Release Fujiflex (GCVideo DVI flex PCB)

[YveltalGriffin]

I recently released fujiflex, a GCVideo DVI flex PCB for 4-layer Wii motherboards. It is permissively licensed under the Solderpad Hardware License v2.1! GITHUB LINK

Features:

• Compact 28 x 30mm 2-layer flex PCB (requires KiCAD 8.0 or later)
• ~$10 BOM cost
• Powered from 3.3V and 1.8V (1.2V generated from 1.8V for power savings)
• 19-pin Molex 5052781933 / 5052781970 ZIF for HDMI output
• Wii SDA and SCL testpoints
• MODE solder jumper
• Powered by Ingo Korb's GCVideo DVI

You can connect fujiflex to any HDMI driver board with a 19-pin FFC. You just need to solder a 19-pin ZIF to the driver board in place of the HDMI connector. See supertazon's G-Boy for reference. The GitHub repo has more details about assembly, programming, and installation.

Huge thanks to @loopj for testing the boards and helping with the assembly/installation documentation! Here's a pic of his successful install:

 

[Stitches]

 

[Teatimetim]

Well, I was planning to do a vga switcher on my current g-boy project then saw this. I got everything ordered to make a few of them, so if the first one works out and I don't need the others, I'll offer them at cost + shipping for anyone who would like to do this mod. Thanks for all your hard work on this @YveltalGriffin!

 

[Teatimetim]

Fuji Flex, assemble!

For some reason my order from Mouser is missing the 100k ohm resister so I subbed it for an 0802, although I'm not confident with the connection on it so I'm going to end up replacing them with the proper 0402 ones once I get them in. Working on programming them now.

 

[Teatimetim]

Alright, so what do you do when the only unix based system in your house is a steam deck? Well....

It took a little bit of trickery to get flashrom installed due to the write protections put in place by "Steam OS" but I finally got two chips programmed! Tomorrow will be test day hopefully!

Just a few things I learned from programming these chips in case anyone else wants to try and struggles like I did:

- I tried flashing with a RaspberryPi Pico, EZP2023+, and a CH341A. I would by far recommend using the CH341A on a unix based system to flash the chip, it just works. With the Pico + Serprog, I couldn't get flashrom to play nice with it. For the EZP2023+, I could not get it to detect the chip no matter what I did.

-The system I used to install is running Arch Linux, but flashrom supports multiple flavors of Linux. Just be prepared to do a lot of googling to make sure you get the right packages installed.

 

[Stitches]

Portable flashing for a portable system. I like it

 

[RegDogg]

Absolutely gorgeous! Imma have to try this mod sometime for myself!

 

[Teatimetim]

Well, I got it installed but I'm running into an issue now, so hoping someone here can tell me what I'm maybe doing wrong. Whenever I boot the Wii, it powers on and the screen will flash blue and say "HDMI" in the top left, but constantly power cycle and get no video from the Wii. I did test the board prior to this install and it was working with composite. I also ended up tearing off the 5v pad by accident and soldered the 5v wire to the bridge rectifier directly instead. I checked continuity between the solder joints and the FPGA and everything seems good. Also checked continuity from the FPGA to the FFC connector, where that looked good too.

I originally had "mode" bridged but then remembered that was for forcing VGA and desoldered that, but same issue.

The screen is connected via the jack pins to 5v and ground on the PMS. Also, I did check resistances on that 100k ohm resistor and it checked out on all the pins it's connected to, so I didn't bother replacing it. Any thoughts?

In these pictures you'll also notice that ground appears to be connected to 3v3. It is actually just floating and I noticed it as I was posting this and resoldered it to the other side of that cap. Now it turns on to a blue screen and the wii immediately shuts off.

 

[Sdouyoulink]

Well, I got it installed but I'm running into an issue now, so hoping someone here can tell me what I'm maybe doing wrong. Whenever I boot the Wii, it powers on and the screen will flash blue and say "HDMI" in the top left, but constantly power cycle and get no video from the Wii. I did test the board prior to this install and it was working with composite. I also ended up tearing off the 5v pad by accident and soldered the 5v wire to the bridge rectifier directly instead. I checked continuity between the solder joints and the FPGA and everything seems good. Also checked continuity from the FPGA to the FFC connector, where that looked good too.

I originally had "mode" bridged but then remembered that was for forcing VGA and desoldered that, but same issue.

The screen is connected via the jack pins to 5v and ground on the PMS. Also, I did check resistances on that 100k ohm resistor and it checked out on all the pins it's connected to, so I didn't bother replacing it. Any thoughts?

In these pictures you'll also notice that ground appears to be connected to 3v3. It is actually just floating and I noticed it as I was posting this and resoldered it to the other side of that cap. Now it turns on to a blue screen and the wii immediately shuts off.

Hello, I would like to ask if you have done it well, what programmer to use?

 

[Teatimetim]

I recommend the ch134a. It's a cheap spi programmer that can be used with flashrom (Linux only).

 

[loopj]

I recommend the ch134a. It's a cheap spi programmer that can be used with flashrom (Linux only).

+1 on a cheapo CH341A-based device, I use Amazon product
Heads up that flashrom works on linux, windows, and macOS. I use it on macOS.

 

[Teatimetim]

+1 on a cheapo CH341A-based device, I use Amazon product
Heads up that flashrom works on linux, windows, and macOS. I use it on macOS.

Good point. I should have said that it's best used on Unix based systems. I looked into running it on windows and a lot of guides just said "don't bother".

 

[Mc moron mods]

Foldables get easier each year

 

[Trimlin]

Dose this replace the ave or just add onto it?

 

[loopj]

If you only need HDMI output, the AVE is not required when using fujiflex.

It is worth noting that the AVE will continue working just fine alongside fujiflex, so you can keep both if you'd like the option of both analog and digital video output, or don't want to remove the AVE.

 

[tankie3k]

Just wondering, is there any where to turn the Fuji flex off? If it's in a portable just for HDMI out could it be put into a sudo power saving mode or is it always on if voltages are connected?

 

[loopj]

Typically the 3V3 and 1V8 lines that power fujiflex will also be switched off when your portable is powered off or in standby mode. If you are using one of the 4layertech power supplies, this is certainly the case.

The 5V line is only used for hot plug detect.

 

[tankie3k]

Do you know how much power it draws or if it's insignificantly low? The main draw back of the analog2HDMI is size and power draw and I was looking for an alternative.

Does the 5v line need to be powered or do displays not require it to show image?

 

[Luigid]

I also used ch134a with neoprogrammer which worked perfectly, the fw for the wii version should be modified so that it works with the gamecube controller commands

Do you know how much power it draws or if it's insignificantly low? The main draw back of the analog2HDMI is size and power draw and I was looking for an alternative.

Does the 5v line need to be powered or do displays not require it to show image?

nop u need the 5v for a picture ,to give you an idea, I can't tell you about the power, a fast test gave me about 7 minutes less battery life than without it

 

[loopj]

Does the 5v line need to be powered or do displays not require it to show image?

It depends on the display. None of the HDMI displays/driver boards I used during testing required 5V to operate, but many do - especially TVs - so it depends what you are building.

the fw for the wii version should be modified so that it works with the gamecube controller commands

GameCube controller navigation of the GCVideo menus worked fine for me using the stock shuriken-wii bitstream.