BitBuilt Store Question - Back in Stock Soon

[Hobojoe007]

I have been wanting to buy a few things from the bitbuilt store to attempt making a G-Wii for myself. I've been checking the store page frequently and the parts I am looking for (U-amp, and G-Wii shell) still say "back in stock soon". I saw Noah's post today that the BitBuilt store won't be receiving any future restocks now, and was wondering if products that have the "back in stock soon" message will actually return to stock at all now. Does anyone know what the case is with "back in stock soon" items?

 

[Stitches]

Sadly, that's just a nicer way to say "out of stock". I'm afraid if it's not currently in stock, that's it, no more. Fortunately, you're not totally out of luck. The PMS, PSU, U-Amp, GC+, and G-Wii case are all open source. You could get the case printed by one of those online companies, or another user on the site could be commissioned to do it. Same with the PCBs, you can get JLCPCB to make them and you can populate the boards yourself, or commission someone here to do it. The BB Store was a wonderful convenience while it lasted, but the end of the store isn't the end of the useful stuff it once sold.

 

[Hobojoe007]

That's good to know. Thanks!

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

Sadly, that's just a nicer way to say "out of stock". I'm afraid if it's not currently in stock, that's it, no more. Fortunately, you're not totally out of luck. The PMS, PSU, U-Amp, GC+, and G-Wii case are all open source. You could get the case printed by one of those online companies, or another user on the site could be commissioned to do it. Same with the PCBs, you can get JLCPCB to make them and you can populate the boards yourself, or commission someone here to do it. The BB Store was a wonderful convenience while it lasted, but the end of the store isn't the end of the useful stuff it once sold.

Does this include the USB-C PD + charging? Is that what you meant by PSU?
Also, where are the open source designs? On a GitHub somewhere?

 

[A_s6]

unfortunately the usb c pd board is not open source, but on Gman’s website there is a detailed description of how it works along with some ics it uses(not 100% sure about the ic part tho)

edit: the rvl-pms, u-amp, 64-amp, are on gman’s github

gc+ 2.0 is on aurelio’s github

all other products that are open source have a link to files on their respective bb store pages and i’m sure they will be documented somewhere else

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

unfortunately the usb c pd board is not open source, but on Gman’s website there is a detailed description of how it works along with some ics it uses(not 100% sure about the ic part tho)

edit: the rvl-pms, u-amp, 64-amp, are on gman’s github

gc+ 2.0 is on aurelio’s github

all other products that are open source have a link to files on their respective bb store pages and i’m sure they will be documented somewhere else

So what are my options then for the usb c pd board? I have to use something else?

At this stage I don’t have near enough experience to begin doing something like designing my own board. I was hoping to use this project as a jumping off point for something like that in the future. Much easier to see someone else’s work as an example and then go from there than to start from scratch myself.

Oh well, maybe I should just sell off the 4-layer Wii board I bought and abandon the whole project.

 

[A_s6]

you could try to reverse engineer it but there are other options. if you don’t need usb c power delivery you can just use usb c. but iirc there is a usb c pd board from sparkfun that should work just as well

edit: i don’t think there’s any usb c pd board with a usb port like gman’s so keep in mind that you will have to separately connect the usb to the wii

 

[Stitches]

So what are my options then for the usb c pd board? I have to use something else?

At this stage I don’t have near enough experience to begin doing something like designing my own board. I was hoping to use this project as a jumping off point for something like that in the future. Much easier to see someone else’s work as an example and then go from there than to start from scratch myself.

Oh well, maybe I should just sell off the 4-layer Wii board I bought and abandon the whole project.

The USB-C PD board isn't necessary for the PMS to function, it was just built as a hand in hand solution. You can just supply 9v or 12v DC to the charge pad on the PMS and it'll do the same job.

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

The USB-C PD board isn't necessary for the PMS to function, it was just built as a hand in hand solution. You can just supply 9v or 12v DC to the charge pad on the PMS and it'll do the same job.

Ok sounds reasonable. What’s the best way to transform usb power input into DC power?

 

[Stitches]

Ok sounds reasonable. What’s the best way to transform usb power input into DC power?

USB carries DC power, but I'm guessing you mean getting 12V out of a USB supply? Normally when using DC input to charge a PMS we just use barrel jacks and a generic 12v 2A DC power supply off ebay.

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

USB carries DC power, but I'm guessing you mean getting 12V out of a USB supply? Normally when using DC input to charge a PMS we just use barrel jacks and a generic 12v 2A DC power supply off ebay.

I see, thanks for the answer. How about the internal storage that also is on the PCB? I’m planning to follow the YouTube demos plus the g-boy manual and want to stay as close as possible to those specs.

 

[A_s6]

as i mentioned previously you could wire usb directly to the wii

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

Ok thanks. Guess I have to just try it and see what I can come up with.
I’ll try the sparkfun pd board and see what I can do.

 

[A_s6]

i forgot to mention that the sparkfun pd board is open source so you could add usb to that if you want

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

Would it be possible to get video out from the same port? What about something like the TIDA-00714?

 

[A_s6]

take this with a grain of salt because i’m not too well versed in digital electronics, but given that the board has a multiplexer capable of handling displayport it should be able to carry vga or composite. i’m not too sure about hdmi tho

edit: btw is there a data sheet for that? i couldn’t find one on the texas instruments page

 

[NemoInSlumberland]

take this with a grain of salt because i’m not too well versed in digital electronics, but given that the board has a multiplexer capable of handling displayport it should be able to carry vga or composite. i’m not too sure about hdmi tho

edit: btw is there a data sheet for that? i couldn’t find one on the texas instruments page

I didn’t see one either, just the schematics and the like.