Question Casual attempt at pWii, various questions

[Aurelio]

Bah, killjoy =]

I just looked up some benchmarks and it looks like 4 µs accuracy is the best anybody's managed to get out of the GPIO ports. For some reason I had it in my head that it could do better. I suppose I could pull out that Arduino I've been meaning to play with for a while, but learning that's likely a separate project of its own.

Ah well, I'll leave that off the table for now.

If you want to do this go ahead, but it's not as easy as it may seem, especially if you don't have much experience. It's not easy to get the protocol to work. Consider that I wrote GC+ completely in assembly...

 

[Shank]

I do not like coding in assembly

Avoid assembly if you can

Fuck assembly

It will be worth it, but this is not fun

I never want to use assembly again

Not exact quotes, but from what I remember, Aurelio had strong opinions about assembly while writing the early stages of the GC+ code.

 

[cheese]

"Fuck assembly", the only way to describe the fun of assembly in two words.

 

[Noah]

I'd skimmed that thread but hadn't seriously considered it due to what I assume would be high demand/low supply, and rather outrageous shipping costs.

Is there stock sitting around collecting dust somewhere on the north american continent for a reasonable price?

As Aurelio said, it's on the store. Not sure where you saw these "outrageous" shipping costs because in America it's like $2.60 for shipping.

 

[Wulf]

As Aurelio said, it's on the store. Not sure where you saw these "outrageous" shipping costs because in America it's like $2.60 for shipping.

due to what I assume

Such are the dangers of being a lackadaisical assumer.

Fuck assembly

I actually enjoy assembly.

Of course, I'm sure it's much more enjoyable to hack around and insert your own code into programs that have already compiled successfully than it is to implement a communications protocol in it from scratch, but I enjoy it for what I do with it.

 

[Wulf]

As Aurelio said, it's on the store. Not sure where you saw these "outrageous" shipping costs because in America it's like $2.60 for shipping.

Also, the store doesn't list the price of shipping to Canada until I enter CC details, so yeah, I'll still assume the shipping costs are an undisclosed amount higher than $2.60.

 

[ShockSlayer]

~$9

 

[cheese]

shipping to Canada

I'm sorry for your loss of funds due to shipping for anything, it's pretty ridiculous how much more it is just to go a bit past the US/Canada border .-.

 

[Pinotte]

I'm sorry for your loss of funds due to shipping for anything, it's pretty ridiculous how much more it is just to go a bit past the US/Canada border .-.

We candians have it tough with the extra shipping charges, border taxes and the currently very shitty exchange rate

 

[Air Conditioner]

I say we smuggle our niche electronics across the border!

 

[Wulf]

How many chips per rectumload are we talking here?

....so anyway, for the life of me i can't find 12v on this motherboard. Everything's vcc or <= 5v. Is 12v ever actually exposed or is it just on the voltage layer?

Also, can anybody explain why when I'm measuring vcc at 15v, it measures fine, but when i try to measure it at 8v i get 0v readings?

 

[Madmorda]

Yes, that is correct @cheese . On most wiis there are 2 separate 12v lines, one of which is the main 12v power in, the other is the 12v regulated line.

The power in accepts anything above a certain voltage (10.1v minimum iirc) and can boost or buck it to 12v, creating a voltage line that is regulated at 12v. This regulated 12v line is where all the other regulators are powered from.

But IIRC, there was at least one board that did not have this 12v, or at least had all its regulators powered from the voltage in line. I do not remember which revision(s) this applies to, but I know it was an earlier one, and not any of the 4 layer boards.

So I'm doing my pre-parts-buying research for a wii portable, and the regulators are my main concern since that's really the only major thing I haven't attempted before. My understanding is that I will need 3 regulators (For 1v, 1.15v, 3.3v). However, one of the posts on this thread kind of threw me off. I assume I will probably also have a 12v line going from the battery to the main power line of the wii in addition to the 3 regulators. But Shank said something about a separate regulated 12v line. What does that mean and do I need to worry about it? I thought you only used the regulators to step down the voltage from 12v, so that's where I'm confused. Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.

TLR Do I need a custom regulator going to the 12v line on the wii?

 

[Wulf]

So I'm doing my pre-parts-buying research for a wii portable, and the regulators are my main concern since that's really the only major thing I haven't attempted before. My understanding is that I will need 3 regulators (For 1v, 1.15v, 3.3v). However, one of the posts on this thread kind of threw me off. I assume I will probably also have a 12v line going from the battery to the main power line of the wii in addition to the 3 regulators. But Shank said something about a separate regulated 12v line. What does that mean and do I need to worry about it? I thought you only used the regulators to step down the voltage from 12v, so that's where I'm confused. Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.

TLR Do I need a custom regulator going to the 12v line on the wii?

You won't need to provide a regulated 12v since the 12v is only provided as a stepping point on the way down to the lower voltages.

Since you're supplying the regulators you can just feed 5v, 3.3v etc directly from vcc in.

I assume it was cheaper to mass produce regulators with less tolerance on a guaranteed 12v than more tolerance on whatever came in.

 

[Madmorda]

You won't need to provide a regulated 12v since the 12v is only provided as a stepping point on the way down to the lower voltages.

Since you're supplying the regulators you can just feed 5v, 3.3v etc directly from vcc in.

I assume it was cheaper to mass produce regulators with less tolerance on a guaranteed 12v than more tolerance on whatever came in.

Thank you very much for the help, that clears it up a lot. My last question then is do I also need to supply 12v to the main power line? I assume so, but I haven't been able to find a pinout or mention of it yet, so maybe I only need 1, 1.15, and 3.3?

 

[Wulf]

Assuming you're replacing all the regulators, you can ditch 12v completely.

 

[Madmorda]

Assuming you're replacing all the regulators, you can ditch 12v completely.

Thank you SO much for your help XD powering my gcp was much simpler.

 

[Shank]

The two 12v lines are only relevant on stock regulators. I was responding to a specific question about how the wii's stock regulators work. For custom regulators, the 12v line(s) are irrelevant.

If you are using custom regulators, the only lines you need are a 1v, 1.15v, 3.3v and a 5v regulator of some sort that will be used only by the USB drive.

 

[Wulf]

So I started hacking apart a classic controller to use for this. I'd have preferred a GC for the feel, but I seem to have misplaced a bin of my old stuff and I could only find one. I'd rather give up a CC than my last GC controller, so here we are.

http://wulf2k.ca/ClassicController-start.jpg [/IMG]

Edit: I think Flashblock / Noscript hate the image thing here.


Shitty soldering job, but it did the trick first try so yay for me. I should really invest in a finer tipped iron, though then I'd lose the ability to blame my tools instead of myself.

I haven't decided yet if my next cut is going to be between the Y/start, or the right/back. I'm thinking the right/back gives me more room to screw up, and those tiny traces/pads are definitely going to strain my soldering skills. Of course, for symmetry I'll probably end up doing both cuts and having the chip/home/start/back in the middle, but we'll see how that first cut goes.

Does anybody know what the regulator situation is in the wiimotes themselves? Switching, or LDO? I assume LDO, and that it would build up a ridiculous amount of heat if I tried to power it from 5v instead of 3ish, assuming it didn't just fry it in the first place.

Can the wiimote be powered from the CC side?

 

[cheese]

though then I'd lose the ability to blame my tools instead of myself.

Ayy the plight of do it yourselfers

Edit: I think Flashblock / Noscript hate the image thing here.

You know, the upload a file button works for pictures, even on mobile

I believe the remotes actually have a boost circuit. They run on 3.3v afaik, and 2 AA cells gives ~3v at full charge. I haven't tested if they can be powered from the expansion port, but I can test when I go home for Thanksgiving break if you'd like.

 

[Wulf]

That would be nice, assuming you're at least mildly curious yourself.