Question Calling all noobs (noob question thread)

[Aurelio]

That's what I thought. Every datasheet I look at has a damn common. So, short of opening one up and cutting the common line, there's no way to use one for a stock controller. Bugger.

It can be done with a simple transistor used as an inverter.

 

[Stitches]

I'm dumb..... for a minute I thought the transistor was for GC+. Is there a diagram for this?

 

[Aurelio]

I'm dumb..... for a minute I thought the transistor was for GC+. Is there a diagram for this?

Nope, the GC+ won't need any transistor once I release that update.
Anyway you can use this diagram. The blue dot goes to your analog trigger input.

 

[Stitches]

Nope, the GC+ won't need any transistor once I release that update.
Anyway you can use this diagram. The blue dot goes to your analog trigger input.
View attachment 1671

Let's assume that I grasp the concept, but can't read electrical diagrams to save my life. My understanding of this is: when the switch is depressed and the circuit closes, that grounds the 3.3v going into the transistor's sense line, which changes the transistor state and registers the analog press. Is that right?

 

[Aurelio]

Let's assume that I grasp the concept, but can't read electrical diagrams to save my life. My understanding of this is: when the switch is depressed and the circuit closes, that grounds the 3.3v going into the transistor's sense line, which changes the transistor state and registers the analog press. Is that right?

That's a npn transistor. When the switch is open there is a current flowing in the base of the transistor, activating it, which leads to the transistor "shorting" the output to ground. When the switch is closed no current flows in the transistor base, so it is not activated and the output is pulled up to 3.3V by the resistor on the right.
This can be done also with a n-mosfet.

 

[Stitches]

That's a npn transistor. When the switch is open there is a current flowing in the base of the transistor, activating it, which leads to the transistor "shorting" the output to ground. When the switch is closed no current flows in the transistor base, so it is not activated and the output is pulled up to 3.3V by the resistor on the right.
This can be done also with a n-mosfet.

Alright cool. So that's the center pin that's connected to the switch? And that 10k resistor replaces the stock slide pot doesn't it?

 

[Aurelio]

Alright cool. So that's the center pin that's connected to the switch? And that 10k resistor replaces the stock slide pot doesn't it?

Yes.
The two 10k resistors are just pullups. The whole circuit replaces the slider

 

[The Next Guy]

@Aurelio What schematic software do you use?

 

[Aurelio]

@Aurelio What schematic software do you use?

As of now Eagle, but I've Altium designer and I'm going to move to it soon

 

[jefflongo]

if you are employing the charge and play strategy, you have 12v ac or 4x3.7v batteries in series for 14.8v, what do you do if you have a screen/fan that runs off of 12v? It's fine on ac power but if you switch to battery power is this going to be a problem?

 

[Stitches]

if you are employing the charge and play strategy, you have 12v ac or 4x3.7v batteries in series for 14.8v, what do you do if you have a screen/fan that runs off of 12v? It's fine on ac power but if you switch to battery power is this going to be a problem?

Most screen driver boards I've seen support a voltage range of 9v-17v. Some small few ONLY take 12v exactly, but most have a very lenient range. You can find the specific voltage range of a board by googling its model number and reading the datasheet for it. That is assuming you know the number and it's not an ebay car reverse monitor. In which case it's 50/50.

As for fans, the 16.8v peak of the battery pack might be too much for the fan. If the Wii is untrimmed, you could take a flat 12v from the onboard regulator right next to the power socket.

 

[Aurelio]

@Madmorda yes, it works with full range on 3ds sliders. Nope, it doesn't require changing any settings, it just works automatically once you move the sticks in a full circle, because @Aurelio is amazing.

No? You still need to configure it to get full range
@Madmorda: run the homebrew available here: https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/gc-documentation.695/
I made this video on how it works few months ago

 

[cheese]

Ayy lmao I guess portablizemii really isn't that easy to understand

PM is a combination of plenty of software mods that all work together in such a way that we can successfully remove components that would otherwise be needed (such as MX chip, wifi module, and disc drive).

I'll go in the order you will use things.

First is Priiloader. Basically, it replaces the system menu app (not an IOS mod lmao) so you can do homebrew stuff before you even hit the system menu (and in turn, the "Press A to continue" screen). This allows us to autoboot into a front end, Postloader.

Postloader is a program that sorts/categorizes games so they are all easy to find. Then, when you choose a game it launches the correct emulator to play said game. If you choose games for other consoles (NES/SNES/PS1 etc) it launches that particular emulator. If you choose a gamecube game it launches a custom version of Nintendont (more on that later). And if you choose a Wii game it launches SNEEK (more later).

Nintendont is a program that emulates the disc drive, memory card, and other components for playing gamecube games. We added additional code to load the rom that is usually stored on the MX chip from the USB drive instead (normally, you could load directly from the MX chip, but we cut it off ).

SNEEK (or the particular version we use, UNEEK+DI) is the software that emulates the disc drive and nand when running Wii games. We had to use this because when there is no disc drive present, even with USB loaders such as USB Loader GX, you will get an extremely descriptive and helpful error saying "An error has occurred, please turn off the system and check the instruction booklet".

To make stuff even more fun, we add on the no wifi ioses. These are special IOSes made by @Aurelio that send fake responses when software checks to see if the wifi module is present, as without these responses, the Wii will not boot into any games or other software.

You'll probably only see the settings app once or twice, since once you set your settings, they're set for good, but it's there

If you want a more technical explanation of something, I can tell you exactly how most of the stuff works, but that's probably not best for noobs

 

[Supreme Device]

Hey, just wanted to double check, the batteries from the bom are 4 individual cells of 3.7v? So if I wanted to use all four batteries I would run two pairs in series and then run the two pairs in parallel?

 

[Madmorda]

Okay so: for IR leds in a portable. I know a couple of you have done it successfully, and wanted to ask how well it worked. I know that the distance apart the leds are determines how close the wiimote can be. But how close are you able to actually get with the wiimote and have it work? 1'? 3'? 6"? Also, does it matter whether I use 3mm or 5mm leds?

Edit: also, will the wiimote be "off"? Meaning will you have to point way up or way down to get it to be center screen or is it pretty natural? Asking because of the wii setting that asks whether it's above or below the tv.

 

[cheese]

As long as the wii remote can see both of the dots, it should be good. It calculates where it's pointing based on where the two dots are in its camera's view at the front of the remote. If you go in the system settings from the home menu, I vaguely remember an option for calibrating wii remotes that would show you the inputs from the camera on screen. If you have a couple LEDs wired up you can test how well it works with that.

 

[Madmorda]

As long as the wii remote can see both of the dots, it should be good. It calculates where it's pointing based on where the two dots are in its camera's view at the front of the remote. If you go in the system settings from the home menu, I vaguely remember an option for calibrating wii remotes that would show you the inputs from the camera on screen. If you have a couple LEDs wired up you can test how well it works with that.

So size and distance shouldn't matter?

 

[cheese]

So size and distance shouldn't matter?

As far as I know, it shouldn't

 

[Stitches]

When wiring up a two transistor low battery indicator circuit, should I spec the LED's resistor to the voltage under load? Or can I use a theoretical voltage? Also, would I need to change anything for this circuit to work with a 14.8v battery pack?

 

[cheese]

When wiring up a two transistor low battery indicator circuit, should I spec the LED's resistor to the voltage under load? Or can I use a theoretical voltage? Also, would I need to change anything for this circuit to work with a 14.8v battery pack?

Use the voltage you have the indicator set to come on at, so if you want it to come on at 5v, spec the resistor for 5v. AFAIK it should work for 14.8v, but not 100% sure. 2n3904s are pretty cheap, and so are resistors, so if you're fine with potentially losing a couple cents of components to test it, you can try