- Joined
- May 30, 2021
- Messages
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- 21
Ok, so here goes.
There are probably quite a few lurkers or new members on here who have seen videos of PS2, Wii and Dreamcast portables made in China and sold either on Ali-express or a drop-shipper from the United States. They might even be tempted to buy one for $500-$600 or worse yet $850 from a scalper. Chances are, however, if you don't have at least 75% of the skill to make a portable yourself, it will probably end in disaster, either when you receive the portable or a few months later when things start to fall apart. Even if you do have the skill, the guy in China who makes these cuts so many corners and steals enough of others' work for anyone supporting the work that people in this community have put in since the days of Mod Retro to not buy his portables on principle alone. Yes, it's one guy who has posted on Bitbuilt in the past who runs a small sweatshop making these things.
After seeing one of the videos on Youtube about his cheap portables, I did some digging and bought a Wii portable from his online store in China, cutting out the scalpers entirely, and payed just over $320 shipped with DHL, an absolute steal! That isn't exactly throwaway money but it's not going to break the bank, and with the Bitbuilt store at the time out of stock with no updates on when or if parts to build a portable would be back, I decided to take the risk.
After opening it up I immediately knew it wasn't good but not the extent of how bad it was on the inside. Within a month of receiving the portable I had to nearly completely rebuild it multiple times. Although wiring wasn't too bad due to the use of a few "custom" PCBs, almost everything was assembled poorly and the parts were quite shoddy. The screen's backlight was so strong that I got a headache after a half-hour and yet the brightness was so low and contrast high that it was almost impossible to see what was happening in most games. The case was completely deformed from overtightening screws and the paint was chipping. Worse yet, The USB slot was shaking and it became evident that the motherboard was supported by a single screw post that had gotten loose -- the power jack and switch had started to become loose as well, a potential fire waiting to happen.
Playing the device, I quickly noticed that the audio quality was garbage and it turned out that the speakers polarity was reversed and the audio amp was damaged along with one of the speakers. The soldering on the controller board was bad and half the pins on the IC had come undone and the ribbon cables for the analog sticks were bent to hell and damaged. Later I discovered that the IC is actually a GC+ 1.0 integrated into a PCB with breakaway connectors for the analog sticks and pads for buttons. A few resistors and regulators had to be re-soldered and I would not be surprised if the "custom" power PCB uses stolen ICs from the Bitbuilt's Wii PCM. Finally the batteries were cheap and did not hold a good charge.
Aside from what is connected with a ribbon cable I had to disassemble and re-solder almost everything in the portable and then buy new sticks and buttons, screen and PCB, audio amp and speakers, batteries, battery circuit protection and finally fix the case with epoxy and repaint it. When all is said and done, the only thing I did not do to make a full-fledged portable is cut the wii motherboard and solder a few of the very small vias which thankfully were done correctly -- admittingly this is the toughest part of making a portable. And the toughest part of making a Wii portable being done correctly by the factory is the only reason I can imagine anyone would want to buy a portable from this guy because everything else is dangerous and needed to be completely re-done. If you need more evidence for how little time and care this guy put into this thing: Resident Evil 4 was loaded onto the included microSD card with a save file that has five minutes of game play. The portable probably wasn't tested for more than 10 minutes before being sent out. But what's really insulting is that in an email exchange, the guy claimed there is a one year warranty but wouldn't even send a replacement GC+ board -- let alone acknowledge all the issues with the portable.
When all is said and done, with the time and money I spent on the portable and parts, I could have sourced someone to print a case and made a GWii while supporting the people who made the software and some of the hardware used in these Chinese portables. I can't speak to the PS2 or Dreamcast portables, but from what I saw on Youtube, most of them are garbage.
Do I have a working Wii portable that I enjoy? Yes, I do, because I spent hours following the guides on this forum to completely rebuild the portable to make it workable, testing voltages, continuity, rebuilding the case, soldering. But honestly it feels pretty crappy knowing that everything involving this "modder" is so shady, from the stolen parts and software to the scalpers dumping these devices on people for hundreds of dollars.
Just don't be a part of it, because really it isn't worth it.
There are probably quite a few lurkers or new members on here who have seen videos of PS2, Wii and Dreamcast portables made in China and sold either on Ali-express or a drop-shipper from the United States. They might even be tempted to buy one for $500-$600 or worse yet $850 from a scalper. Chances are, however, if you don't have at least 75% of the skill to make a portable yourself, it will probably end in disaster, either when you receive the portable or a few months later when things start to fall apart. Even if you do have the skill, the guy in China who makes these cuts so many corners and steals enough of others' work for anyone supporting the work that people in this community have put in since the days of Mod Retro to not buy his portables on principle alone. Yes, it's one guy who has posted on Bitbuilt in the past who runs a small sweatshop making these things.
After seeing one of the videos on Youtube about his cheap portables, I did some digging and bought a Wii portable from his online store in China, cutting out the scalpers entirely, and payed just over $320 shipped with DHL, an absolute steal! That isn't exactly throwaway money but it's not going to break the bank, and with the Bitbuilt store at the time out of stock with no updates on when or if parts to build a portable would be back, I decided to take the risk.
After opening it up I immediately knew it wasn't good but not the extent of how bad it was on the inside. Within a month of receiving the portable I had to nearly completely rebuild it multiple times. Although wiring wasn't too bad due to the use of a few "custom" PCBs, almost everything was assembled poorly and the parts were quite shoddy. The screen's backlight was so strong that I got a headache after a half-hour and yet the brightness was so low and contrast high that it was almost impossible to see what was happening in most games. The case was completely deformed from overtightening screws and the paint was chipping. Worse yet, The USB slot was shaking and it became evident that the motherboard was supported by a single screw post that had gotten loose -- the power jack and switch had started to become loose as well, a potential fire waiting to happen.
Playing the device, I quickly noticed that the audio quality was garbage and it turned out that the speakers polarity was reversed and the audio amp was damaged along with one of the speakers. The soldering on the controller board was bad and half the pins on the IC had come undone and the ribbon cables for the analog sticks were bent to hell and damaged. Later I discovered that the IC is actually a GC+ 1.0 integrated into a PCB with breakaway connectors for the analog sticks and pads for buttons. A few resistors and regulators had to be re-soldered and I would not be surprised if the "custom" power PCB uses stolen ICs from the Bitbuilt's Wii PCM. Finally the batteries were cheap and did not hold a good charge.
Aside from what is connected with a ribbon cable I had to disassemble and re-solder almost everything in the portable and then buy new sticks and buttons, screen and PCB, audio amp and speakers, batteries, battery circuit protection and finally fix the case with epoxy and repaint it. When all is said and done, the only thing I did not do to make a full-fledged portable is cut the wii motherboard and solder a few of the very small vias which thankfully were done correctly -- admittingly this is the toughest part of making a portable. And the toughest part of making a Wii portable being done correctly by the factory is the only reason I can imagine anyone would want to buy a portable from this guy because everything else is dangerous and needed to be completely re-done. If you need more evidence for how little time and care this guy put into this thing: Resident Evil 4 was loaded onto the included microSD card with a save file that has five minutes of game play. The portable probably wasn't tested for more than 10 minutes before being sent out. But what's really insulting is that in an email exchange, the guy claimed there is a one year warranty but wouldn't even send a replacement GC+ board -- let alone acknowledge all the issues with the portable.
When all is said and done, with the time and money I spent on the portable and parts, I could have sourced someone to print a case and made a GWii while supporting the people who made the software and some of the hardware used in these Chinese portables. I can't speak to the PS2 or Dreamcast portables, but from what I saw on Youtube, most of them are garbage.
Do I have a working Wii portable that I enjoy? Yes, I do, because I spent hours following the guides on this forum to completely rebuild the portable to make it workable, testing voltages, continuity, rebuilding the case, soldering. But honestly it feels pretty crappy knowing that everything involving this "modder" is so shady, from the stolen parts and software to the scalpers dumping these devices on people for hundreds of dollars.
Just don't be a part of it, because really it isn't worth it.
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