Worklog Overly ambitious project that will be the death of me.

Terrat

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Hello everyone. This is my first real post, so uh, that's neat. Hello everybody!
I'm planning on making a wii portable. I have very little experience with modding
of any kind, this will be my first project. I've read some beginner guide stuff, and
I think I might possibly be a little ready to start messing with the real thing (maybe).
The color scheme I had in mind was primarily silver, but with some orange coloring throughout.
The design is themed after a character from chibi-robo called Telly. It was one of my first games,
and i still find myself playing it from time to time. I originally planned on theming the portable after chibi-robo
himself, but I think telly's design would look better on it.
I nickname the project: Tellwii (working title)

This is my only experience:

I read the definitive wii trimming guide, shank's wii super thread, and shank's electronics 101 guide.
i watched a couple other youtube videos. I read a bunch of various threads from this forum briefly.

Plans:
-7" x 4" would be the size of the portable's body (roughly).
-It would house a 5" screen. This one caught my eye. Stitches was showing it off on the discord.
-I plan to use a GC+ and take buttons directly from a gamecube controller.
-The PowerMii looks pretty sweet. I'd like to implement that, along with WiiHud
-I was thinking of graphing gamecube controller handles, or molding something similar them, and adding
it on to the body. The console would resemble sort of a large controller.
-OMGWTF trimmed board
-remove all bluetooth and wifi functionality
-i would install portablizemii. I chose this flashdrive, recommended on shank's wii super thread
-i don't know much about the rumble feature, but getting that to work would be pretty sweet.
-headphone and speaker functionality

I don't feel very confident in my ability to accomplish this,but without messing with the real thing, i'm not sure what I can do to expand my knowledge further. If any of you have any recommendations, or tips, I'd be thrilled to hear them. I'm going to wait at least a couple days before I pull the trigger and spend all my money on components and tools.

TLDR: I have very little experience, but I'm going to start working on a wii portable, lel
 

GingerOfOz

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Hey, you're clearly doing your research, which is always great to see!

Just a few suggestions that I have:

First of all, your intial dimensions of 7 inches by 4 inches may need to fluxuate to be a bit bigger. The portable I'm working on right now is 7.6 inches by about 4 inches, and that's about as small as you can conceivably make a portable with a 5 inch screen and still have room for controls on either side. So I might bump your initial dimensions up to around 8 inches, or maybe a bit more if you want a traditional GameCube button layout, seeing as those take up a lot of left and right space. The grips on the side is a cool idea, and would definitely be comfortable to hold, so if that's what your heart wants then go for it! It's always best to design your case around your parts, rather than your part around your case anyways.

Rumble is pretty simple and can be implemented really easily since you're using a GC+. Headphones and speakers will also be easy if you do use WiiHUD/ PowerMii, since that's one of the board's many features.

Also, I'd start thinking now about how you want to make your case. 3D printing is my personal preference, but frankencasing can come out looking just as good if you're willing to put in the time. 3D modeling can seem daunting at first, but designing thinks like portable cases is really simple and can be learned fairly easily. If you want to know more then I'm happy to point you in a couple of directions.

And don't worry about being an electronics noob. I was in your exact position less than a year ago, not even knowing how to solder. Everyone here helped me out a ton and now I've got one portable virtually finished, and another well on its way. The trick is to ask questions and take the advice people give you. You've demonstrated that you can take advice, so I'd say you can do it!
 

Terrat

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Honestly, I didn't expect such great feedback. loving this forum already.

Also, I'd start thinking now about how you want to make your case. 3D printing is my personal preference, but frankencasing can come out looking just as good if you're willing to put in the time. 3D modeling can seem daunting at first, but designing thinks like portable cases is really simple and can be learned fairly easily. If you want to know more then I'm happy to point you in a couple of directions.
I'd be happy to know more.I'm assuming you'd use a program like blender or something?

Given your goals for this project, consider chopping a GC controller in half and 3d printing a center housing for the mobo/screen and frankencasing the two halves of the controller shell to both sides of the housing. Could turn out very cool. Best of luck!
That's a great idea. frankencasing the halves to a squarish housing would probably be easier if I used a wavebird controller i'd imagine.
 

jefflongo

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Honestly, I didn't expect such great feedback. loving this forum already.

I'd be happy to know more.I'm assuming you'd use a program like blender or something?
I recommend Fusion 360. It's very versatile, easy to pick up, and there's tons of resources available to learn.
 

Madmorda

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My favorite portables anyone has ever made are Gman's Wiiboy, the GCLynx, and the Varia Cube. I have seen sleeker designs, more efficient designs, and probably more comfortable designs, but these are my favorites. It's not a coincidence that they were all frankencased either. It's a personal choice, but I would always sacrifice a certain degree of space efficiency and convenience in order to keep that coolness factor.

That said, 3d printing is better in almost every other way :p
 

Terrat

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Project Update:
It's been a month since i had the idea for the project. I hadn't done much with it, up until this week:
In the last week i've obtained the flashdrive i needed, and a used wii.
I've successfully installed portablizemii, and got a tone of software stuff set up.
i loaded my own custom startup intros, mp3s, and background video.
gamecube games launch from nintendont and save to the gc memory card. in the final project i should consider having a gc card port
genesis emulator games can create save states, and work fine
snes emulator games save, and work fine
i compiled project m into a wbfs and it works fine, so hopefully i can do the same with future wii mods.
n64 emulator can create and load save states fine as well
nes games get an error whenever i try to save
playstation games crash whenever i try to load a save
i haven't yet tried to get wii games to save, or install any gba or atari games
i didn't even include a ds emulator in portablize mii, since i heard it was super slow and pretty trash


I should probably wait until i have a case design finalized before i start messing with hardware.
i've also yet to order a screen, a gc+, a powermii, or a gamecube controller to rob buttons from. (don't want to destroy the one i have now)
 
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jefflongo

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Nintendont can emulate GC memory cards, eliminating the need for you to include a physical memory card port. Also a memory card port won't work properly if you trim the board anyways IIRC. Also Wii games won't work if you remove the Bluetooth module (which you said you were going to do in the OP). Just FYI. And yes it's good to model your hardware around your case design. Although it wouldn't hurt to do things such as the U10 relocation, Bluetooth relocation (if needed), and board trimming now.
 

Terrat

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Nintendont can emulate GC memory cards, eliminating the need for you to include a physical memory card port. Also a memory card port won't work properly if you trim the board anyways IIRC. Also Wii games won't work if you remove the Bluetooth module (which you said you were going to do in the OP). Just FYI. And yes it's good to model your hardware around your case design. Although it wouldn't hurt to do things such as the U10 relocation, Bluetooth relocation (if needed), and board trimming now.
Thanks jeff. I feel silly for not checking the nintendont settings. emulating a memory card sounds like a much better option.
I understand that most wii games wouldn't work with the bluetooth removed, since they require a wii controller, but would wii games like brawl that don't require wii controllers not work either?
 

GingerOfOz

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Thanks jeff. I feel silly for not checking the nintendont settings. emulating a memory card sounds like a much better option.
I understand that most wii games wouldn't work with the bluetooth removed, since they require a wii controller, but would wii games like brawl that don't require wii controllers not work either?
Unfortunately the Wii runs a check when it boots up Wii games for the BT module. Without the module, you'll just get hung up on a black screen. Someone is working on a CIOS similar to no-wifi, but it is considerably more complex than the no-wifi stuff so it won't be released for quite some time.

And honestly, I found that Bluetooth wasn't nearly as bad to relocate as I'd expected. So if you do get your trim working with everything else you want, I'd definitely give relocating it a go.
 

jefflongo

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I would actually recommend relocating bluetooth BEFORE you trim, this way you can test continuity with the bluetooth data lines that you scratch and solder to with the caps on the far outside of the board. That way you can ensure your solder job was done correctly (which you wont be able to do after a trim, you'll only be able to test by seeing if a wiimote works).
 

Terrat

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Hey all. If any of you still remember me, I thought i'd give an update. The project is still on, but I've just been really busy. I'm getting ready for a big move. Family is selling the house, packing stuff, ect. I'll try to get back to the project in my new location.
 
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