Hi folks, today i'm happy to finally present to you my Wii Micro aka "Miicro" Project!
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About this project
The goal of this project was to use as less additional components as possible and make most of them 3d printable. Also it recycles a lot of the Wii's mainboard and used the stock heatsink/fan. Since I had a lot of 12V PSU's lying around, I choose to use 12V and not 5V micro-USB/-C for power. It's thought as a "simple" "weekend" project which utilizes a 6-layer Wii.
Even though it's relatively easy compared to a portable Wii, this build still requires quite some skill, reading of all the [trimming] guides and a basic understanding of how to trim and rewire components.
When finished the Wii mainboard will sit upside down inside of the case. It happend by excident but the cool thing about this is, that we don't need any visible air vents on the case. Only on the back & bottom.
I made a small video to give a an overview:
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Documentations / Links
These guides are essential for this project, make sure to read and understand them before even thinking about starting this project:
Make sure you are using a 6-layer Wii ->
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/revision-identification-guide.863/
Trimming Manual [4 layer!]:
https://manual.bitbuilt.net/guide/wii-basic-trimming-guide
Trimming Guide:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-definitive-wii-trimming-guide.198/
6-Layer Trimming Guide:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.p...ive-wii-trimming-guide-6-layer-expansion.860/
Custom Regulators Guide:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/custom-regulators-an-explanation-and-guide.754/
BBLoader:
https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/bbloader-v1-1-beta.3564/
Also see the Wii Micro builds by
@Gman and
@jefflongo:
3D Model Download: release_v1 [Thingiverse Mirror]
Pre-requirements
- Power Regulators [PTH, RVL-PSU, ...]
- SPST/SPDT/DPDT/...-Switch [
6mm outside]
- Barreljack [
8mm outside]
- 9V to 12V DC Powersupply [matching barreljack]
- USB Flashdrive [For BBLoader]
- 6-Layer Wii, softmodded with BBLoader & no-wifi patch enabled
- 2 simple tact buttons, 1-5mm height recommended
- Magnetwire ~38 AWG
- Thicker / stranded wire
- Flux [optional but recommended]
- Solder
Tools
- [good] Soldering Iron
- Dremel
- Sanding Paper [at least up to 800 grid]
Printed Parts
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Top Case
Main part / top half of the wii micro case, will hold most components.
Bottom Case
The Bottom part of the case will hold the Gamecube controller ports. Also it contains the intake air vent for cooling the wii.
Standing feet
The standing feets are **essential** for the cooling to work, since the air intake is on the bottom part. Without them your Wii will overheat!
Button Bracket
Will hold two tact buttons for reset & wiimote sync
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Buttons
When you are using short tact buttons [eg. 1mm], you can simply print the supplied buttons.
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PSU Holder
When using the PTH08080 regulators you can print a simple holder for them, that's easily mountable to the screwholes of the GC memorycard slot using two tiny [black] screws.
There will be a RVL-PSU version soon [TM].
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Trimming
I developed a special trim for this project, that has some benefits over the normal OM6 trim:
- AV-Port & USB Port are not trimmed off
- All four screwholes of the Wii's heatsink are kept
- RA1 [pull-up resistor array for the Gamecube controllers] is being kept
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We will recycle a few parts from the Wii mainboard for this project:
- Main part [GPU/CPU & stuff]
- GC Ports
- MX-Chip [optional but recommended]
- Battery socket [optional, requires MX-Chip relocation]
The MX-Chip are can be trimmed a little bit smaller as on the 4-layer Wiis.
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On the Battery socket we only need to make sure there is no short between ground and the battery positive voltage.
When trimming the parts from the mainboard, start with the Gamecube controller ports. Then the main part and in the end the MX & battery holder [if you want to rewire them]. As always trim outside of the marked area and sand/file it into shape afterwords. Make sure to not trim smaller then the official OM6 trim!
Reused parts
We will reuse a few parts from the Wii like:
- Cooling Fan
- Heatsink
Screws
You will need a few screws from your Wii's case:
- 4 short silver screws for the stand feet
- 4 short silver screws to close the case
- 2 short silver screws for the fan
- 2 long silver & 1 short silver screw for the Gamecube controller Ports
- 4 long black screws for the heatsink
Also if you are going to use one of the custom printed regulator holders, you will need:
- 2 tiny black screws from the black gamecube controller port cover
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Rewiring Voltages
There are a few voltages we need to rewire, most of them are covered in the 6-layer trimming guide.
- 12V Sensorbar
- 12V Audio amp [see trimming guide]
- 5V USB
- 5V to AV-Port [eg. required for wii2hdmi adapters]
- 1.8V Bridge [see 6-layer trimming guide]
- And ofc 3v3, 1v15 and 1v
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Relocations
Bluetooth
Twist magnet wire very tightly using an electric drill. You will need about 10cm of twisted magnetwire. When the relocation doesn't work for you, your wire might not be twisted enough. In that case you still can shorten the wires and put the bluetooth module somewhere closer to the vias. It should fit under the trimmed mainboard, as the screw holders are of 4mm height.
MX-Chip
I found out that without the MX-Chip, that the wavebird controller won't work statisfying, so this relocation is highly recommended. Use Magnetwire of about 6cm length for the four data lines. Stranded for voltage and ground. Same for the RTC battery.
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Controller Ports
First cut off the black plastic pins on the bottom of the PCB. You might even want to sand them down, to make the PCB sit flat on the holder.
For the controller ports to work we need to wire up 3.3v to all jacks. I used stranded wire and made small jumper wires of about 4cm length to daisy chain the ports. Watch out that the wire don't get in the way of the screwholes.
Ground can be connected to any pad connected to ground. I simply used a thick stranded wire and soldered it to the middle of the PCB.
Use magnet wire for the data lines. The data wires should be about 20cm long.
Use two long silver screws to secure the PCB on the bottom part. In the middle of the PCB you can use a short silver screw.
Optional: If you want rumble support you will also need to wire up 5v to every port just like you did for 3.3v.
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Here are some alternate relocation spots that i used, since they are further to the front & quite convenient:
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Assembly
- Screw the feet to the bottom part using four small silver screws
- Put the tact buttons into the bracked, secure them by bending the legs to the side and screw it in place using two short silver screws before inserting the mainboard
- Test every relocation one by one.
The case has a few holders for the Bluetooth board, RTC battery and MX-Chip.
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In the end it should look something like this:
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Have fun
Feel free to contact me in the discord if you have any questions. Thanks to everybody who makes public modding stuff and is part of this great community!
Changelog:
30.8.2020: Added blank/no-logo main bodies & info about barreljack & switch size. Minor additions.
12.9.2020: Added Video
13.9.2020: Added alternate GCC relocation vias
