Worklog First portable: The Wavecube

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Starting to put everything together, I have hit a few minor roadblocks:
First, I realized my audio amp (PAM8803) will not allow for a headphone out, so I ordered a TDA1308 and I'm going to see if I can stick that before the PAM8803 to get headphone audio. If that dosnt work then I guess the headphone jack will just be aesthetic.
Second I originally had a little voltage divider to bring the fan voltage down to run quieter, but it wasn't as simple a solution as I thought so i'm just keeping the fan at 5V. It runs a little loud but once its in the closed case it probably won't be an issue.

I did have a brief scare where the batteries were not fitting in the case due to the epoxy and og wavebird shell elements, but I got them in there.

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Because the audio circuit will go beneath the Wii motherboard, I have to wait until my TDA1308 comes in to screw in the Wii board and fully assemble the bottom half.

In the meantime i've been working on the top half and getting the wavebird board all hooked up, I did manage to mod in those T3 sticks just by drilling some holes.

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Stitches

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Most 5v fans can be run off 3.3v for quieter operation, yours probably can too
 
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Good work so far. Hopefully it will all fit and work!

Cant you just use one of those switching headphone jackes?
I have a switching jack but I think I still need a lighter amp to power it, I could try connecting the Wii directly to the jack and then to my PAM8803 and speakers though. I know that the PAM8803 would probably blow out headphone speakers if I connected the headphone jack to the output.

Most 5v fans can be run off 3.3v for quieter operation, yours probably can too
This one does run off 3.3v, but it seems like it might be too weak. I'll have to try it on low battery and see if it still runs sufficiently.
 
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After a short hiatus I'm back, I ordered my headphone amp and got the board secured down, and hit some problems as usual.

When screwing the board down one of my screw posts kept breaking from inside the case, I glued it back with some epoxy and was able to get a screw in there carefully. I was about to turn the Wii on to test the audio but I found a short between 5V and GND, after some disassembly I determined that the short was on the PTH08080's solder points. I'm not sure what caused this since the last time I turned the Wii on it was fine, and I haven't changed anything or given power to the regulator since, but I ordered a new one and I'll troubleshoot with it next week when it gets here.

In the meantime I wired up the controller halves, having to make some slight modifiactions to the black trigger housing pieces. I can tell that closing the case to get the controllers to fit with all the wiring is going to be tedious. So if my audio and controller are hooked up right, all that is left is to wire up VGA, connect the MX Chip, and close the case, once I get this regulator issue figured out.

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Update: Not good.

I replaced the 5V regulator, got everything hooked up correctly and then powered on my portable but the video wasn't coming through, I think the composite wire had been disconnected under the board because I couldn't find continuity. So I soldered on a new wire using one of the points next to the AVE, powered on, and heard a brief loud buzzing noise before quickly turning it back off. After testing I found that now my 3.3V PTH08080 regulator was busted, same issue as the 5V one where the voltage now had continuity wih GND. I am starting to wonder if this issue is being caused by my soldering multiple wires to the output of the regulator, but I can't really think of another way to do it while keeping the voltages in parallel. The only other cause I can think of is my big 21700 batteries, maybe the current is too high for the regulators?

I'm really hoping that the buzzing noise I heard was just the fan but I think I probably fried something, most likely including the Wii. I'll order some more PTH08080s and redo my wiring, but I'll probably take a break from this project for a bit to focus on some other stuff. Fingers crossed I don't have to trim a new Wii.

If anyone has any guesses as to what is causing my regulators to die, I could use some pointers so I don't keep making the same mistake. Each time I turn it on I test all grounds for continuity and test all voltages for shorts, so I really don't know what could be causing this.
 

cheese

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Since I can't see anything visually wrong, I would disconnect all voltage lines, and reconnect one component at a time (ie start with just the wii and check voltages, then wire up something else until you find where the problem is). You may also be pulling too much current through one regulator, as each one is limited to 2.25A maximum for the output current.
 
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Since I can't see anything visually wrong, I would disconnect all voltage lines, and reconnect one component at a time (ie start with just the wii and check voltages, then wire up something else until you find where the problem is). You may also be pulling too much current through one regulator, as each one is limited to 2.25A maximum for the output current.
I think you're right, I plan on getting my new regulators set up and testing things more incrementally until everything is back together. I think from my wiring I had multiple series circuits going from each regulator.
 
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Took a little break but I'm back at it, I replaced my bad regulator and tested with the Wii board and found that the board was dead, so I trimmed up my backup Wii and will test it once its all sanded. I reorganized my wiring so that each component is no longer connected to the output of the regulators, now I have just 1-2 wires from the regulator outputs that chain across each component. I tested my screen and fan and both seem to work after the regulator broke, and I ordered some backup audio amps in case those got damaged. Once the new Wii is hooked up I will test the current during brief power ups before going in and testing the software.
 
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Audio, VGA, and MX all good!

After replacing my busted Wii board, I readded in my audio circuit and then relocated MX and enabled VGA.

For the audio circuit I connected my Wii > TDA1308 headphone amp > 10k Ohm wheel pot > stereo switching headphone jack > PAM8803 Amp > speakers. Its not the most efficient setup but it gives me both speaker audio and the option to switch to headphones. I cant adjust the headphone audio so I just set the wheel pot to a level that was good for me.

MX chip wasn't too bad, but VGA took some time. I spent an entire day removing a solder bridge from the AVE. What ended up working was using a stranded copper wire with lots of flux instead of a wick and sticking it down on top of the AVE, then pulling away toward the pins.

All that is left is to wire up the GC+ and then close the case! I'm going to continue working carefully but who knows what may come up.

Here are some bad quality pics showing the current build:

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Almost there, everything is working okay, but I'm having some trouble where the controller occasionally shorts.

I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but after powering off and opening the portable there will be a short between 3.3v and ground, after hitting random buttons and moving the controller boards the shorts aren't there anymore, so I'm looking around more. I can see that there arent any physical shorts in my soldering, so I'm not sure what's going on. Could it be the GC+2.0 making connections after certain buttons are pressed? I'm going to resolder my controller voltage lines and see

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I narrowed the short down to the MX chip, cleaned up the soldering and flux and now there is absolutely no way that the chip could be shorting based on my connections. I power up my portable and everything seems fine (except i'm only getting audio from one speaker at a time for some reason), but if I power off the portable then open it up, the first reading across GND and 3.3v will read 0 ohms, then after that there won't be continuity.

Does this seem normal for the mx chip to be making a connection between 3.3v and GND during power on? Or is this just an effect on the multimeter if there is still some voltage running through the console when I measure? I have my 2nd wii board outline still so I can trim out a new MX chip, I just would rather not deal with taking things apart to solder the magnet wire again.]

EDIT: You know what I disconnected the MX from 3.3 and everything seems fine, the audio is just weak on one side which I am guessing is from a wire getting too close to voltage. I'm going to bring in a new MX chip and then it should be good from there, stay tuned
 
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rubio

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One thing you could do about the logo is sanding down the area that the logo is placed. I think a flat, polished finish would compliment it very well. With just a bit of radius outside of the text.

Great job on this project, also. This thing looks great and you definitely matched the indigo Gamecube look.
 
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Finally done!

Got my hands on a new MX chip and swapped out my other one. I realized that when I have a coin cell attached, I sometimes get continuity between 3.3v and GND but not always, and I think this could just be due to the battery running. And only some grounds will have continuity with 3.3v, even though all the grounds are connected, so its weird. Either way the portable works great. I'm going to post later with some high res pictures as well as the STL files in case anyone wants to take on a similar project. I will say that I'm glad I chose the frankencasing route, it really is rewarding to be able to see what all of my work resulted in.

I'll get more specific specs later, but this thing is heavy. Using 21700 batteries was fun but I totally get why people like the 18650s. The battery life is around 5.5 - 6 hours. Not too bad for my first big electronics project!

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Finally done!

Got my hands on a new MX chip and swapped out my other one. I realized that when I have a coin cell attached, I sometimes get continuity between 3.3v and GND but not always, and I think this could just be due to the battery running. And only some grounds will have continuity with 3.3v, even though all the grounds are connected, so its weird. Either way the portable works great. I'm going to post later with some high res pictures as well as the STL files in case anyone wants to take on a similar project. I will say that I'm glad I chose the frankencasing route, it really is rewarding to be able to see what all of my work resulted in.

I'll get more specific specs later, but this thing is heavy. Using 21700 batteries was fun but I totally get why people like the 18650s. The battery life is around 5.5 - 6 hours. Not too bad for my first big electronics project!

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