Worklog The "Atlantii": Wii portable, in Advance AGB formfactor.

[Anris]

Background:
I have made 3 portable Wii designs throughout my education as an electronics engineer.
Every time i felt like i really learned something new.
I put it to use in a new portable idea.
I have posted about the last one, the "Wii backpack", and may make posts about the first two projects at some point as they are also quite fun.
After 2.5 years working full time having a bachelor degree, i have now returned to university for a masters.
And as i am "advancing" myself, i felt it appropriate to make an Advance inspired Wii build.

I love 4:3 content, and the advance originally has an aspect of 3:2, quite close.
I chose to build the design around the 3.5" 4:3 640x480 IPS Screen.
This is about 1.2 times bigger then the original screen, so the whole build will be about 1.2 times bigger than the original GBA.
I got to sketching and brainstorming:

Research and planning:
After a few years of working, not having followed BitBuild in that time, i got myself up to date with the forums and happenings in portabilizing.
I was very impressed seeing the Xiiboy Ultra and the progress in transfering the BGA chips of the Wii.
Shoutout to @Xenii & @B_rob1

Goals and rules for the project:

• KISS: Keep it simple stupid.
  • Limit moving parts and wires where possible.
  • Keep number of PCB's to a minimum.
• Design for manufacturing.
  • Too often the portables are made with the end goal in mind, building while designing for making one single console.
    • With the Atlantii, i want it to be as easy as possible to build multiple portables fast and easily, without the process being too intensive.
• Open source.
  • Best part about the Bitbuild-scene is everyone working together for better portable consoles in the future.
  • I have a few projects i want to implement or modify into my design, will do my very best to give credit and open source my files in the end.
• 4 Layer tech.
  • Nothing but respect for these guys. But i will try and avoid using the off the shelf PCB's from here that are not open sourced.
  • I want to keep the price of the project to an minimum, and shipping + import from USA to EU is a killer.
    • (The prices for their PCB's are super fair btw)
  • Just want to compact the design and myself have full control of as many components as possible.
• OMFG Wii trim.
  • I have bought a drying oven, a ultrasonic cleaner and re-balling jig for BGA chip relocation - but will save this for the next project in the future.
• I will save you all from listing to many of the "usual" features now. Will go through them as we go along the Worklog. Here is some of the more unusual features i want to implement.
  • HDMI output from an internal switcher circuit. Displaying & gaming on a bigger screen is sometimes wanted.
  • 1-2x original Gamecube ports for 2x player Gamecube controller & compatability with the original GBA for Pokemon Box & the likes.
  • IR diodes build into the design, so that Wii remote gameplay is as easy as pointing towards the console from a comfortable short distance.

Buttons & initial shell design:
So i have decided on re-using as many buttons as possible from other consoles and making the rest as 3D prints.

• Joysticks
  • Switch Joysticks
  • The Click on each i thought about also mapping to Start / Z
• ABXY / D-Pad
  • Thought about using Switch Lite buttons & Gamecube / SNES buttons.
  • Ended up with Nintendo DS lite buttons. They feel relly nice, and only bad availability will make me change it again in the future.
• Start button
  • Placed a small start button between D-Pad & Left Joystick - wanted to use a Gamecube start button and membrane. Might make something custom 3D printing it.
• L/R buttons
  • 3D modelled
  • I want to have a resistive slider and a push button on the PCB, making Supermario Sunshine controls reactive.
• Z-button.
  • Want to have something like the original Z-button on the back, will have to make a 3D print solution for this one i feel like.

I have downloaded scans of the GBA shell (Thanks @Wesk for your 2020 post)
Remodelling the case in Fusion in a 1.2x bigger size.
I have also found models of the intended buttons and made the layout.
A testprint later, holding it in my hands feels nice, size is perfect.

Thank you for reading along and look forward for my next post where i will have the buttons dialed in feeling nice. and getting to an outline for my main PCB.

 

[Anris]

Atlantii log #2
Perfection of buttons:

So the buttons of a DS lite and a Switch joycon are quite small and require precise height and internal design for the silicone and buttons to sit just right.
To save on printing a whole new front shell everytime i needed a test-fit. I made some small jigs to test the designs and measurements before porting them back into the shell design.
My screws i had for the joycon are a bit too long, but otherwise everything looks and feels nice now.

The L & R triggers:
Then came a challange i had not been looking forward too; The trigger design.
These triggers has quite a complex shape and interaction with the shell & sidepieces.
I want them to have a good amount of travel for the resistive slider to have a good effect and to mimick the original GBA triggers.
From modding GBA consoles alot, i have a ton of the original and 3rd party buttons laying around and designed around using an original steel spring. The trigger is 1,2 times larger but i hoped it would work just the same.
This is how the design came out:
Around 6 degrees of travel ~4-5mm travel in the outer area.
I will revisit the triggers again to make an interface with the slider and button on the main custom PCB.

Time to print and test it all out:
Printing went fine, testing with PLA, but want to do nylon or other heat resistant shell material for final design.
The PCB is printed as a dummy.
4 M3-screws from the back shell keep everything together atm.
There is a slit in the PCB for the screen flex-cable to come through. The rest of the PCB holds down the screen mechanically.
Playing around with a good placement for the screen-pcb, with a good bend and acces to the HDMI-port.
Everything came together nicely.

Results of button tests:
The triggers came out SO much better than i could have hoped for. The right was smooth like butter, the other scraped a little bit of plastic. So minor tweeks for a perfect fit every time.
All the other buttons and joysticks work great.
Exept for the Start button. I still havent done anything here. Its a bit in limbo, and need to look at that together with the Z-trigger / triggers.
The L/R triggers have a nice long travel and the original springs hold up just fine.
When holding and "playing" on the console, you can really feel the potential for a nice gaming experience.

Wrapping up and goals for next time:
For next time i want to look at.

• Batteries.
  • I want 2x 18650 batteries, but can allredy see that it might be a challenge.
• Import and place the OMGWTF trimmed Wii.
  • Make cooling and fan design.
• Make room for Z-triggers.
• Design a placement for speakers.

Thank you for following along. See you in the next post.

 

[Stitches]

Man that's nice

 

[MatthewCampbell]

Cool project. Any reason you are targeting 4 layer instead of 6? Just cost I’m guessing . I’m a bit unclear also you said it’s going to be a Wii? You going to reuse chips from the Wii? Is there a reliable way to do that ?

If you need help on pcb let me know

 

[Cjdamodder]

Atlantii log #2
Perfection of buttons:

So the buttons of a DS lite and a Switch joycon are quite small and require precise height and internal design for the silicone and buttons to sit just right.
To save on printing a whole new front shell everytime i needed a test-fit. I made some small jigs to test the designs and measurements before porting them back into the shell design.
My screws i had for the joycon are a bit too long, but otherwise everything looks and feels nice now.
View attachment 45087

The L & R triggers:
Then came a challange i had not been looking forward too; The trigger design.
These triggers has quite a complex shape and interaction with the shell & sidepieces.
I want them to have a good amount of travel for the resistive slider to have a good effect and to mimick the original GBA triggers.
From modding GBA consoles alot, i have a ton of the original and 3rd party buttons laying around and designed around using an original steel spring. The trigger is 1,2 times larger but i hoped it would work just the same.
This is how the design came out:
Around 6 degrees of travel ~4-5mm travel in the outer area.
I will revisit the triggers again to make an interface with the slider and button on the main custom PCB.
View attachment 45088View attachment 45089

Time to print and test it all out:
Printing went fine, testing with PLA, but want to do nylon or other heat resistant shell material for final design.
The PCB is printed as a dummy.
4 M3-screws from the back shell keep everything together atm.
There is a slit in the PCB for the screen flex-cable to come through. The rest of the PCB holds down the screen mechanically.
Playing around with a good placement for the screen-pcb, with a good bend and acces to the HDMI-port.
Everything came together nicely.
View attachment 45090View attachment 45091
View attachment 45093View attachment 45092

Results of button tests:
The triggers came out SO much better than i could have hoped for. The right was smooth like butter, the other scraped a little bit of plastic. So minor tweeks for a perfect fit every time.
All the other buttons and joysticks work great.
Exept for the Start button. I still havent done anything here. Its a bit in limbo, and need to look at that together with the Z-trigger / triggers.
The L/R triggers have a nice long travel and the original springs hold up just fine.
When holding and "playing" on the console, you can really feel the potential for a nice gaming experience.
View attachment 45095
View attachment 45094
Wrapping up and goals for next time:
For next time i want to look at.

• Batteries.
  • I want 2x 18650 batteries, but can allredy see that it might be a challenge.
• Import and place the OMGWTF trimmed Wii.
  • Make cooling and fan design.
• Make room for Z-triggers.
• Design a placement for speakers.

Thank you for following along. See you in the next post.

This is sick, I am a brand new modder but I really want to do something like this in the future, any tips?

 

[Anris]

Atlantii log #3
Answering questions:

Thanks for your interest in the worklog. Doing an update to the worklog now also to answer some of your questions.

• I am targeting 4-layer Wii, as that is more or less the only viable build for a "smaller" handheld.
  I relly want to do some stuf will 6-layer Wiis in the future, but that will be more targeted against a table-top labtop or something without batteries.
• The Wii will be cut up into the OMGWTF trim (maybe with a small extra angle and some specific sizes as you will see soon)
• I have not gotten to the PCB yet, but i will do my best on it myself before i open sourcing it. The project is a test of skill and an expression in electronics from my side.
• If you see this and get motivated to do something similar yourself, i am very glad.
  My best advise is to be patient and enjoy the journey.
  As i said in the beginning of the worklog i have already designed and made 3 full fledged handheld/portable consoles before. This is not my first rodeo.
  You just got to start and try and get something together, i started myself with buying off the shelf boards for everything from Aliexpress and soldering it together.
  Spend hundreds of hours in Fusion to get a shell done as i wanted it.
  Made for an all right handheld and was very proud.
  Start at a difficulty where you think you can succeed and go from there.

Battery placement:

As i alluded to in my last post. The inclusion of 2x 18650 batteries was a tough quest.
At first i wanted to include the two batteries in the "battery bay" where the original GBA has 2 AA batteries. Would be the perfect fit.
But alas, as hard as i tried, the stackup became too thick.
Right now the whole console is exactly 3 cm thick excluding the extension from the buttons.
I did not want to extend the battery bay into a big bulge, tried having the cells next to the print and to bouth sides.
It was just barely short, the back of the console collided every time.

I even had a weak moment where i tried implementing the batteries into the sides like "handles".
This would do some nice things:
- Make the 2 batteries includable
- Make for some decent handles on the console
- Make for support on the button, making the console able to stand upright by itself for tabletop Wii remote gameplay
- Make the console impossible to place downright flat on the back (blocking the fan intake)
- So many pros... But it would not really be the "Atlantii" anymore without the Advance formfactor.

So i stuck to it.

The solution on the battery question came from changing my focus to one single 21700 cell instead.
There is like exactly one placement there the trimmed Wii board can be all the way to one side and still have the cell placed upright next to it.

I am planning to have a single PCB catching the Cell, doing the BMS, regulation and distribution connecting directly to the Wii PCB like others before me has also done.

Cooling setup:
As you may have seen from my pictures above, i have also given the Wii PCB a cooling setup.
It is a classic setup with a copper plate, heatsink and a fan.
The copper plate will sit on the Hollywood & Broadway chips on the Wii with thermal paste, on that a finned heatsink will sit on a bit more than half of the plate while a fan will suck air in from the back and blow it up the top.
The lower plateau on the console is perfect for this.
I had to completely remake the shape for the back compared to the beginning of the worklog. I still need to verify this with a print, but i like the smoother shapes a bit more and it gives a bit more breathing room for the board and the battery cell while still looking very much like a Gameboy Advance.
With this new shape, i also tried moving the screw holes to where the original placements are for that added effect

Speakers:
Lastly, i added speakers.
Have found some thin speakers with pointy pins that can interface directly with my main custom board.
Added them in stereo fashion in the front of the console.

That is about it for now.
Am happy that you are following along, i am working a bit on this project every day. Will bunch some progress up like i have done untill now for your next post.

For next time want to dial in a perfect shape for the Wii trim. I want to be able to supply a "stencil" for the cutout / sanding, for making the shape of the Wii PCB more predictable, as even a handful mm extra size means a lot in this handheld.

I also want to get the placement of the Wii board perfect, maybe pulled further back, so that the LCD driver maybe can be screwed down onto my main PCB with SMD screw-mounts. (giving me more layout space).

Then getting the final shape down for L/R/Z triggers so that i can get my shape for the Main PCB and start my design in Kicad.

Looking forward for the next post, and can really feel this is the start of something great. I am also all-ready planning a few different playthroughs i want to do on the handheld.

See you next time