Worklog The "Party Box" Wii portable

[Wesk]

Having a portable Wii is great and all, but most are designed for single player use only. This becomes a problem for the many great multiplayer games on the system such as Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and the Mario Party titles.

Sure, you could play Mario Party single player but that's like going to an orgy and pleasuring yourself in a lonely corner of the room. Don't be that person.

When this COVID-19 meme is over my partner and I are planning to do a lot of traveling which gave me the idea of making a portable that we could both play on long plane flights.

....And here is a look at the WIP model of the "Party Box" (Click picture to take a 3D look on Sketchfab)

The current and close to final dimensions are 188mm x 122mm x 38mm, putting it at around 40% smaller (Volume wise) than an OG Wii console.

I have also used laptop hinges (from an old Asus Eee PC) as 3DS hinges likely won't take the weight of the larger panel and control board.

Features will include:

- 7" IPS panel for good viewing angles.
- 4x 3400mah batteries for around 4 hours battery life.
- VGA out so it can be used as a regular console.
- Dual 3.5mm headphone jacks.
- RVL-PMS and USB-C for power management.


My new 3d printer should be arriving in May along with the LCD panel. That'll likely be when the next update occurs.

 

[vikMKW]

Excited to see your take on this. There have been some attempts at this, but I haven't seen anyone quite get it right. I've got a similar plan using a laptop LCD.

 

[Wesk]

Thanks, I've seen a few Wii laptop mods around but they all have some sort of drawback. Some are hulking masses that aren't really "portable", some only run from wall power and some of the better, smaller ones are one-offs with no real way to build one yourself.

With the Party Box I'm aiming to avoid all of that with it being small, actually portable and re-create-able by anyone who wants to make one.

Once complete the 3D files will be available for download along with a list all of the parts used.

 

[Doom]

it's like there's a party in my box and everyone's invited

 

[Wesk]

it's like there's a party in my box and everyone's invited

That's reserved for the "Smash Box" variant

 

[StonedEdge]

it's like there's a party in my box and everyone's invited

 

[Wesk]

Quick update, new printer arrived and have begun first test prints. Test fitment was good although I didn't leave enough tolerance in some areas so I'll make adjustments and reprint.

 

[The Awakened One]

That looks awesome! But how can you use an internal screen while also having a VGA connector for external displays?

 

[Wesk]

That looks awesome! But how can you use an internal screen while also having a VGA connector for external displays?

There's going to be a toggle switch on the rear, switching the video signal between the internal screen and the external VGA connection. You can see the mount point for it next to the VGA mount port.

 

[cheese]

You took off the protective cover on the heatsink! NOT A MAN OF CULTURE

 

[GingerOfOz]

You took off the protective cover on the heatsink! NOT A MAN OF CULTURE

Yeah, be sure to not take the cover off the copper plate as well if you want to be ultra-cultured.

Excited to see how this design turns out, it's looking super clean so far.

 

[Wesk]

Thanks guys,unfortunately I'm not as cultured as Ginger. My smooth brain removes all the best memes.

I've also got another quick update:

I made adjustments to the tolerances and everything is now fitting much better.

I ended up removing the 2nd headphone port as it just makes additional wiring for something that can be done with a simple splitter. I've also added an external USB port to be used with accessories like the ethernet adapter. (portable MKDD lan anyone?)

I swapped the positions of the VGA out and the toggle switch. In the original position no VGA cable could be plugged in as it was hitting against the hinge cover.

And finally, the top piece was finalized for mounting the hinges. I decided to print this with a Silk silver filament instead of the Galaxy silver for a little extra nuance. It looks extremely metallic in certain lighting.

At this point I have to wait for the LCD panel to arrive before I can complete the top half, once that has arrived completion should not be far off.

 

[スープ]

looking pretty solid

 

[vikMKW]

Wow, very clean work! I see you trimmed the GC ports and omitted these components:

I understand removing the filtering on the power lines, but how about the diodes and filter on the data lines?

 

[Wesk]

Wow, very clean work! I see you trimmed the GC ports and omitted these components:

I understand removing the filtering on the power lines, but how about the diodes and filter on the data lines?

You can remove all of them, I've never had issues connecting directly to the pins and I've not heard anybody else have issues either.

 

[Wesk]

I've started the wiring process of the bottom half, I figured if I do that now it can be used as a Wii console until the screen arrives.

 

[Nicholas298]

This is lookin great Wesk!!

 

[Wesk]

So the bottom half is done. A couple issues I ran into:

1) Grounding the jacket on the headphone jack would cause pretty bad noise/snow to appear in the video when headphones were connected. Removing the ground resolves the issue but now there is a mild hiss on the headphone jack.

Bluetooth audio however is crystal clear.

2) Running the video wires so far is causing a very minor amount of noise through to the external monitor, it's basically unnoticable in gameplay but can be seen on static screens. Provided there is enough room I may go properly shielded cable.

Other than the aforementioned issues it is running extremely well so far. I'm going to spend the next few hours running it through thermal tests.

 

[megazeroex1]

(portable MKDD lan anyone?)

Me, love MKDD

 

[Wesk]

Well, somehow by using shielded wires I got more noise so I have gone back to the twisted pair. Again, not terrible and almost invisible in gameplay, especially on a 5"-7" screen. Maybe I'll try a ferrite bead next.