Worklog First Wii Project

[kyler]

I've been reading a lot of stuff on the site and lurking around a lot of the other worklogs of complete noobs like me while collecting parts and tweaking my design. But I've actually done some work on some things and I like feedback so,

In the words of our favourite plumber, here we go...

BOM
-Home made case
-OMGWTF-ed motherboard with MX chip and Bluetooth relocated
-LEDs for a sensor bar
-7 inch LCD with driver board (ER-TFTV070-5)
-PMS from the shop
-4 18650s in parallel
-GC+
-VGA port, USB port, headphone jack, 7 pin connector, Wii's original power jack
-Fan and heat sink from a sad broken laptop. Speakers also came from that laptop
-Generic 3W audio amp board.
- D pad, joy sticks, and L\R buttons from a broken aftermarket controller. I've got tact switches and a 3d printer for the rest
-Boost converter that I'm working on to take the 1S4P batteries and turn it into 12V for the screen and few other spots where I need 12V. It's still too rough and untested to share. Not actually needed. LCDs lie. 5v is fine.
- patience and deep breathing.

I've made the case from a scan of the switch pro controller because my goal is to make something that won't hurt my mangled, RSI-ridden hands. The pro controller is actually one of the few controllers that I can use without much regret, so that's where I started from. I then found a 3d mock up of the switch itself, because I knew I wanted something with a similar screen size. With a bit of digital hacking and slashing, I made a case.

Spoiler: Pictures

It's got a little battery cover type thing on the back, covering up the 5 ports on the system: a VGA out, USB, power, headphones, and a 7 pin connector. Because aesthetics. or something.

The plan is to make a dock where these ports will line up with their counterparts - VGA and headphone convert to HDMI and go go a TV, power will charge it, and the 7 pin connector will provide a connection to 4 external game cube controller ports. I'll have a button for turning off the screen for when a tv is being used, and a switch for disconnecting the hardwired controls and using an external controller for p1 instead. The dock will also hold the system so that the screen could be used if theres no TV available, and so that it can continue to be the sensor bar for wii games.

More or less its a switch. but a wii. so its what we wanted and expected the WII U to be. It kind of even looks like one. Except (hopefully) a little less fischer price. The shell is still a work in progress - a lot of my measurements have been estimates up until now, so some tweaking is happening. I'll probably also make some sort of internal frame to attach all the parts to and to guide wires. That way, when something breaks, it'll be a lot less painful to fix.

What's done?
- All parts obtained, except for the GC+ and the parts for the 3-4.2V to 12V boost board.
- Portablize mii installed
- a very rough cut of the motherboard and relocation of U10
- MX chip necessary parts destroyed while removing U10. Oops.

To do:
- relocate bluetooth
- Locate nice person willing to sell me MX chip portion of Wii board.
- Get GC+ when its in stock
- hardwire composite cable because im an idiot who forgot to install VGA patch
- install VGA patch
- Make voltage converter board.
- Finalize Case
- Attach all the things.
- put out (hopefully figurative) fires as they occur.

Later:
- make the dock.

Questions:
- am I missing anything?

- Assuming I make the circuit right, it's not stupid/ a bad idea/ actually impossible to boost 1S4P 18650s to 12V 2a, right? Based on what I've read, as long as I use batteries that can handle >2a draw each, 2a X 4 batteries = 8a, 8a X 3V (3v = dying 18650s) = 24w. the screen needs 12v X 2a = 24w. So long as the batteries can do even 2.5a continuous draw comfortably, that should provide more than enough for the needs of the screen and the boost converter itself/ any inefficiencies.

I then need to account for the draw of the wii too, but if we're talking just the screen, the above math does make sense? I think I'm oversimplifying something. I could just put the batteries in series, but I want to use Gman's PMS for the battery charging/ protection/ indicator led/ other converters, and it's strictly 1s.

- Anybody got a spare MX chip + necessary components they'd be willing to sell me? I'm in Canada, just FYI, for shipping purposes.

- I missed the GC+ being back in stock. Was waiting for payday. Is it going to be back again soonish? Will someone flash the PIC and sell it to me...?

- it also needs a name. Writing this, the Shii Guii (Shii-y Guii-y? Shiiee Guiiee? hmm pun might not work) popped into my head. Becuase it's shy about all those ports. I could make the vent for the fan a shy guy.

And well. I lurk.

I'll post pictures of the physical work once there's actually something to see.

Time to relocate some bluetooth.

 

[Gman]

You can probably mod the screen driver board to power from 5v.

 

[kyler]

Well that would make things a lot easier. Uhm. How?

 

[cheese]

Got a picture of the driver board? It's also unlikely that the screen actually draws that much power, the manufacturers usually label the power requirements decently above what it actually needs so someone won't have issues because their supply can't put out enough power.

 

[kyler]

This is the board. I'm 90 percent sure the chip just above the power in in this picture is a buck converter, knocking the 12v down to what is probably 5v. Looking though some of the documentation I could find, it seems like the screen itself runs off no more than 3v.

But, I'm not entirely sure what to do with this knowledge...

 

[jefflongo]

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/running-screens-off-lower-voltages.2256/

 

[kyler]

Thanks everyone for your help! I did a bit of digging, and it seems like this board can just run off 5v, like was suggested. I had it all set up and it should have been working, but the voltage was really unstable and far too low at the pins for the screen. So I tried just setting it up with 12v, and it does the exact same thing. Everything should work, but the screen doesn't actually turn on and, if I check voltage, the screen doesn't get enough power. I think there might be a bad chip on the board, and the 50 pin to 40 pin adapter it came with appears to be losing a volt? So, seems like too much headache for something I bought new for this purpose. Back to the seller it goes...

I'll look for something that will definitely run off 5v this time.

Speaking of which; any ideas on a 7inch vga LCD + driver that will run off 5v?

 

[kyler]

Hey so I'm actually a giant idiot and had something about my initial set up for the screen wrong - when I put it all back together to take pictures for the seller to discuss sending it back, it just... Worked? So I tried 5v from the Pms soldered to the 12v in on the driver and Welp. It works. Which is exciting.

So, again, thanks everyone for the advice about the screen.

Less good: I've got it more or less ready to go. Trimmed and sanded, but when testing if anything shorts to ground - the part where the 1.15v goes is shorted to ground. The component that sits directly beside it is shorted, which is bizzare, because it looks perfectly fine. I sanded all the edges again, but still shorts to ground.

Any idea what this part is and if I can fix it/ steal one of the unused parts of the board?

 

[GingerOfOz]

How many ohms are you measuring between the 1.15v line and GND? It's normal for it to be around 30, which will trigger continuity on most meters.

 

[kyler]

Ah, yep, around 35ohms. Thanks for the fast reply! Im going to reconnect it to the PMS - took it off for one last good sanding - and we'll see what happens.

 

[kyler]

Well, no signal, but signs of life?

Everything is showing the right voltages, the CPU gets warm, as if it's turning on. The u10 shows connection, but not 3.3v, closer to 2v. The composite cable is making connection - I know it looks a little odd but it's fine - and it's grounded. But no signal.

 

[jefflongo]

Well if the u10 is not showing 3.3v on the output then it definitely won't turn on. You should pick up some magnet wire as that wire you're using is probably too large to be effectively used. You should also use some flux to clean up those nasty solder joints, solder joints should be smooth, not jagged like that. If you don't have any, then get some because it's pretty essentially to any soldering.

 

[kyler]

Honestly, I need to invest in some solder tips that don't melt away to nothing within a single soldering session... There's more or less nothing left of the last one I've got, but I wanted to get these joints connected to check signs of life. It's all temporary connections for now anyway. I have flux, but I'm not looking for this to be pretty or permanent. Just a test of the trim.

U10 measures not quite 2v at the chip itself, so it's not necessarily the wire. The wire is actually making fairly good connection, and isn't attached to any nearby pins - I have magnet wire, but it just kept flaking off at the pin on the back, so I used this instead.

So. Something maybe wrong with u10 itself? Or maybe just time to move on to board 2, call this one noob error...

 

[jefflongo]

Check the input pin, if it reads 3.3v, you can try disconnecting the wire on the on the output pin. If the output pin doesn't read 3.3v, the U10 is probably broken, in which case you can replace it with U9 if you still have it.

 

[kyler]

Nothing has 3v on it. The screen did some flickering black while I was testing the voltage though. Unfortunately, I destroyed the original u10, so this is u9.

Onward to wii the second. This time i won't destroy the MX chip.

Though step 1 is actually better solder tips. i might as well be soldering with a potato at this point...

 

[jefflongo]

You probably don't need to give up on the Wii yet. Check if the input pin is continuous with 3.3v. That pin should be getting 3.3v unless you messed up the input pad. Once the input pin is getting the proper 3.3v, then you can make the evaluation on whether the U10 chip is broken or not. If it is in fact broken, you can crack open your new Wii and do whatever with it, and use the extra U9/10 to try to fix this Wii.

I had a Wii that I had broken both U9 and U10 on, and I gave up on it, got a new Wii, and ended up with 2 working trims. But yes, your first step should be to use a quality iron.

 

[Nold]

I wanted to get these joints connected to check signs of life. It's all temporary connections for now anyway. I have flux, but I'm not looking for this to be pretty or permanent. Just a test of the trim.

I would recommend using solder when soldering anyways - lol

Add some solder to the soldering points on the mainboard. Bad solder joints can be a cause for the wii to not boot.

 

[kyler]

On the u10, the pad that's connected to the pin on the back sits at around 2v, though it ups to about 3 sometimes and then the screen flickers black. The other pin sits at a very low voltage, around .1 or .2.

 

[GingerOfOz]

Sounds like the 3.3v pad on the U10 isn't connected properly. Does the rest of the board have the proper 3.3v voltage? If so, run a jumper wire from another 3.3v spot to the 3.3v pin on the U10.

 

[kyler]

Got a new soldering iron + tips. Who knew that there could be such a quality difference in pointy things that get really hot on the end...

Spoiler: they're on to us...

The back of the soldering iron box. Made me feel... Watched...

Possible applications. Literally video gaming modifications. I think I got the right one.

I redid all the solder joints, got it all going again. The u9/ u10 input pin now gets 3.3v, but the output has stabilized at around 1.6. so the u9 I'm using is definitely the problem. So next step is to crack open Wii number 2 for a new u10 and Mx chip.

Thanks for the troubleshooting help!