Worklog WiiGC (working title)

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Hello all,

Just taken the plunge towards building my own Wii portable. One day many moons ago, I strolled into an independent used game store in Edinburgh Scotland and saw a gamecube demo stand running Rogue Squadron. An N64 gamer as a wee lad, I wandered over incredibly intrigued at this other worldly looking contraption. This was the first ever time I had put my paws on the gamecube controller and was absolutely transfixed with how it felt (and how freaking fun RS was on GC!! - clicking the shoulder buttons all the way down to see your x-wing fold and unfold it's wings was the coolest damn thing 11yo DeadTreeCarcasses had ever seen)

Ultimately, I want to incorporate that nostalgia and feel of the gamecube controller into my portable design. I am hoping my CAD modelling skills are up to the task and I have been slowly familiarizing myself with Fusion 360 (use Seimens NX at work). For full authenticity and feel, my goal is to model the shoulder button mechanism and PCB mounts so that I can essentially transplant the OG button and slider PCB. Thanks to the excellent 3D mesh scans, Fusion 360s calibrated canvas functionality, and the bountiful resources you guys have already amassed - I think this should turn out to be a lot of fun!

Case model progress so far:

• Right hand controller 'snowman' shape for thumb buttons and C stick
• PCB layer button holes / tab slots that loft up into the controller face button cutouts
• Experimenting with lofts and rails to get the shape/look (and hopefully feel of the controller in my palm)

BOM thus far:

• OMGWTF trimmed Wii (received, installed. and tested RVLoader a few days ago)
• Harvested GC buttons, JS caps, trimmed PCB, original membranes, and shoulder slider/buttons
• enough 18650s for 4hrs MIN play time
• 5-6 inch screen, ideally IPS
• UV LEDs for sensor bar functionality (with on/off switch?)

Relocations:​

Bluetooth chip​

MX-Chip (for N64 / VC emulator)​

​

Purchased:​

RVL-PMS-2​

GC+ 2​

U-Amp 2​

PMS-PD 2​

Black Wii​

Black GC Controller for parts​

Don't yet have:

• decided on screen / control board
• fan / heatsink
• speakers
• necessary magnet wire, coated wire, liquid flux

I "borrowed" a USB microscope from work for the finnicky soldering tasks but I may end up recording some video or Twitch streaming some of my soldering or CAD work.

 

[honigbrai]

You don't have to model the GC controller your self. There's a scan of it on the Forums, but if you're working with a scan you have to use a mesh editing program(like blender)

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

You don't have to model the GC controller your self. There's a scan of it on the Forums, but if you're working with a scan you have to use a mesh editing program(like blender)

I’m actually using those scans as reference

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Shuck successful after installing RVLoader and a couple of games to test.

Figured I would practice scratching and soldering some traces and seeing if I could get the bluetooth module relocated successfully. It worked!

I will be trimming the board and wiring together a test bench with my 4layer components when my magnet wire arrives. Still got a long way to go modelling the case and spent the past week wrapping my head around the mesh import / conversion process and messing with the surface modelling tools that Fusion 360 has to offer. I elected to ditch the parametric re-model of the GC controller. Thanks to @Wesk's controller scans and @LightPulsar's awesome mesh cleanup , the hard part will just be the union between my case design and integrating all my other components.

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Trim resistances were a little lower than I expected, 3v3 was in the 4k ballpark. Discovered I can't just plug in USB-C to power up so will snag a couple of 18650s or if I'm feeling impatient borrow a benchtop power supply from work. Surprisingly fun soldering this all together - magnet wire was not as finicky as I was expecting but it helps having a usb microscope and plenty of flux (snagged a wee bottle of circuitworks CW3220 from amazon and the stuff is great!). I fully expect soldering in the tight space of a portable to be a PITA though...

Goodnight!

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Making progress with the case and layout.

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Been taking things slowly over the past few days / couple weeks. Painstaking mesh trimming work to integrate just the parts of the GC controller I want (including OG PCB and button/trigger mounting locations) and tossing the rest.

My 18650s finally came in and somehow my trim miraculously booted on 1st attempt! Me being a dummy though accidentally repaired the my wiimote to my other wii so I can't switch composite to VGA until I get some working controls wired up

Thinking I will likely need a hot air rework station to properly attack my LCD driver board. @RoseDagger kindly shared his trim of a similar eyoyo board which was mighty helpful. Although I think mine may be a slightly newer rev (SBR-701H-1.2 2020-11-25 according to the silkscreen).

I think I will just keep slogging away at the case, perhaps through my heatsink together, and get the build in a state where I can wire up my GC2+

 

[Wesk]

I'm not sure if you're aware but there is a full STEP Model of a GC controller on the CGCC discord, was posted about a week ago and is extremely accurate.

Can be found here: CGCC Discord GC STEP

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

I'm not sure if you're aware but there is a full STEP Model of a GC controller on the CGCC discord, was posted about a week ago and is extremely accurate.

Can be found here: CGCC Discord GC STEP

Thanks Wesk. That link seems to just keep taking me to the discord web browser login. I will see if I can find those steps, but tbh I have found it a pretty good exercise for familiarizing myself with the mesh editing tools of Fusion 360. If I mess them up royally then I can always fall back on the updated steps. Although, my plan is to take the trimmed mesh bodies, convert them to surface reps and teach myself how to surface model to get the case design I have been imagining.

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Been away for a while, can't proceed until I get around to purchasing a reflow station to trim up my VGA display board - Christmas maybe?

In the mean time, I found a moment at work to lap the heatsink, fan and copper plate - luckily we have a material lab with a nice water disc polisher. I sandwiched them all together with thermal paste and Tech Ingredient's thermal epoxy around the edges to hold it all together.

I left my case design off at a point where I may have to compromise on the total qty of batteries or the overall thickness of the portable - really wanted 4 x 18650s but might go to three to reduce the overall width if it ends up being a chunky boi. I don't want the case to dominate the screen. Most of the GC controller handles and face will be chopped off leaving mainly the face button snowman and the shoulder button geometry.

 

[DeadTreeCarcasses]

Finally back at it! Hot work station at work reallly helped with the LCD board paring down.

LCD screen a success!