Help with a micro

[skunk]

I had some questions about making a micro, but as someone who has never even used a 3d printer before or trimmed a wii, I'm probably going to miss some important stuff.

I am a huge fan of the show South Park and I wanted to make a replica of a fake console in it called the Okama Gamesphere.

It's supposed to be a parody of the gamecube and I think the design is really cool so I want to bring it into the real world in the form of a micro, but I've never done any portablizing before.

I was mainly wondering if I wanted to make a micro, what custom pcbs would I be putting into this? For portables I kinda know what PCBs go into it, and on a basic level I want the micro to have USB-C PD as the power source, 2 usb ports, internal storage through a USB flash drive most likely, HDMI support (im flexible on image quality), and Bluetooth support (mainly controller), but I'm not sure what has to go in there to make it happen.

I was also wondering if there are any issues with buying an already trimmed wii motherboard from aliexpress or somewhere else? For me, it's mostly a money problem, because I'm pretty sure getting a 4layer wii board + dremel is more expensive than paying the $50 on aliexpress for one, but is it better to spend the money on the wii and dremel to learn how to trim a wii?

Right now, I'm not too concerned about the actual electronics side of the project since I'm pretty competent at micro soldering and the such, but everything else including knowing what to get and what to do is confusing for me.

At the end of the day, this is just a silly concept I had in my head that I want to do. I'm pretty flexible on what I want out of this thing, and thanks in advance for any help I get in this thread.

 

[skunk]

Oh and I forgot, I want to do this while using the OMGWTF trim, and I was wondering that would cause any problems over using the OMEGA trim.

 

[Stitches]

Oh and I forgot, I want to do this while using the OMGWTF trim, and I was wondering that would cause any problems over using the OMEGA trim.

Cause problems? M8 it'll prevent problems. OMEGA trims are notoriously difficult to get and keep functional. OMGWTF all the way for first timers.

As for buying a trim, you absolutely can just buy one if you want. They're usually fine and dandy, but if there is a pre-existing problem with the one that you buy, then you'll have to suffer through aliexpress support to get a replacement. We would recommend trimming your own.

For power you have a few options, the cost effective one for a micro type build being the RVL-PSU. You can pair it with a generic USB-PD negotiation module to get the desired voltage out of a PD compatible C supply.

HDMI output can be easily attained via an ElectronAnalog from Electron Shepherd. It'll convert YPbPr or VGA output from the Wii into HDMI.

 

[leftbrainstrain]

I'm also a huge fan of the show!

Are you going to try to print the globe in transparent PETG like someone did a while ago, make the overall design small enough to just hot glue a green hamster ball on top, or something else?

In case you haven't seen them before, you might want to check out pictures of the PlayStation 2 in "Toys Blue" (SCPH-39000TB) on eBay, for design inspiration for the bottom half. The green sphere on top of the box the original XBox came in (or perhaps the XBox itself) also could be seen as a design influence.

If you're planning to order from AliExpress and hope to receive your order by the end of the month, you may want to order soon. There is a little delay right now due to an unusually large volume of packages being shipped out.

 

[skunk]

I am definitely printing everything out (I don't actually have a 3d printer yet but i'm going to buy one very very soon, gonna get the a1 mini) and I was planning to print it out in PLA but now that you mention it, PETG does look a lot better for this!

I was also planning on making the bottom black instead of a light blue because it's kinda inconsistent the specific color of it in the show and i didn't really like the color all that much, but looking at that PS2 kind of changed my mind about how it looked, it looks great! Obviously i'm probably not going to be able to get it to look as good as that but hopefully i can get it close.

Looking over at the PCBs ill need for this, the ElectronAnalog's solder points confuse me because looking at the trimming guide there's no 3.3v hole to connect it to? I'm planning on using VGA and I don't see any documentation here on the forums of someone else hooking up an ElectronAnalog to a trimmed wii, maybe i just have it completely wrong lol

I really want to purchase this before the tarrifs go into place & before de minimus is gone but I'm using birthday money to do this and my birthday isn't until the 27th (and my job pays ass ngl, turning 16 though so hopefully i can finally get more hours), so hopefully Chinese sellers find out a loophole (probably shipping through Macau since de minimus applies there for at least another 90 days) before then, otherwise i might be cooked. Thanks for the help and suggestions so far!