Worklog The LIGHTNiiNG - BLOCKED

[RedEnergy]

Just a suggestion but you could make it easier connectes hsync and vsnyc simmiler to how you did it for the bt module. That would make wiring way easier.

I already plan to add test points, so I can connect the screen and the remaining circuit boards easily

 

[Chickacruh]

This is looking cool, and it is going to have the voltage regulators built into it? any battery management?

 

[RedEnergy]

This is looking cool, and it is going to have the voltage regulators built into it? any battery management?

For now I just reproduce the original circuit, so if there is a problem in the test phase I can find the problem easily

 

[thedrew]

This is looking really good. I can only image how much time has gone into this already... but it shows in your progress.

 

[RedEnergy]

Finally i managed to finish recreating the Wii circuit. Now I just have to add a few details and as soon as I'm done, I'll send everything into production.
Now I just have to wait for the 4LayerTech PCBs, and then I'll be ready to start testing everything. I really hope that everything goes well. This doesn't mean that I will give up if at the first attempt I have a black screen.

 

[supertazon]

Wow great work! This paves the way to all-in-one Wii portables PCBs, potentially a new era for portablizing. Keep us updated!

 

[Evilemi]

(R)evolution of portables

 

[dababy]

wow great work! even if this dosn't work 1st time, great job on the amount of work going into this I wish you the best!!!

 

[Chickacruh]

It indeed will be nice to have to worry less creating a rats nest and a fire hazard. Having everything on one board would make things a lot simpler. I hope this will be accessible too

Wow great work! This paves the way to all-in-one Wii portables PCBs, potentially a new era for portablizing. Keep us updated!

 

[RedEnergy]

I'm uploading here my sprint layout file, so anyone can use it to see the various connections between each component.
Hope it will be useful for someone.

 

[Stitches]

 

[RedEnergy]

So, these days (while I wait for the PCBs I ordered to arrive) I have started making some case drawings for my portable, and I am also trying to figure out how to place the missing circuit boards that I've ordered. Here are some examples
View attachment 20220407_185641.jpgView attachment 20220407_185613.jpgView attachment 20220407_185551.jpg
I'm also trying to make a 3d version, jus to understand if I like the design I have chosen

One of the problems I encountered is the choice of the shoulder buttons, because if the final thickness of the console will be between 2 cm, it would be quite difficult to arrange one button on top of the other; so I'll have to come up with something else.

 

[RedEnergy]

Finally I got my PCBs

but I've already had some problems. I made some mistakes in the PCB design:
- some vias were connected to the wrong zone
- I forgot to outline some capacitors
Fortunately nothing complicated. I was able to find the wrong connections and I solved the problem by cutting them with a hobby knife.

 

[Mister M]

What an amazing project, congratulations.

 

[RedEnergy]

Today I started by soldering the top layer components, plus the bluetooth module. I'm waiting before attempting to solder back the GPU,CPU... because I want to understand wich is the best way to solder them, also I want to be sure they don't get overcooked (I'm also getting a solder paste that melts at a lower temperature than the original)

 

[Mister M]

Today I started by soldering the top layer components, plus the bluetooth module. I'm waiting before attempting to solder back the GPU,CPU... because I want to understand wich is the best way to solder them, also I want to be sure they don't get overcooked (I'm also getting a solder paste that melts at a lower temperature than the original)
View attachment 22015

A simple and cheap way is to use an electric grill with two thermocouples to monitor the temperature, one thermocouple you place in the middle between the electric grill and the PCB and the other thermocouple you place next to the chip you are going to solder, with that you can monitor the temperature. Another thing, the pcb can handle more temperature than the chip, and you can make another PCB in case something goes wrong, so it's better to heat up the PCB more than the chip.

 

[thedrew]

Personally, I don’t know what kind of solder paste you have but I would think medium temp solder paste would work best (for the BGA chips) which has a melting point of around 180°C. Low melt solder paste has a melting point around 138°C and is generally a softer metal that is more brittle, from my experience, but works just fine on anything that doesn’t get very warm.

This project is looking very promising though. The boards look awesome!

 

[RedEnergy]

I think I'll get the 138° solder paste because the real melting point is about 160°C. The 183° tipe would be too much

 

[Dugways]

I second the idea for using some sort of hotplate. The PCB itself can bake at those temperatures for a while and worst case the soldermask might start to discolour. One of the benefits of using the hot plate is that all of your ground pours are completely at temperature and should only take a little bit of a kick with a heatgun to get over the solder melting temperature.

It might be worth to design some sort of chip alignment tool to make sure each of the balls mate with their correct pad. I've done some cowboy rework on smaller BGA grids and it was fairly easy to short out a single ball. You could do something like a PETG 3D print coated in foil or I've seen 3D printed jigs that use old PCBs as the bit that actually touches the chip since it'll resist the heat.

Unfortunate you don't happen to have an X-ray machine laying around to validate the solder job before power on

 

[Mister M]

Unfortunate you don't happen to have an X-ray machine laying around to validate the solder job before power on

He could make a board to train with BGA soldering before trying with the chip itself, in the worklog I talked about it.