Worklog First Portable - Midnight Seafoam Ashida

[CosmicRazberry]

Hey all! First thing I want to do is thank everyone for all their designs, guides, tear downs, and willingness to answer questions. Pretty amazing community you have all built. Special thanks to the 4LayerTech peeps Shank, Aurelio, and G-man, Wesk for the Ashida design, and GingerOfOz for hours of live stream tutorial content.

I've always been in the crafting/building scene but never delved to far into soldering/hardware modding. So I definitely come into this build with some baseline skills but needed to practice some new ones. My end goal is to make an Ashida that looks like on of those fancy Modded Gamecube controllers Smash players always have. I also wanted the build to look as "production level"/high quality as possible. As much I love the Indigo, Spice, and Funtastic authentic looking Ashida builds, I wanted this to stand out at least a little bit. I really enjoyed the Candy Pink Ashida Ginger made. While I do intend to use this portable for a little while to replay some old classics I have lying around, looking at you Skies of Arcadia Legends, I may possibly be looking into selling this build in the future should I get it to work and I am confident in its reliability. Future commisions may also be in the cards, but I don't want to get to far ahead of myself, I may not get this to work and may hate building this when it gets to the harder parts.

7/21/24 - I started out with some of those SMD Solder practice kits from AliExpress while I put in my orders for all the Ashida Parts. While working on the kit I ran into issues getting all the LED's to turn on. I thought I must have messed up somewhere, but after doing some continuity testing around the board it turns out 2 of the traces on the back were cut from the factory. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to practice soldering to vias. I ended up cutting most of the other traces on the board for more practice ha.

7/22/24 -The next big milestone in the project was when I received the Wii. It was one of those family Wii's without gamecube ports with a "broken disk" (after opening it I found a full sheet of papertowel inside the tray ha). It was super easy to follow the instructions to add the Homebrew channel and get RVLoader installed. I was able to take out the WiFi card and Bluetooth and test boot the Wii without issues. I've soft modded plenty of systems so these steps were already in my wheelhouse. The Wii was basically ready to be trimmed.

7/23/24 - I decided to take a detour when the Wii Classic controller and Gamecube controllers arrived. I fully harvested all the parts from the classic controller, and took out all the working buttons from the gamecube controller (Thumbsticks were trash sadly, so in the garbage they went.) This allowed me to get all the parts ready in time for delivery from 4LayerTech and Digikey to put together the boards when they arrived. Although I will not be using the OEM gamecube buttons I wanted the tigger mechanisms, membranes, and having the spare parts for potential future projects can't hurt.

7/25/24 - Which brings us to today when basically everything happened at once. I got my boards from 4LayerTech, I got my 3D printed Nylon case from PCBway, and I got some of the filament I needed to print the Tact buttons and potentially some other parts. I did the Wii trim this morning before all the packages arrived. I am pretty familiar with a Dremel from other projects so I wasn't to worried about this step other then just making sure I cut in the right places. I think the trim ended up coming out really nice! I was able to get up close to the nand and that little capacitor to help the Ashida batteries fit. Although I may have left the other side a bit to long? We will see.

If you're good you may see where I messed up. I'll give you a sec... I cut U10 in half when I grabbed the MX chip haha. I had planned to use the U10 emulation on the PMS but I still wanted to save the U10 and U9 chips for potential future projects/spares. I think I told myself I would grab them after the trim with a hot air station not remembering where on the board U10 was. I posted the above picture in the Discord and some people noticed right away. A user Y2k mentioned I should probably still do the U10 transfer as doing it directly on the board is less prone to failures than running a wire to the PMS that may snap when moving things around. So I ended up taking U9 off the MX cut and doing the U10 relocation. Turns out my trim already cut that small trace they recommend so... Everything happens for a reason right?

I then got to work on the 4 layer tech boards later in the day. They were pretty easy and a lot of fun to solder together. I think they also came out nicely. I checked continuity for the ribbon cable pins from one board to the other, I tested the buttons to see if the pins activated on press, and I made sure the pads for the GC + and RVL-AM were all connected. Things seem good. I still need to add the boards onto the 3d printed brackets but that should be pretty quick.

The last thing I wanted to take a look at today was the case. Mannn it looks so good. Originally I was really torn between printing it myself, getting a painted Resin case, or going for something more durable. When I decided I wanted something near production qualiity I went with Nylon. I intended to use brass M2 heated threaded inserts on all the posts as well to make it even more durable and add to that "finished product" look but unfortunately only some of the Ashida posts are not large enough for me to be comfortable putting in the inserts. I tried to add them on two thinner inserts on the front shell and don't like how close to ruining the posts I came, and I also don't trust the durability. If I did this again I may look into modifying the Ashida print files to have thicker stem posts if possible. That may also make me feel more comfortable getting a resin shell. I hear the screwposts can shatter pretty easily and wonder if just adding in heated inserts would help tremendously.

So thats currently where I am at with the build. I am should be ready to start testing the wii trim. I have work tomorrow and Saturday and kinda want to devote a day to the testing. If they go well I may beable to just jump right into the actual build, although I am still potentially missing the final buttons, joysticks and triggers. I am also thinking about potentially steaming the Trim test, and the potential start of the build that follows? I have never really streamed before but I have the setup for it and thought it could be fun if anyone wanted to watch a newbie potentially blow up a Wii. Might gauge interest for a Sunday stream.

Thanks to those who took the time to read through this work log!

 

[Mr Game & Cube]

I am also thinking about potentially steaming the Trim test, and the potential start of the build that follows? I have never really streamed before but I have the setup for it and thought it could be fun if anyone wanted to watch a newbie potentially blow up a Wii. Might gauge interest for a Sunday stream.

Do It!

The last thing I wanted to take a look at today was the case. Mannn it looks so good. Originally I was really torn between printing it myself, getting a painted Resin case, or going for something more durable. When I decided I wanted something near production qualiity I went with Nylon. I intended to use brass M2 heated threaded inserts on all the posts as well to make it even more durable and add to that "finished product" look but unfortunately only some of the Ashida posts are not large enough for me to be comfortable putting in the inserts. I tried to add them on two thinner inserts on the front shell and don't like how close to ruining the posts I came, and I also don't trust the durability. If I did this again I may look into modifying the Ashida print files to have thicker stem posts if possible. That may also make me feel more comfortable getting a resin shell. I hear the screwposts can shatter pretty easily and wonder if just adding in heated inserts would help tremendously.

View attachment 34520

Damn that looks nice. I love the premium matte finish, and the way it kinda blends with the screen when turned off. Puts my paint job to shame.

 

[CosmicRazberry]

@Mr Game & Cube Ha thanks for the encouragement. I think I will end up doing a stream, although I forgot my friend is having a cookout so it would be a later in the day stream. Glad you liked the finish ha, I am definitely happy with it and glad I didn't have to try and butcher a paint job myself.

Didn't do much today other than trim the Wii board a bit more to try and allow the battery to fit in the case without removing the motherboard. Basically did a modified Louii trim on that side. The battery still doesn't fit straight up and down but there seems to be enough room to slide it in at an angle from the top. So still should be able to take it in and out without removing the board.

I also tried to print out some Sticks and Trigger buttons. Originally I wanted to purchase resin ones from Etsy, but the seller of the sticks I want is out of stock and going to Smash con so wont have them in stock for 30+ days. I couldn't find any triggers I liked that match the resin buttons I ordered either. So here we are. I did order some black 3rd party button/stick sets from AliExpress so those may be a boring backup option when they arrive

I also tried to modify the stick models in Fusion 360 to shrink the heads of the sticks. I wanted to test out coating the tops with black plastidip for that rubber feel. So I shrunk the heads to about 90% the original size and tried to make the C and the ribs of the controller more pronounced so when I coated with plastidip I wouldn't loose as much of the details.

These parts will all be an experiment and I will likely be replacing these parts with resin casts when I find ones I like, unless they come out looking better than they currently do. Really wanted to avoid obviously 3d printed parts on the build.

 

[Mr Game & Cube]

Do you plan on using the new direct drive for this?

 

[CosmicRazberry]

I wish... The DD was reintroduced like 5 days after I ordered the previous screen + driver board combo. I will definitely look into using it for future builds if I make more. It does look awesome. I did get Crazy Gadgets screen control board so I should have some screen control functionality even with the old driver board.

I would be interested in seeing a side by side of a built with the old driver board and the DD. Not really sure just how big of an upgrade it is? It is 50 bucks more expensive.

 

[CosmicRazberry]

I ended up spending some time on Saturday designing a tray/holder for the MX chip and the WiFi card. I know a lot of people swear by the hot glue method but I would just rather find a way around it if possible. Although I am not sure if there will be enough room in the case for this when all wired and closed up? But there does seem to be a decent amount of space in the middle of the console between the screen driver board and the Wii motherboard. Only thing to maybe worry about is the controller ribbon cable?

I actually did not know about the newish WiFi flex cable you can have made from PCBway. Only learned about it when I shared my little creation on the discord ha. It was still good practice to make this with Fusion 360 which I have never really used before. I am still gonna use it, and wire up the WiFi card the old fashioned way. It would be 60 dollars with shipped to order a set of 5 WiFi Flex PCBs and I am just not sure I wanna spend that or wait for more parts to arrive. If they were available from 4LayerTech for like 15 bucks I probably would have added to my order originally.

But at the end of the day I actually grew attached to this little design ha, it was very satisfying to print out the top bracket and have it fit perfectly snug over the WiFi's metal shielding. There is still room to plug in the antenna in the back and the wiring spot for the Wifi cables is a straight shot infront of the tray. There is about 2mm of space under the tray so wires can pass underneath without issue.

Then today I did end up working towards testing the trim. I streamed for about an hour and a few people dropped in so thanks for that! I didn't end up getting the trim to boot on stream and decided to take it offline to pay closer attention to troubleshooting. It basically booted up a few minutes after I turned off the stream so not really sure what I changed to fix it. I ended up adding the PMS PD 3 to the test so I could see it boot full into RVLoader and not just the black no USB screen. That worked right away! Which was awesome

So at this point I'll probably run a few more tests and once my buttons arrive I can start putting together the build itself.

Things are looking good!

 

[Shank]

Loving this worklog! Love your mentality as well. Excited to see this one come together

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Started putting together the bottom half and made some progress. The voltage wires aren't their final length, I will shorten them once I confirm everything is booting as expected. With the screenshot below I was able to boot into RVLoader again.

However I did run into this strange issue with the Fan? It starts spinning when the console starts But then it stops and there is like a repeating clicking sound like the fan is trying to run but it can't for whatever reason? I am honestly not sure if this is happening because of the RVL-NTC? Is the T- reporting a something it shouldn't? Or is something just not behaving properly because its not fully wired? Will probably need to ask around on the Discord tomorrow pending further troubleshooting.

I don't think the fan is faulty though, It spins fine when the system boots, and if I just plug 3 volts into it from a 18650 it spins without noise or issue.

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Got a response in the discord and it seems that fan clicking is pretty common. Once I have controls setup I can run the fan calibration and potentially set the min fan speed higher to prevent this once fully assembled. So Thanks YveltalGriffin!

Also got a suggestion from Subierekt that it may be a case/fitment issue. I got a nylon printed case that didn't have any warping but sure enough on their suggestion to add some tiny spacers UNDER the fan between the case in the fan, the noise did get markedly lower. So now the build is back on track.

I was able to finish up most of the bottom half wiring I believe? Everything to the PMS, PD 3, and Ashida interface board outside of the controller wires and video wires to the front shell should be done. I even decided to use shielded wire on the MC audio line to hopefully guarantee no sound issues. Probably the hardest vias soldering so far with that line but still ended up pretty nice. Everything is being wired over the top of the system so you can still flip the motherboard to troubleshoot etc. System still boots, I can see battery % and temp even though I can't move around in the menu.

I can't really start work on the front side yet because my trigger buttons and Joysticks are still in the mail. I guess I could wire up and test with the buttons I have but if they work I don't want to have to undo things to change the buttons.

One thing I will have to check on is SCW and SDW. I took those vias and attached them to the PMS, but then I noticed there are also spots for them on the RVL-AMP. Do I need to run jumper wires from the PMS to the RVL-AMP to have them connected to both locations or is just the PMS or just the RVL-AMP fine?

Either way definitely making progress and have high hopes this will end up a nice somewhat well organized build.

 

[Stitches]

You can daisy chain them from the PMS to the AMP

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Definitely getting closer to a fully working Ashida. I have pretty much everything wired except the MX chip and potentially the WiFi module if I end up feeling like adding it. Now I am at the point where I am troubleshooting what I have done again. Right now there are two issues remaining, one major and one minor.

The major issue is I can't get any sound of out of the system from headphones or the speakers. WS, D, MC, and C all seem to have solid connections and I can get continuity from the pins of the AVE chip where the vias go, to the Ashida interface board. So I feel like at least some signal should be getting through. I even used full shielded wire for MC to avoid audio issue despite how much harder it was to attach to the vias over the 34g wire.

Speakers are soldered in place with continuity to +/-. L/R +/- are connected with tight twisted wire and have continuity from interface board to GC+. I am using an RVL-AMP so no jumper points to solder for analog volume and I have changed the audio to potentiometer in the settings. The Ashida recognized UAMP hud which I assume is fine unless it should show RVL-AMP hud? Headphone sense also has good continuity. Is it just a case of redo the vias soldering even with good continuity testing? Or should I be checking something on the interface board or missing something in general?

Second smaller question is while I have full color and a pretty good looking screen there is a very slight shimmer to the video? Almost like diagonal thin scanlines. You have to really look to see them, I can't even really pickup how it looks in a video. Is this normal for this sort of screen, or would this be interference on one of the sync lines?


*Update* After rewiring MC I now have sound from Headphones and Speakers. either there was a bad connection despite the continuity or the ground shielding had shorted to the video line from the casing melting near the vias solder point. The video also looks better now, but may have been because I rearranged some of the cables.

However now I am running into the issue where the volume wheel doesn't work. I can only set the volume in the RVLoader menu, hope I don't have to take the interface board out of the case but I might have to at this point. It looks like its soldered on properly...Right leg has continuity to 1.8v, left leg ground, and I am not sure where the middle leg goes. The diagrams show connecting the middle legs to jumper but they don't exist on this revision of the RVL-AMP.

 

[Stitches]

Definitely getting closer to a fully working Ashida. I have pretty much everything wired except the MX chip and potentially the WiFi module if I end up feeling like adding it. Now I am at the point where I am troubleshooting what I have done again. Right now there are two issues remaining, one major and one minor.

The major issue is I can't get any sound of out of the system from headphones or the speakers. WS, D, MC, and C all seem to have solid connections and I can get continuity from the pins of the AVE chip where the vias go, to the Ashida interface board. So I feel like at least some signal should be getting through. I even used full shielded wire for MC to avoid audio issue despite how much harder it was to attach to the vias over the 34g wire.

View attachment 34671

Speakers are soldered in place with continuity to +/-. L/R +/- are connected with tight twisted wire and have continuity from interface board to GC+. I am using an RVL-AMP so no jumper points to solder for analog volume and I have changed the audio to potentiometer in the settings. The Ashida recognized UAMP hud which I assume is fine unless it should show RVL-AMP hud? Headphone sense also has good continuity. Is it just a case of redo the vias soldering even with good continuity testing? Or should I be checking something on the interface board or missing something in general?

View attachment 34672

Second smaller question is while I have full color and a pretty good looking screen there is a very slight shimmer to the video? Almost like diagonal thin scanlines. You have to really look to see them, I can't even really pickup how it looks in a video. Is this normal for this sort of screen, or would this be interference on one of the sync lines?


*edit* After rewiring MC I now have sound from Headphones and Speakers. either there was a bad connection despite the continuity or the ground shielding had shorted to the video line from the casing melting near the vias solder point. The video also looks better now, but may have been because I rearranged some of the cables.

However now I am running into the issue where the volume wheel doesn't work. I can only set the volume in the RVLoader menu, hope I don't have to take the interface board out of the case but I might have to at this point. It looks like its soldered on properly...Right leg has continuity to 1.8v, left leg ground, and I am not sure where the middle leg goes. The diagrams show connecting the middle legs to jumper but they don't exist on this revision of the RVL-AMP.

Check wiring diagram Figure 4 on the RVL-AMP page, you need to connect the middle pin of the volume wheel to a marked data pad on the PMS to make analog volume control work

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Yeah... That was it. For some reason when I was looking at that diagram I thought those jumper pads were supposed to be on the UAMP/RLV-AMP not the PMS... That's what I get for reading the diagrams to fast and not paying attention to the rest of the pinouts. I just looked at the jumper pins which the UAMP has a similar layout. Thought I was doing pretty good following the diagrams so far but guess we all make dumb mistakes ha. Thanks for that >.<

 

[Stitches]

They aren't jumpers btw, they're the programming pins for the onboard PIC microcontroller. One of them just so happens to be a usable ADC pin that can compensate for the lack of an ADC on the RVL-AMP

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Alright even more progress now that the sound issues are out of the way. Only thing left is adding CrazyGadgets screen control board, and troubleshooting the MX chip. I saved the MX chip for last thinking it's optional and all the hookups are on the back so It can wait. At this point it's wired up but not recognized in RVLoader. Which is a bit surprising considering how relatively simple the wiring is/went. But now I am wondering if it's even worth it? Since I am not adding bluetooth, I won't be able to boot to the base Wii menu to set the RTC. So that means no system time or RTC for animal crossing, and with the Homebrew/virtual console stuff now patched in RVLoader 2.0+ I am wondering if I even want to troubleshoot this... Kinda just want to get a finished portable at this point. It would be good practice though. I also thought I saw somewhere that there is a way to update RTC if you have the WiFi module setup and the homebrew app SNTP. So if I do eventually decide to try and add in wifi I could then update the MX chip if I get it working.

 

[CosmicRazberry]

So still having no luck with the MX chip but I installed Crazy Gadgets OSD Control Board. Found out unfortunately you can't setup the board to trigger from a single button press? I tried to bridge LT, RT, Z and S together and wire it to the old bluetooth button (which I removed from 3.3v and grounded so it acts like a normal button), but the screen controls were always active. I assume that's because all 4 logic gates are connected by default from the bridge, so two buttons is the minimum for this design to work? So I set the buttons to Start + Old bluetooth and I get the menu. I assume it's also normal to have to keep your chosen button combo pressed to make changes? It's not a toggle you press once to make changes and again to turn off?

The other issue with the screen controls is there doesn't appear to be an Offset option in the screen controls menu? I have Brightness, Contrast, Hue, Saturation, Display Ratio, Language, MODE, Sleep, Reset, Auto Config, and Exit. Auto config does not fix the screens off center issue so I am not sure what I am missing? Trying to track down other posts regarding the offset menu and struggling but will keep lookin.

*Update* - Subierekt in discord suggested using a game in progressive and doing auto config while in game. I tried Wind Waker, FF Crystal Chronicles, and Twilight Princess (The only GC games I own other than Skies of Arcadia) and was still running into issues. They would always line the screen up to the left side leaving a different levels of bezel on the righthand side. After various combinations I was able to set Twilight Princess to Force Progressive, Force Widescreen, Force RVL-DD stretching (even without DD), and I think got it close enough to full screen. There is still about 2-3mm of black bars on either side of the screen but so far is the best I've gotten. No back onto MX troubleshooting.

*Update 2* - Ended up getting the MX chip working as well! The data lines for 12 and 13 were in the wrong vias... I used the two above the ground vias and not the two a few mm above and to the left near the capacitors. Those are even the ones I scrapped up with my exacto before solderiing. So the right setup but bad execution. If I ever end up making more portables I definitely want to invest in some sort of microscope. Even if its one of the digital ones.

Also did more research and from what I can gather there really is no way to update the RTC clock without adding back in Bluetooth or Wifi. That means its either add back Wifi and use the SNTP homebrew app to update the time (might also need a second homebrew app like Wii Network Config Editor to setup the wifi connection first?) or add back in bluetooth, disable VGA, reconnect composite, make change, then remove all of it...

So I think I am going to try to add the wifi chip back in as I have already done much of the work and setup for it.

 

[Stitches]

The sync button on the Ashida is pulled high to 3.3v, the OSD board needs the buttons to be pulled low to GND, so the sync button not working alone for the OSD board is normal.

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Thanks for the heads up. I did cut the 3.3v line going to the sync button, and rewired the leg under the interface board to ground so it should be acting as a normal button? If I use continuity on my multi-meter and put black on ground and red on the sync button pad I get normal button behavior with it. I definitely may still have messed something up? But there is no connection to 3.3v anymore and continuity to ground now beeps on press.

 

[Stitches]

Yep, that'll do it. If the trace is cut you can ground the orphaned leg without issue

 

[CosmicRazberry]

Final Verdict​

Welp no luck with the WiFi module. I was able to solder it to the Wii with minimal issues, but when I was originally wiring up the module itself I lost a pad. I did my best to scratch away some of the boards mask and connect to the trace but it wasn't enough. No big deal though. Only downside is I wont be able to set the RTC without adding in Bluetooth. Hopefully at some point in the future it's added to RVLoader or another homebrew app if possible. I'm kinda surprised there is a complex way to do like through SNTP where you sync through WiFi to an external NTP source, but not something more basic where you just manually enter in numbers to update whats on the NAND then let the MX chip go from there, but that's why I am not a programmer.

I may look into adding Bluetooth just to be able to get full functionality out of the MX relocation. But since I already messed with the Bluetooth sync button and have it wired to the screen controls it would be a whole process to revert. Not to mention taking apart much of the console to get at the Bluetooth traces on the top of the motherboard.

So for now I will go ahead and say this Build is complete pending future tinkering, or troubleshooting after getting in some actual playtime and stress testing.

I think the wiring came out pretty good as well. Definitely not the best, but also not the worst. Probably overused kapton tape and underused hot glue but I think things will stay put like this hopefully. So far no signs of interference. Only thing I worry about are the RGB lines since I trimmed so close to the board on that side, they hang over a bit even with a 90 degree turn. Have to be careful when taking that battery out. I was debating putting UV solder mask on pins to help hold things...

Post Mortem​

I am definitely happy with how it came out. I had a lot of fun building it, very meditative. So let's get the negatives out of the way first with my biggest complaints.

• Large light bleed on the IPS panel in the lower right hand corner. Enough to be annoying but not enough to request a refund.
• The screen controls/adjustments with this driver board are pretty limited.
• The Z buttons don't fit well and have pretty bad travel/feel, especially when compared to the rest of the buttons.
• The C stick board doesn't have a screw post and doesn't stay in place whenever you try to assemble the console.
• Not all the Ashida screw posts are thick enough for brass heated 2mm screw inserts. I was really hoping to add these to all the screw posts to avoid any stripping issues. It was also a test run for a potential future resin case that could use these inserts a lot more than a nylon case. I may look into modifying the Ashida files to have thicker posts and some sort of lock for the C stick if possible...
• The fan for me clicks or wines at basically any setting but max. I bought an extra fan and it was happening to me on both. I actually have a different brand fan on order from digikey with some slightly different specs but the same size, so may try that out and see if its an improvement. Otherwise max fan speed it is, it's not TOO loud.

Overall I did not encounter THAT many major issues along the way either. Sound was definitely the biggest issue/oversight, and getting the wrong vias for the MX chip. But many of the issues I ran into I was able to resolve myself pretty quick. For instance originally the screen didn't turn on, I realized pretty quick it didn't have a ground connection. Then the colors were off and I had to sure up my RGB connections. I was able to setup and wire the Screen control board as I wanted with only a small hiccup. Most of my issues were a knowledge thing and not an actual physical issue, fan clicking, change power button to toggle in menu, run screen auto adjust in a game and not RVLoader, etc. But when it was an actual issue or oversight luckily many of the Forum and Discord members were able to offer quick help when it was needed.

I actually found the soldering pretty easy, even to the vias. The hardest part was definitely the RGB/Sync cables, and the shielded audio wire I used on the via for the MC audio line. Basically never felt unable to do any of the actual work. I actually found soldering with the 22 gauge wire sometimes harder than the magnet wire because of how small some of the pads on the 4LayerTech boards are. They would often end up looking like bad connections where you could still see the strands in the wire and there wasn't a nice shiny solder ball over the joint.

In regards to the overall color design I wasn't able to get truly matching colors on the face buttons vs sticks and L/R triggers, but the teal I got is close enough for me. I also coated the rubber stick caps with black plastidip as the original rubber they came with was a lighter teal than the stick body which didn't match. Sticks actually feel pretty good with it, although the analog stick has a bit extra friction with the case when doing full circular turns. Not sure about durability yet but they certainly look better. If worse comes to worse can always peel off and apply more plastidip.

If I were to make another Ashida I would definitely have way more confidence. Probably to much ha. I would try to match all the buttons better instead of scrambling for what I think would work after the fact. I would also probably plan to do zero relocations or MX + Bluetooth. If I ever do end up wanting to do a WiFi relocation I would probably end up ordering the flex ribbon, and unless someone starts selling them individually I would only do it if I planned to make MULTIPLE systems all with WiFi. I also wont try to reinvent the wheel anymore haha. The little tray I made for the MX and WiFi chip didn't really fit in the end and just sucking it up and using hot glue or double sided tape right on the board will be the way moving forward. But it did end up being good CAD practice.

In regards to the 4LayerTech boards I will probably upgrade to using the PMS2 in all builds over the PMS-lite. After spending the money I did on this portable 15 extra bucks for the better product seems like a steal now. Being able to take off that bigger than expected 1.8v regulator on the board (man its bigger in person), and getting more accurate battery life is worth it in my eyes. The difference in cost is like going to a fast food place. I also missed out on the DD's return by like 5 days. I would also probably use the DD on future builds despite the extra cost.

Overall I could definitely see myself building another portable, especially if I am able to sell this one in the future as I don't see myself making and keeping multiple. Another Ashida? 100%. A Gboy? Maybe a 75% chance. A fully custom Wii portable? Might be like 10% but it is there. Would just need to get MUCH better at Fusion 360 ha.

I may end up with a followup to this build log if I do add Bluetooth or something major changes with the build. But for now that's all she wrote.