Worklog Josh's first Wii portable

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Jul 9, 2017
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Hamilton, Ontario
Are you talking about the pins on the connector portion of the chip? On the backside of the chip there are test pads on one end that are much easier to connect too. You may have to remove the sticker to find them. Check out the trimming guide to see what i mean. Those pads are pretty simple to hook too, probably one of the easier things in the whole process, the traces on the board are way more difficult.
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I am but a fool

Project update:

I tried to extend the USB connector from the board so it could reach the wall of the case, and I kind of wrecked the connector trying to solder wires to the connector pins. I'm looking for a replacement connector now.

I found this part that looks promising, the only downfall is that shipping is $20

http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Wurth-Electronics/61400826021/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMulM8LPOQ%2bykyMnO5Xm8QqQmhK9xYjzKF8=

Another project update:

So I simply used a USB extension cord from the dollar store to substitute the USB connector and it worked just fine. I soldered the wires from the cord onto the original solder pads that the connector originally sat in and it functions perfectly.

I got my screen in the mail and I'm still working out how to actually use it. It's very straight forward in a sense that it only has six simple inputs on the board. They are:
acc (accessory, this connects to a car's electrical system. It triggers the switch between AV1 and AV2 so when you put the car in reverse, you see through the camera on the backside of the car instead of the DVD player, I don't need to use it for my purposes.)
AV2
GND
AV1
GND
DC_IN
The concern that I'm starting to have is that I won't have enough power to supply to the screen as it's designed to take 12V of power from a car battery. The battery pack I have for my Wii is 14.3V, hopwfully it can power both the Wii and the screen. For now I can just focus on the relocations on the Wii motherboard. There isn't much work to be done with power on the motherboard until the Powermii Lite comes in anyway.

Speaking of relocations, I managed to relocate the U10 chip and I intend on moving the MX chip next. I heard it's good to keep the MX chip as it allows you to play N64 games.

Moar updates:

I couldn't actually manage to get games on Portablizemii until I found out that I have to use a program called DiskEx to make the gamecube ISO compatible with Nintendont. If anybody is having issues with Gamecube games, that may be your issue.

I successfully wired a headphone jack into the board, and I hope to have a switch that allows me to switch between on-board speakers and headphone, and hopefully establish some volume control. I hear that a 10K potentiometer might do the trick. The problem is, there are two audio wires; left and right. That would mean that I would have to somehow route both wires through the potentiometer to get audio control or have two potentiometrers. Perhaps if I wire the potentiometer into the audio ground, that may control it's volume. There are a lot of the same instruction for volume control, just like this one, it seems like a useless diagram. I'll be doing more research into the matter.

As I test my Wii I keep running into issues with the Wii crashing in the postloader menu, and in-game. While testing WaveRace, the only game I have on the Wii, it crashes frequently. An error message appears saying that "an error has occured. turn the power off and check the nintendo gamecube instructions booklet for further instructions." I suppose I should check the Gamecube booklet for further instructions to see if that helps but I might as the noob question forum if nothing turns up.

I am very excited to say that I am coming close to finishing my first portable. The last things I need to do is relocate the bluetooth chip, maybe the MX chip, establish a power system using the PowerMii Lite that I am waiting for in the mail, trim the board, and make that case!

Still more updates:

So I learned about dual potentiometers, that do allow two signals to pass through it, specifically for RCA signals. This part allows for RCA volume control... hopefully.
It looks like this, and could possibly be a valuable part to help out others with the same issue.

I don't exactly want to risk that MX chip relocation without 34 gauge wire (I'm still waiting for it in the mail). When I made the U10 relocation, I had a problem with shorting some of the GPU vias together accidentally. That was while attempting to solder to a single via, attempting to solder to four vias that close together to perform the MX relocation seems like a suicide mission without the magnet wire.

All the Gamecube manual has to offer for my crashing problems is this "troubleshooting tip":
The Game Disc may be dirty or damaged. Open the Disc
Cover, remove the disc and check for contamination, dirt,
scratches or other irregularities. If necessary, clean the disc
by wiping with a soft, slightly damp cotton cloth
(do not usepaper)
from the middle to the outside edge.
Insert the disc and try playing the game again. If you still get
the same error message, there may be an internal problem
with the system. Turn the Nintendo GameCube OFF, unplug
the system and visit the customer service area of our web
site at
www.nintendo.com
or contact Nintendo Customer
Service at 1-800-255-3700.
I suspect maybe my USB stick is not high enough quality or not fast enough, or there is an issue with the connection to the board. I could always try resoldering it.

I'm just going to keep updating:

The main issue right now is the USB problem.
I know that changing the USB stick does affect the issue to a degree. One stick will load the game and work fine, the other will get to the loading checklist in Nintendont and then give me a black screen.
I resoldered the connection to the board to ensure that there were no shorts and nothing changed.
The system keeps getting stuck on the Init DI... spot on the Nintendont checklist screen.
I'm actually suspecting it may be the U10. I say it briefly mentioned in another post, I'm not entirely sure what I can do about that aside from resoldering it.

Another issue I've been running into is the fact that I have no save data, games simply tell me that there is no Gamecube memory card present, and therefore the game won't be saved. I'm sure there is a solution to this with Portablizemii that I'm not seeing, but I'll see is I can find a solution somewhere on the forums.

I'm considering using a battery pack such as this one from Amazon, it seems much easier to manage than 18650 batteries. The growing concern I have is that the screen also requires 12V, which means I'll either need a 24V battery, or two 12V batteries, unless there is some other obvious solution that I am not seeing.

I also found this handy battery level indicator, it has a reaaally nice display compared to some of the DIY circuits I've seen, such as this one.

Wii crashing update:

So I've been studying this crashing issue and I've made some discoveries. I wanted to test the connection my wire had with the GPU via, to see if it was shorting or if there was anything weird happening. I turned the system on, and was using my multimeter to test the connection when it broke. The soldering job simply fell off (which for me isn't very uncommon), the strange part was that the system still booted and the postloader still appeared. I have an mp3 loaded onto the USB stick to test the sound connection. Before when I was having the issue, the postloader would crash and the mp3 would glitch out and the system would get stuck. I had my multimeter black on a ground and the positive to the GPU via that the U10 should have been connected to.
This leads me to believe that the U10 connection is definitely the cause of the problem, not the USB like I had thought before. I think maybe if I use 34 gauge magnet wire it might help the soldering job and stop the crashing. The only issue with that is that I'm still waiting for my wire in the mail.

In other news...

I'm starting to think about case design. I want to leave my "finished" portable sort of open ended. For example, to control volume, I intend on using a potentiometer dial. While that plan may work, I might find a way to implement my own electronic volume control later using a volume up and volume down button. I want to make sure that my case allows me to expand my design later without re-printing the whole thing. It probably won't be an issue with case design initially, but it's something I'm keeping in mind as I go on.
 
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