Worklog The Modder's Briefcase-Portable Wii

[Calamityscustoms]

Hello! This is going to be a worklog for my first ever portable the modder's briefcase which I was hoping to enter into the summer contest but I seem to have missed the cutoff for that, oops. I've never cut up motherboards before, but I do have some soldering and solid works experience though, so bear with me. The idea for this project is a briefcase that will hold my GameCube controller modding tools in the bottom of the briefcase while also having a removable portable in the top half to play games on and run the homebrew software smash scope which is used for testing GameCube controllers. I'm planning on having a 10" screen, all 4 gcc ports, speakers, a 10hr battery life, and can be played on while charging all while hopefully being no thicker than 1.25in. From what I understand you need a couple things for a portable such as a trimmed wii, a pms to manage ac to dc conversions/stepdown voltages, some sort of cmb to ensure your batteries don't explode, batteries, a power switch, wires, a screen, and speakers (Let me know if I'm missing anything!) I have 2 4 layer wii's on the way and I plan to do the omgwtf trim after installing rvloader so that covers the trimmed wii, and I'm going to order the RVL-PMS-2 to use as my pms and cmb although I would love to hear yalls opinion on that. As for the actual charging port and SD card reading I'm ordering a PMS PD 3 for fourlayer tech for that. However I'm pretty lost when it comes to the other supplies especially the screen, I've been searching for a 10" 480p Ips screen to no avail and as for the wires I would like to have multiple different colors so I can tell what each is for at a glance but I'm not sure which ones to get, so if you guys know where I can find those things or recommend what I should do for batteries to achieve my desired battery life that would be amazing! Overall I know this is a pretty strange build, but I've been wanting to do it for years just cause I think it would be sick to roll up to a tournament with a briefcase and be able to do all my modding out of it, and I feel like documenting the whole build process would be amazing for my project portfolio. So sorry if I've asked some redundant questions I've tried my best to read up on the guides around the forums but this is my first time ever on a forum so I fear I may have missed some, if I have I would really appreciate a link. Here's the top part of the briefcase that I hope to fit the build into and the dimensions are Length 47cm Width 3.18cm Height 31cm View attachment Briefcase top (1).webp
Thank you guys for all the resources and for making this community!

 

[piotref1]

Getting your tools in one spot is great or even just making it better for organising :"D
For wires and such I go and check Shank's G-Boy video haha. It has links to some sets of wires and such which is useful source honestly. 22 AWG Stranded wires for power and 34 awg magnet for data lines.

 

[Calamityscustoms]

I’ll definitely check it out, thanks!

Update!
My Wiis have arrived and I was able to homebrew both of them via sd cards, but I didn’t realize that you need usb’s for Rvloader so I ordered those. In the meantime I’ve been researching batteries and trying to figure out how many cells
I’ll need for my desired 10 hour battery life, and looking for a 10 inch 480p ips component or vga screen to no success. Do you guys have any tips for finding one?

Update 2!
While researching voltage regulators I found out about the RVl-PMS-2 and the PMS PD 3 from four layer tech, and I decided to go with them because of how many features they have and their extensive documentation should make my implementation fairly simple. As for my screen I'm most likely going with a 9" 480p TFT screen that takes vga as an input. It's not ips but it shouldn't matter much as viewing angles aren't too important for my use plus no ips means less power consumption. I wouldn't have been able to find it without the help of Dekunut and Shank here on the forums! My wires and Dremel discs that piotref1 recommended have got here so my next step is doing the OMGWTF trim, wish me luck!

 

[Calamityscustoms]

I’ve done the OMGWTF trim and I’ve gone a bit larger than what’s recommended however I removed all the components outside of the line, and sanded all the edges using 800grit sandpaper. Now I just need to design my case and actually put everything together! Note I have not relocated U10 because I have an RVL PMS 2 which has U10 emulation, and I don’t need bluetooth or the MX chip. I still need to cut out the Gamecube controller ports, and USB ports.

 

[DekuNut]

Trim looks good, but make sure to check the resistances of the different voltages to ground and each other, there is a pinned post here detailing the different known good resistances. Also make sure to use the correct multimeter lead for the correct test point, i.e. if it says to put your gnd lead on 1v and your other lead on 1.8v , put your gnd lead on 1v and the other lead on 1.8v and then measure.