Worklog Wii To Go

[Jack Sasquatch]

While waiting on my initial 3D print for the SixtyForce, I'm going to revisit an old diamond in the rough. Thought y'all might appreciate something a little different...

Here's my 90% completed portable Wii "tablet," begun when Wii modding was hardly a thing. All I had to go off of for reference was Ben and SS's laptops and miscellaneous datasheets. As such, my design choices are HILARIOUSLY out of line with what would be the norm today. It's bigger! It's badder! I present: The Wii To Go.

Back in college when I started the project, I mostly wanted a rig I could haul around to friends' places and Smash on. I didn't see any need for real portability, and I also wanted the ability to download/stream media, hence the decision to include an ethernet adapter (lol) (dorm wifi was TERRIBLE). I pined and labored over the perfect finish for so many hours, only to have it tossed around in my project bin for years and slightly charred on the top half somehow. C'est la vie.

Specs:

13" iBook frankencase
10" Eonon screen
120GB hard drive (will be replaced with a flash drive since they are so much cheaper now)
1x Gamecube controller port
Ethernet port
Mini-usb to access hard drive
External sensor bar capability
iPad kickstand to stand it up on
8x (yes, EIGHT) 18650s for absurd runtime. Hey, I had the space.

So, the goal will be cutting the chaff and slapping this sucker the rest of the way together. I have a few bugs to work out with the screen controls and USB, but hopefully PM will help with a lot of that. I also might trim the board and wire up some custom regs for even more absurd battery life.

 

[BocuD]

Damn that frankencase looks good. Also.. 8 18650s.. jeez wtf. Amazing.

 

[Stitches]

Big Beautiful Portables.

 

[Doom]

large and in charge

 

[DeoNaught]

I love it, and can't wait for your next rev.

I would love something like this to bring on long car trips.

 

[cheese]

Hell, with that much space it doesn't really matter what you do to the wii, you'll have tons of room

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

I meeeeeean, I'm not saying it's a power brick with a screen attached....but....it's definitely a power brick with a screen attached. Unfortunately, it's a CPU-01, so I'm expecting the sucker to be pretty power hungry. Just got PM installed, and am super glad to get rid of that disk drive board. How many watts could I expect to save if I drop the coin for some custom regs? I'm not sold yet, but I might want to give 'er a roll to see how it feels.

 

[cheese]

How many watts could I expect to save if I drop the coin for some custom regs?

Depends on how many volts your batteries are, if it's >7.4v I doubt you'd get much of an improvement.

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

Gotcha...so, say I were to run it off of a 3s3p pack at 11.1v instead, using the stock regs. Is the board's wattage requirement independent of voltage, so the amperage requirement would drop off as I approached the nominal 12v it's designed for? I'm aware of the voltage/AH tradeoff for runtime, but am not so sure how that works when everything's stepped down.

Basically, 7.4v 13.6AH pack vs 11.1v 10.2AH. Does it matter?

Also, after pondering @Booshman's question about headphone jacks earlier, I'm prototyping some amp designs. Does anyone have experience using passive attenuation circuits for headphones? I found a page that might be valuable.

https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/attenuators/attenuator.html

I'd like to be able to use one volume control for both speakers and headphones, and not have to remember to turn it way down before plugging headphones in.

 

[Shank]

It's not a good idea to run it off 11.1v. It'll reach below the Wii's minimum voltage about halfway through the battery's cycle, so the other half won't have enough voltage to pass the stock regulators voltage requirement check.

 

[Matthew]

You had me at "Hack Squash".

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

Jack the Hacking Sasquatch. I should start a circus troupe.

Brushed up on the Wii mega-thread, I think things are a lot clearer regarding power now. I was under the misconception that one of the main reasons for custom regulators was to increase efficiency. I'm just going to go with a 4s2p pack since my screen is gucci up to 19v. Should still get at least decent runtime.

 

[Madmorda]

That really is some sexy casework. How did you get the wii logo on there so nicely?

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

Well, thanks! It was actually my first frankencasing experience.

I wasn't really happy with the waterslide decals I used on my first portable, so I used these decals for this case and they worked TREMENDOUSLY. Highly, highly recommend. I would get extras, they come in handy for all sorts of things. Skinned a guitar with them a month ago! They are really thin, so unless the light hits it right it looks painted on. Even without lacquer, they hold up, too! I made one for my soldering iron at the same time and it's nicked, but definitely hasn't faded or wiped away.

 

[Jack Sasquatch]

Just for fun, I downloaded the MBB archive and dug up my original post to see if I had any info that might be useful. Here's some more pics of the original concept and casework:

Spoiler: Casework

The 18650's I used originally were from a 14.8v laptop battery. Who knows as to their origin. Seemed to work alright though, and have decent capacity. I'd buy it again in the future if my project used an absurd number of cells.

Also, this gem. Forgot I also made a matching controller. Unfortunately, the clear coat yellowed and pitted over time. Sweat sure isn't gentle to paint. Anyone have some painting tips to avoid it in the future?