Worklog Xii-Boy Ultra (V3)

[GreaterMichiganModding]

They are open source, but the current revision isn't the best you could find. I suggest you to wait a few weeks for the REV 2 (Beta Kit) to be released on GithHub. Also, I don't know where you've planned ordering, but it will be a huge pain to ship if you order outside the USA.

i’m in america! i’m excited for the rev 2

 

[Xenii]

i’m in america! i’m excited for the rev 2

I almost guessed from your username Are you from Michigan by chance?
I'll keep everyone updated about the release of REV2. Would you be interested in a kit?

 

[GreaterMichiganModding]

I almost guessed from your username Are you from Michigan by chance?
I'll keep everyone updated about the release of REV2. Would you be interested in a kit?

Haha yeah i’m from michigan! yeah 100% pleaseeee keep us posteddd on rev 2, and in definitely gonna get a kit when it releases

 

[Xenii]

Alright, it's been way too long...

Hi guys! Welcome to the episode #3 of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kits Worklog!
First of all, happy new year! I know I'm a bit late, but it was important for me to mention it

A lot of things happened during the past months. I really wanted to update the worklog, but I got busy.
Since delaying the worklog even more would give more things to talk about, I decided it was the right time to catch up on what I forgot to do.
I'll try to catch up and make a great worklog episode that talks about everything me and the Xii-Boy Team have been working on since October.

This episode will probably be a bit messy, and I apologize, but I still hope you'll enjoy reading it.
To change a bit the formula, and since everything I'll post here is basically an exact copy of the content I shared over my Discord Server, I'll now share the date of which things happened. (Just before continuing, I just wanted to mention that dates will be at the format DD/MM/YYYY, it's just the one I'm used to, and the one we're using here in Switzerland.)

Anyway, let's begin!

7/10/2025
A day after the latest worklog episode, I mentioned I had issues with JLC due to some mistakes in the PCBs and the shell.
I realized that the way I've designed some of the new parts of the revision 2 were done wrong. So I decided to change half of the JLC order and start over, with well-designed parts.
The Main PCB for instance was designed to be 1mm thick instead of the traditional 1.6mm. This might sound like a stupidly small change, but it means a lot. Some parts with springs elements (especially battery tabs part) would easily break when inserting the batteries, or by dropping the console. To avoid this, I decided to change the shell and some PCBs to avoid this issue.
The changes were really stressful to do, but I had no choice. I was grateful JLC was really patient about the situation, because it was a kind of mess.

In the meanwhile, I decided to work on the final touches of the kits! The first one I wanted to do was the kit's box! Just because to be frank, it's the prettiest part, and probably the most exciting things you see when you receive the kit.

After some time spent in Gimp, this is what I ended up with. It was really simple, but did the job. I'll later talk about how my colleagues at the Xii-Boy Team helped me making it much better.

Orange is my favorite color for some reason, and I thought Beta Revision was cool, so I wanted to make the box the same color as my favorite one.


9/10/2025
The first package came in! Packages will be something really repetitive, and I hope the local deliver of the isolated countryside I live in wasn't too angry about carrying that quantity of packages
The first package was Digikey components! Even though it seems really boring, I really liked receiving the hundreds of components needed for this project.
You might notice that ordering components by myself means I won't use PCBA for this project. And yes, it was a decision I took. Since I really needed to test the new revision, I needed to make sure everything works well.
If a PCB needs correction (using somehow CURSED WIRES), I needed to know exactly where and how to change has to happen. Furthermore, I wanted to know exactly what makes assembling PCBs slow. So maybe, in a soon will, I'll try to update the design to make that part quicker to do for either me, or PCBA if I decide to switch over.

This day was also the one when JLCPCB accepted all the changes I made to the order and proceed the final payment. The only thing I was hoping now is that everything will get here safely, and most importantly, make sure everything works as intended. Only future will tell!


15/10/2025
I received the first AliExpress package!

It's a new soldering hot plate! My previous one was really tiny, only 5x5cm, but it was cheap, and big enough for what I used to do with it.
But times have changed, and I now needed a bigger plate to assemble the PCBs faster. This one is 15x15cm, which is big enough to cook two Main PCBs at the same time!


17/10/2025
17 days after the JLCPCB payment, I woke up with a great news: PCBs are done producing and have been sent to my way!
I was really excited, but was honestly really scared of receiving a huge invoice of custom fees.

I also start receiving some other AliExpress packages!
The new fans from Winsinn seemed really promising! The quality is much better than the old ones, and from what I tested on my power supply they seemed way smoother, and fortunately way quieter.
Heatsinks were another feeling, even though I used them on all my Xii-Boys, I was scared they had changed, which would not look well at all in the shell, since the "blades" of the heatsink are aligned with the shell.
But great news, they did not change. Sending bags, battery PCM IC, screws, metal grids for speakers and sending bags were all mine! Those were really exciting as well!

I also tested the new fan on my Xii-Boy Ultra. We had some issues with the PWM system. As I mentioned in another post, PWM might not always work with 2-wires fans. Those new one probably have a capacitor to smooth the fan out, but in that case, it avoided the fan to spin properly. Since we can't access it, the only option to keep adaptable fan speed was to modify the PWM frequency. With the help of @Aurelio, we were able to find the best frequency to work the best with the new fan.


21/20/2025
When I came back home from school, my father told me I received many packages! I was really excited!
He wasn't wrong! I got 3 packages, all really exciting as planned.

The first one were the custom copper plates. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but I ordered some custom sized copper plates from an Alibaba seller. Trimming copper is annoying, and the Xii-Boys need a specific size of copper plate. This was a fast and convenient way to get those for relatively cheap, and with the best kind of copper for thermal conductivity, copper 110.

The second package was AliExpress, I honestly don't recall what was inside, but I guess it was pretty much everything else I needed for the kits. Some components, screens, bubble wrap, and so more.

Third one was JLCPCB! OHHH YEAH!
I think every modder on the BitBuilt community enjoys those blue boxes. Well I actually got 4! Three of them were full of PCBs, and the last one was the shells and 3D printed buttons!

Even though time flew, even though I needed to go to bed, I wanted to unbox those packages. So I did!
Here is a picture of the new MJF shell I've ordered from my own revision 2 build I've showcased here: Xii-Boy Ultra Revision 2 - BitBuilt.net
You can see compared to an SLS shell. MJF has bigger grains, which sounds worse, but they are actually way less sharp, which gives a general smoother feeling.

^ SLS on top, MJF on bottom

22/10/2025
If I remember correctly, this was a Wednesday. This doesn't bring anything, I just wanted to mention it.
Anyway, I got some really high quality speakers from Alibaba! Those were the same I was used to, but they came with a custom cable's length and connector. No more issue with the constantly changing connector @Bryceshaw06 and @Hili had.
This time it's reliable, always the same, and fits just well in the console! You can find a picture right here!

24/10/2025
Alright, so I had the components, the PCBs, the tools, what was left? Oh right! Time!
I finally find some this day to start assembling the PCBs! I first wanted to mention that I assembled those board to test the new revision 2.
I started with the easiest; the Xii-Strip!
This big PicoLock connector can be bit tricky to solder properly due to the big GND and voltage polygons there are on this board.
With a decent and thick tip and a bit of flux, I was able to solder it pretty decently I'd say!
The thermistor is also pretty big. 0603 is about 2x1mm big. Even though it sounds small, I swear those are big compared to 0402 or even 0201

Next up; Trigger PCB!
This board is pretty simple. 3 connectors, 2 buttons, and it's done!
First time I took use of my stencils. To use them, I first used the good old technique of taping multiple boards to my desk to get one properly placed and safely secured.

The result wasn't good, and pretty time consuming, so I ended up modeling jigs in 3D. Took a bit of time, and adjustments, but it was really worth it. Made the whole thing easier.

After a few minutes, the trigger PCBs was done!

I then continued with the Controller PCB:

And then the Xii-DD:

And to finish smoothly, the Main PCB!

After some quick shorts tests of shorts, continuity and visual checks, the boards were completed!
The next step was to play the Xii-Boy Ultra for the last time before it's final disassembly. When time came, I removed each board at a time. Slowly removing the screws, the boards, the parts, and all the parts inside the Xii-Boy Ultra.

Then a tricky thing: moving the 4LayerTech modules to the new boards. Even after removing all the solder I was able to remove, they were still too strongly attached to the boards. I had to slowly cut the old solder with an X-Acto knife.
It was a real mess, but I ended up removing all the components safely, even though my excess heat bent some of them. Oooops!
I then spent countless hours removing and reinstalling parts from the old to the new Xii-Boy Ultra. Xii-Flex was a pain. Not because the design is problematic, but mostly because it was the third time I changed, which really damaged the board in some places. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to solder Bluetooth back; the tracks were just broken. To avoid wires, I didn't use magnet wires to get things back on track; I decided to get rid of Bluetooth. I don't really use it in the end, and I got pretty upset with this part, and I really didn't want any wire in this console.

Anyway, it was almost midnight, I was tired, but I got the console to boot better than it ever did.

Due to the "technique" I used to remove the 4Layer modules, I created a short caused by an old trace stuck underneath the RVL-AMP. Removing it without breaking the pads again was a real challenge. But the short was gone!
I then attached wires (TEMPORARY) to test if the board was still working.

After all this heat, the RVL-AMP was a bit bent. Hopefully it wasn't a huge issue in the end, I was able to solder it back, even with this little issue.
Great news, RVL-AMP was still working. I was able to remove my wires (for God's sake) and finally install it the way it should have been. It's not flat, but at least it doesn't have wires anymore, which is what matters the most (don't argue with this). I took some sleep and ended up finishing the console the following day.

26/10/2025:
The console was done! It was working!
Pretty much everything I wanted to fix was fixed! I still had some little mistakes, but nothing as bothersome as what Bryce and I were used to with the first REV0
I also made a cutting-edge post; I'm not sure if it was this date, probably not, but at least this is when the console was finished.

The only true and real mistake I've done is this one:

I don't really know what was going on, but for some reason, a change I've made in the shell was not in the final file.
Nothing terrible though, it was just this Wii screw post being 0.8mm too high. It's caused by the new Xii-Strip which cover this screw post, so it needs to be 0.8mm less high to be perfectly flat.

It also meant something more important: I can start assembling all the boards for the Beta Kits!
This was really exciting!!!

30/10/2025:
Alright! The day has come!
It was finally the time to assemble all the boards for the Beta Kits!
I got pretty excited and took some pictures. I first started with the trigger PCB. Since I got my jigs to be perfectly adjusted, I was able to assemble the board pretty quickly and with only a few pads to reflow, instead of the whole component.

After half an hour, I had all the Trigger PCBs done and cleaned!

1/11/2025
New month, new PCBs to assemble!
Was time for the Controller PCB!
I was really happy to have my new heating plate; it helped a lot!

The assembly of these boards went really well. I only had one little issue with this one: the connector has kind of shifted, so the pads are not aligned with the pins they should be

It seems like a huge pain to correct, but it was pretty easy! I used my tiny soldering plate to quickly heat the board, and I gave a little push to the left to put the connector in place.

I also did the Xii-DD PCBs, the one that holds both RVL-DD from 4LayerTech and connectors to allow signals to flow through it!
The final boss was the Main PCBs! This one takes a lot of time. There are a lot of connectors I need to solder, a lot of tiny resistances, chips, and components in general.

It took some time, but after testing all the PCM circuits (the extra battery protections the Xii-Boy Ultra has), all the boards were working perfectly!


7/11/2025
I got pretty busy these days designing the boxes, and helping send some pictures for the guide.
In the meanwhile, @Bryceshaw06 and @JamesPi, my teammates from the Xii-Boy Team, were making some incredible progress on the guide.
I sent James all the 3D files of the console to create some really nice renders for the guide's main page.

I informed both James and Bryce that if they wanted to write a little post underneath this one to know exactly what they've done in detail, they could!
I'm sure this could be great, so feel free to mention how you you worked!

11/11/2025
The eleventh day of the eleventh month. That is the only date of this whole post the American will be familiar with
Anyway, this day was great! The previous one got really exciting. After the first box prototype, James asked me if I wanted some help to upgrade what I've done. Because yes, it looked good to my eyes, but James and Bryce have much better eyes than I do
I, of course, accepted his help. After a few weeks polishing each detail and centimeter of the box, we ended up with this:

Since we got the final boxes, we were able to really adjust the box size. The one I showcased previously was a simple JLC box with the same-ish dimensions.
James added a lot of glowing effects of purple and orange which look awesome in my opinion.

The end of November was extremely busy on my side. I had to work a lot for a school project I needed to finish. I'll talk more about it in a further thread.
I didn't really have the time to work on the kits. We were also concerned about whether we would be able to ship the packages. The situation was unchanged, and it was still a pain we will need to figure out. However, the tarrifs against Switzerland are been lowered do 15% instead of the 39% we had since August 2025.

Since this part was really bothering me, I decided to start packaging the kits.
There were two things missing:
- The back part of the box, which is a sleeve printed in two parts
- All the bags stickers.

Those things sound simple and fast to do, but they were not. They took almost a month. We did many different designs, tried different things, and sometimes, just started over to get something really close to perfection.
James was extremely patient, kind and often offered help and adjustments. The Team and I spent countless hours on calls, just figuring out how we need to do the remaining parts.

We progressed slowly, but surely. Everything started looking awesome and perfect. Those times were really tricky due to all the things that happened at the same time. Collaborating isn't easy either. James and I have a 6-hour delay. When I wake up, he goes to bed. Bryce and I have 9 hours, which is surprisingly not worse

I really thank the Xii-Boy team for their countless hours spent to make every part as perfect as possible. We gently started to see the finish line of this project.

2/12/2025
This day, I didn't do anything, to be perfectly frank. I only mention it because it was my birthday. I turned 17. So I wanted to thank everybody here for their support. BitBuilt is an amazing community, which I really enjoy.
I ordered my first PCBs exactly 2 years earlier for my Xii-Boy Original as a birthday present, and all of this was thanks to you. I'm extremely grateful for the help, support, and everything BitBuilt has to give for random people like me.
Thanks for everything, guys!

I also took a little break from the kits to celebrate my birthday with my family, and to relax after the busy weeks I got.

20/12/2025
Bags were done, same for the front box.
I started packaging everything! I stole a thermal sticker printer from my dad; he didn't notice, and some "paper trimming machine". I don't have a single clue of what that thing is called, even in French...
I also asked my dad to print the box on some extremely high-quality paper with his awesome printer, lol. The result was looking awesome. Thousands of thanks to both James and my dad for this incredible box quality.

And this is what the box next to an assembled Xii-Boy Ultra looks like! How cool is this?!

This box is truly gorgeous!

27/12/2025
Merry Christmas! I got a nice gift for you guys; the first kit was packaged!

The quality of the box, stickers, etc., was truly perfect in my opinion.
Those two kits are the ones of Marius and Alex! The two French Beta testers!

I first packaged those, since sending to France from Switzerland is surprisingly simpler than sending to the United States. I have no idea how, though, if someone knows, lemme know!

29/12/2025
After an awesome day of skiing in the Alps, I got home with my last goal of this whole project: sending.
I checked everything and made sure everything was properly packaged. I went to the Swiss Post with my package. It was a really exciting moment.
This was the first kit I've ever sold in my whole life. I took almost 2 years to get to that point, so I think you can understand how I felt.
The person at the post office took my package. I felt pride!

31/12/2025
Of course you know why this day is important, the last of 2025.
I think we couldn't end the year any better.
My first Beta Tester, and my great friend Modding Marius just got my package! It cointained both Marius and Alex's kits!
Sending both of them in the same package was able to save a bit on delievery cost and custom fees.

Of course, as a true Swiss, I couldn't miss an opportunity to give some awesome Swiss chocolate to my French neighbors!
I don't really know if they preferred the chocolate more than my kits; both are a solid choice to be frank

January 2026
Happy New Year! I wish you all the best
To be perfectly frank, I didn't do a lot during January.
I spent a great amount of my time organizing for that one event.
I'm obviously talking about the Modding Marius live stream he made on Twitch!
I took a day off from school to be able to watch and help Marius over the chat.

After 5 long and stressful hours in front of 2500 people, Marius was able to make it boot! The world's first Xii-Boy Ultra Kit was done building!
In case you haven't seen the live stream yet, here is a link to his awesome Twitch channel. Marius gave his agreement to publish the live on Youtube for conservation, and also to allow Youtube translations to be available on the video. Of course some of the translations are a bit off, but I think it's great enouhg to be watched and understood. Here is the video! Have fun!


I'll also leave a link to this video Marius just finished:


And his Twitch channel:


I really thank Marius for his incredible work. Doing something this hard on a live stream is really stressful, and except for some mistakes, he really nailed it.

And now here we are! The next and final step is to send the remaining kits to the United States! 4 Beta Testers are still waiting for theirs.
We have found a solution; we just need to figure out some final details. Thanks to James once again for helping me with that part.
Once everything is ready, the kits will be sent.

I can't wait to finally send and finish this huge project!

Of course, this isn't the end at all; we're only close to the finish line of the Beta Kits.
Once everything is tested and optimized enough, the final kits will be available.

There is still a lot to do, but I'll keep you updated, I hope more than I used to over the past months.

Almost all the credit goes to the fabulous Xii-Boy Team.
Thousands of thanks to James. An awesome friend who handled all the boxes and bag sticker designs. The work he's done in such a little time is truly stunning.
Of course, I can't thank the Xii-Boy Team without thanking Bryce. A great friend who spent countless hours to make every single pixel of the guide as close to perfection as possible. He's done an awesome job.
Both James and Bryce worked a lot to make this whole project a reality. Nothing would have been possible without their determination. Collaborating was tough, mostly due to the time difference between Switzerland and the United States, but we did something incredible, that I'm sure most people will really enjoy.

I also wanted to thank Modding Marius for his awesome job. Making this incredible project on Twitch was an awesome experience for both him and me.
Definitely check out his content; you won't regret it.

Of course, a lot of thanks to the other Beta Testers! I know the kits haven't been sent yet, but I already know it's gonna be awesome.

Many thanks to these people:
- @Aurelio for the time he took fixing some issues with the 4LayerTech Boards
- @YveltalGriffin for all the advice with shipping
- @Gman for some advice to properly remove the 4LayerTech modules from my old boards
- All the Beta Testers for their patience, motivation, and constant support for those kits!
- Modding Marius for his videos, Twitch live stream, and all his support
- The Xii-Boy Team for everything I listed a bit above.
- You guys for your constant support. All of this gives me incredible motivation.

Before posting this episode, I also wanted to mention some things.
This episode took almost a week of writing. I really tried to do my best to improve my English vocabulary. I hope this is noticeable and that my content becomes overall more enjoyable to read.

Speaking of content, I just opened an Instagram account. For now, I don't really have anything to post, but I probably will soon. It's also a neat way of contact in case you need help, answers to questions, and anything similar. I'll put a link here in case you wanna take a look: My Instagram account

I'll probably take a little break from the forums and Discord. The past months have been really stressful, and I need a break to relax and become even stronger with even crazier projects!

I think that's all for this third episode! Hope you enjoyed reading it!
As always, have an awesome day, and see ya next time!

PS: "I really hate wires, but I enjoy mountains (and chocolate of course)." - Xenii 2026

 

[Stitches]

 

[JechtZ]

Your English is great. I didn't really even know you were so young or Swiss.

Thank you for all your time you've invested.

Excited to build this!

 

[JBmodz]

Alright, it's been way too long...

Hi guys! Welcome to the episode #3 of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kits Worklog!
First of all, happy new year! I know I'm a bit late, but it was important for me to mention it

A lot of things happened during the past months. I really wanted to update the worklog, but I got busy.
Since delaying the worklog even more would give more things to talk about, I decided it was the right time to catch up on what I forgot to do.
I'll try to catch up and make a great worklog episode that talks about everything me and the Xii-Boy Team have been working on since October.

This episode will probably be a bit messy, and I apologize, but I still hope you'll enjoy reading it.
To change a bit the formula, and since everything I'll post here is basically an exact copy of the content I shared over my Discord Server, I'll now share the date of which things happened. (Just before continuing, I just wanted to mention that dates will be at the format DD/MM/YYYY, it's just the one I'm used to, and the one we're using here in Switzerland.)

Anyway, let's begin!

7/10/2025
A day after the latest worklog episode, I mentioned I had issues with JLC due to some mistakes in the PCBs and the shell.
I realized that the way I've designed some of the new parts of the revision 2 were done wrong. So I decided to change half of the JLC order and start over, with well-designed parts.
The Main PCB for instance was designed to be 1mm thick instead of the traditional 1.6mm. This might sound like a stupidly small change, but it means a lot. Some parts with springs elements (especially battery tabs part) would easily break when inserting the batteries, or by dropping the console. To avoid this, I decided to change the shell and some PCBs to avoid this issue.
The changes were really stressful to do, but I had no choice. I was grateful JLC was really patient about the situation, because it was a kind of mess.

In the meanwhile, I decided to work on the final touches of the kits! The first one I wanted to do was the kit's box! Just because to be frank, it's the prettiest part, and probably the most exciting things you see when you receive the kit.

After some time spent in Gimp, this is what I ended up with. It was really simple, but did the job. I'll later talk about how my colleagues at the Xii-Boy Team helped me making it much better.
View attachment 41610
Orange is my favorite color for some reason, and I thought Beta Revision was cool, so I wanted to make the box the same color as my favorite one.


9/10/2025
The first package came in! Packages will be something really repetitive, and I hope the local deliver of the isolated countryside I live in wasn't too angry about carrying that quantity of packages
The first package was Digikey components! Even though it seems really boring, I really liked receiving the hundreds of components needed for this project.
You might notice that ordering components by myself means I won't use PCBA for this project. And yes, it was a decision I took. Since I really needed to test the new revision, I needed to make sure everything works well.
If a PCB needs correction (using somehow CURSED WIRES), I needed to know exactly where and how to change has to happen. Furthermore, I wanted to know exactly what makes assembling PCBs slow. So maybe, in a soon will, I'll try to update the design to make that part quicker to do for either me, or PCBA if I decide to switch over.

This day was also the one when JLCPCB accepted all the changes I made to the order and proceed the final payment. The only thing I was hoping now is that everything will get here safely, and most importantly, make sure everything works as intended. Only future will tell!


15/10/2025
I received the first AliExpress package!
View attachment 41611
It's a new soldering hot plate! My previous one was really tiny, only 5x5cm, but it was cheap, and big enough for what I used to do with it.
But times have changed, and I now needed a bigger plate to assemble the PCBs faster. This one is 15x15cm, which is big enough to cook two Main PCBs at the same time!


17/10/2025
17 days after the JLCPCB payment, I woke up with a great news: PCBs are done producing and have been sent to my way!
I was really excited, but was honestly really scared of receiving a huge invoice of custom fees.

I also start receiving some other AliExpress packages!
The new fans from Winsinn seemed really promising! The quality is much better than the old ones, and from what I tested on my power supply they seemed way smoother, and fortunately way quieter.
Heatsinks were another feeling, even though I used them on all my Xii-Boys, I was scared they had changed, which would not look well at all in the shell, since the "blades" of the heatsink are aligned with the shell.
But great news, they did not change. Sending bags, battery PCM IC, screws, metal grids for speakers and sending bags were all mine! Those were really exciting as well!

I also tested the new fan on my Xii-Boy Ultra. We had some issues with the PWM system. As I mentioned in another post, PWM might not always work with 2-wires fans. Those new one probably have a capacitor to smooth the fan out, but in that case, it avoided the fan to spin properly. Since we can't access it, the only option to keep adaptable fan speed was to modify the PWM frequency. With the help of @Aurelio, we were able to find the best frequency to work the best with the new fan.


21/20/2025
When I came back home from school, my father told me I received many packages! I was really excited!
He wasn't wrong! I got 3 packages, all really exciting as planned.

The first one were the custom copper plates. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but I ordered some custom sized copper plates from an Alibaba seller. Trimming copper is annoying, and the Xii-Boys need a specific size of copper plate. This was a fast and convenient way to get those for relatively cheap, and with the best kind of copper for thermal conductivity, copper 110.

The second package was AliExpress, I honestly don't recall what was inside, but I guess it was pretty much everything else I needed for the kits. Some components, screens, bubble wrap, and so more.

Third one was JLCPCB! OHHH YEAH!
I think every modder on the BitBuilt community enjoys those blue boxes. Well I actually got 4! Three of them were full of PCBs, and the last one was the shells and 3D printed buttons!
View attachment 41612
Even though time flew, even though I needed to go to bed, I wanted to unbox those packages. So I did!
Here is a picture of the new MJF shell I've ordered from my own revision 2 build I've showcased here: Xii-Boy Ultra Revision 2 - BitBuilt.net
You can see compared to an SLS shell. MJF has bigger grains, which sounds worse, but they are actually way less sharp, which gives a general smoother feeling.
View attachment 41613
^ SLS on top, MJF on bottom

22/10/2025
If I remember correctly, this was a Wednesday. This doesn't bring anything, I just wanted to mention it.
Anyway, I got some really high quality speakers from Alibaba! Those were the same I was used to, but they came with a custom cable's length and connector. No more issue with the constantly changing connector @Bryceshaw06 and @Hili had.
This time it's reliable, always the same, and fits just well in the console! You can find a picture right here!
View attachment 41614

24/10/2025
Alright, so I had the components, the PCBs, the tools, what was left? Oh right! Time!
I finally find some this day to start assembling the PCBs! I first wanted to mention that I assembled those board to test the new revision 2.
I started with the easiest; the Xii-Strip!
This big PicoLock connector can be bit tricky to solder properly due to the big GND and voltage polygons there are on this board.
With a decent and thick tip and a bit of flux, I was able to solder it pretty decently I'd say!
The thermistor is also pretty big. 0603 is about 2x1mm big. Even though it sounds small, I swear those are big compared to 0402 or even 0201
View attachment 41617

Next up; Trigger PCB!
This board is pretty simple. 3 connectors, 2 buttons, and it's done!
First time I took use of my stencils. To use them, I first used the good old technique of taping multiple boards to my desk to get one properly placed and safely secured.
View attachment 41622
The result wasn't good, and pretty time consuming, so I ended up modeling jigs in 3D. Took a bit of time, and adjustments, but it was really worth it. Made the whole thing easier.

After a few minutes, the trigger PCBs was done!
View attachment 41618View attachment 41619

I then continued with the Controller PCB:
View attachment 41620View attachment 41621

And then the Xii-DD:
View attachment 41623

And to finish smoothly, the Main PCB!
View attachment 41625View attachment 41626

After some quick shorts tests of shorts, continuity and visual checks, the boards were completed!
The next step was to play the Xii-Boy Ultra for the last time before it's final disassembly. When time came, I removed each board at a time. Slowly removing the screws, the boards, the parts, and all the parts inside the Xii-Boy Ultra.

Then a tricky thing: moving the 4LayerTech modules to the new boards. Even after removing all the solder I was able to remove, they were still too strongly attached to the boards. I had to slowly cut the old solder with an X-Acto knife.
It was a real mess, but I ended up removing all the components safely, even though my excess heat bent some of them. Oooops!
I then spent countless hours removing and reinstalling parts from the old to the new Xii-Boy Ultra. Xii-Flex was a pain. Not because the design is problematic, but mostly because it was the third time I changed, which really damaged the board in some places. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to solder Bluetooth back; the tracks were just broken. To avoid wires, I didn't use magnet wires to get things back on track; I decided to get rid of Bluetooth. I don't really use it in the end, and I got pretty upset with this part, and I really didn't want any wire in this console.

Anyway, it was almost midnight, I was tired, but I got the console to boot better than it ever did.
View attachment 41627

Due to the "technique" I used to remove the 4Layer modules, I created a short caused by an old trace stuck underneath the RVL-AMP. Removing it without breaking the pads again was a real challenge. But the short was gone!
I then attached wires (TEMPORARY) to test if the board was still working.
View attachment 41628
After all this heat, the RVL-AMP was a bit bent. Hopefully it wasn't a huge issue in the end, I was able to solder it back, even with this little issue.
Great news, RVL-AMP was still working. I was able to remove my wires (for God's sake) and finally install it the way it should have been. It's not flat, but at least it doesn't have wires anymore, which is what matters the most (don't argue with this). I took some sleep and ended up finishing the console the following day.

26/10/2025:
The console was done! It was working!
Pretty much everything I wanted to fix was fixed! I still had some little mistakes, but nothing as bothersome as what Bryce and I were used to with the first REV0
I also made a cutting-edge post; I'm not sure if it was this date, probably not, but at least this is when the console was finished.

The only true and real mistake I've done is this one:
View attachment 41630
I don't really know what was going on, but for some reason, a change I've made in the shell was not in the final file.
Nothing terrible though, it was just this Wii screw post being 0.8mm too high. It's caused by the new Xii-Strip which cover this screw post, so it needs to be 0.8mm less high to be perfectly flat.

It also meant something more important: I can start assembling all the boards for the Beta Kits!
This was really exciting!!!

30/10/2025:
Alright! The day has come!
It was finally the time to assemble all the boards for the Beta Kits!
I got pretty excited and took some pictures. I first started with the trigger PCB. Since I got my jigs to be perfectly adjusted, I was able to assemble the board pretty quickly and with only a few pads to reflow, instead of the whole component.

After half an hour, I had all the Trigger PCBs done and cleaned!
View attachment 41631

1/11/2025
New month, new PCBs to assemble!
Was time for the Controller PCB!
I was really happy to have my new heating plate; it helped a lot!
View attachment 41632

The assembly of these boards went really well. I only had one little issue with this one: the connector has kind of shifted, so the pads are not aligned with the pins they should be
View attachment 41634
It seems like a huge pain to correct, but it was pretty easy! I used my tiny soldering plate to quickly heat the board, and I gave a little push to the left to put the connector in place.

I also did the Xii-DD PCBs, the one that holds both RVL-DD from 4LayerTech and connectors to allow signals to flow through it!
The final boss was the Main PCBs! This one takes a lot of time. There are a lot of connectors I need to solder, a lot of tiny resistances, chips, and components in general.
View attachment 41633
It took some time, but after testing all the PCM circuits (the extra battery protections the Xii-Boy Ultra has), all the boards were working perfectly!


7/11/2025
I got pretty busy these days designing the boxes, and helping send some pictures for the guide.
In the meanwhile, @Bryceshaw06 and @JamesPi, my teammates from the Xii-Boy Team, were making some incredible progress on the guide.
I sent James all the 3D files of the console to create some really nice renders for the guide's main page.
View attachment 41635View attachment 41636
I informed both James and Bryce that if they wanted to write a little post underneath this one to know exactly what they've done in detail, they could!
I'm sure this could be great, so feel free to mention how you you worked!

11/11/2025
The eleventh day of the eleventh month. That is the only date of this whole post the American will be familiar with
Anyway, this day was great! The previous one got really exciting. After the first box prototype, James asked me if I wanted some help to upgrade what I've done. Because yes, it looked good to my eyes, but James and Bryce have much better eyes than I do
I, of course, accepted his help. After a few weeks polishing each detail and centimeter of the box, we ended up with this:
View attachment 41637
Since we got the final boxes, we were able to really adjust the box size. The one I showcased previously was a simple JLC box with the same-ish dimensions.
James added a lot of glowing effects of purple and orange which look awesome in my opinion.

The end of November was extremely busy on my side. I had to work a lot for a school project I needed to finish. I'll talk more about it in a further thread.
I didn't really have the time to work on the kits. We were also concerned about whether we would be able to ship the packages. The situation was unchanged, and it was still a pain we will need to figure out. However, the tarrifs against Switzerland are been lowered do 15% instead of the 39% we had since August 2025.

Since this part was really bothering me, I decided to start packaging the kits.
There were two things missing:
- The back part of the box, which is a sleeve printed in two parts
- All the bags stickers.

Those things sound simple and fast to do, but they were not. They took almost a month. We did many different designs, tried different things, and sometimes, just started over to get something really close to perfection.
James was extremely patient, kind and often offered help and adjustments. The Team and I spent countless hours on calls, just figuring out how we need to do the remaining parts.

We progressed slowly, but surely. Everything started looking awesome and perfect. Those times were really tricky due to all the things that happened at the same time. Collaborating isn't easy either. James and I have a 6-hour delay. When I wake up, he goes to bed. Bryce and I have 9 hours, which is surprisingly not worse

I really thank the Xii-Boy team for their countless hours spent to make every part as perfect as possible. We gently started to see the finish line of this project.

2/12/2025
This day, I didn't do anything, to be perfectly frank. I only mention it because it was my birthday. I turned 17. So I wanted to thank everybody here for their support. BitBuilt is an amazing community, which I really enjoy.
I ordered my first PCBs exactly 2 years earlier for my Xii-Boy Original as a birthday present, and all of this was thanks to you. I'm extremely grateful for the help, support, and everything BitBuilt has to give for random people like me.
Thanks for everything, guys!

I also took a little break from the kits to celebrate my birthday with my family, and to relax after the busy weeks I got.

20/12/2025
Bags were done, same for the front box.
I started packaging everything! I stole a thermal sticker printer from my dad; he didn't notice, and some "paper trimming machine". I don't have a single clue of what that thing is called, even in French...
I also asked my dad to print the box on some extremely high-quality paper with his awesome printer, lol. The result was looking awesome. Thousands of thanks to both James and my dad for this incredible box quality.
View attachment 41638
View attachment 41639
And this is what the box next to an assembled Xii-Boy Ultra looks like! How cool is this?!
View attachment 41640
This box is truly gorgeous!

27/12/2025
Merry Christmas! I got a nice gift for you guys; the first kit was packaged!
View attachment 41641View attachment 41642
View attachment 41643View attachment 41644
The quality of the box, stickers, etc., was truly perfect in my opinion.
Those two kits are the ones of Marius and Alex! The two French Beta testers!

I first packaged those, since sending to France from Switzerland is surprisingly simpler than sending to the United States. I have no idea how, though, if someone knows, lemme know!

29/12/2025
After an awesome day of skiing in the Alps, I got home with my last goal of this whole project: sending.
I checked everything and made sure everything was properly packaged. I went to the Swiss Post with my package. It was a really exciting moment.
This was the first kit I've ever sold in my whole life. I took almost 2 years to get to that point, so I think you can understand how I felt.
The person at the post office took my package. I felt pride!

31/12/2025
Of course you know why this day is important, the last of 2025.
I think we couldn't end the year any better.
My first Beta Tester, and my great friend Modding Marius just got my package! It cointained both Marius and Alex's kits!
Sending both of them in the same package was able to save a bit on delievery cost and custom fees.
View attachment 41645
Of course, as a true Swiss, I couldn't miss an opportunity to give some awesome Swiss chocolate to my French neighbors!
I don't really know if they preferred the chocolate more than my kits; both are a solid choice to be frank

January 2026
Happy New Year! I wish you all the best
To be perfectly frank, I didn't do a lot during January.
I spent a great amount of my time organizing for that one event.
I'm obviously talking about the Modding Marius live stream he made on Twitch!
I took a day off from school to be able to watch and help Marius over the chat.

After 5 long and stressful hours in front of 2500 people, Marius was able to make it boot! The world's first Xii-Boy Ultra Kit was done building!
In case you haven't seen the live stream yet, here is a link to his awesome Twitch channel. Marius gave his agreement to publish the live on Youtube for conservation, and also to allow Youtube translations to be available on the video. Of course some of the translations are a bit off, but I think it's great enouhg to be watched and understood. Here is the video! Have fun!


I'll also leave a link to this video Marius just finished:


And his Twitch channel:


I really thank Marius for his incredible work. Doing something this hard on a live stream is really stressful, and except for some mistakes, he really nailed it.

And now here we are! The next and final step is to send the remaining kits to the United States! 4 Beta Testers are still waiting for theirs.
We have found a solution; we just need to figure out some final details. Thanks to James once again for helping me with that part.
Once everything is ready, the kits will be sent.

I can't wait to finally send and finish this huge project!

Of course, this isn't the end at all; we're only close to the finish line of the Beta Kits.
Once everything is tested and optimized enough, the final kits will be available.

There is still a lot to do, but I'll keep you updated, I hope more than I used to over the past months.

Almost all the credit goes to the fabulous Xii-Boy Team.
Thousands of thanks to James. An awesome friend who handled all the boxes and bag sticker designs. The work he's done in such a little time is truly stunning.
Of course, I can't thank the Xii-Boy Team without thanking Bryce. A great friend who spent countless hours to make every single pixel of the guide as close to perfection as possible. He's done an awesome job.
Both James and Bryce worked a lot to make this whole project a reality. Nothing would have been possible without their determination. Collaborating was tough, mostly due to the time difference between Switzerland and the United States, but we did something incredible, that I'm sure most people will really enjoy.

I also wanted to thank Modding Marius for his awesome job. Making this incredible project on Twitch was an awesome experience for both him and me.
Definitely check out his content; you won't regret it.

Of course, a lot of thanks to the other Beta Testers! I know the kits haven't been sent yet, but I already know it's gonna be awesome.

Many thanks to these people:
- @Aurelio for the time he took fixing some issues with the 4LayerTech Boards
- @YveltalGriffin for all the advice with shipping
- @Gman for some advice to properly remove the 4LayerTech modules from my old boards
- All the Beta Testers for their patience, motivation, and constant support for those kits!
- Modding Marius for his videos, Twitch live stream, and all his support
- The Xii-Boy Team for everything I listed a bit above.
- You guys for your constant support. All of this gives me incredible motivation.

Before posting this episode, I also wanted to mention some things.
This episode took almost a week of writing. I really tried to do my best to improve my English vocabulary. I hope this is noticeable and that my content becomes overall more enjoyable to read.

Speaking of content, I just opened an Instagram account. For now, I don't really have anything to post, but I probably will soon. It's also a neat way of contact in case you need help, answers to questions, and anything similar. I'll put a link here in case you wanna take a look: My Instagram account

I'll probably take a little break from the forums and Discord. The past months have been really stressful, and I need a break to relax and become even stronger with even crazier projects!

I think that's all for this third episode! Hope you enjoyed reading it!
As always, have an awesome day, and see ya next time!

PS: "I really hate wires, but I enjoy mountains (and chocolate of course)." - Xenii 2026

Just about to build my first portable, I would love to build this one after Im done the Ashida, great work!

 

[TheCATDocter]

Alright, it's been way too long...

Hi guys! Welcome to the episode #3 of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kits Worklog!
First of all, happy new year! I know I'm a bit late, but it was important for me to mention it

A lot of things happened during the past months. I really wanted to update the worklog, but I got busy.
Since delaying the worklog even more would give more things to talk about, I decided it was the right time to catch up on what I forgot to do.
I'll try to catch up and make a great worklog episode that talks about everything me and the Xii-Boy Team have been working on since October.

This episode will probably be a bit messy, and I apologize, but I still hope you'll enjoy reading it.
To change a bit the formula, and since everything I'll post here is basically an exact copy of the content I shared over my Discord Server, I'll now share the date of which things happened. (Just before continuing, I just wanted to mention that dates will be at the format DD/MM/YYYY, it's just the one I'm used to, and the one we're using here in Switzerland.)

Anyway, let's begin!

7/10/2025
A day after the latest worklog episode, I mentioned I had issues with JLC due to some mistakes in the PCBs and the shell.
I realized that the way I've designed some of the new parts of the revision 2 were done wrong. So I decided to change half of the JLC order and start over, with well-designed parts.
The Main PCB for instance was designed to be 1mm thick instead of the traditional 1.6mm. This might sound like a stupidly small change, but it means a lot. Some parts with springs elements (especially battery tabs part) would easily break when inserting the batteries, or by dropping the console. To avoid this, I decided to change the shell and some PCBs to avoid this issue.
The changes were really stressful to do, but I had no choice. I was grateful JLC was really patient about the situation, because it was a kind of mess.

In the meanwhile, I decided to work on the final touches of the kits! The first one I wanted to do was the kit's box! Just because to be frank, it's the prettiest part, and probably the most exciting things you see when you receive the kit.

After some time spent in Gimp, this is what I ended up with. It was really simple, but did the job. I'll later talk about how my colleagues at the Xii-Boy Team helped me making it much better.
View attachment 41610
Orange is my favorite color for some reason, and I thought Beta Revision was cool, so I wanted to make the box the same color as my favorite one.


9/10/2025
The first package came in! Packages will be something really repetitive, and I hope the local deliver of the isolated countryside I live in wasn't too angry about carrying that quantity of packages
The first package was Digikey components! Even though it seems really boring, I really liked receiving the hundreds of components needed for this project.
You might notice that ordering components by myself means I won't use PCBA for this project. And yes, it was a decision I took. Since I really needed to test the new revision, I needed to make sure everything works well.
If a PCB needs correction (using somehow CURSED WIRES), I needed to know exactly where and how to change has to happen. Furthermore, I wanted to know exactly what makes assembling PCBs slow. So maybe, in a soon will, I'll try to update the design to make that part quicker to do for either me, or PCBA if I decide to switch over.

This day was also the one when JLCPCB accepted all the changes I made to the order and proceed the final payment. The only thing I was hoping now is that everything will get here safely, and most importantly, make sure everything works as intended. Only future will tell!


15/10/2025
I received the first AliExpress package!
View attachment 41611
It's a new soldering hot plate! My previous one was really tiny, only 5x5cm, but it was cheap, and big enough for what I used to do with it.
But times have changed, and I now needed a bigger plate to assemble the PCBs faster. This one is 15x15cm, which is big enough to cook two Main PCBs at the same time!


17/10/2025
17 days after the JLCPCB payment, I woke up with a great news: PCBs are done producing and have been sent to my way!
I was really excited, but was honestly really scared of receiving a huge invoice of custom fees.

I also start receiving some other AliExpress packages!
The new fans from Winsinn seemed really promising! The quality is much better than the old ones, and from what I tested on my power supply they seemed way smoother, and fortunately way quieter.
Heatsinks were another feeling, even though I used them on all my Xii-Boys, I was scared they had changed, which would not look well at all in the shell, since the "blades" of the heatsink are aligned with the shell.
But great news, they did not change. Sending bags, battery PCM IC, screws, metal grids for speakers and sending bags were all mine! Those were really exciting as well!

I also tested the new fan on my Xii-Boy Ultra. We had some issues with the PWM system. As I mentioned in another post, PWM might not always work with 2-wires fans. Those new one probably have a capacitor to smooth the fan out, but in that case, it avoided the fan to spin properly. Since we can't access it, the only option to keep adaptable fan speed was to modify the PWM frequency. With the help of @Aurelio, we were able to find the best frequency to work the best with the new fan.


21/20/2025
When I came back home from school, my father told me I received many packages! I was really excited!
He wasn't wrong! I got 3 packages, all really exciting as planned.

The first one were the custom copper plates. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but I ordered some custom sized copper plates from an Alibaba seller. Trimming copper is annoying, and the Xii-Boys need a specific size of copper plate. This was a fast and convenient way to get those for relatively cheap, and with the best kind of copper for thermal conductivity, copper 110.

The second package was AliExpress, I honestly don't recall what was inside, but I guess it was pretty much everything else I needed for the kits. Some components, screens, bubble wrap, and so more.

Third one was JLCPCB! OHHH YEAH!
I think every modder on the BitBuilt community enjoys those blue boxes. Well I actually got 4! Three of them were full of PCBs, and the last one was the shells and 3D printed buttons!
View attachment 41612
Even though time flew, even though I needed to go to bed, I wanted to unbox those packages. So I did!
Here is a picture of the new MJF shell I've ordered from my own revision 2 build I've showcased here: Xii-Boy Ultra Revision 2 - BitBuilt.net
You can see compared to an SLS shell. MJF has bigger grains, which sounds worse, but they are actually way less sharp, which gives a general smoother feeling.
View attachment 41613
^ SLS on top, MJF on bottom

22/10/2025
If I remember correctly, this was a Wednesday. This doesn't bring anything, I just wanted to mention it.
Anyway, I got some really high quality speakers from Alibaba! Those were the same I was used to, but they came with a custom cable's length and connector. No more issue with the constantly changing connector @Bryceshaw06 and @Hili had.
This time it's reliable, always the same, and fits just well in the console! You can find a picture right here!
View attachment 41614

24/10/2025
Alright, so I had the components, the PCBs, the tools, what was left? Oh right! Time!
I finally find some this day to start assembling the PCBs! I first wanted to mention that I assembled those board to test the new revision 2.
I started with the easiest; the Xii-Strip!
This big PicoLock connector can be bit tricky to solder properly due to the big GND and voltage polygons there are on this board.
With a decent and thick tip and a bit of flux, I was able to solder it pretty decently I'd say!
The thermistor is also pretty big. 0603 is about 2x1mm big. Even though it sounds small, I swear those are big compared to 0402 or even 0201
View attachment 41617

Next up; Trigger PCB!
This board is pretty simple. 3 connectors, 2 buttons, and it's done!
First time I took use of my stencils. To use them, I first used the good old technique of taping multiple boards to my desk to get one properly placed and safely secured.
View attachment 41622
The result wasn't good, and pretty time consuming, so I ended up modeling jigs in 3D. Took a bit of time, and adjustments, but it was really worth it. Made the whole thing easier.

After a few minutes, the trigger PCBs was done!
View attachment 41618View attachment 41619

I then continued with the Controller PCB:
View attachment 41620View attachment 41621

And then the Xii-DD:
View attachment 41623

And to finish smoothly, the Main PCB!
View attachment 41625View attachment 41626

After some quick shorts tests of shorts, continuity and visual checks, the boards were completed!
The next step was to play the Xii-Boy Ultra for the last time before it's final disassembly. When time came, I removed each board at a time. Slowly removing the screws, the boards, the parts, and all the parts inside the Xii-Boy Ultra.

Then a tricky thing: moving the 4LayerTech modules to the new boards. Even after removing all the solder I was able to remove, they were still too strongly attached to the boards. I had to slowly cut the old solder with an X-Acto knife.
It was a real mess, but I ended up removing all the components safely, even though my excess heat bent some of them. Oooops!
I then spent countless hours removing and reinstalling parts from the old to the new Xii-Boy Ultra. Xii-Flex was a pain. Not because the design is problematic, but mostly because it was the third time I changed, which really damaged the board in some places. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to solder Bluetooth back; the tracks were just broken. To avoid wires, I didn't use magnet wires to get things back on track; I decided to get rid of Bluetooth. I don't really use it in the end, and I got pretty upset with this part, and I really didn't want any wire in this console.

Anyway, it was almost midnight, I was tired, but I got the console to boot better than it ever did.
View attachment 41627

Due to the "technique" I used to remove the 4Layer modules, I created a short caused by an old trace stuck underneath the RVL-AMP. Removing it without breaking the pads again was a real challenge. But the short was gone!
I then attached wires (TEMPORARY) to test if the board was still working.
View attachment 41628
After all this heat, the RVL-AMP was a bit bent. Hopefully it wasn't a huge issue in the end, I was able to solder it back, even with this little issue.
Great news, RVL-AMP was still working. I was able to remove my wires (for God's sake) and finally install it the way it should have been. It's not flat, but at least it doesn't have wires anymore, which is what matters the most (don't argue with this). I took some sleep and ended up finishing the console the following day.

26/10/2025:
The console was done! It was working!
Pretty much everything I wanted to fix was fixed! I still had some little mistakes, but nothing as bothersome as what Bryce and I were used to with the first REV0
I also made a cutting-edge post; I'm not sure if it was this date, probably not, but at least this is when the console was finished.

The only true and real mistake I've done is this one:
View attachment 41630
I don't really know what was going on, but for some reason, a change I've made in the shell was not in the final file.
Nothing terrible though, it was just this Wii screw post being 0.8mm too high. It's caused by the new Xii-Strip which cover this screw post, so it needs to be 0.8mm less high to be perfectly flat.

It also meant something more important: I can start assembling all the boards for the Beta Kits!
This was really exciting!!!

30/10/2025:
Alright! The day has come!
It was finally the time to assemble all the boards for the Beta Kits!
I got pretty excited and took some pictures. I first started with the trigger PCB. Since I got my jigs to be perfectly adjusted, I was able to assemble the board pretty quickly and with only a few pads to reflow, instead of the whole component.

After half an hour, I had all the Trigger PCBs done and cleaned!
View attachment 41631

1/11/2025
New month, new PCBs to assemble!
Was time for the Controller PCB!
I was really happy to have my new heating plate; it helped a lot!
View attachment 41632

The assembly of these boards went really well. I only had one little issue with this one: the connector has kind of shifted, so the pads are not aligned with the pins they should be
View attachment 41634
It seems like a huge pain to correct, but it was pretty easy! I used my tiny soldering plate to quickly heat the board, and I gave a little push to the left to put the connector in place.

I also did the Xii-DD PCBs, the one that holds both RVL-DD from 4LayerTech and connectors to allow signals to flow through it!
The final boss was the Main PCBs! This one takes a lot of time. There are a lot of connectors I need to solder, a lot of tiny resistances, chips, and components in general.
View attachment 41633
It took some time, but after testing all the PCM circuits (the extra battery protections the Xii-Boy Ultra has), all the boards were working perfectly!


7/11/2025
I got pretty busy these days designing the boxes, and helping send some pictures for the guide.
In the meanwhile, @Bryceshaw06 and @JamesPi, my teammates from the Xii-Boy Team, were making some incredible progress on the guide.
I sent James all the 3D files of the console to create some really nice renders for the guide's main page.
View attachment 41635View attachment 41636
I informed both James and Bryce that if they wanted to write a little post underneath this one to know exactly what they've done in detail, they could!
I'm sure this could be great, so feel free to mention how you you worked!

11/11/2025
The eleventh day of the eleventh month. That is the only date of this whole post the American will be familiar with
Anyway, this day was great! The previous one got really exciting. After the first box prototype, James asked me if I wanted some help to upgrade what I've done. Because yes, it looked good to my eyes, but James and Bryce have much better eyes than I do
I, of course, accepted his help. After a few weeks polishing each detail and centimeter of the box, we ended up with this:
View attachment 41637
Since we got the final boxes, we were able to really adjust the box size. The one I showcased previously was a simple JLC box with the same-ish dimensions.
James added a lot of glowing effects of purple and orange which look awesome in my opinion.

The end of November was extremely busy on my side. I had to work a lot for a school project I needed to finish. I'll talk more about it in a further thread.
I didn't really have the time to work on the kits. We were also concerned about whether we would be able to ship the packages. The situation was unchanged, and it was still a pain we will need to figure out. However, the tarrifs against Switzerland are been lowered do 15% instead of the 39% we had since August 2025.

Since this part was really bothering me, I decided to start packaging the kits.
There were two things missing:
- The back part of the box, which is a sleeve printed in two parts
- All the bags stickers.

Those things sound simple and fast to do, but they were not. They took almost a month. We did many different designs, tried different things, and sometimes, just started over to get something really close to perfection.
James was extremely patient, kind and often offered help and adjustments. The Team and I spent countless hours on calls, just figuring out how we need to do the remaining parts.

We progressed slowly, but surely. Everything started looking awesome and perfect. Those times were really tricky due to all the things that happened at the same time. Collaborating isn't easy either. James and I have a 6-hour delay. When I wake up, he goes to bed. Bryce and I have 9 hours, which is surprisingly not worse

I really thank the Xii-Boy team for their countless hours spent to make every part as perfect as possible. We gently started to see the finish line of this project.

2/12/2025
This day, I didn't do anything, to be perfectly frank. I only mention it because it was my birthday. I turned 17. So I wanted to thank everybody here for their support. BitBuilt is an amazing community, which I really enjoy.
I ordered my first PCBs exactly 2 years earlier for my Xii-Boy Original as a birthday present, and all of this was thanks to you. I'm extremely grateful for the help, support, and everything BitBuilt has to give for random people like me.
Thanks for everything, guys!

I also took a little break from the kits to celebrate my birthday with my family, and to relax after the busy weeks I got.

20/12/2025
Bags were done, same for the front box.
I started packaging everything! I stole a thermal sticker printer from my dad; he didn't notice, and some "paper trimming machine". I don't have a single clue of what that thing is called, even in French...
I also asked my dad to print the box on some extremely high-quality paper with his awesome printer, lol. The result was looking awesome. Thousands of thanks to both James and my dad for this incredible box quality.
View attachment 41638
View attachment 41639
And this is what the box next to an assembled Xii-Boy Ultra looks like! How cool is this?!
View attachment 41640
This box is truly gorgeous!

27/12/2025
Merry Christmas! I got a nice gift for you guys; the first kit was packaged!
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The quality of the box, stickers, etc., was truly perfect in my opinion.
Those two kits are the ones of Marius and Alex! The two French Beta testers!

I first packaged those, since sending to France from Switzerland is surprisingly simpler than sending to the United States. I have no idea how, though, if someone knows, lemme know!

29/12/2025
After an awesome day of skiing in the Alps, I got home with my last goal of this whole project: sending.
I checked everything and made sure everything was properly packaged. I went to the Swiss Post with my package. It was a really exciting moment.
This was the first kit I've ever sold in my whole life. I took almost 2 years to get to that point, so I think you can understand how I felt.
The person at the post office took my package. I felt pride!

31/12/2025
Of course you know why this day is important, the last of 2025.
I think we couldn't end the year any better.
My first Beta Tester, and my great friend Modding Marius just got my package! It cointained both Marius and Alex's kits!
Sending both of them in the same package was able to save a bit on delievery cost and custom fees.
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Of course, as a true Swiss, I couldn't miss an opportunity to give some awesome Swiss chocolate to my French neighbors!
I don't really know if they preferred the chocolate more than my kits; both are a solid choice to be frank

January 2026
Happy New Year! I wish you all the best
To be perfectly frank, I didn't do a lot during January.
I spent a great amount of my time organizing for that one event.
I'm obviously talking about the Modding Marius live stream he made on Twitch!
I took a day off from school to be able to watch and help Marius over the chat.

After 5 long and stressful hours in front of 2500 people, Marius was able to make it boot! The world's first Xii-Boy Ultra Kit was done building!
In case you haven't seen the live stream yet, here is a link to his awesome Twitch channel. Marius gave his agreement to publish the live on Youtube for conservation, and also to allow Youtube translations to be available on the video. Of course some of the translations are a bit off, but I think it's great enouhg to be watched and understood. Here is the video! Have fun!


I'll also leave a link to this video Marius just finished:


And his Twitch channel:


I really thank Marius for his incredible work. Doing something this hard on a live stream is really stressful, and except for some mistakes, he really nailed it.

And now here we are! The next and final step is to send the remaining kits to the United States! 4 Beta Testers are still waiting for theirs.
We have found a solution; we just need to figure out some final details. Thanks to James once again for helping me with that part.
Once everything is ready, the kits will be sent.

I can't wait to finally send and finish this huge project!

Of course, this isn't the end at all; we're only close to the finish line of the Beta Kits.
Once everything is tested and optimized enough, the final kits will be available.

There is still a lot to do, but I'll keep you updated, I hope more than I used to over the past months.

Almost all the credit goes to the fabulous Xii-Boy Team.
Thousands of thanks to James. An awesome friend who handled all the boxes and bag sticker designs. The work he's done in such a little time is truly stunning.
Of course, I can't thank the Xii-Boy Team without thanking Bryce. A great friend who spent countless hours to make every single pixel of the guide as close to perfection as possible. He's done an awesome job.
Both James and Bryce worked a lot to make this whole project a reality. Nothing would have been possible without their determination. Collaborating was tough, mostly due to the time difference between Switzerland and the United States, but we did something incredible, that I'm sure most people will really enjoy.

I also wanted to thank Modding Marius for his awesome job. Making this incredible project on Twitch was an awesome experience for both him and me.
Definitely check out his content; you won't regret it.

Of course, a lot of thanks to the other Beta Testers! I know the kits haven't been sent yet, but I already know it's gonna be awesome.

Many thanks to these people:
- @Aurelio for the time he took fixing some issues with the 4LayerTech Boards
- @YveltalGriffin for all the advice with shipping
- @Gman for some advice to properly remove the 4LayerTech modules from my old boards
- All the Beta Testers for their patience, motivation, and constant support for those kits!
- Modding Marius for his videos, Twitch live stream, and all his support
- The Xii-Boy Team for everything I listed a bit above.
- You guys for your constant support. All of this gives me incredible motivation.

Before posting this episode, I also wanted to mention some things.
This episode took almost a week of writing. I really tried to do my best to improve my English vocabulary. I hope this is noticeable and that my content becomes overall more enjoyable to read.

Speaking of content, I just opened an Instagram account. For now, I don't really have anything to post, but I probably will soon. It's also a neat way of contact in case you need help, answers to questions, and anything similar. I'll put a link here in case you wanna take a look: My Instagram account

I'll probably take a little break from the forums and Discord. The past months have been really stressful, and I need a break to relax and become even stronger with even crazier projects!

I think that's all for this third episode! Hope you enjoyed reading it!
As always, have an awesome day, and see ya next time!

PS: "I really hate wires, but I enjoy mountains (and chocolate of course)." - Xenii 2026

Just merely beginning my research on wii portables, I've been wanting to build one for years. I'm looking to build a G-Wii, but I am also interested in building a G-boy. I stumbled upon this model recently, and I think it's fantastic work! I'm just curious as to what the major differences are between the Xii-Boy and the G-Boy (since to me they look similar). Also, when and where are you planning to release the kits? I'd love to know.

 

[Xenii]

Just merely beginning my research on wii portables, I've been wanting to build one for years. I'm looking to build a G-Wii, but I am also interested in building a G-boy. I stumbled upon this model recently, and I think it's fantastic work! I'm just curious as to what the major differences are between the Xii-Boy and the G-Boy (since to me they look similar). Also, when and where are you planning to release the kits? I'd love to know.

Hi!
Thanks for the kind words.
Overall, I’d say the Xii-Boy is the newest Gboy. The Gboy came out in 2020 if I’m not mistaken, and a lot of innovations have been done since.

Basically, the Xii-Boy is smaller, thinner and feels much better. It also includes analog triggers, perfect for GameCube games.

The console also has built in WiFi for online gaming + Bluetooth to connect WiiMote.

It also features the best video quality and compatibility, a much better screen, better audio, rumble motor, a more optimized button layout, and all the features coming from the 4LayerTech modules.

The wirefree system allows each person to easily disassemble the console in case you want to change the shell, or repair it. It’s also more reliable, and much more premium.

The kits are delayed. I have no clue when I’ll be able to continue or even ship the beta kits to the United Stares, because this hasn’t been done yet. I’ll try to keep everyone updated, but I’ll maybe wait for the global situation to become better and more stable before selling final kits.

Hope this answers your questions.
Feel free to reach out if you have others!
Have a nice one.

 

[Xenii]

Hi there!
Last episode came out three months earlier, so I thought it would be nice to make a little post to share our latest progress.
First, I apologize for the lack of updates. I've been running in an intermediate exam period at school. Therefore, my time is kinda limited, and I spent most of it studying instead of actually doing things I like . Hopefully this period is almost over, so I wanted to take the time to update this worklog.
This episode will not bring a lot of updates, more fun fact and little progress than a huge episode like the last one.

After successfully shipped the Xii-Boy Ultra Beta Kits to France, the Xii-Labs (previously called the Xii-Boy Team) and I had to find a way to ship the kits in the United States of America.
As I mentioned many times previously, shipping packages to the USA has getting quite complicated. The American government announced a reduction of the tariffs for goods originally from Switzerland. Since November 2025, Switzerland "only" faces 15% instead of the 39% we had since the 1st of August 2025.

We thought this reduction might bring the Swiss Post to relaunch their shipping services towards the United States, but it did not. We then decided to find a new way to ship the packages. As I mentioned, UPS seemed to be a decent solution. The service was much more expensive than the Swiss Post, but it was far cheaper than what DHL or Fedex quoted. However, shipping the packages to each individual person was not a convenient solution. Therefore, we started looking for people who could help us with that process. The idea was to ship all the kits as once to reduce custom fees and overall divide the shipping cost.

@YveltalGriffin gently offered his help! After a little organization with the other beta testers, the kits were ready to ship!

My next mission was to packed them up. It was quite complicated, because I only had 1.5cm of margin on each side, otherwise the package would be too big for UPS which would ask an additional fee. Hopefully, I was able to properly packed them up in the required space!

Creating the shipping labels and custom declaration was a huge challenge. For some reason, the UPS website was extremely glitchy. I had countless errors, and I actually "soft locked" the website after processing the payment (which hopefully, didn't go through). It kept telling me "we suggest you to call the UPS support". After noticing representatives might not speak either English or French, I took my courage to hopefully find someone who didn't only speak German lmao. I called, but I quickly realized no one was there to help me, and then I noticed it was already 11pm

Yveltal was able to help me to figure this out, and the next day, the package was ready for drop out!
And then the issues started again...

Basically, there is a Swiss Post center in basically every village. UPS centers are much rarer. I found one which was only 15 minutes of drive from my house, so we went there! Proud of finally dropping out the project we've been working on for a year now! But then, we realized the building was not the same as the one on the picture, even though the address was correct. I entered anyway, hoping to find some information, and I quickly realized I entered a beauty saloon

Just to make sure, I asked without any confidence "Is this the UPS shipping center?", and as you guessed, it was not...
I hope they didn't find me too weird

So yup, the UPS website was not up-to-date... It's been 3 years since the shipping center has moved. We looked up to the next closest UPS center from where we were, and turned out it was only 10 minutes of drive further. We went there, I asked again "Is this the UPS shipping center?" And they answered me "Nope, you must be confusing, this has never been an UPS shipping center. The closest one is 30 minutes away..."

Screw it. We went there, not even in the same canton, I entered exhausted in that shop, and I asked for the third time "Is this the UPS shipping center?" At this point, I didn't really expect anything, and they answered "YES!"

After almost two hours of driving, the package was finally dropped out.
The only thing I wished now is to not receive any mails from UPS saying "something is wrong".

And after a week, the arrived successfully! Yveltal then carefully send the kits towards each Beta Testers in the United States, and everybody received their kit in an awesome shape!

The next and almost final step of this huge journey is to wait to receive the Beta Tester's opinion on the kit, and adjust anything if needed!
We should expect some really cool consoles, videos and more coming soon!

We also have planned the official release of the Xii-Boy Ultra during the summer holidays if everything goes according to plans. This conerns the awesome guide made by Bryce and James, the final revision of the console on Github, the Discord community server, and more!

Finally, I wanted to send a thousand thanks to YveltalGriffin for his huge work and contribution to the project. We would probably still be stuck today if he didn't offer his help. Everything has been handled perfectly thanks to him, and we are extremely helpful of his help. Thank you, Yveltal, we are extremely grateful, and I'll never say that enough

I guess that's all for this little update! Thanks to everyone who helped and supported the project so far
Have an awesome day and see you next time!