Worklog gcGO: Faradyne's First Portable

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Yup. I'm getting 3.3V in that line.
Edit:
Ok. Well I got it to work....strangely. I checked the voltage on the pad where the gpu wire is and the Wii booted up portablizemii. I don't even ground the other tip, I just tap it and it works. Every time I boot it up I need to tap the pad with something metal and it boots up. Which is strange since 3.3V is going to that gpu trace so I don't think it's a bad solder.
 
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jefflongo

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Yup. I'm getting 3.3V in that line.
Edit:
Ok. Well I got it to work....strangely. I checked the voltage on the pad where the gpu wire is and the Wii booted up portablizemii. I don't even ground the other tip, I just tap it and it works. Every time I boot it up I need to tap the pad with something metal and it boots up. Which is strange since 3.3V is going to that gpu trace so I don't think it's a bad solder.
So you tested the voltage on the via side as well? Because it sounds like your multimeter probe bridged the pin to the wire which sent the 3.3v signal to the GPU to tell it to boot. If that forces a boot every time, you at least know the issue is somewhere with the U10. I would try reconnecting that wire to the via on both sides regardless.
 
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So you tested the voltage on the via side as well? Because it sounds like your multimeter probe bridged the pin to the wire which sent the 3.3v signal to the GPU to tell it to boot. If that forces a boot every time, you at least know the issue is somewhere with the U10. I would try reconnecting that wire to the via on both sides regardless.
I tested the voltage on the Via side both where the wire is soldered and on the pad tp119 (where the Via leads to) and obtained 3.3V. I resoldered the wire on to Via and onto the U9 incase it was just a spotty connection. Still the same thing.

Update:
Ok so new discovery. I tried testing the voltage again and it seems to boot up no matter where I test. More over, while it's running and I test the voltage, it resets itself. Is this normal behavior? I'm coming up to the conclusion that the U9 maybe faulty and not giving a delayed signal. Thus when I tap it with my multimeter the voltage drops down low enough for the boot to be tripped.

UPDATE 2:
I KNOW WHAT IT IS!!!........Kinda .-. I disconnected the wire from U9 and starting noticed I was STILL getting 3.3V. Ahah! So there has to be a short somewhere on the Via side that's sending 3.3V to the gpu. Problem is, I can't seem to find it with my continuity.
IMG_4492.JPG

Excuse my terrible pic, it's being taken through a magnifying glass. Is there any known sources of 3.3V around here that could have caused the issue? I almost have the mind of running over all of this with a blob of wet solder on my iron, maybe that'll take up loose blobs. Or maybe destroy everything. Idk. It's late and I'm tired. One more thing to note is that I'm getting around 4 Kohms of resistance between the Via and the 3.3V. That may explain when I'm not getting continuity. But there's still a rouge connection somewhere

UPDATE 3:
Ok. I am almost certain I found the culprit it turns on I'm still getting 3.3V on both pins on the 2 top pads where the U10 used to be. When tapping the top right pad I boot up the Wii. Therefore, somehow there's a short near these pads.
IMG_4496.JPG

I can't fully tell where the short is, however I'm wondering if I can just remove that small right element and work from there.
 
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Time for the weekly update!
Work has been unfortunately slow with classes beginning and waiting for supplies to come in. My Wii has made very little progress. I still have no solution to my issue. I completely desoldered my U9 to make sure there was no shorts. Without any U10 or U9s on the board, the gpu pin is still receiving 3.3V. I'm not sure if this is normal or if this means there is a short somewhere. I can still get it to work by tapping the pin somewhere so I can always just put in a switch......but that's pathetic. That U9 I'm using may just have been destroyed from the very beginning.

Work has not been totally halted though!

This week has been custom regulator week and I got that up and fully functioning!
IMG_4513.JPG

IMG_4514.JPG

Credit goes to @link270 for the idea of putting all the regulators on a prototype board like this. Inputting 7.23V, I output 1.008, 1.158, 3.250, and 5.029, all of which should be in the working range. Yay!

Next week should involve me setting up the battery circuits and connecting everything up. All the while I still got to get my Wii booting properly. Do you guys think I should attempt to trim the Wii in some hope that my issue will be resolved by that? I do have a backup Wii, its just this Wii is by no means bricked so I want to get this one working!
 
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I should bring up a bit of an update since I've been quite for almost two weeks. There's been equally major progress and no progress.

Good news is ive got a Wii working with u10 relocation. After fiddling with the first one, I decided to bust out my spare and relocate that one. Went a TON smoother and now functions perfectly. Only issue is this Wii has no GC ports so I have to wait until GC+ are instock again. (Hopefully that's soon!) my guess is a faulty U10/U9 on the first. I tested and confirmed that there is 3.3V on the gpu pin even if U10 is off the board.

Next news is that I order my screen already. I've opted to go with components for now and then in the future once I build up enough knowledge, I'll design a pcb to do vga conversion. Or just get a BBvideo. Whichever is more difficult. ;p.

Bad news section: I have almost everything for the project now but gc+ (wheeeeeen) and battery holders. After the mess with the U10 I don't trust myself to solder tabs on the batteries so I opted for holders. Apparently they got lost in transit however and who knows when they'll arrive without them I really cannot safely test my smart charger board.

So now it's just a waiting game. I'd rather not cut the board yet incase some bizarre voodoo crap happens and it magically bricks by the time I get the materials to start it up with the regs. So now I wait for gc+ and battery holders. Yay!
 
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Alright guys. It's been a hot minute since the last time I've posted an update! School got too busy for me to work on this the past couple of months but now that it's in between semesters, I'm going to try and get as far as I can. Updates!
Finally got the battery holders and I was able to put together the smart charger. Everything works beautiful. Highly recommend that little red board.
IMG_4942.JPG

Not only that, but I've gotten to work on the OMGWTF trim.
IMG_4941.JPG
IMG_4940.JPG

The most nerve wracking thing I've ever done to a pcb! Looks like I dragged it out of my car on the highway. I'll make it a bit more presentable and sand it a bit more and check for any shorts. Currently got 193 on the 1v, 42.5 on 1.15v, 6.3k on 3.3v, and .4 on the 5v. So probably shorts on the 5v.
 
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Alright guys. It's been a hot minute since the last time I've posted an update! School got too busy for me to work on this the past couple of months but now that it's in between semesters, I'm going to try and get as far as I can. Updates!
Finally got the battery holders and I was able to put together the smart charger. Everything works beautiful. Highly recommend that little red board.
View attachment 4719
Not only that, but I've gotten to work on the OMGWTF trim.
View attachment 4720 View attachment 4721
The most nerve wracking thing I've ever done to a pcb! Looks like I dragged it out of my car on the highway. I'll make it a bit more presentable and sand it a bit more and check for any shorts. Currently got 193 on the 1v, 42.5 on 1.15v, 6.3k on 3.3v, and .4 on the 5v. So probably shorts on the 5v.
Can you send a clearer picture of the batteries hooked up to board and charger I have that board too so I wanna use it as well but the shadows on the picture is kinda making it confusing for me

Oh and how would you hook that up to a switch?
 

Stitches

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Just make sure that the switch you're going to use is rated for the current. You don't want to use one rated for 5v 200mAh.
 
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@Enrique exactly as the others have said. Here's my setup:
IMG_4951.JPG

IMG_4950.JPG

My switch is rated for 16A and 25Vac. A tad overkill but better safe than sorry. ;)
Anyways a switch only needs to be attached from the positive end. Hope this helps!

Also a side note. Once you attach it to the regs, make sure you plug it to charge real quick before testing it out. The board doesn't work properly unless it has been plugged for a minute or so under load. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.
 
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@Enrique exactly as the others have said. Here's my setup:
View attachment 4746
View attachment 4747
My switch is rated for 16A and 25Vac. A tad overkill but better safe than sorry. ;)
Anyways a switch only needs to be attached from the positive end. Hope this helps!

Also a side note. Once you attach it to the regs, make sure you plug it to charge real quick before testing it out. The board doesn't work properly unless it has been plugged for a minute or so under load. It took me a few minutes to figure that out.
Yeah that actually filled in a lot of blanks for me
Thank you
Last question tho. My battery holder is 2s2p
So it can hold 4 in one holder
Would I just solder it to B+ and B-
Since there is no 3rd wire for the BM
 

GingerOfOz

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Yeah that actually filled in a lot of blanks for me
Thank you
Last question tho. My battery holder is 2s2p
So it can hold 4 in one holder
Would I just solder it to B+ and B-
Since there is no 3rd wire for the BM
Since you are using a battery holder, the circuitry is connected together internally so yes, you just need to use B+ and B-
 
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Alright. So I've gotten around to cleaning up the board and tested the resistance:

1V is 212, 1.14V is 45, 3.3V is 6.3k, and 5V is 4.8M ohms.

5V seems a bit weird but I probably won't even be attaching that to the board so I'm not too worried. Before I start reattaching the USB port, do these values seem acceptable?
 

GingerOfOz

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Yep, those values sound good. It's perfectly fine if 5v is that high, since nothing on a trimmed Wii motherboard actually connects to 5v. You'll just need to run 5v straight to things like the fan and USB, just like you said.
 
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Before I start connecting the Dalian Good Display, are there any alterations I need to perform to run it off 5V? Currently it asks for 12V and I have a feeling just connecting that to 5V won't be enough.
 

jefflongo

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Before I start connecting the Dalian Good Display, are there any alterations I need to perform to run it off 5V? Currently it asks for 12V and I have a feeling just connecting that to 5V won't be enough.
There will almost certainly be a 5v regulator on the board, you can remove it and wire 5v to the output pad of the regulator. If you post a pic of your board we can help you find it.
 

Gman

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If you want to power it from 5v, remove L111 (says 220 on top) and put in 5v to the positive terminal on C173 (220uf cap). Pretty sure that'll do it.
 
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IMG_4963.JPG


Perfect. :). Thanks a ton for the help. Video looks great for such an excessively long cord due to using a shield wire. Huge shout out to @JacksonS for his audio amplifier with switching headphone jack. It works beautifull! All that's left is to find a gc+. I guess now I should also start thinking about my case design. I've been sorta dreading this but now it's time to learn CAD. Yay!
 

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