Worklog Ashida Wavebird Worklog

[cy]

It's been a long time coming, but it's FINALLY my turn to make an Ashida! I'm hoping to have it done in time for MGC so I can show it off to the bois. My shell was printed in sla by The_Random_Guy and I truly couldn't be more grateful for him kindly selling it to me for an utter steal. While the name of the portable is often shortened to just "Ashida" I'm calling mine by the full title "Ashida Wavebird" because it's identically colored to the official light grey colored GameCube Wavebirds(I'll show a side by side comparison once it's completed).
For now, here's a shot of the shell from my shitty phone camera:

I wet sanded it up to 4000 grit and I'm happy with the finish I've gotten on it. I don't want it too smooth or glossy because that wouldn't be true to the OG controller.
Since I wet sanded it today, I wanted to let it dry over night before I started mounting anything inside. I still managed to get a decent bit done however!
Wesk said I could use the promotional render video as an assembly reference so likewise I started with the U-Amp and audio related bits:

Next the video shows mounting the PCBs in the case, with my case not fully dried I did what anyone with > 5 chromosomes would do and I started working on the control boards instead of mounting the PCB like a total moron.
Here's how that's been turning out:

The ribbon connectors were a lot more of a challenge than I had initially bargained for. The first one ended up going in off center due to a lack of experience, second one went a lot better though.
Here's a closeup of what I'm babbling on about:
First ribbon connector:

Second ribbon connector:

I verified continuity to each pad with a multi-meter and no, I didn't do it like a idiot by probing the pins. Instead, I connected the ends with a ribbon cable and checked for continuity between the GC+ and end button solder points on BOTH PCBs. I should be all set for now!

 

[Gman]

You soldered Z1 on the wrong side of the pcb

 

[cy]

You soldered Z1 on the wrong side of the pcb

Ah shoot, thanks a lot for pointing that out to me! I'll fix that when I work on it later.

 

[cy]

I've gotten the Z button switch out and I'll be putting it in the correct way soon enough. Since trimming the motherboard takes a decent amount of time, I wanted to get that done yesterday. Here are my results:

The other end looks like it might've gone into the NAND traces - while my dad was doing the trim, he did it at a pretty exaggerated angle, so it ended up being a lot closer than I anticipated in the outline. This is why I need to learn how to do these trims, I just didn't wanna learn on this one because I'm sorta rushing to get it done before MGC. I currently don't have a backup motherboard and I'd rather not tempt fate by learning on the only untrimmed motherboard I have for this project. Anyways here's what I'm talking about with the NAND lines on the other end:

It's too blurry to tell by with this image, but I've verified they're intact and I'll be double checking them with a multi-meter. I had to be real careful when sanding this one, but it's been sanded up to 1000 grit and I should be all set once I'm ready to and test boot it.

Progress on this has been a bit slow. I'm going through in an assessment week in college right now and I have 3 exams I need to get through. Once I'm past this coming Thursday though I should start making rapid progress on this. It's been a fun build so far!

 

[Stitches]

I've gotten the Z button switch out and I'll be putting it in the correct way soon enough. Since trimming the motherboard takes a decent amount of time, I wanted to get that done yesterday. Here are my results:
View attachment 19473
The other end looks like it might've gone into the NAND traces - while my dad was doing the trim, he did it at a pretty exaggerated angle, so it ended up being a lot closer than I anticipated in the outline. This is why I need to learn how to do these trims, I just didn't wanna learn on this one because I'm sorta rushing to get it done before MGC. I currently don't have a backup motherboard and I'd rather not tempt fate by learning on the only untrimmed motherboard I have for this project. Anyways here's what I'm talking about with the NAND lines on the other end:
View attachment 19474
It's too blurry to tell by with this image, but I've verified they're intact and I'll be double checking them with a multi-meter. I had to be real careful when sanding this one, but it's been sanded up to 1000 grit and I should be all set once I'm ready to and test boot it.

Progress on this has been a bit slow. I'm going through in an assessment week in college right now and I have 3 exams I need to get through. Once I'm past this coming Thursday though I should start making rapid progress on this. It's been a fun build so far!

Nah, your NAND lines are safe. As long as you aren't secretly Hercules, you won't get close to them

 

[cy]

Nah, your NAND lines are safe. As long as you aren't secretly Hercules, you won't get close to them

Good to hear thanks for the feedback!
Despite still being up to my ears in homework, I made time to do some things with a quick late-night session.
Z1 Tact has been properly relocated:

I'm still really not clear on what needs to happen to the screen driver board to make it work but I'm aware it gets modified to work with 3.3v instead of 5 volts. I also know the connectors had to go so I got rid of those. Here's what both sides of my screen driver board are looking like with that out of the way:

Only took me 57 minutes to clean up the remaining flux after de-soldering them.
Jokes aside, the de-soldering process was a hell of a lot easier than I expected. It just took a lot of solder and an incredibly creative setup, I don't have 3 arms after all haha. I should really invest in a hot air station one of these days...

 

[Wesk]

Courtesy of @Gman

 

[cy]

Courtesy of @Gman

Thanks a lot! This takes me a huge step in the right direction although I still have a few questions.
Edit: I had a few more questions, but I'm all good now.

 

[cy]

So when ordering the battery clips I couldn't find the exact ones I are supposed to go used in this build. I ordered ones that looked like they'd work and spoiler alert: They didn't. I was able to make them and the batteries fit, but it was putting too much pressure on the batteries. I could order the proper battery clips now as I do have the link for them, but am I really gonna wait for those to come in when I'm trying to get this together before MGC? I already have enough experience soldering to batteries, so that's exactly what I did. U-Amp and PMS are also mounted now and I've wired everything up for a proper fan test. All is working as intended although turning it on and off with a switch is a bit buggy, I'm assuming this will be the case until I change the setting for it in RVLoader? Anyways, here's how it's all looking:
(Stray ground wires are positioned out of the way so when I need to, I can temporarily connect them for testing)

Here are some closeups of my wiring:

I needed to repair C10 on the PMS due to User Error: ID10T. It's visible but only if you know where C10 is located. Hoping my 5v rail isn't trucked.

 

[JustinTime007]

As a question since I’m using that driver board.. how exactly do you wire it for power? 3.3v soldered into the spot shown and where does ground go? Also do you have to remove that component? The build is looking sick tho can’t wait to see the beauty shots of the finished product.

 

[Stitches]

As a question since I’m using that driver board.. how exactly do you wire it for power? 3.3v soldered into the spot shown and where does ground go? Also do you have to remove that component? The build is looking sick tho can’t wait to see the beauty shots of the finished product.

Ground goes to any ground location on the board, they're all all connected. And yeah you should remove the inductor for efficiency

 

[cy]

As a question since I’m using that driver board.. how exactly do you wire it for power? 3.3v soldered into the spot shown and where does ground go? Also do you have to remove that component? The build is looking sick tho can’t wait to see the beauty shots of the finished product.

I think @Stitches has answered your question accordingly. Thank you! This build really shows how far the community has come. I'm really looking forward to finishing this up and I'm especially looking forward to playing it!

And yeah you should remove the inductor for efficiency

We talking the one occupying the space 3.3v gets wired to? I haven't removed that component on mine yet, should I? I've already verified the screen turns on. You'll see what I mean by this image:

I'm noticing the control PCB is covering most of the VGA solder points. Not a huge deal although it looks like this build will call for shielded magnet wire over antenna wire. It's also probably a really good idea for me to put kapton tape over the area once I'm finished.
Here's how the wiring for the C-Stick PCB turned out:

In order to position the C-Stick correctly, I had to trim down this mounting point:

@Wesk said it's a leftover from the OEM controller so I thought I'd mention the need to trim/sand it a bit in order to make the C-Stick PCB fit.
Here's a full zoomed out view of how this end of the board is looking. All in all I'd say I'm happy with the progress I've made. I'll proceed to mount these control PCBs once I get my twisted VGA wiring together.

It looks like this build is gonna turn out really cleanly judging by this other shot I have(pardon the messy workspace and loose wiring):

Meanwhile, on the other end, I've gotten the L & R buttons mounted. Had to do a TON of sanding to get the R trigger to function properly but it feels as it should now. I also got the USB-C board mounted and I've connected the filesystem to a device, all is working as it should!

It seems to be a common theme this build that things are getting blocked off by other things. It's really not an issue if you know ahead of time but it is a bit annoying. This time the USB-C board is currently blocking off the 1v and T- pads. It's really not a problem, worst case scenario I'll just need to unscrew it to solder to these pads, but I don't think that'll be needed. With a bit of finesse I should be able to wire them up.
Here's what the current situation looks like:

Would've been a lot worse if I didn't plan ahead and solder an extra 3.3v wire. Even then unscrewing it wouldn't have been the end of the world.

All in all, it's crazy how much progress a guy can make when his time isn't being consumed by college. I've managed to make quite a lot of progress within this past day, I'm thinking within the next few days I'll be able to close this puppy up(barring any unforseen stupidity).

 

[Wesk]

Just a heads up, there may be a some minor fitment issues with the trigger lock mount:

If you have issues getting the full trigger press to register just remove this part, it's not really needed anyway.

 

[Stitches]

I think @Stitches has answered your question accordingly. Thank you! This build really shows how far the community has come. I'm really looking forward to finishing this up and I'm especially looking forward to playing it!

We talking the one occupying the space 3.3v gets wired to? I haven't removed that component on mine yet, should I? I've already verified the screen turns on. You'll see what I mean by this image:
View attachment 19529
I'm noticing the control PCB is covering most of the VGA solder points. Not a huge deal although it looks like this build will call for shielded magnet wire over antenna wire. It's also probably a really good idea for me to put kapton tape over the area once I'm finished.
Here's how the wiring for the C-Stick PCB turned out:
View attachment 19531
In order to position the C-Stick correctly, I had to trim down this mounting point:
View attachment 19532
@Wesk said it's a leftover from the OEM controller so I thought I'd mention the need to trim/sand it a bit in order to make the C-Stick PCB fit.
Here's a full zoomed out view of how this end of the board is looking. All in all I'd say I'm happy with the progress I've made. I'll proceed to mount these control PCBs once I get my twisted VGA wiring together.
View attachment 19533
It looks like this build is gonna turn out really cleanly judging by this other shot I have(pardon the messy workspace and loose wiring):
View attachment 19534
Meanwhile, on the other end, I've gotten the L & R buttons mounted. Had to do a TON of sanding to get the R trigger to function properly but it feels as it should now. I also got the USB-C board mounted and I've connected the filesystem to a device, all is working as it should!
View attachment 19535
It seems to be a common theme this build that things are getting blocked off by other things. It's really not an issue if you know ahead of time but it is a bit annoying. This time the USB-C board is currently blocking off the 1v and T- pads. It's really not a problem, worst case scenario I'll just need to unscrew it to solder to these pads, but I don't think that'll be needed. With a bit of finesse I should be able to wire them up.
Here's what the current situation looks like:
View attachment 19536
Would've been a lot worse if I didn't plan ahead and solder an extra 3.3v wire. Even then unscrewing it wouldn't have been the end of the world.

All in all, it's crazy how much progress a guy can make when his time isn't being consumed by college. I've managed to make quite a lot of progress within this past day, I'm thinking within the next few days I'll be able to close this puppy up(barring any unforseen stupidity).

You don't really have to remove the inductor, it just improves power efficiency a little by preventing voltage from flowing into the output pin of the stock regulator. If the reg is cheapo this could also cause some instability in the future, but it's rare. I mainly recommend removing it for safety, just in case Murphy feels like being an ass.

 

[cy]

You don't really have to remove the inductor, it just improves power efficiency a little by preventing voltage from flowing into the output pin of the stock regulator. If the reg is cheapo this could also cause some instability in the future, but it's rare. I mainly recommend removing it for safety, just in case Murphy feels like being an ass.

Noted, I'll be removing it here shortly, thanks for the explanation!

Just a heads up, there may be a some minor fitment issues with the trigger lock mount:

If you have issues getting the full trigger press to register just remove this part, it's not really needed anyway.

Also noted,
Thanks both of you for the info, I should be getting back to work on this unit tonight so expect to seen another update soonish.

 

[cy]

So, this update has some good news and some news that's pretty much ruined my night. Good news is, I got the Wii to boot and my trim is working!

Bad news that's pretty much ruined my night is, my PMS is fucked. I've been having my dad screw in the 4 layer boards because it can be really quite awkward to screw these boards into PLA and SLA printed shells. Unfortunately, he fucked up C10 when using screws that were too big to screw the unit in. Lucky for me, I was able to solder it back on, it wasn't easy but I managed to do it and all was working as intended. Unfortunately, until just a few minutes ago, it slipped both of our notice that he also fucked up C20 which is required for a number of things including the thermistor and likely the SCL & SDL which are data for the PMS to the Wii. I don't know where this resistor could've gone and frankly it doesn't matter because it was crushed when the PMS was screwed in for the first time. I swear it's always something with these builds, everything was going perfectly up to this point too. I was really hoping I could finish this thing up tomorrow but I guess that won't be happening.

 

[SparkleBear]

Keep truckin Cy. The build is looking really good! I had to remove those trigger mount brackets too... Fitment issues. Great job, I know you will get it sorted out and have a kick ass portable for MGC.

Cheers mate!

 

[cy]

Keep truckin Cy. The build is looking really good! I had to remove those trigger mount brackets too... Fitment issues. Great job, I know you will get it sorted out and have a kick ass portable for MGC.

Cheers mate!

Always appreciate the words of encouragement. I wish you luck with finishing yours if you haven't already!

In the meantime, I forgot to mention this when it first happened but when putting my fan in place I almost completely broke it. What happened was, the area to put the fan in my unit is incredibly tight, I sanded it down and it's not as bad now, but it requires quite a bit of pressure to get the fan in to place. Well, while I was pushing the fan down, I didn't realize I was pushing it down in the centered part of the fan and 2 of the 3 legs that connect the fan broke. Originally I was just gonna say fuck it and leave it as is because it didn't interfere with what was there, but after thinking about it more, I decided to do what any sane person would and glue it back together. Here's how that turned out:

Moral of the story:
Think critically before installing components into portables.
Hopefully by having this issue I can save at least one person from also having this issue down the road.

In the meantime, I'm trying to unfuck my PMS with the help of Gunnar. I'll keep yall posted with how that goes.

 

[cy]

I didn't think I was gonna get it together in time for MGC, but it looks like I was able to! The screw posts for closing the case were hell, and I will need to iron out a few things, but it's all working as it should! Here's a side by side comparison with an actual GC Wave bird controller:

Since MGC is tomorrow I decided to hold off on screwing it closed. Ironically enough screwing it closed has been the most difficult part of this build(yes seriously...). The print was done in SLA and there were a lot of imperfections with the print that have caused me WAY more headache than I needed. Hopefully tomorrow or Saturday I can take the rubber bands off this thing and I'll be able to get the proper Ashida Wavebird experience haha. That said, here's how my internals turned out:

I was in such a rush after getting in the new PMS, I hardly had time to take pictures along the way. I got the replacement PMS on Monday and I had an incredibly challenging quiz that day so I wasn't able to make any progress. That left me with Tuesday(which I had another college class and homework to do), Wednesday, and Thursday(today) to get the unit together and finished up. None of this factors the lengthy list of preperations I needed to make for MGC; so I've been busier than a 1 legged man in an ass kicking contest. The unit is currently missing the MX Chip and while I usually do an MX relocation, I'm thinking of skipping out on it this time. I'll be building another G-Wii at some point and I won't be skipping out on it then. Virtual console games would feel sorta out of place in this build being that it's really a GameCube controller with a screen and all. Maybe I'll come back to it, but for now this is what I have and other than the shell's bothersome screw posts; I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out!

I wanna thank @CalebPikmin, @CrashBash, @SparkleBear, and @Shank who have answered misc questions and encouraged me to keep doing this hobby we all love.

I'd like to give an extra special thanks @Gman, and @Wesk for extensive help with technical questions and misc trouble shooting!

 

[cy]

After taking the portable to MGC, I learned a little trick from @Gman about re-drilling screw posts. First you fill the screw posts with a mixture of super glue and baking soda, and then you re-drill the posts. This made screwing the unit closed easy! After getting back from MGC and surviving two 6 hour car trips, the unit was shockingly still alive with no issues. I was unhappy with the screen's brightness though, I wanted to do a better job screwing the case closed, and of course I wanted to add the MX Chip for VC support. So I've taken the time to open this project up one last time for the reasons listed above.
MX trim turned out nicely:
before sanding

after sanding

I needed to be careful where I located the MX Chip and battery on the back of the motherboard due to clearance issues when closing the case. This positioning seemed to do the trick with the coin cell tucked under the motherboard.

For some reason the internals look a lot sloppier on camera than they do in person. Probably because of my excessive use of kapton tape.
After finishing up MX I realized I might not be happy with the screen settings I settle on after closing up the unit and I may need to re-open the unit several times just to mess with the screen settings. I'm really happy with the solution I managed to come up with. Ya see, when ordering this screen I was given the option to include a remote control for it at the cost of an extra buck or two. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make use of them but I ordered them anyways because why not? After brainstorming for like 2 minutes I came up with this IR relocation:

I was worried that the IR wouldn't be able to receive a signal through the case with the unit closed up, but after testing it actually works! Now I have full screen control without any clunky brackets or weird wiring solutions! I was quite proud of this. If you wanna see this feature in action, keep an eye out and I'll post a proper thread showing this build off in The Cutting Edge. I'll post some images of it at MGC while I'm at it.
Now that I can call this build complete, I wanna thank @Wesk and @Gman one more time for their help and of course special thanks to @Wesk for designing such a beautiful unit!
I'll update this thread with a link to the showoff thread once it has been posted.