Worklog Legends Ashida

Legend

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May 10, 2019
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Hello all,

I've been lurking here and there since I stopped working on the Nintendo Viita due to working so much and just life in general lol, however I came back on one faithful day and noticed Wesk had just released his files for the Ashida. I figured since I finally had the money and resources to build something of an actual portable, I'd build an Ashida as it looked the most practical to me. With that put aside, lets get to the build!

1. The Trim

I am working away from home at the moment and its great in the sense that you can look around your local marketplaces, pawn shops, thrift stores, retro game stores etc. I happened to have found a nice white Wii on the marketplace for $30 CAD (it came with a Cabelas gun and the game so I couldn't say no). I went to look at it with a micro Phillips in hand to make sure it was a 4-layer. Thankfully it was.
1Trim.jpg

I took it back to my hotel room (as I am working away), Installed RVLoader onto it and it worked like a charm. I am impatient, so naturally I went straight to the hardware store, bought a hacksaw, a file, and some 400-600 grit sandpaper. Once I was back I went straight to the work trailer and hacked it up lol. The file and sandpaper really did it justice id say. I couldn't clean it up right away due to not having a soldering iron with me, but it has been cleaned up since this photo and tested (it boots! no pics of that at the moment).

2. 4-layer PCB's

I had made sure to order everything I could while I was away so by the time I got back home it would be all there. I was lucky and got to go home for a weekend and walked into a nerdy Christmas of orders lol. I was missing my case and my screen but I had everything else at this point. I was only home for the weekend so I took some time and assembled my Ashida PCB's as well as test my trim. Here are the PCB's:


I had a good time assembling these boards as its been a long time since I got to sit down and solder. I sourced everything from OEM controllers (rip my one controller that now has no Z button). The one I had initially planned to take parts from had some rusty stick boxes but luckily my other controller had semi-nice ones. They were a bit dirty but nothing a little cleaning cant fix. Also I Love the FFC connectors!

And of course I cant forget the Audio/ power switch/ sync/ start PCB lol
Funny story about this one is I was clearly too excited when opening everything that I missed that the headphone jack was loose in the bag my 4-Layer order was in. I promptly threw everything into the recycle bin outside and didn't think about it for the night until i went to assemble this PBC. Luckily recycling didn't get taken and I found it in the bag. after soldering that on and cleaning everything up with some IPA and a toothbrush, Ill be satisfied.

3. The Case

After hearing about PCBWay offering a very decent 3D printing service, I tried my luck to see how much it would be, and even though I was quite invested into getting this Ashida build done, I told myself PCBWay was too expensive for me (or so I thought). I asked around on the forums and luckily Pickles was generous enough to print me an Ashida case that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg (thank you again Pickles!). I was able to get my hands on that case when it came in as my girlfriend drove up to see me and brought it with her. I knew I would have some processing to do to it (ie. wet sand, possibly paint), but I dont really have much time to do that in a hotel room and its getting a little cold nowadays to be doing it in the work trailer we have. So I ultimately I ended up GROSSLY over paying for a PCBWay case (that USD to CAD conversion killed my wallet lol), however I am getting a transparent case dyed purple so Im curious to see how that will turn out.

In the meantime I did get a little impatient (as always) and installed all the components I had into the case I have now to get an idea. Here it is:


I did notice that the trigger mount setup varies between Ashida's I've seen being built but I don't believe I've seen one like the one I have. My plan here is to drill screw holes in the trigger mount to screw into the case:

Thats it for now Folks! Ill be back home around December 10th and ill have everything I need to start wiring this bad boy up. Stay tuned for more updates!
 
Last edited:

Legend

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Joined
May 10, 2019
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Location
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Big Update:

So I have done LOTS since posting last. I ended up getting my PCBway case (Its absolutely beautiful), but I had done some testing before that.

So first off I had done some testing while everything was in the bottom half of the case and it worked fine up until my batteries were shorting for some reason. Thankfully it wasn't a fire hazard and they didn't explode. I ended up taking everything out and did some barebones testing and everything worked out fine! Up until realizing my GC+ wasn't working at all.

I was still in between home and work so I couldnt do a lot of testing before I had to leave again. Gman and I talked about it on discord and when I was home I did some testing (ie. plug GC+ into another wii, and test an actual controller on my trim). GC+ worked out fine on my other wii and the controller would not work on my trim. After some more poking around I just gave up in a sense on that trim and decided to do another. It still boots but I cant for the life of me get that controller to work.
2 Trims.jpg

I was also quite pleased with my BT wiring but thats subject to change as I figure out a good placement for it.
BT Wiring.jpg

I had finally got my other case in at this point so naturally I had started messing around with fitment and stuff, making sure it wasnt going to be a problem closing. I did have a small issue with my B button not quite pressing, and backing off the screw a little wasnt helping so I ended up trimming the inside of the button very minimally and that seemed to have fixed my issue. Now it was onto the wiring.

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It may be not the cleanest, but I knew I wasnt done yet. (side note: I really hated the 22awg wire I had. No flexible insulation). Things were working okay until I started really trying to test it. I was then having issues with my start button and my analog stick.
20211207_183312.jpg

I determined the start button was a hardware issue, and fixed it by removing the tact switch, bending the start pin up and wiring it directly to the S pad on the GC+. I then was started on the sticks, which I couldn't figure out in the end. they seemed to work maybe 1 out of 10 times, then eventually not at all. I did the same thing with the sticks that I did with start: remove the boxes and bend the pins up on one of the potentiometers and connected them directly to the GC+. I thought that fixed the issue, and it did temporarily but then started doing the same thing again.

All while doing all of these different hardware changes, I was using the Stick Wizard within RVLoader but nothing was helping. Ultimately I ended up ordering some new ashida PCB's, another GC+, and some 22awg wire that doesn't have dollar store insulation. I disassembled everything and cleaned the case as it seemed it was already collecting some dust (I dont have a very good work station right now). So once everything comes in, I will be restarting the build and taking my time when wiring to be sure everything is clean, done properly, and just damn sexy as I need to do this expensive ass case some justice.

Be back soon with pretty much another worklog within a worklog. Its worklogception lol
 

Legend

.
Joined
May 10, 2019
Messages
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Location
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Big Update:

This actually has been finished for a bit now and I've just been testing it etc. and still have a few more tweaks to make before I can call it completely done, regardless here's the update.

I had got my GC+, and Ashida PCB's in and had everything disassembled so I figured Id get a good snap of all of the parts.
20211223_132127.jpg

First thing I started on was the controller PCB's and Interface board.
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The C-Stick from the first set of PCB's had no issues so I figured Id use it again with this set. I did end up figuring out that most (if not all) first party Wii controllers etc. have the same stick boxes as the GameCube controller, but just virtually newer, so I peeled open a nun-chuck and found a perfect box to use as my stick replacement. I didnt get a lot of good shots of the PCB's assembled but here is one at least:
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Next was trying to figure out the guts of the system and how I wanted things routed. Note: I feel like this was actually a huge issue for me as I wanted my wire routing to be good enough to look at through the transparent case, so I feel as if my wiring ended up being more spaghetti like in the end due to me trying to keep everything above the interface and PMS boards.
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Now I had put this in and took a picture, but what I ended up doing was taking everything out, laying it out, and made sure I got some of the wiring out of the way. I then got my LED and battery clips wired up but opted for the 2 wires connected to the clip as to not have to splice into a wire or try to solder 2 wires to the PMS. I hit the power button and got fan spin as well as lights.

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In this next picture I had kind of wired up the top half of the case by running 3V3 and GND under the heatsinks through the passthrough but later changed the wiring from the interface board from magnet to wrapping wire.
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Next I was more focused on the wii side of things but do keep in mind once again: I was super confused on how I wanted to do the wiring as to keep a nice look from the outside, so I feel like that made things look worse in the end but regardless, I started by wiring all the voltage lines up, but did it in a certain way because I had decided I was going to mount the MX chip where the LDO was.
20211223_194817.jpg
After doing the voltage I was started on the BT module. I had got it wired up nicely and mounted it on top of the nand as seen in other ashida worklogs. Next was figuring out the MX chip as I wanted RTC and whatnot. I had already had a cut MX chip from another board so I broke it out and started wiring everything up whilst trying to figure out how I was mounting it etc. I ended up mounting the battery between the fan wall and interface board and secured it down with some kapton tape. The last picture was the wii sort of in the ashida as I had it half assed in there to test booting it, and it worked!

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Unfortunately the rest of my pictures somehow got corrupted so I cannot put anymore up. There were a few more issues along the way such as the right speaker not working due to the PCB and case not lining up correctly, VGA wiring, and the fact that I have a TN panel in it lol (all of which have been fixed). I will make a Cutting Edge post with some sexy pics once I get my IPS panel in and install it etc.

This build specifically has had its challenges but it was worth it in the end to have a cool, functioning portable that is very practical in my opinion, and id like to thank Wesk, and everybody at 4-Layer for this beautiful build and for making these things easier and more accessible for people. Id like to formally apologize for the "all over the place" worklog I have going on here as I could have kept it more clean etc. I am building another Ashida but with a non-transparent case, so I feel like ill be more comfortable and can make a proper high quality worklog.

What to expect from me in the future:

- Overall Improvement
- Better documentation
- Non-Corrupted Pictures
- More Detailed, High Quality Worklogs

Thanks for reading Folks!
 
Joined
Jul 15, 2019
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I'm working on a build right now and your photos help a ton as there is not a lot to the wiring diagrams on 1Layer yet. Thanks for being detailed
 
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