Ghosts UltraWii Revitalized

YveltalGriffin

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Well, the time has come to post my 2018 summer contest entry worklog. This bad boy has been in the works for a while. Here's the long list of sexy features:

- OMEGA-trimmed RVK mobo (maybe just "near-OMEGA," we'll see what the case wants)
- Polycase SL-53 case, making this one of the smallest Wii portables to date if not the smallest
- 4x 3400mAh 18650s for ≈ 4 hours of battery life
- 3.5" 640x480 LCD with soft-VGA direct from Wii AVE
- Triple-stick controls because who likes d-pads anyway ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
- Microcontroller-based power management system, which includes battery level gauging, custom regs, and some zesty secret memes (to be revealed in good time.)

Also, I gotta give props to @Shank, since his PiiWii Pocket was what inspired me to build the UltraWii.

I'll post pictures of progress at some point. Don't hold your breath.
 
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sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) +e^(i*pi)
Ayyyyy it's time, I remember when you bended your nand for the first time :'3
 

Nold

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- OMEGA-trimmed RVK mobo (maybe just "near-OMEGA," we'll see what the case wants)
noice! LM420 for life.. B|
let me know if you need help relocating the AVE
 

BocuD

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Oh boy I can't wait to see this
 

Stitches

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Well, the time has come to post my summer contest entry worklog. This bad boy has been in the works for a while. Here's the long list of sexy features:

- OMEGA-trimmed RVK mobo (maybe just "near-OMEGA," we'll see what the case wants)
- Polycase SL-53 case, making this one of the smallest Wii portables to date if not the smallest
- 4x 3400mAh 18650s for ≈ 4 hours of battery life
- 3.5" 640x480 LCD with soft-VGA direct from Wii AVE
- Triple-stick controls because who likes d-pads anyway ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
- Microcontroller-based power management system, which includes battery level gauging, custom regs, and some zesty secret memes (to be revealed in good time.)

Also, I gotta give props to @Shank, since his PiiWii Pocket was what inspired me to build the UltraWii.

I'll post pictures of progress at some point. Don't hold your breath.
If you pull this off, you will indeed officially have the smallest Wii portable ever. Take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ~ ~ ~
 

YveltalGriffin

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I know this hasn't been much of a worklog, but unfortunately my job and other commitments do take precedence over portablizing. I do have some backlogged updates to share, however.

In my quest for the ULTIMATE in 3.5" Wii portable video quality, I'm using the PD035VX2 640x480 panel. The only "gotcha" with this panel is that it's not full 24-bit color like most TTL panels, it's only 18-bit. It gets around this using gamma correction and not dithering as far as I can tell. There are two readily available driver boards for this panel, a green Prime View driver board called the PVI035 v2.0 and a black NJYTouch driver board called the KYV-N2 V7.
s-l1600.jpg s-l1600 (1).jpg

The KYV board has a lot more passives, and is therefore less trimmable than the PVI board. The KYV also has a folding ZIF connector versus the slidey one on the PVI board. @Shank and I were curious as to whether the driver board with more passives would have a cleaner output or if there was no difference. I ran some tests using raw, unconditioned Dreamcast RGBHV to put the driver boards through their paces:

IMG_20180611_195445.jpg IMG_20180611_194848.jpg

The left image is from the PVI driver, and the right image is from the KYV. It seemed to me like the KYV has better gamma control, since the green area is much brighter. The individual pixels are clearer, too. For these reasons, I'm using the KYV board for this portable.

I tried to do a full NAND relocation for the memez, and while the wiring was pretty easy, the Wii didn't want to boot. I was too lazy to rewire it with equal lengths of 34AWG, and, luckily, I don't need to do a full NAND relocation for my case.
IMG_20180530_215219.jpg
Here's the requisite bendy boi (since slathered with epoxy) :
IMG_20180629_225715_2.jpg
And finally we have a relocation that I did based off of Nold's. Before Aurelio's WiiGA stuff, I was going to have to use a GCVideo to get the VGA I needed, but now I can just relocate the AVE and let the pizza magic do the heavy lifting. Thanks @Aurelio! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ
IMG_20180711_205135_2.jpg IMG_20180711_205126_2.jpg IMG_20180711_215123_2.jpg IMG_20180712_000729_2.jpg
...and yes, a (bricked) Wii was sacrificed to get this AVE daughterboard. I'd post pictures of the donor, but they're too gruesome. Also, ignore that big red wire sticking up, it was unecessary and has been removed.

More progress has been made but not documented. The triple-stick controls will probably use a deadbugged microcontroller as a comparator, and I've been reworking my regulator-charger-audio amp board, fixing shorts and whatnot. In the meantime, here's a render of the board and a photo of the two custom boards I'm using.
WPMS v2.0.brd (1).png IMG_20180716_172206.jpg
 
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sin^2(x) + cos^2(x) +e^(i*pi)
EDA is nice and all, but have you tried showing off Your Model work? >:3


Nice work btw, AVL looks like hell to reloc
 

YveltalGriffin

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I got off my lazy ass this winter and purchased a Prusa i3 MK3 to help revive my UltraWii project. Casework is the hardest part of portablizing for me, so 3D printing is helping me overcome that final hurdle. The case is actually smaller/thinner than the Polycase SL53, but still has fullsize GC buttons, x4 18650s, and screwposts. I might make a unit with triple sticks later on, but I'm sticking with a GC D-pad for now.

uwii.PNG


My power management system has undergone a few different revisions since I last posted. The latest version is actually pretty similar to Aurelio's PowerMii, except without WiiHUD of course. Once JLC reopens, I'll be getting the final revision in the mail, which uses a better fuel gauge and has some debug connections removed. It's 27mmx30mm, and has voltage regulation for the Wii, li-ion fuel gauging, shipping mode, thermal shutdown, momentary power button, and all the bells and whistles you'd expect in 2020. I've moved the audio amp to a separate PCB to make my life easier.
IMG_20200114_144748.jpgIMG_20200130_234918.jpg
In my continued quest for the ULTIMATE in 3.5" Wii video quality, I tracked down a Chinese source for inexpensive 3.5" 640x480 IPS panels. I sent some panels and a flex adapter to Aurelio, who got it working with his FPGA direct-drive meme. I can confirm that the result is crisp, pixel perfect, and unbeatable in terms of clarity. Plus, without a bulky driver board I can slim the portable down considerably, to around 26mm.
IMG_20200124_004553.jpg IMG_20200126_211855.jpg
quick and dirty mobo test fit (pls ignore spaghetti)
IMG_20200131_095833.jpg
I'm coming to MGC, hopefully with this thing finished. More updates soon
 

StonedEdge

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Holy crap that thing is the smallest thing I’ve ever seen. Amazing work. How are you going to do the tact switches for shoulder buttons? Doesn’t look like much room.
 

Noah

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Damn nice, this is nuts.

Where's the power board supposed to go? I know the Wii PMS can get quite warm, especially when charging and playing so I'd be concerned mounting it anywhere close to cells/other hardware. Also, how are you going to display battery life status with a fuel gage IC if you're not using WiiHUD? RGB LED?

Looking forward to holding it in person :D
 

splain

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That 3.5" 640x480 is hot. I'm ordering a PD035VX2 as I type.
 

YveltalGriffin

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How are you going to do the tact switches for shoulder buttons? Doesn’t look like much room.
Yeah, space is really tight in this case. The shoulder buttons are just bumpers with dual-action tacts on platforms. No hinged memes for me. I'll post a video of the setup eventually.

Where's the power board supposed to go? I know the Wii PMS can get quite warm, especially when charging and playing so I'd be concerned mounting it anywhere close to cells/other hardware. Also, how are you going to display battery life status with a fuel gauge IC if you're not using WiiHUD? RGB LED?
The plan is to suspend the LCD driver and the PMS in a 3D-printed frame in the space between the mobo and the LCD. All of the electronics have to fit in the ~55mm space between the cells, so some "stacking" is unavoidable. And yeah, I'm using an RGB LED to indicate charging status, battery SOC, etc. (That's what the hole between the left stick and d-pad is for.)

I forgot to mention that I'm using an USB C PD ASIC "thing" to negotiate for 15V. Not the snazziest solution, but it works well.
217f4bd16141c0e49096a3385bf58e5450f91336_original.jpeg

That 3.5" 640x480 is hot. I'm ordering a PD035VX2 as I type.
If, by chance, you're going to be using it with a Wii, I highly recommend waiting for Aurelio's direct drive board and the new 3.5" IPS panel to become available on the BB store. The PD035VX2 is TN, has bad viewing angles, and only has 18-bit color depth. The new IPS panel is full 24-bit, and looks 100x better. Just my two cents.
 

splain

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Well since the shipping time for the PD035VX2 is like 3-5 years, I'll just wait for the IPS instead. Thanks!
 

YveltalGriffin

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I assembled my new PCBs! I squeezed a DSBGA LDO onto my audio amp board to get more powerful speakers without making the board larger. Unfortunately, my cheap knockoff AVRISP can't program the microcontroller since it's running at 1.8V. I'm getting a new programmer in the mail tomorrow that should do the trick.
IMG_20200311_214958.jpg

I also swapped the fuel gauge that didn't work on my last PMS revision for a new one. The green LED here indicates ACK from the MAX17055! :awesome:

IMG_20200315_220959.jpg

The RGB LED is a Cree UHD1110. I use it in lots of projects because it's only 1mmx1mm.

I printed some cases in transparent purple and sparkly transparent red, but I didn't really like the look. They're not as clear as I would like, so the internals just look... murky. Luckily I just got an extra week off from university, so I'm going to sand, prime and paint a new case this week.
 

YveltalGriffin

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Time for a big update.

I worked some more on my PMS firmware, and it seems to be working for the most part. I'll be releasing my PMS + DAC designs and firmware once I've ironed out the remaining bugs.

Aurelio hooked me up with a new Direct Drive homebrew that works with GC+ 2.0, which is pretty great. Seriously, this portable would not be possible without all the amazing work Aurelio has done on stuff like direct drive and GC+ 2.0. The whole thing would have to be at least 4mm thicker to accommodate a VGA driver board if Aurelio hadn't graciously sent me a DD module. Thanks, Pizza Wizard! Hopefully once the pandemic has died down a bit, we can get more of these fantastic 3.5" IPS 640x480 LCDs into portablizers' hands.

I primed and wet sanded a case, but it warped like crazy thanks to the New Mexico sun, and I got pretty frustrated. Like I've said before, casework is far from my strong suit, and I feel like it's always keeping me from finishing projects.

So I decided to wet sand another case printed in white and assemble a "prototype" UltraWii, kind of like JacksonS and Gman did with the Wii SP 2.0 and the GBoy back in the day. The prototype is fully functional and has everything wired up except for the headphone jack and BT module. The white case makes it look like a mini-Envision, which I'm pretty happy about.

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I ended up really liking the reversed GC button layout I mistakenly created, so I kept it! The button and d-pad mounting situation in the portable is pretty shitty though; the orange squishy tacts are flush with the inside wall of the case, so the buttons are just plastic caps superglued onto the tacts. Not very secure, but they have an awesome rubbery feeling.

It's hard to show in pictures how thin this thing is (26mm). It feels kind of like a phat PS Vita, but all the edges and corners are smooth and rounded. It feels incredible to hold.

IMG_20200414_025357.jpg


Space is really, really freaking tight in this case. I couldn't implement any kind of 3d printed frame to hold the GC+ or PMS simply due to lack of room. I spent a solid 6 hours packing crap into the case tonight. It looks pretty messy, but this is only a prototype (that's my excuse, anyway. :P)
IMG_20200414_020831.jpg

I've been working on this project off and on for a solid two years, so it feels good to make some real progress. If I get around to it, I'll upload a quick hands-on demo to YT.
 
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StonedEdge

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Holy cow. 4 cells. This is unbelievable! Amazing stuff.
 
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