Worklog [Nintendo WiicUbe] Portablized Wii in Wii U Gamepad

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BocuD

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This is looking super nice! Especially that decal, damn.. I think imma buy some as well lol. How did you get the sticks to fit so nicely btw? Are the sticks under those gc nubs/covers(?) actual Wii U gamepad sticks or gamecube sticks? Also are you planning on keeping the TV and POWER buttons and what would their functions be?
 
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Very slick, nice work dude. Just a warning, though: That GC decal you've used can be a pain in the ass from my experience. If your hand touches that spot too much, the skin oil it will rub the silver bits off. You can put some clear coat over it to stop it doing that if you want.
Thank you, the decal was applied atop the final layer of purple paint, then everything got about three coats of matte clear coat atop; it's not going anywhere.

Looks great! How'd you do the gamecube decal?
Thank you! I see @DeoNaught already cleared this up, but I'll post a link to the eBay store for this and numerous other system decals. Very nice quality, comes from Poland.

This is looking super nice! Especially that decal, damn.. I think imma buy some as well lol. How did you get the sticks to fit so nicely btw? Are the sticks under those gc nubs/covers(?) actual Wii U gamepad sticks or gamecube sticks? Also are you planning on keeping the TV and POWER buttons and what would their functions be?
Thank you, the decals are really nice quality. I got a few Gamecube ones and a few Nintendo ones with the race track around the text. The seller has numerous other systems in their store as well such as Dreamcast and N64. For the analog sticks, I ordered replacement Gamecube nubs/covers from eBay and they miraculously fit over the stock Wii U gamepad analog sticks without any modification to either piece (a rarity in this hobby). The Power button will be used to power the system on/off; I haven't yet decided on the TV button, I figured if I do use it, I may wire it to turn the LCD screen on/off. If I don't use it, I may just paint it over with black or maybe match it to the purple and glue it in place; still undecided.
 
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As stated before, I am a perfectionist and leaving the button colors black/white was really getting on my nerves. I have both the white and black sets as those were the only available colors for the Wii U gamepad and I've looked into the availability of custom molds with differing colors; no dice since this system didn't sell so well.

I looked into matching them to Gamecube ABXY colors and using decals to paste the ABXY letters atop of them as that text on the Wii U buttons is molded into the button themselves and would be covered by the paint.

Since I had an extra set of buttons, I took my trusty Dremel and a fine diamond bit and carefully traced the letters to carve them out. I now plan on color-matching the green A, red B, grey X/Y, and purple Z (which will be the R shoulder button) buttons and just painting/clear coating them quickly so it looks as legitimate as possible. With the text on the ABXY buttons carved out, they should still be legible when I paint over the buttons; bonus, the Gamecube ABXY buttons are recessed as well so it should look pretty comparable.
 

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Ok, I've gotten the buttons all painted; I still need to bore out the ABXY button wells a bit with my dremel, as the excess paint from the body paint job coupled with the extra layer of paint+glossy clear coat on the buttons makes the button action a little stiff. Otherwise, this looks great to me; I also painted the triggers and left shoulder buttons to match the grey of the X/Y buttons, the right shoulder button is purple like the Z button on the Gamecube controller. These images also show off the final matte clear coat did on the shell which I really like how it ended up looking.

Let me know what you guys all think, after some case modifications for the rear shell to have a fan intake and exhaust, I should be able to paint that (a flat black) and I should be done with case modifications and painting. Then I just have to get all of the components inside situated and wired up.
 

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GingerOfOz

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This is looking amazing. One concern I have though is that with painted buttons, the paint is going to wear down and deteriorate eventually, even with the clear coat on the buttons. Madmorda has been doing some really awesome custom molded buttons, and those could likely get you the aesthetic you're going for without the cost of tutors that will need to be repainted. I'd drop her a PM and see what she can do, I've got some buttons from her and they're pretty spectacular.
 
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This is looking amazing. One concern I have though is that with painted buttons, the paint is going to wear down and deteriorate eventually, even with the clear coat on the buttons. Madmorda has been doing some really awesome custom molded buttons, and those could likely get you the aesthetic you're going for without the cost of tutors that will need to be repainted. I'd drop her a PM and see what she can do, I've got some buttons from her and they're pretty spectacular.
Thanks for the heads-up! I'm assuming she does 3D printed buttons? I only did a single layer of clear coat on these since I didn't wanna add too many layers between the primer+base+clear coatings since these have to fit in a specific sized hole and move smoothly. I'll definitely give her a PM, already am in contact with her about a GC+ board.
 
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So I just installed the custom resin cast buttons made by @Madmorda and they look great! A way better option than painting the buttons and all of the headaches that come with that both in building and using them. If you are looking for custom buttons, I highly recommend contacting her to see what she can do for you.

I'm still waiting on some more parts to come in, I will soon be able to wire up the controls. I also believe I have everything needed to do the power and audio circuits, just need to put aside the time to get it all put together.
 

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Here's a quick update post. I got the completed trimmed Wii from @BocuD and was able to cut copper sheet to size for a custom heatsink. The fan/heatsink is held on by a combination of double-sided thermal adhesive and some plastic screws, the copper sheet secures to the 4 screw posts in the Wii board with thermal paste between it and the CPU/GPU lids. I have to resolder the ground wires for the regulators, Bluetooth and USB to the bottom of the board, but everything should be ready to connect to the rest of the components.
 

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Following - this is interesting ... i think might go same route ... using wii u pad

Edit:
what regulators are those?
 
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Nold

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thx - i need to doo more search - but not all keywords work well
where do i get the " custom PCB" for those
i see the regulators can get of ebay, and other sources
 

jefflongo

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thx - i need to doo more search - but not all keywords work well
where do i get the " custom PCB" for those
i see the regulators can get of ebay, and other sources
You would have to design your own PCB. There are resources on this website to learn PCB design, and designing a board for PTH regulators is not hard - it simply requires a resistor and 1 (or 2) capacitors for each regulator. However a custom PCB is definitely not necessary unless you want your regulator setup to be very clean, you can do it with wire or perfboard.
 

BocuD

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thx - i need to doo more search - but not all keywords work well
where do i get the " custom PCB" for those
i see the regulators can get of ebay, and other sources
I designed those a while ago to save space and simplify regulator wiring. If you want, i should have some left you can have for shipping. Should be about 7$ i think to the us.
 
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thx - i gonna look into that - its been a while science i used circuit design - last time used eagelsoft
all in one setup with all 4 regs on one board would be better i think .... from what i see the this design takes
2per board ....
btw the above build in wii U case - do you guys think 7" lcd would fit ?
was thinking of using hdmi lcd and use the wii to hdmi ( seen on youtube vid ) and somehow cram in a 2 to 2 hdmi splitter with select switch . and use the tv button to select the hdmi out - either pad or tv .... ( use mini hdmi breakout ) - for power my kid had Nyko U bust ( which died - got new one ) canu use the old one as mounting for
power without cutting in the case - ( possibly use the charge contacts ) . Something in those lines .....
would be nice if could make a new replacement board for the WiiU pad to match the original board
and splice the wii board into that ......
could reuse wii U pad thumb sticks and the other buttons ?
i probably should make my own tread ( sorry feels like i hijacked the tread - assuming i can already ) - for cad and 3d printing i have no issues with that ( if need parts ) - i design my own train models :)
 

BocuD

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thx - i gonna look into that - its been a while science i used circuit design - last time used eagelsoft
all in one setup with all 4 regs on one board would be better i think .... from what i see the this design takes
2per board ....
btw the above build in wii U case - do you guys think 7" lcd would fit ?
was thinking of using hdmi lcd and use the wii to hdmi ( seen on youtube vid ) and somehow cram in a 2 to 2 hdmi splitter with select switch . and use the tv button to select the hdmi out - either pad or tv .... ( use mini hdmi breakout ) - for power my kid had Nyko U bust ( which died - got new one ) canu use the old one as mounting for
power without cutting in the case - ( possibly use the charge contacts ) . Something in those lines .....
would be nice if could make a new replacement board for the WiiU pad to match the original board
and splice the wii board into that ......
could reuse wii U pad thumb sticks and the other buttons ?
i probably should make my own tread ( sorry feels like i hijacked the tread - assuming i can already ) - for cad and 3d printing i have no issues with that ( if need parts ) - i design my own train models :)
kek at this point I'd just start your own thread... oh well. Those boards are designed for 4 regs, but have a line in the middle where you can cut them. Placement is a little easier like that so I sliced it in half. And yeah when it comes to PCB design I'd say go with eagle (unless you have a spare kidney, you might want allium then :P)
 
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"kek at this point I'd just start your own thread... oh well. Those boards are designed for 4 regs, but have a line in the middle where you can cut them. Placement is a little easier like that so I sliced it in half. And yeah when it comes to PCB design I'd say go with eagle (unless you have a spare kidney, you might want allium then "

can u post pic of the board together ?

thx
 

jefflongo

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kek at this point I'd just start your own thread... oh well. Those boards are designed for 4 regs, but have a line in the middle where you can cut them. Placement is a little easier like that so I sliced it in half. And yeah when it comes to PCB design I'd say go with eagle (unless you have a spare kidney, you might want allium then :P)
can u post pic of the board together ?

thx
Please move this conversation to a new thread, as this is not relevant to this worklog.
 
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This is coming along at a slower pace than I was hoping. I got most of the controls wired in the GC+. Since I don't have room for the dual-tact mod in this case, I wired the left/right stick tact buttons (L3/R3) as the L and R buttons, the triggers being LT & RT. The RB is Z and LB is unused, as well as Select (-). Here's a pic of the wiring as well as a diagram of what's going on, I hear you guys like the spaghett.
 

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BocuD

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Looks nice, tho i gotta say, maybe try using magnet wire for wiring up buttons as there isnt really any current flowing anyways and magnet wire is super thin thus compact. You could also make select act as wiimote sync or maybe reset?
 
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