daunting, do you guys have a hot air gun recommendation for getting the chips off the board, like the U10 and MX chip? or should I just use my trusty Weller with a thin tip, some flux and some Chip-Quick?
Chip-Quick would work well for getting U10 off, but MX needs the board and components around it as shown in the Wii Trimming Guide. You remove U10 and U9 and then just cut the rectangle out.
 
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Today I tried to integrate my WII2HDMI upscaler into the build, the upscaler turns on and i scoped the data lines going into it, (Composite, R,G,B) and there is data going into the system however there is no HDMI output. The additional lines connected to the upscaler are 5V, all 3 ground pins are tied together and have continuity between themselves and system ground. I have also tied pins 8 and 10 together, then to 3.3V. So i have pins 3-12 hooked up to the system and i'm not getting a signal out of the HDMI port. Here is a test of the system using simply the component input to my screen, its a little jittery but that seems to just be a problem with my screens input board on the component channel; the HDMI input works fine from other sources.

 

Stitches

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Today I tried to integrate my WII2HDMI upscaler into the build, the upscaler turns on and i scoped the data lines going into it, (Composite, R,G,B) and there is data going into the system however there is no HDMI output. The additional lines connected to the upscaler are 5V, all 3 ground pins are tied together and have continuity between themselves and system ground. I have also tied pins 8 and 10 together, then to 3.3V. So i have pins 3-12 hooked up to the system and i'm not getting a signal out of the HDMI port. Here is a test of the system using simply the component input to my screen, its a little jittery but that seems to just be a problem with my screens input board on the component channel; the HDMI input works fine from other sources.

The component wires are a bit long. Are they shielded? That'd explain the jitter if they aren't.
 
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The component wires are a bit long. Are they shielded? That'd explain the jitter if they aren't.
They are not, they are at least working though. My main issue is with the Converter not outputting. As for the component wires, I can always cover them in some tinfoil xD
 
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Christmas Update! I got the hot air station i asked for, for Christmas! Looks like i can do the U10 relocation finally! woo!, I was wondering what temperature would be recommended for desoldering the tiny transistor? Hope everyone had a great christmas- is having.
 

Stitches

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Christmas Update! I got the hot air station i asked for, for Christmas! Looks like i can do the U10 relocation finally! woo!, I was wondering what temperature would be recommended for desoldering the tiny transistor? Hope everyone had a great christmas- is having.
It's lead free solder, so 380ish celsius and a bit of flux.
 

GingerOfOz

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It's lead free solder, so 380ish celsius and a bit of flux.
If you're going up that high, be sure to use a wide nozzle and not a narrow one, as I had a cheaper hot air station crap out on me when I used a thinner nozzle on high temps like that. It was my fault, but I don't want the same thing to happen to you.
 
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My 3DS sliders came today! I wasn't able to get my hands on a GC+ board, so i was thinking of cutting an original Gamecube controller board that i got for 5$ at a local store. I'm planning on using Ashen's cutting guide for it. Also I am getting some noise issues with my video output, it may just be because i'm using 2' alligator clips to connect the 4 lines to my upscaler, (Component, R, G, B) would some shielded cable like this be a good choice for these data lines? https://www.amazon.com/CBAZYTM-Cont...514312640&sr=8-3&keywords=shielded+cable&th=1

or should the roughly 4 inches of final cable once its in the case be short enough to avoid the need for this cable?
 

GingerOfOz

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I'd say that if you are having any sorts of issues with video interference, that shielding your video lines is a really good idea. It definitely isn't going to go away once it's all closed up, and you definitely don't want bad video in your final product. You could also check out a local GoodWill or thrift store, since they often have shielded video cables for really cheap that you can cut up and use. Last week I picked up a five foot composite cable for 99 cents and that should last be a good while.
 
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Update! Hello everyone, i have slowly been making progress and amassing the final parts that i need for my portable. I recently bought a GC+ and am excited to get to working on my portable. So most recently I have been trying to do the u10 relocation. It has been a daunting task for me since the beginning of the project, however I just decided to buckle down and do it!. The relocation went pretty well overall, however I am having some issues. I looked into this thread, and followed the steps Stitches suggested. https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/how-can-i-test-my-u10-relocation.1988/ and still no dice. If I manually press the On button the LED will turn green, but the GPU still wont power on. It seems that I need to short the u10's pin 5 to GND in order to get the GPU to boot which I think is a little strange. Additionally I cannot short it to ground while the LED is red, nothing happens. There is a (bad) video here trying to show this issue.
 
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Check to see if the group of 3 pins is connected to gnd. Sometimes when removing U5 you lose the pads which connect those 3 pins to ground.
Yep! they are connected to gnd, still, with about 4 oms of resistance. Could the problem be the U10 itself, maybe i burned it out?
 

jefflongo

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Yep! they are connected to gnd, still, with about 4 oms of resistance. Could the problem be the U10 itself, maybe i burned it out?
This is how I would proceed troubleshooting:
1. Check the voltage on the pin not connected to the via, check to make sure it is at 3.3v when powered on.
2. Check if the output pin is at 3.3v when powered on
3. If those are good and your connection to the via is good, remove U10 and manually touch a 3.3v wire to the via wire AFTER turning on the wii and see if it boots
4. If that worked then the U10 may be kill
5. Otherwise I think you're doing something wrong
 
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This is how I would proceed troubleshooting:
1. Check the voltage on the pin not connected to the via, check to make sure it is at 3.3v when powered on.
2. Check if the output pin is at 3.3v when powered on
3. If those are good and your connection to the via is good, remove U10 and manually touch a 3.3v wire to the via wire AFTER turning on the wii and see if it boots
4. If that worked then the U10 may be kill
5. Otherwise I think you're doing something wrong

This may be a dumb question, but am i supposed to remove these circled pads, I cut the red trace, but the circled blue pads are still connected to my u10. They are all bridged together in a clump connecting the three pins on the left side of the u10

 

cheese

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This may be a dumb question, but am i supposed to remove these circled pads, I cut the red trace, but the circled blue pads are still connected to my u10. They are all bridged together in a clump connecting the three pins on the left side of the u10

Nah, those pads aren't connected to anything (which is also why they frequently come off), so it doesn't matter if they're there or not
 
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This is how I would proceed troubleshooting:
1. Check the voltage on the pin not connected to the via, check to make sure it is at 3.3v when powered on.
2. Check if the output pin is at 3.3v when powered on
3. If those are good and your connection to the via is good, remove U10 and manually touch a 3.3v wire to the via wire AFTER turning on the wii and see if it boots
4. If that worked then the U10 may be kill
5. Otherwise I think you're doing something wrong
Nah, those pads aren't connected to anything (which is also why they frequently come off), so it doesn't matter if they're there or not
So it seems that I need to pull the GPU via to gnd to get the WII to boot, that seems strange. I have desoldered my relocated u10, and the wire that runs off of pin 5 of the u10, to the gpu via, needs to be shorted to ground. I imagine that somehow the GPU is constantly connected to 3.3V, thus shorting it drops it below 3.3V. Then when the via is no longer shorted, the voltage goes back up to 3.3V and it is interpreted as the delayed 3.3V on signal. Any ideas on how to fix this, or what may be causing it?
 
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Huge update! Hello everyone, I've slowly been amassing parts and knowledge to continue on with my WII portable and today I finally cut my motherboard! I think it went pretty well. Before hooking it up to my regulators I was wondering what resistances I should expect between the various voltage lines and ground? I've checked the other sources and I think this information could be helpful as a post on the Guide Hub. Here are the pictures of my update, I've also started the case design and will be modeling my portable after the GameBoy Advanced! I know I still have a lot of work to do, I still need to sand the sides of the board and remove the video port, the usb ports, and the Hot Glue but its getting there!

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