Worklog Ginger's Wii Portable Worklog

[GingerOfOz]

Yeah, it's a printup. I'll leave it attached then.

 

[fibbef]

I see what you did with the speaker holes ;3

Had to go back and look. Was hoping they were shaped like his mustache, although I guess they're not nearly as distinctive as Wario's.

 

[GingerOfOz]

Had to go back and look. Was hoping they were shaped like his mustache, although I guess they're not nearly as distinctive as Wario's.

Never fear, his stache will be the too.

 

[tyE]

GC+ IS REVIVED!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU @pineapples BETWEEN THAT AND MORE SOLDER ON THE BRIDGE IT ALL CAME OFF!!!!

YAY!!!!

In other news:

All battery parts came in, but I'm having issues getting them to charge. I've contacted BatterySpace to see if I'm making some stupid mistake or if it's a faulty product.

@JacksonS helped get my 3DS sticks soldered and ready to roll.

The rest of my Wii U Gamepad buttons came in as well as my speakers.

Speaking of the Wii U buttons, is there a way around that ribbon cable? Could I cut traces/ a hole in the ribbon cable and solder my own wires to a more convenient point or would that be idiotic?

The only parts I'm waiting on are the audio amp, my trimmed board, and my USB drive.

Today I'm going to get my controller ready to roll, at least until I have to go to work.

You guys are awesome! Thanks so much for your help![/QUOTE

honestly the majority of things i have ordered from batteryspace have been DOA

 

[GingerOfOz]

Actually I got the batteries working. I hadn't realized that the PCB had to be hooked up to a load before it would charge the batteries. It's all working now and I'm happy with my purchases.

 

[Shank]

Those fin looking things on the bottom look super fragile. You may want to close them off at the bottom so they have support on both sides. Thin 3d printed plastic is very fragile, especially in the vertical direction.

 

[GingerOfOz]

That part of the case is printed. Here's a priiview:

As you can likely see, there are lots of pros and cons to this print. Let's start with the good stuff.

• The case is an awesome size. It feels super nice to hold, and I don't feel like I'll be stretching to hit any buttons.
• For the most part, it's pretty smooth. I'll probably only have to do a couple layers of paint and sanding to get it how I want.
• The fit for my screen is flawless. It snaps into place and doesn't move. I dremeled out a little gap on the inside of the case so that there isn't as much pressure on my ribbon cable.

And there are problems. Several of them.

• The speaker holes failed. For some reason I thought that 1/50th of an inch was acceptable. 0.02 inches sounded bigger I guess. Plus those holes are absolutely minuscule. So yeah, that was dumb. I tried poking out the holes that didn't turn out with a needle and tiny screwdriver, but it didn't really turn out. I might just cut out the speaker grille, print out a new one, and glue it in unless you guys have a better idea.
• @Shank was right about the fins. One of them snapped off when it was pulled off the printer. The other ones are perfectly stable, but now I've got an unproportional looking bottom. I might just cut out the fins and print a more stable piece to put in it instead.
• I forgot start/ volume buttons. I'll probably just drill holes just below my screen for them.
• I suck at thinking in 3 dimensions. My IR LEDs are basically sticking into my on/off switch and maybe my Z button depending on how that turns out. My sliders are likely going to be either right up against my screw post, or my screw post is going to be in the way.of the sliders. I'll trim the screw posts off of my sliders and see if that opens up enough room. I might also be able to just wire my X wire to Y on my GC+ and vice versa. There are just two screw posts on the slider, so turning it 90 degrees might be enough for me to fit the slider next to my screw post. If it comes to it, I'll just chop off the screw posts and put them somewhere else. I also don't know why I only put two screw posts in my case. I'll probably glue a couple more in there.
• Some of the button holes turned out too small. I suspect it has to do with the little parts I added to some of the buttons so that they would be secured in place. I just used a dremel with a drill bit to get rid of the excess bits. If you look really closely, you can see that some of the holes aren't perfect, but it shouldn't be too noticeable once it's painted and the buttons are in place. Besides, no one's going to be staring at the button holes when they're playing on a portable Wii.

I'll try to make what I've got work. My teacher is letting me use the material for free, but I'd rather not take advantage of it. Nothing is irreparable with what I've got, so we'll make it work. @Fruity_Grebbles is working on a stache stand for me, so it'll be cool to see what he's cooking up! Other than that I'm just waiting on my freaking tact switches. It's been a month and they still haven't arrived yet. Should've used the BOM I guess.

The next step will be to take apart most of what I've put together and start arranging parts in my case. Harvesting the PCB from my battery pack shouldn't be difficult because it's all clearly labeled. After that, I'll work on painting and sanding my case. A trip to a paint store is in order.

Speaking of which, what's the best sandpaper grit to use when sanding and painting? I saw someone mention 500 grit. Is that all I'll need or should I get a variety? Thanks!

All hail the mighty dremel, savior of Wiikind.

 

[GC64]

what's the best sandpaper grit to use when sanding and painting? I saw someone mention 500 grit. Is that all I'll need or should I get a variety?

Curious to know this as well. I always hear about people sanding there cases for days on end, so that makes me think they'd only be sanding with a really high grit in order to not thin the case out..

 

[DeoNaught]

That is beautiful.

 

[cheese]

Probs get like 500, 1000, 1500 grit, maybe even 2000 grit if you want to go crazy smooth

 

[Aurelio]

For painting going up to 600 should be enough

 

[Redmagnusx]

That part of the case is printed. Here's a priiview:
View attachment 2542
As you can likely see, there are lots of pros and cons to this print. Let's start with the good stuff.

• The case is an awesome size. It feels super nice to hold, and I don't feel like I'll be stretching to hit any buttons.
• For the most part, it's pretty smooth. I'll probably only have to do a couple layers of paint and sanding to get it how I want.
• The fit for my screen is flawless. It snaps into place and doesn't move. I dremeled out a little gap on the inside of the case so that there isn't as much pressure on my ribbon cable.

And there are problems. Several of them.

• The speaker holes failed. For some reason I thought that 1/50th of an inch was acceptable. 0.02 inches sounded bigger I guess. Plus those holes are absolutely minuscule. So yeah, that was dumb. I tried poking out the holes that didn't turn out with a needle and tiny screwdriver, but it didn't really turn out. I might just cut out the speaker grille, print out a new one, and glue it in unless you guys have a better idea.
• @Shank was right about the fins. One of them snapped off when it was pulled off the printer. The other ones are perfectly stable, but now I've got an unproportional looking bottom. I might just cut out the fins and print a more stable piece to put in it instead.
• I forgot start/ volume buttons. I'll probably just drill holes just below my screen for them.
• I suck at thinking in 3 dimensions. My IR LEDs are basically sticking into my on/off switch and maybe my Z button depending on how that turns out. My sliders are likely going to be either right up against my screw post, or my screw post is going to be in the way.of the sliders. I'll trim the screw posts off of my sliders and see if that opens up enough room. I might also be able to just wire my X wire to Y on my GC+ and vice versa. There are just two screw posts on the slider, so turning it 90 degrees might be enough for me to fit the slider next to my screw post. If it comes to it, I'll just chop off the screw posts and put them somewhere else. I also don't know why I only put two screw posts in my case. I'll probably glue a couple more in there.
• Some of the button holes turned out too small. I suspect it has to do with the little parts I added to some of the buttons so that they would be secured in place. I just used a dremel with a drill bit to get rid of the excess bits. If you look really closely, you can see that some of the holes aren't perfect, but it shouldn't be too noticeable once it's painted and the buttons are in place. Besides, no one's going to be staring at the button holes when they're playing on a portable Wii.

I'll try to make what I've got work. My teacher is letting me use the material for free, but I'd rather not take advantage of it. Nothing is irreparable with what I've got, so we'll make it work. @Fruity_Grebbles is working on a stache stand for me, so it'll be cool to see what he's cooking up! Other than that I'm just waiting on my freaking tact switches. It's been a month and they still haven't arrived yet. Should've used the BOM I guess.

The next step will be to take apart most of what I've put together and start arranging parts in my case. Harvesting the PCB from my battery pack shouldn't be difficult because it's all clearly labeled. After that, I'll work on painting and sanding my case. A trip to a paint store is in order.

Speaking of which, what's the best sandpaper grit to use when sanding and painting? I saw someone mention 500 grit. Is that all I'll need or should I get a variety? Thanks!

All hail the mighty dremel, savior of Wiikind.

ROFL This reminds me of my first attempts at 3d printing and designing. When designing a case for a portable I find that that the most essential tools necessary are the following, a good CAD Program, a good Caliper and the Metric System.

 

[GingerOfOz]

ROFL This reminds me of my first attempts at 3d printing and designing. When designing a case for a portable I find that that the most essential tools necessary are the following, a good CAD Program, a good Caliper and the Metric System.

Yeah, I've got a good caliper and CAD program, but I used inches cuz MURICA. (And my caliper was in inches. And I can't visualize metric like you non freedomers can)

 

[Redmagnusx]

Yeah, I've got a good caliper and CAD program, but I used inches cuz MURICA. (And my caliper was in inches. And I can't visualize metric like you non freedomers can)

Hahahaha! Man, I'm from New Jersey born and raised. I live in Florida now though.

I just majored in Drafting throughout High School and I learned both Imperial and Metric as a result.

 

[Madmorda]

Yeah, I've got a good caliper and CAD program, but I used inches cuz MURICA. (And my caliper was in inches. And I can't visualize metric like you non freedomers can)

I'm all American too, but who wants to measure things in 1/16ths of an inch? It's less accurate and harder to add, I do everything in mm.

 

[Redmagnusx]

I'm all American too, but who wants to measure things in 1/16ths of an inch? It's less accurate and harder to add, I do everything in mm.

Exactly and believe me when I say that the nature of FDM 3d printing only exacerbates that lack of accuracy.

On topic: I really do like the case design overall. It's very good. Especially considering that you're still in school @GingerOfOz

 

[GingerOfOz]

I'm all American too, but who wants to measure things in 1/16ths of an inch? It's less accurate and harder to add, I do everything in mm.

I mean, my caliper measures to the thousandth of an inch, so I get accurate reading. Metric is way better, but less intuitive to me, so to each their own.

 

[Redmagnusx]

I mean, my caliper measures to the thousandth of an inch, so I get accurate reading. Metric is way better, but less intuitive to me, so to each their own.

Either way, you're doing a great job. Keep it up!

 

[GingerOfOz]

Well operation "salvage the case" is probably a *nice meme* at this point.

Played around with some case arrangements, and I think I've found one I like (i.e. one that might actually work). Here's a picture of layer one:

Layer one consists of the screen, which takes up very little room, as well as my buttons, joysticks, LEDs, GC+, audio amp, speakers, two batteries, and one of my regulators. I'll probably put my start button in that little area between the batteries. I still need a spot to put my volume buttons and my sync button, so I think I'll try to cram them in up top with my LEDs. @MasterNate was kind enough to put up a board with some tiny tact switches for free, so I'm hoping that those will be the right fit. Obviously, the stuff that's tilted in this picture won't actually be tilted in the final product, but I didn't feel like taking the time to arrange everything prettily. One solution for my 3DS slider problem would be to flip them upside down, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get my GC+ to flip the signal. I feel like I saw that option somewhere in the config app, but I'd have to take a look to see if that's actually possible. Another part I'm fitting on this layer is my PCB, which is currently in the middle of being harvested. It'll go just to the right of the ribbon cable. It just has some annoying glue on the back of it, so I'll probably hair-dryer it later to try to pry it out.

Layer two just adds the screen control board. And the ribbon cable. I hate that ribbon cable. The ribbon cable has to be folded over itself four times, which takes up almost as much space as the physical board does. That's why I've tried to cram so many components right on top of my screen. The batteries seen here are just to hold the screen down, because the stupid ribbon cable springs it up.

Layer three is basically everything else. The Wii motherboard is at the very top so that the fan gets the ventilation it needs. The other two batteries line up just over the buttons, which means that the back of my case will need to stick out along the edges on the back, like a Wii U Gamepad. This means that my controller will be comfortable to hold, but I'm worried about how this will affect my L/R triggers. The change in the grip means that my hands will roll forward from an upright position, to a slightly downward position, which means that hitting the triggers might be a stretch. That might have only made sense to me. Moving on, my other regulators will likely sit on top of the motherboard. I'll be sure to trim the nubs off of the bottom of the regulators and put down electrical tape to avoid shorts, but this is really the only spot in my case that they'll fit. I could fit all four on the motherboard if I needed to. As you can also see in this picture, I've moved the charging port to the bottom right corner. I probably won't have room for it along the top, so I'll probably move it down there. This means that charge and play would be awkward, so that is not its final position at all.

Speaking of which, I was having a problem with charge and play. The diagram worked fine, but when I wired everything up my screen brutally flickered, my fan slowed down, and the board didn't even boot. Is this a current issue? (As in like V=IR current problem, not as in the fact that Russia could decimate the entire East Coast with 3 nukes current problem) Literally everything I've got is wired in parallel, so I could probably wire some of my non-Wii components in series, if my voltage drops aren't too severe. Assuming that's even my problem.

The plan at this point is to wait on my tact switches (the stupid squishy ones from China) before altering my case design. I'm not entirely sure of the extra thickness that that'll add, as well as the space that those will take up. Because of this, progress might be stagnant for a while.

If you guys have any suggestion for other changes in layout or case, feel free to tell me.

Thanks for the suggestions and support!

 

[Toaster912]

Well operation "salvage the case" is probably a *nice meme* at this point.

Played around with some case arrangements, and I think I've found one I like (i.e. one that might actually work). Here's a picture of layer one:

View attachment 2567

Layer one consists of the screen, which takes up very little room, as well as my buttons, joysticks, LEDs, GC+, audio amp, speakers, two batteries, and one of my regulators. I'll probably put my start button in that little area between the batteries. I still need a spot to put my volume buttons and my sync button, so I think I'll try to cram them in up top with my LEDs. @MasterNate was kind enough to put up a board with some tiny tact switches for free, so I'm hoping that those will be the right fit. Obviously, the stuff that's tilted in this picture won't actually be tilted in the final product, but I didn't feel like taking the time to arrange everything prettily. One solution for my 3DS slider problem would be to flip them upside down, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get my GC+ to flip the signal. I feel like I saw that option somewhere in the config app, but I'd have to take a look to see if that's actually possible. Another part I'm fitting on this layer is my PCB, which is currently in the middle of being harvested. It'll go just to the right of the ribbon cable. It just has some annoying glue on the back of it, so I'll probably hair-dryer it later to try to pry it out.

View attachment 2568

Layer two just adds the screen control board. And the ribbon cable. I hate that ribbon cable. The ribbon cable has to be folded over itself four times, which takes up almost as much space as the physical board does. That's why I've tried to cram so many components right on top of my screen. The batteries seen here are just to hold the screen down, because the stupid ribbon cable springs it up.

View attachment 2569

Layer three is basically everything else. The Wii motherboard is at the very top so that the fan gets the ventilation it needs. The other two batteries line up just over the buttons, which means that the back of my case will need to stick out along the edges on the back, like a Wii U Gamepad. This means that my controller will be comfortable to hold, but I'm worried about how this will affect my L/R triggers. The change in the grip means that my hands will roll forward from an upright position, to a slightly downward position, which means that hitting the triggers might be a stretch. That might have only made sense to me. Moving on, my other regulators will likely sit on top of the motherboard. I'll be sure to trim the nubs off of the bottom of the regulators and put down electrical tape to avoid shorts, but this is really the only spot in my case that they'll fit. I could fit all four on the motherboard if I needed to. As you can also see in this picture, I've moved the charging port to the bottom right corner. I probably won't have room for it along the top, so I'll probably move it down there. This means that charge and play would be awkward, so that is not its final position at all.

Speaking of which, I was having a problem with charge and play. The diagram worked fine, but when I wired everything up my screen brutally flickered, my fan slowed down, and the board didn't even boot. Is this a current issue? (As in like V=IR current problem, not as in the fact that Russia could decimate the entire East Coast with 3 nukes current problem) Literally everything I've got is wired in parallel, so I could probably wire some of my non-Wii components in series, if my voltage drops aren't too severe. Assuming that's even my problem.

The plan at this point is to wait on my tact switches (the stupid squishy ones from China) before altering my case design. I'm not entirely sure of the extra thickness that that'll add, as well as the space that those will take up. Because of this, progress might be stagnant for a while.

If you guys have any suggestion for other changes in layout or case, feel free to tell me.

Thanks for the suggestions and support!

I thought you said it was going to be purple!?!