Worklog Obligatory Ashida First Build

Thomothy

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Don’t got much yet. My Wii has been homebrewed for 3 years now waiting for me to finally gather the strength. Well I am now just waiting for the parts to deliver and I did make a little breakout board to hopefully make troubleshooting easier. Plus I laid out my trim for the ashida. The black is where I plan on ending the cut/sand and the red is the no go past zone. I think it’s right, I excluded U5 since I’m using the PMS-2 it’s no longer needed. Well please enjoy and if you have any advice or criticisms it would be greatly appreciated (especially on the trim, it scares me)
 

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Stitches

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Is there a functional reason why you're doing such a janky trim with so many inward edges? It doesn't save you any space over the OMGWTF, you lose all the mounting points, it's going to be way more work to cut and sand, and you'll never be able to get all the copper flakes out of the inward corners. The Ashida has a shitton of redundant space inside to make it easier to assemble, you really don't have to go so hard on the trim and I very much recommend against attempting to cut what you've outlined.
 

CrazyGadget

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Is there a functional reason why you're doing such a janky trim with so many inward edges? It doesn't save you any space over the OMGWTF, you lose all the mounting points, it's going to be way more work to cut and sand, and you'll never be able to get all the copper flakes out of the inward corners. The Ashida has a shitton of redundant space inside to make it easier to assemble, you really don't have to go so hard on the trim and I very much recommend against attempting to cut what you've outlined.
The black is where I plan on ending the cut/sand and the red is the no go past zone
I think he's just outlining the absolute vitals (which are a bit off but mostly good).

The black cut lines look good for me, but I would recommend keeping the fourth screw hole, as the Ashida can use it for better mounting of the wii. Like this:
20230916_183031.jpg
 

Thomothy

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Is there a functional reason why you're doing such a janky trim with so many inward edges? It doesn't save you any space over the OMGWTF, you lose all the mounting points, it's going to be way more work to cut and sand, and you'll never be able to get all the copper flakes out of the inward corners. The Ashida has a shitton of redundant space inside to make it easier to assemble, you really don't have to go so hard on the trim and I very much recommend against attempting to cut what you've outlined.
Like CrazyGadget mentioned it’s just outlining the vitals. From the research I’ve done with the compendium, definitive trimming guide, and quite a few of shanks posts. I’ve gathered the main functionality of the OMGWTF trim is to keep the nand and ave traces, voltage caps, composite filter caps, audio preamp and U5 intact (The last three not necessary since I’m using VGA, separate audio amp and the PMS-2). So I outlined where those things are in the red marker just so I’m not scared of cutting and sanding where I am planning on cutting and sanding. I know there’s some understanding of the data filters that I’m missing but I’m pretty sure that’s only really necessary knowledge if I’m trying to do an omega trim (hopefully).


I think he's just outlining the absolute vitals (which are a bit off but mostly good).

The black cut lines look good for me, but I would recommend keeping the fourth screw hole, as the Ashida can use it for better mounting of the wii. Like this:
View attachment 31984
I actually kept going back and forth on if I wanted to keep the 4th mounting hole or not. Guess this means I’ll keep it!

Is it okay that I’m cutting through the composite caps so close to the AVE? I know it will make troubleshooting with composite more difficult but I know that the ashida has a little bit of tight tolerance when it comes to batteries so I want to alleviate that as much as possible (I also just have the want to cut there for some reason).

Lastly outside of U5 and the audio preamp is there anything in the “essentials” outline that I was missing? You said it was a little off.
 

CrazyGadget

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What do you mean by the composite caps by the AVE? There are a lot of passives on that line, but it doesn't look like your trim (black lines) cuts through anything that normally doesn't get yeeted anyway. The Ashida is *very* forgiving when it comes to trimming outside the standard OMGWTF lines. The design of it just means, even with a tight trim, that you need to pull the trim up to take put in / take out the batteries. It's really not worth trying to scrape by the bare minimum for that. Also, if you look at my OMGWTF I posted earlier, I don't even trim where the little cutout for the fan originally is. I just trim from that flat section diagonally towards the screw posts for ease of sanding.

As far as vitals, there's a little set of filters on the top of the board next to the GPU that the system needs to run. You don't need the audio amp (or really the U5 footprint).
 

Thomothy

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That makes sense. Also I should really do what’s easier first and then try a harsher trim. So I updated my cut lines to hopefully make it a simpler trim.

Also my explanation wasn’t very clear, what I meant was near the fan cutout the electrolytic caps there (I thought they were for composite filtering) I wanted to cut their mount pads off as much as possible to make it so I wouldn’t have to lift the trim to replace the batteries. But once again not necessary and it’s literally my first build. It just feels like there’s a lot of unnecessary PCB still left.

IMG_3905.jpeg
 

Stitches

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My apologies, I was very tired and somehow did not see the black lines at all.......... can confirm those are some excellent straight lines
 
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vipin

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Don’t got much yet. My Wii has been homebrewed for 3 years now waiting for me to finally gather the strength. Well I am now just waiting for the parts to deliver and I did make a little breakout board to hopefully make troubleshooting easier. Plus I laid out my trim for the ashida. The black is where I plan on ending the cut/sand and the red is the no go past zone. I think it’s right, I excluded U5 since I’m using the PMS-2 it’s no longer needed. Well please enjoy and if you have any advice or criticisms it would be greatly appreciated (especially on the trim, it scares me)
Your plan to exclude U5 since you're using the PMS-2 sounds correct.You should Double-check and triple-check your trim lines before making any permanent cuts. It's better to be safe than sorry.
 

Thomothy

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Since I’m no longer getting rid of the LDO and u5 I decided to go with a PMS-lite. So I relocated U10 and with a little bit of pain and filling the via and pulling the magnet wire out simultaneously. I got it relocated and the guy is still working!

IMG_3915.jpegIMG_3916.jpeg
 
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Since I’m no longer getting rid of the LDO and u5 I decided to go with a PMS-lite. So I relocated U10 and with a little bit of pain and filling the via and pulling the magnet wire out simultaneously. I got it relocated and the guy is still working!

View attachment 31988View attachment 31989
I don't think it's necessary to relocate U10 if you are using the PMS-Lite or the PMS-2, as it has built in U10 emulation. you just have to wire the U10 via to the U10 pad in the PMS-2/Lite as shown on the 4 layer tech website
 

Thomothy

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UPDATE TIME!
Yesterday I got the boards delivered from 4 layer so I populated them and masked off the wii for trimming that was done today.
IMG_3917.jpegIMG_3920.jpegIMG_3922.jpeg

Today I trimmed the Wii and did a little sanity test.
- the trim went alright. My first cut was the diagonal which I ended up having to redo because it had quite a few gouges but hence why I did that cut first.
IMG_3926.jpegIMG_3931.jpegIMG_3932.jpeg
- sanding went fine but when I tested the resistances I was getting a low 3.3 resistance but after removing the components that got sanded down the resistance tested normal.

- lastly when I got home I built myself a little test setup to just do a sanity check. It initially didn’t show anything on the screen which made me sad but that’s because I realized I soldered the wire to pin 7 instead of pin 3. Once I fixed that it turned on no problem!
IMG_3941.jpegIMG_3942.jpegIMG_3939.jpeg

Now we just have to wait for the shell from PCB way. It’s still in manufacturing and has been at QC for going on 4 days now.
 

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Kinda briefly read this. Honestly the wiis composite might as well be dead. Vga is a lot better. (Wasn't sure if you plan on keeping composite)
 

Thomothy

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Kinda briefly read this. Honestly the wiis composite might as well be dead. Vga is a lot better. (Wasn't sure if you plan on keeping composite)
Yup just did composite to check and make sure my trim was working. Hence why the set up is very bare bones.
 
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Yup just did composite to check and make sure my trim was working. Hence why the set up is very bare bones.
Yea I get it.
Honestly I noticed a hdmi board was available for the wii and was wondering if anyone's used one yet since they look like they'd easily work with an omgwtf board.
 

Thomothy

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Yea I get it.
Honestly I noticed a hdmi board was available for the wii and was wondering if anyone's used one yet since they look like they'd easily work with an omgwtf board.
I think there’s some talk about it. I still mainly want to get my hands on a DD board but alas. I’m not all too concerned with visuals though. I already have bad eyesight so they all kinda look the same.


Good job. I wish my Wii trim worked that well.
trust me it was a lot of butt clenching. Plus I did go a little overkill on the sanding I went to 3k grit to get that nice polish on the end. Using the cutting and shaping blade is what made it the easiest tho. Also thanks for pointing out PMS-lite also does U10 emulation
 
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CrazyGadget

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From what I've seen from those who've used DD, it's pretty comparable to VGA when using such a small screen. It's not really worth it to spend the $80 on an AVE-HDMI in a portable either, for the same reasons.

Btw that trim looks beautiful! It's very refreshing to see some bang-on trims coming from new members :^D
 

Thomothy

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From what I've seen from those who've used DD, it's pretty comparable to VGA when using such a small screen. It's not really worth it to spend the $80 on an AVE-HDMI in a portable either, for the same reasons.
Also, Aurelio's DD is fpga based right? so wouldn't that lead to higher power consumption? seems like a steep price to pay for a more customizable output and smaller footprint.


Btw that trim looks beautiful! It's very refreshing to see some bang-on trims coming from new members :^D
I really appreciate the praise; I remember when my brother showed me shanks killmii video (probably why I am a little obsessed with the omega trim) and I've been a lurker ever since. I've spent quite a bit of research, and planning because I did not want to come off as dumb or ask a question I could easily or not so easily find on the forum. Since I finally pulled the trigger finally and I am glad that my anxious preparation has paid off. I definitely have a way to go but here's looking to only onwards and upwards from here! :)

I definitely think on of my biggest short comings is my impatience. I need PCBway to hurry. Hopefully this guy can be done by my birthday on the 21st!
 
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