Starlight G-Wii (Now with HDMI out & USB GC controller passthrough!)

cy

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So I decided to build ANOTHER G-Wii. But this time things are different, I decided to challenge myself by attempting HDMI out and USB pass-through in an effort to restore the most of the Wii's home console functionality. This build is complete with MX, Bluetooth, and a few other nice features. I'll go over these as I get to them in the pictures. Here's videos of the USB pass-through, HDMI out, and Bluetooth all working:



Here's some pictures since the videos don't really do the unit a justice:
Fronbt.png

I decided to give this unit 4 pause buttons to replace the dpad. This was done because I've had issues with some dpads (especially the GC one) and the only perfect solution for me to not accidentally hit the wrong direction when playing Tetris or Puyo was to use DPad buttons. They feel great and I honestly prefer them over the original Dpad.

The top of the unit has a HDMI port, USB pass-through port, and a switch to toggle the GC+ on and off when in and out of "portable mode". The unit itself can still be used as a controller however if needed and the screen can be turned off to save battery life.
top.png


Speaking of turning the screen off...:
Bottom.png

The bottom of this unit has a screen power button as well as a menu, up, and down buttons for screen controls. The other two buttons are for Bluetooth sync and Z2 for when that is eventually added in RVLoader. I was originally going to add a reset button, but this isn't really necessary considering a button shortcut already exists for it in Nintendont (Z + Pause + L + R if anybody was wondering). I plan to use Z2 as a home button for when you're booted into Wii games, this menu allows you to reset the game meaning it's a better alternative to reset, and it saves a button so you don't need to waste one on home or pause if you don't want to.

The bottom also features a volume wheel to replace the volume buttons the G-Wii normally uses.

The back features artwork that's been 3d printed (not painted) into it. I've added a screenshot from that game it comes from for reference:
back.png
original work.png

I'd like to thank Wesk for advice on doing this, I will say I did all the work for printing this art into the back of the unit myself though. The art itself features Neptune, Uzume, and Kurome's logos with the background coming from one of the final dungeons in Megadimension Neptunia VII. The filament I wanted to use for this project reminded me of this blue area (which one of the most important and difficult areas in the game), I already had prusament royal blue lying around, so I used it for the lines.

The internals aren't anything to write home about, but I did try to keep it somewhat clean this time:
Internals 1.png

Internals 2.png


I faced a number of new challenges this project and found myself doing test prints to fit the cutouts for the new features. I also got to design some mounting brackets and I even got to design a button assembly when I reworked the Dpad to use 4 pause buttons.

I want to thank Gman, Shank, CrashBash, Ginger, SparkleBear, Wesk, TheTexturesResource(for ripping textures used to trace some of the artwork), Curtis, Cheese, and everyone else who made this project possible. Because of you all I was able to build what I consider the ultimate Wii!
 

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Just reading through some threads and stumbled across your post, again, very cool portable, but I was wondering how you included the sensor bar. I would be looking to do something similar to this in the future, but some of the details like the sensor bar in particular seem a bit fuzzy. Also, for the GC switch, do you just wire it to the 3.3V input?
 
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cy

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Just reading through some threads and stumbled across your post, again, very cool portable, but I was wondering how you included the sensor bar. I would be looking to do something similar to this in the future, but some of the details like the sensor bar in particular seem a bit fuzzy. Also, for the GC switch, do you just wire it to the 3.3V input?
Thank you for bringing this up! I use a wireless sensor bar to pick up the pointing motion. There are IR LEDs you can put inside of portables, but I opted for the wireless sensor bar approach since it works as an external solution without me needing to do any additional relocations. The sensor bar doesn't need to connect to the Wii at all as all it is is two infrared lights that the wiimote picks up on.

For the GC switch I might've been able to wire the 3.3V input to it maybe, but that would've left me to solder two magnet wires into one via. And most people struggle wiring to one via. There are other possible solutions that include sharing a single magnet wire as a data line between the two control solutions, but this would've gotten messy. From what I was told, you're only supposed to have one GC controller input plugged into the Wii at once for it to register.

So the short answer to this question is:
No, I wired the GC data input to either end of the switch and the middle pin just runs to the P1 control wiring point on the Wii. Could the 3.3V input work? Possibly, but it wouldn't have been ideal in the name of wiring.
 
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I realize I am way late to this, but I want to do a similar project with a G-Wii, which will be my first non atrocious laptop portable (got a few to work but they really sucked; didn't even trim the Wiis), and I intend for it to be a prototype for a portable that I will hopefully design myself. But my question for you is: What board are you using to convert VGA to HDMI?
 

Stitches

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I realize I am way late to this, but I want to do a similar project with a G-Wii, which will be my first non atrocious laptop portable (got a few to work but they really sucked; didn't even trim the Wiis), and I intend for it to be a prototype for a portable that I will hopefully design myself. But my question for you is: What board are you using to convert VGA to HDMI?
That would be the Analog2HDMI from Electron Shepherd
 
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QUOTE="Stitches, post: 62235, member: 892"]
That would be the Analog2HDMI from Electron Shepherd
[/QUOTE]
I just realized that you actually already answered this question for me back when I made my worklog (which of course still has no progress; workin on it though, I promise), but thanks!
 
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