2021 Contest Entry: GB Adwiince v2

[RoseDagger]

Well my wii stopped booting properly after I added the mx, gc, u-amp, and updated the sd from the old bbloader to rvloader (yes I should have tested between each thing I added, but well I didn't)
The screen turns on, and displays a black image, it does not say that there is "No signal" so the wii is outputting something. And the cpu gets hot, but nothing seems to be happening. I checked the mode switch for component, the voltage resistances, and looked for other shorts elsewhere on the board, but found nothing so far. Desoldered the mx, gc, and u-amp, without it bringing it back, removed the sd card to see if it would complain about not finding a usb, but still, nothing so will have to continue trying to figure out where I messed up this time.

Well, after being frustrated with many hours of soldering, then desoldering and bug searching I decided to switch track and finish up the case.
I sanded down the back panel, removed the support for the battery cover, and sanded the right and left half so they will mesh up properly.
And the continued by drilling out space for the z buttons, and for the ports on the bottom, and enlarging the volume slider hole.

When all the components are placed exactly where they are supposed to go, the front and back just barely manages to close together as they are supposed to, if anything is slightly out of alignment it won't close properly. So final assembly will be a royal pain, and keeping it closed will be an issue, as I removed all but one mounting hole in the lower corner on each side to fit my components...

Anyway, I'm running out of time and have started rushing to finish, and it can be rather visible on the holes I made for the ports in the back panel, and the z button holes, they could have needed some more time and care to look properly nice. And I could spend more time on sanding with higher git sandpaper, but I don't think I have the time for that.

Spoiler: The case

(everything is covered in tape to protect the case from scratches, the tape is really nice as it sits rather well, and can be easily peeled off without leaving any glue residue)
Front, got buttons in red and green to make it easier to differentiate between A and B and X and Y. I considered getting a friend to print new buttons for me, but as my goal was to frankencase this project, I decided against it.

The bottom ports, the positions are a bit wonky as they are all on different levels, but nothing much I can do about that

Backside, with the heatsink and battery placed, I'm a bit sad that they will hide all of the pcbs, but that was always going to be the case

The back without cooling and battery for comparison, even with the tape making it more obscure, you can see how cool it could have looked without

Next week will be intense, we have a deadline at work, on top of the deadline for this as well. I need to figure out the issue with the wii not turning on, do Bluetooth, speakers, rumble, final batteries, fan and cooling, glue the left and right sides of the case together for both the front and back, glue in more mounting support, and final assembly and hope that everything works (haven't gotten to test if the gc / buttons and d-pad works), and that there is not any other things I have forgotten or problems I'll encounter.

 

[RoseDagger]

I'm so fucking sad, I think I bricked my Wii in the home stretch. It won't turn on anymore, 1v resistance is at a whopping 59k instead of the 100s something it normally is, and when powered on, the pms only supplies 0.5v on the 1v rail.
The compendium sais 1v basically only goes to the GPU, and I don't see any other components that might have died.
I was so close, I had mounted the cooling, and was just going to test the features before assembling it fully, and making the video, and now I can't complete...
It's such a letdown after managing to take yesterday and today off, and having to skip a birthday party today to try and finish, and having to end like this.
its 1am here, and 5 hours left, unless someone happens to know what is wrong and a easy way to fix it, I guess this is it.

Will post a full worklog update later of all the things I did before getting here

Spoiler: font and back

Edit for more info: the battery is at 4.1v, fan connected to 3.3v turns on, and display on 5v turns on. It was booting and working just fine until I put on the cooler, not sure what happened, might have shorted copper plate to 3.3v or somewhere else maybe. Cpu does not seem to get warm, The connection from 1v on the pms to the vias next to capacitor where I supply 1v has a resistance of 0, so it shows good connection to the wii itself

Edit disconnecting the pms, and the resistance on the wii went back to normal, the pms when not connected to anything is supplying 1.5v on the 1v line???

Edit, rechecked again, does not seem like CPU, GPU, or ram heats up at all, and check again, when reconnecting the 1v line from the pms, the resistance shoots back up to 59k, and the 1v does not output any voltage (or it seems to output the same 500mv in when powered on as it does in standby)

Edit, and again when disconnecting the pms, the wii resistance on 1v drops down to normal, and the pms seems to output 1.5v, and might be a bit volatile in what it does output? or maybe my probe had some bad contact maybe.
Anyway, I'm to tired to bugseach this further, I'm suspecting something is wrong with the pms, but I don't see anything, and I don't think being more sleep deprived will help me figure it out, so I'm gonna give up now, even though it sucks soo much

Edit, disconnecting the battery makes the resistance go back to normal, reconnecting it makes the resistance shoot up again, was hoping for a simple, turn it off and on again to clear the memory or something, but no luck...

 

[RoseDagger]

Sooo it's many hours past the deadline, but I felt like making a worklog update anyway on everything I have done, and add a final video.

Spoiler: Gluing

Glued the pieces together with a different glue than I have used before, it was way easier to work with at it had a longer work period, but it fumed or something and left a white coating on things near the gluing area.

Spoiler: Added supports for the pcbs

Added some standoffs that I could scruw into, but again anything near the gluing area gets that white coating,

Though the coating is not too hard to remove with some simple rubbing or a finger nail for harder parts

Spoiler: Nudes before assembly

Cut the copper plate a bit to make space for the video and controller out

Spoiler: Final glory shots

So the measurements ended up being about 190mm x 82mm x 27mm

And the final to late submission video


It has been a fun journey, and using the competition to push myself to was definitely the right move, even though I could not quite land the project where I wanted to, I have at least learned a whole lot, and for my first proper portable project, I would say I didn't do too bad. I'm unsure if I'm going to finish this project up now that the competition is over, or if I rather want to start over with all that I have learned and make something new and better instead

 

[Stitches]

I know that feel my man, my entry last year borked after final assembly too and I couldn't fix it. You gave it a solid try tho, and I really like the GBA splice look! Congrats on the (almost) finishing, I hope to see a resurrected version at some point!