Newbie to portable conversion rate

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I wondered, given my relatively few posts here and the number of questions what the conversion rate is from "newbie" to "I made a thang" and whether it's something we could all help improve on?

The guides are awesome and there are people here i recognize from all over the portable scene (not that I'm inveterate at all, you're all much smarter at this than i) and i have very few questions as to what and where. At least for the Wii.

But i wonder if there's a way to help people who want but haven't made a portable to make one without the same questions over and over using a web app? As a developer I've been toying with the idea of making an interactive trimming/relocation guide.

I wonder if we could create an interactive SVG based web app to help trimmers and beginners get going? To help find components that need relocating and certain traces, etc.
 
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The images in the guide are pretty comprehensive. And all things considered, there are relatively few relocations once the actual trimming is complete. I think a webapp would be unnecessary and excessive. However, a well formatted integration of the Wii trimming guide and general beginner's modding material might be a worthwhile investment of your time.
 
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To a full on beginner with no electronics background this process can be very daunting, and although the guides are amazing they aren’t ‘100% noob proof’ per se. when I started I had barely soldered at all, but now I’ve fully trimmed a Wii with relocations that all work after my first go around, and I’m just waiting on finishing my case. I’ve learned enough from here where I have put together a variable power supply and am considering making a 3D printer at some point.

I guess what I’m saying is, do we want to make everything fully noob proof and help people more on that front, because I learned a lot more when I had to figure it out as well. I would say it may be better to have some better guides or tutorials on based closer around specific components and processes a little deeper.

For example the custom regulator guide is really nice at explaining what the regulators are and why we need them and can help gain a decent grasp on voltages etc. in general. It’d be nice to have some things like this on other aspects, like soldering or batteries and best practices in regard to portables.

Anyways, that’s just what came out of my head. :)
 

cheese

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do we want to make everything fully noob proof and help people more on that front, because I learned a lot more when I had to figure it out as well.
Ayy now I don't have to say it. We could spend the days trying to "noob proof" the guides, but if you don't understand what you are doing and why, you'll be completely lost in troubleshooting (think: what you would do if you encountered an error in cheese installer).

I also like to think of these guides and this hobby as a gateway drug of sorts into EE or related fields. If any of you hadn't come to this hobby, many would've never picked up a soldering iron, and now people are looking at creating custom PCBs, 3d printing custom enclosures, etc.
 

GingerOfOz

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Cheese nailed it. Noobproof guides are pretty much impossible as there is just too much variability in how much people know when they join. A super detailed guide wouldn't have saved my first motherboard trim, simply because I lacked experience. People asking questions isn't bad. By asking questions, I've gained a lot of knowledge and have been able to put that knowledge to use when other people have the same question. It's a really nice cycle. So while noobproof guides sound really nice, questions are going to come either way, and taking a minute to answer a question never feels like drudgery to me.
 
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How do you guys feel about the inclusion of more hyperlinks? Cross-linking between the guides and articles is a little weak, and could provide a nice, fluid way for beginners to navigate and explore the information while retaining self-direction.
 
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Cheese did nail it. Agreed. Although I also agree with grebbles and do think there could be better navigation between each of the guides (and to things like gman's BOM)
 

fibbef

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How do you guys feel about the inclusion of more hyperlinks? Cross-linking between the guides and articles is a little weak, and could provide a nice, fluid way for beginners to navigate and explore the information while retaining self-direction.
That's probably the idea behind the work-in-progress BB wiki. Can wait and see if any of the wiki staff/admins care to chime in and confirm.
 

ShockSlayer

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An interactive web app thing would be neat for expanding stuff like Shank's wii anatomy concept. Trimming stuff would probably better for consoles other than the Wii 'cause the OMGWTF is decidedly the best shit ever. You kinda have to know your shit though if you intend to demonstrate tradeoffs properly; a lot of "trimming" that's out there reaaally doesn't account for what comes off properly. Sure, it'll boot even if you remove all the caps, but then there's that "strange, unexplainable interference" that shows up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BB is active enough that the best way to get started on a portable is to do a little bit of research and then make a thread with good questions. I think it'd be a lot better to spend time towards teaching people how to navigate forums and connect with people rather than spoonfeed them a bunch of info and hope they can digest it. Parts of BB should be easy, but I think it's more important that people come out of the experience with more than just a completed project, and that comes with a "you must have X amount of IQ points" skill floor.

Wiki sounds like Wiikey, and that's too close to gamecube so we can't have that anymore thanks
 
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