Question Fitting a Wii inside a NES

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While I wait for my parts to arrive to continue on my Summer Competition Build, I wanted to get some practice in with Wii motherboard trimming and relocating things on the board. To practice, I'll be using my 6 layer Wii. I want to fit it into an old NES, with the port intact at the back and the power button/reset button/LED intact at the location of the original NES and four controller ports at the location of the old controller ports of the NES.

With the trimming guides and the compendium, I think I already figured out how to wire the controllers. But I can't find any information on the power and reset button or power LED. Most people use custom regulators, so the Wii powers on when it gets power. But what if I trim the Wii like in my picture (keeping all the regulators), where can I solder new power/reset buttons and LED? I scoured the forums, but couldn't find anything (for 6 layer Wii).

Any help is appreciated. And if people are interested in how this project goes, I could make a worklog, so that this information is also saved for future builders that want to try this. :)
IMG_20200508_173243.jpg
 

Brock

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I like your idea, but is it really necessary to trim your wii?

An original NES case should have plenty of space, I beleive you could even integrate the disc drive inside that case ;-).

Trimming like in your suggestion is not recommended. iirc you could trim off the ground plane on the edges of the board to make it a little smaller without a problem, but if you go further than that you should definitly just follow the trimming guides.

I hope this helped. Feel free to make a worklog, I'd love to see the final outcome!
 
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I know "custom" trims aren't recommended. But I saw this trim from @jefflongo on his Wii Micro (https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/jeffs-wii-micro.2288/) and the suggestion from @cheese made on this (https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/making-a-trimmed-non-portable-wii.2492/) question. That I thought that the trim I'm suggesting is possible. I was just curious where I would have to rewire the power/reset/LED to on the Wii 6-layer motherboard. If nobody knows, I'll try to not trim it. I could probably fit it and relocatie the buttons and LED. It would work for the build, just less practice for me, for my Wii trimming skills :)
 

Stitches

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I know "custom" trims aren't recommended. But I saw this trim from @jefflongo on his Wii Micro (https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/jeffs-wii-micro.2288/) and the suggestion from @cheese made on this (https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/making-a-trimmed-non-portable-wii.2492/) question. That I thought that the trim I'm suggesting is possible. I was just curious where I would have to rewire the power/reset/LED to on the Wii 6-layer motherboard. If nobody knows, I'll try to not trim it. I could probably fit it and relocatie the buttons and LED. It would work for the build, just less practice for me, for my Wii trimming skills :)
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.p...ive-wii-trimming-guide-6-layer-expansion.860/ <-- Read this.
Also why do you want the Wii power button? It serves no purpose in a portable.
 
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Thanks for the response! I've read that thread and I have studied the compendium in the full GIMP file with layers. I feel confident about rewiring the controllers and that thread even mentions the Reset button via. I just wanted to double check that one and get feedback on the power button and LED. Because I haven't seen their via's mentioned anywhere. And the 6-layer is different enough from the 4-layer, that I don't know where to find them.

This will not be a portable. The 6-layer is not very suitable for a portable. So I want to put it inside an NES, just for fun. To have a NES in my living room that actually plays games (NES, all the way to Wii). Next to that, I wanted to get some practice with motherboard trimming, before I go to work on my 4-layer board with my Dremel...
 

cheese

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It depends on how you want the button to work, the original NES power button is latching (stays in, doesn't immediately come back out) so if you want to keep that functionality, you would just need to wire the button to the onboard regulator enable pin.

If you pull the latching tab off the bottom of the power button you can get it to pop out after you press it, like the reset button, and in that case you just need to wire to the power button pin on the mx chip
 
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If you pull the latching tab off the bottom of the power button you can get it to pop out after you press it, like the reset button, and in that case you just need to wire to the power button pin on the mx chip
This is what I did for the NES power button. So after trimming my Wii, I checked the resistance on the voltage lines. They were similar to before the trim. So I went ahead and attached the power cable to my trimmed Wii. I found 2 pins on the MX chip giving me 3.3V on standby, so I decided to solder to one of them and the other one to MX pin 1 (the power button pin), with a momentary switch in between. I thought pressing that button would power it on. But it didn't... Actually, I now have no more voltage readings on my MX chip at all... Thoughts anyone? I've included my solder job.
IMG_20200516_163835.jpg IMG_20200516_163858.jpg
 

cheese

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Got pictures of the bottom? Looking at the bottom of a 6 layer I have here, it looks like you may have cut some of the onboard regulator components off
 
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