Worklog Xii-Boy Ultra (V3)

[Bryceshaw06]

We're in the homestretch now! So glad to see all your hard work paying off. Congrats Xenii!

 

[sharby2010]

Hey there!
It was time: Welcome to the episode #6!
I have some crazy progress to show you, I hope you'll like this episode!

A few days after the last post, I received everything I needed to continue this project!
However, itt was only missing one thing: the 4LayerTech stuff. It was clearly the package I waited the most!

During that time, I decided to assemble the custom PCBs!
Starting with the simplest: The Xii-Strip!
View attachment 38200
Well, it only has one thermistor, so it was pretty fast and easy to assemble

I then started the second PCB: The Trigger PCB!
View attachment 38197
I decided to use my mini hot plate to save some time. It was the first time I used it, and it went well!
After some little reflow on the connectors, it was done!
View attachment 38198View attachment 38199
I'm very happy of those buttons, they feel fantastic! Thanks @YveltalGriffin for the recommendation!

Next one: Controller PCB!
View attachment 38201View attachment 38202
Unfortunately, it was the first PCB to contain mistakes. The biggest on this board is that I didn't order the proper JST connectors for the speakers.
They used 1.25mm, and by measuring, I got and ordered 1mm of pitch... It's really not a big deal. To correct that, I just ordered new ones on AliExpress, we'll see later how I'll solder them...

Next one: Xii-DD!
It started getting harder. Controller PCB already had the biggest connector I've never soldered: 18 pins.
The biggest connector XB2 uses is only 17 pins. Xii-DD is another level: 40 pins
After some cooking time, and some reflow with my beloved ChipQuick SMD291 flux, It was looking decent!
View attachment 38203
After soldering the easier 18p connector, Xii-DD was done!
View attachment 38204

It was time for the hardest and biggest PCB of the whole project: the Main PCB
View attachment 38205
Starting with those 40 and 50 pins connectors! It went really well! I also soldered the side buttons, and I think they aren't as satisfying as XB2 ones are,
but they feel really good. I really like them!

Cooking done!
View attachment 38206
The hardest was now behind!
Next challenge; the Pogo pins!
View attachment 38208
It wasn't really hard, it was just kinda tricky to make them flat.

After a few hours of soldering, the bad boy was done!
View attachment 38210
It's looking really good!

The testing phase has begun!
I first started the PCM circuit. Battery are charged, I tested the tension between the PMS2 B+ and B- pads, and it got 2.94V...
It seemed really low to me. Battery were around 4.11V, so I guess something is wrong...

I asked @YveltalGriffin for help, and he told me that by default, PCM might be disabled. To activate it, I just had to short B- in and B- on the Mosfet IC for a brief time.
But it still didn't work...

We then noticed that the Mosfet IC was soldered backwards...
I just reversed its orientation, and it worked! Great news!
Actually, to test it, I'd like to short something to get a 4A spike on the batteries. But, doing that is risky, and impossible at that point, still no PMS2 in my mailbox...

I spent approximatively one day and half assembling the board. It was now missing two main things: 4LT, and a trimmed Wii.

So I started hacking a trimming a Wii!
View attachment 38193
View attachment 38194View attachment 38195
Trimming went well! I sanded it and checked the resistances, they were all good!

A few days later, I received the 4LayerTech package!
View attachment 38211
Btw, big thanks to the 4LayerTech team for their great service! The boards are amazing!


I quickly placed them on my PCB to see if they fit well, and they do!
View attachment 38212

First thing I've done was to solder GC+ 2 on the Controller PCB for testing.
I solder a GCC cable to the GC+ 2 and turn on a Wii!
And.... It works perfectly! No mistake here, everything is working fine!

I also had to test the triggers, which are tricky to test on XB3 just because I add to connect all the boards together.
View attachment 38213
After testing all that mess together, it works!
As you can see, I also tested LRA rumble motor, hall effect sticks and the new connectors for the speakers.
Everything works! I just have to really configure rumble once the build will be closed. Those GCC cable wires are super thin, it cannot deliver enough current for the whole boards which causes little issues with rumble.

Next step was to test the Wii motherboard!
View attachment 38214
But after spending hours, I wasn't able to make it boot. I really don't understand, I have a black screen, no booting, U10 is working though...
I tested everything, but it still didn't work. Two days later, still no solutions...

Considering I didn't have a lot of free time, I decided to trim another Wii and spending time later on that trim.
3 hours later, the second trim was done, sanded, and the resistances have been checked.
This one boots! YAY!!!
View attachment 38215

It was finally time to test everything together.
I first had to solder the required stuff on the trimmed Wii.
Starting with the Xii-Strip!
View attachment 38216
However, I quickly noticed that it won't be possible... The mistake is really stupid: I designed it in 1.6mm thick, which makes the board impossible to solder.
I couldn't reorder board, so I had to find a solution. Wires? NO WAY!!!

My solution is stupid and dump, but I didn't find better...
I simply used solder wick...
View attachment 38217View attachment 38218
View attachment 38219
Well, it's a really stupid idea. It looks like garbage. But, it works, and I didn't have a better solution.
No worries, though, final revision will correct that. The Pogo pins exist in a taller version, and Xii-Strip just has to be ordered thinner.

You already saw it, but I also soldered the Xii-Strip Ultra!
I first scratched and tinned the vias:
View attachment 38220
And finally put and solder the flex!
View attachment 38222
I then checked all the video connections between the flex and the AVE pins.
View attachment 38223
After some reflow, it was good!

Bluetooth is also attached to the flex but soldered on the other side.
It was pretty easy to solder. I thought it would be harder.
Anyway, here is the final result!
View attachment 38224
View attachment 38225
It looks gorgeous!

Final step: Soldering 4LT stuff on my remaining PCBs.
Here is the Main PCB finally done!

View attachment 38227
After some cleaning, I just corrected a little mistake on that board as well.
View attachment 38229
I didn't connect PMS-PD3 properly. I used normal 5V instead of the UP 5V.
Technically, it works as well while the console is on, but we can't access the data when the console if off.

Correction done, it's time to finally test Wii + Xii-Flex + Xii-Strip + Main PCB!!!
View attachment 38228
I was really stressed. I took my courage, inserted the battery, press the power button, and...
Nothing...
LED even didn't turn on... What is going on? What did I do wrong? I was really confused and lost.

After chatting with @SimplyStevii, they told me LED wasn't set in addressable by default in RVLoader.
Ok so this explains why LED didn't turn on.
It still doesn't explain why video doesn't work.
After the classic troubleshooting tests, I thought: Maybe the Xii-Flex was causing some impedance discontinuities by making some stubs, or kinda antennas.
To test my theory, I had to connect the Xii-DD.

At this point, I thought the project was dead. I wasn't scared of testing DD, I was really testing just in case, I didn't hope anything...
View attachment 38230
And as planned: nothing...
I started checking every solder, every contact between DD and the AVE through all my mess, but still nothing.
And by looking on the 4LT website, I noticed that my screen was plugged backwards...

Holy moly, it was frustrating, but it might not be dead.
I had hope. I plugged the screen in the correct orientation, turn the Xii-Boy 3 on, and...
View attachment 38231
HOLY MOLY!!!!
I didn't expect it to work anymore. You cannot imagine how much I screamed of joy after that
To retest my theory of impedance discontinuities, I then soldered composite video again.
But still nothing. After asking @YveltalGriffin, he didn't believe in my impedance theory.
Considering Yveltal is always right, I asked him if he had any ideas of what's going on.
And then, he answered me:
View attachment 38232
Well, yup, it was only that. Xii-Flex hardwires 3.3V to mode. Considering I did enable VGA on this Wii, it just disabled composite and enabled VGA.
I felt stupid, but happy at the same time.

It was time to continue the test process!
Bluetooth first!
View attachment 38233
YAY!

I basically tested everything, and everything works!
Fan, WiFi, Audio, Controls, Screen, everything!

Huge thanks to @Aurelio who took a lot of his precious time to make brightness and volume over buttons working!
It's truly amazing and works extremely well. (I don't have any videos or images though)

I did then work on the case. I printed some final cases, and everything fits well!
View attachment 38234


To sum up: Everything has been tested. Everything works.
It's truly amazing, and it makes me really happy.
I'm happy that the most complex board I've never designed works almost first try!
I can't believe it!

XB3 will need some little corrections like adding a mode jump on the Xii-Flex, reducing the Xii-Strip thickness, correcting the Controller PCB JSTs, correcting the Main PCB about the UP pad, etc. But I mean for a first try of making wire free possible, I think it's an amazing milestone reached!

So, what's left to do?
It's what I'm currently working on: finishing the small things on the shell and order it through JLC3DP!
View attachment 38235
I also modified how the screen is fixed. I added a little "lip" to mimic the FMD layers that stuck the screen in place.
I hope everything will come together nicely!

I'll probably order that this week, but I already want to say that XB3 is almost there!
I think it's all for that episode!
Next one will probably be the last. I hope you're hipped as much as I am!

Thanks a lot to:
@Aurelio for the RVLoader modifications for XB3
@YveltalGriffin and @SimplyStevii for the help about PCB, settings, and other
@supertazon and @Bryceshaw06 for the general help
and everyone else who helped or motivated me!
I'm very glad of seeing that what I'm doing is liked! It makes me really happy. Thanks a lot for all your support

I hope you liked this episode!
Have a wonderful day, and see you very soon!

Holy crap I am so excited for this to be ready to build this is crazy work that you managed to pull it off with no wires!
Btw what soldering paste did you use because I really wanted to build this portable myself when it is ready?

 

[Lazr]

Nice job!

 

[Xenii]

Holy crap I am so excited for this to be ready to build this is crazy work that you managed to pull it off with no wires!
Btw what soldering paste did you use because I really wanted to build this portable myself when it is ready?

Thanks!
I’m using SN42BI58 solder paste from Aliexpress. I like it because it has a really low melting temperature (128C). It’s sometimes not optimal because some circuit can reach those temperatures which could break the solder.
I like using it because my hot air station isn’t powerful at all. I never tried something else though.

 

[Stitches]

If it's stupid but it works, it ain't stupid!

 

[Xenii]

Hi everybody!
You probably waited it a lot; Welcome to this final episode #7 of the Xii-Boy Ultra's worklog!
I spent literally every hour of free time I had in that project, and I'm here to show the first Xii-Boy 3 done!
Have fun reading!

A few days after last episode, I quickly tested the small remaining things.
Basically, I forgot to test the fan. It might be simple, but on XB3, it's actually PWM. It's a nice way to efficiently control a motor speed.
However, PMW are often noisy signal, which could cause issues. Especially on XB3, where they are routed underneath the USB line.

It isn't a good idea, for sure, but the PCB was so complicated to route that it was the only option. Hopefully, USB data are on layer 1, and fan data on layer 3. Those layers are separated with a huge GND plane on layer 2 plus the FR4 isolation. After seeing with Yveltal, he told me it should work.

I didn't want to test that, but I had to. And...

YES it still works!!!

After the success of seeing everything working, I ordered the shell through JLC3DP.
I took the main shell in 8100 translucent resin and a second one in 9600 white resin, in case the first one would break.

Waiting for the cases, I flew to London for the weekend. It was amazing! I had a really great time there. It was a great way to relax on XB3 and take the force to come back even stronger.

The day after getting back home, I received the cases!

Unfortunately, I was pretty sad about them. I made a mistake in the 3D. The fan grid was 0.4mm too thin, making it only 0.37mm.
On both case, it was super soft, and it was broken on the translucent one. Yikes!

Also, I had to sand the translucent case, considering translucent cases aren't sanded by default. Only transparent ones are.
I was able to heat the fan grid and make it straight. I used some superglue to fix the grid and it went well.
Then, I sanded it with sandpaper from 400 up to 1200 for a really smooth finish.

Here is the result after sending:

It was awesome. It looks like the translucent Gameboy Advance!

Time for dyeing!

At first, it wasn't dyed enough. I decided to put it for an hour and half more in the dye.

Here was the result! It's much better, but I'm still not a big fan. It looks like more a yellowed SNES than an orange console.
I wasn't really happy with that result, even though I wasn't able to make the orange stronger.

I think it will look better after assembling.

Let's start assembling everything!!!

I first added the fan + heatsink + copper plate. This forms the new cooling system of Xii-Boy 3.
I then removed the stick caps, replace them with the triggers and install them in the shell as well as the Trigger PCB.

Some people reported me some tolerances issue with the analog trigger prototype. Final verdict: they work great here!
After that, I installed the Wi-Fi antennas. I connected them to the Wi-Fi module, and then I installed the side buttons and the Main PCB in place.

With that done, I was able to test the final feeling of the Xii-Boy 3 analog trigger system. And it feels amazing!
It's the extreme opposite of Xii-Boy 2 which was tactile and clicky. Here it's soft, but reactive at the same time. The final button (RT / LT) also feels amazing.

It was time to install the Wii motherboard in place!

Everything fits well! It starts looking gorgeous.
Bottom part was done! I was really pleased with the result!


Time for the top part!
I first installed the screen and I connected it to the Xii-DD.
It was time to check if my new Super Friction Fit works! And yes it does! No glue needed this time.

I then installed the beautiful OEM white button ModdingMarius and @supertazon sent me. Huge thanks again to you both!

I then installed the membranes, the Controller PCB, the speakers, rumble motors and FFC.
Here is how it turned out!

It was time to connect both parts together.
Does it still work? It seems to!
I closed the shell and screw it.
However, I had some glitches on the screen.
I thought they were coming from the back screen aluminum plate touching the DD's back's components.
I disassembled it and put some kapton tape to isolate that. The issue was gone.

The sticks were making a huge mess. I calibrate them and they worked...
... until I turned the portable off and on again. After that, left stick was causing issue. It was drifting a lot.

I didn't understand. I talked to Aurelio, and we thought GC+ EEPROM (memory holding GC+ save) wasn't working due to a short I made on it a while ago.
To check that, I decided to replace the PIC on the GC+, but still the same thing.
So I then tried to just unplugging the left stick and plugging it back after calibration. And holy moly it did the same thing!
Result? Those hall effect sticks don't work entirely. @thedrew and I thought they were, but as soon as you stop powering them up, they drift.
To confirm my theory, I disassemble Xii-Boy 2 to get the sticks and try installing them on the Xii-Boy 3.
It worked. It was really frustrating, but I was happy to have solved the issue.

Furthermore, when I had to close the shell to use the sticks, I had weird issues. Sometimes, the DD didn't start when the console was closed, but did when it was open.
I asked Aurelio, he told be that DI and CK signals are only used when DD boots but are never used after that. It explained everything. I checked continuity and DI wasn't making continuity anymore. After searching, I noticed that some pins on the 40p connector between top and bottom part weren't soldered properly, causing false contacts.
After reflowing them, it worked!

It was time to close the portable again! And while closing the shell, C-Stick was moving without touching it. What?
Furthermore, I had some glitches back on the screen. What?

After some troubleshooting, the C-Stick input and the glitches were both causing by some interferences. In that revision, Xii-Flex Ultra is 2 mm too long, causing it to touch the 40p FFC which has the same signals, making huge perturbations and impedance discontinuities.

Yveltal suggested me to make a "shielded FFC" using aluminum adhesive band + two GND wires covered by kapton.

I tried, and it worked! I've never had the issues again!

I also noticed that the wrong JST on the Controller PCB was causing the shell to not close properly. I have to correct that for the final revisions.
Changing the front shell wasn't because I didn't really like it, it's more because the sticks screw post went away. After screwing and unscrewing the sticks, the resin starts getting used, the screws didn't stay anymore. Hopefully I ordered a 9600 resin front shell in case this happened.

I also had some USB issue. My SD card was corrupted, even Windows didn't recognize it, causing crashes on RVLoader. I simply changed it and it was solved.

It took me 3 entire days to solve all the issues. I sometimes wanted to give up. But with the support of everybody, I searched more and I succeeded!

After all those issues, lemme show you the world's first WireFree portable Wii!

And some external pics:

Like Lubba said, Whaddya think about it?


XB3 isn't 100% ready yet. I corrected the PCB mistakes, and I designed a definitive "shielded FFC"

I ordered it, including two new shells. I wanted to try the Imagine Black resin. In case it would break again, I also bought a SLS black nylon shell, the same the XB2 has, which is pleasant to hold and looks amazing in my opinion.


That's it! After 6 months, 7 episodes, a lot of patience and some perseverance, first Xii-Boy 3 prototype is done!
What's next? I'll take some time to finish everything. Once everything has been confirmed, and tested, Xii-Boy 3 will be released.
I have some ideas to make Xii-Boy 3 accessible for everyone. Nothing is confirmed for the moment, but I'll keep everyone updated about that.

The next months will be amazing for the Xii-Boy Ultra.

SPECIAL THANKS!
- @YveltalGriffin for the time taken to help me about PCB design
- @Aurelio for the enormous help on RVLoader + Trigger System
- @Bryceshaw06 for his huge work on the Xii-Boy 3 guide
- @supertazon, @SimplyStevii, @YveltalGriffin, @Bryceshaw06 for their thoughts and general help during the project.
- @supertazon and @ModdingMarius for sending me the OEM DS Lite buttons
- @CrazyGadget for the advices and thoughts about the resin and nylon shells
- @thedrew for the hall effect sticks help
- @Wesk for his help about the Trigger System
- @groseil, @Luigid, @JoshsJunk05, @Rentei, @Seabear, and literally everyone else for the huge support given

I'm really grateful to everyone. Your support was really important and gave me the motivation to continue this project instead of giving up.
This episode was the last of the worklog. I hope you enjoyed those. I tried to update it as much as possible. If you have any suggestion of things I could
upgrade, let me know!

Thanks for everything
Have a wonderful day, and see you soon, for the official Xii-Boy Ultra release!

 

[loopj]

Absolute work of art, see you in the cutting edge thread.

 

[Luigid]

It seemed that creating it without wires was cleaner to assemble and in terms of operation, you had many problems fortunately you managed to solve them! Great project for sure!

 

[Seabear]

Incredible work Xenii! This is the future of Wii portables. Ill be lined up to build one when it goes open source

 

[JoshsJunk05]

This is amazing I can't wait to build one
Great work Xenii

 

[Xenii]

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the episode Xii-Boy Ultra Kit #1!
The Xii-Boy Ultra has been released a few months ago, and I thought it would be good to give a little update to that Worklog.

If you read some messages I posted in the BitBuilt Discord Server, or here directly, you might have seen that I mentioned multiple times a story of a "Xii-Boy Ultra Kit". After that, I received practically every single week questions about when it would come out, and at which price. So I thought I should talk about it today.

After the release of the Xii-Boy Ultra, I worked away from modding. I needed to do something different, and needed to earn a bit of money for the future projects.
I found a little job, that I've been working on for a few months. Hopefully, I finished it a few weeks ago, so I was happy to really work again on that kit.

Let's talk about the kit!

The first step was to correct everything that needed to be corrected. I mean by that little issue of the shell, buttons, or PCBs.
I'd like to give a huge thanks to @Bryceshaw06 who took a lot of time for giving me feedback all along the build. 90% of the update I've made are with his help!
I suggest you to read his Worklog to know pretty much all the issues he had. I'll only be talking of some issue and show what I did to correct it.

First, I also wanted to say that most of the issues he had were just due to the early PCB revision I sent him. Most of them have already been fixed since.

ISSUE #1: BATTERY TABS
Since the Xii-Boy Ultra is WireFree, the batteries are connected with battery tabs to the Main PCB. When I received my PCB, the tabs really didn't fit well. It was really hard to install them. Once they were installed and soldered, you needed to bend them with pliers and then unbend them at the tip to make connection.

It was really tricky, but was working fine on my side. However, Bryce spent a huge amount of time to make them work. So I looked for new tabs. After hours of searching, I found those!

You can see the gold one was higher, and also not deep enough to make proper connection with the cells. On the right picture, you can see them that they are way better aligned with the cells. We still need to bend them once, but it should be much better now.

Hope this will be solved!

ISSUE #2: Xii-Strip Pogo

My Xii-Boy Ultra and the current GitHub BETA revision uses Pogo pins to power the Wii using a Xii-Strip.
This system was extremely easy to install, and seemed to be a great solution!
However, Bryce told me they were pretty hard to solder onto the Main PCB.

Then, he had a more important issue. The Wii was constantly crashing if we didn't push on the Wii motherboard where the Pogo pins were.
The issue is caused by the Xii-Strip being HASL and not ENIG. This means instead of being cover by gold which does not oxide over time, it was covered by Leaded HASL, which oxides really quickly. The result were that his Xii-Strip was already oxidized and didn't make proper connection with the Pogos.

I had that issue as well, but since it looked like crashes, I just thought it was USB
This problem is fixable by just using ENIG surface finish on the Xii-Strip.

However, I didn't really enjoy that idea. After thinking more, I thought Pogos were unadapted for that use. The Wii motherboard does not have screw posts on each sides of the Xii-Strip, resulting in contact issue.

Since I was not a fan of Pogos, and I wanted to definitively get rid of the issue, I decided to replace Pogos by a PicoLock cable. Still WireFree, but way more reliable.

In that time, antoineok finds out the Xii-Strip was too thin near the 3.3V area, and could easily shake and break during manufacturing. Once again, to solve that, I simply connected the 3.3V part to the main one, making the strip stronger than it's ever been!!

Since the Wii had a screw post here, I just kept the screw hole, and made the screw post in the shell 0.8mm shorter.

This will also make the Wii easier to test, since we won't need to screw the motherboard in place to power it!

ISSUE #3: Shell's Button
To make the build easier to assemble, Bryce suggested me to add notches on every button of the design. This prevents them to be inserted backwards, and also make them more stable!

I first added notches for the Z triggers, as well as letter for orientation!

Following by the Power and Sync buttons!

And finally, the Volume and Brightness buttons!

ISSUE #4: Small issues and final polishing
I also spend time upgrading pretty much every part of the design.

The PCBs have been upgraded to rounded, which is better for high frequencies, and also way more beautiful!!

I also corrected the issue of bending the Shielded Flex at a 90 degrees angle to install it. Should be way better now

The shell also received some little updates, and everything is now better thanks to Bryce.
Please take note that some of the changes are not available now on my GitHub, since they deserve some testing.

Now, let's talk about the kit!!
So first, yes, the kit is still something I'm working on.

I first searched a lot about the administrative side of the project. How to make an online shop, how to ship packages, etc.
Those were all the questions I was wondering about. I'm not going to explain everything I searched, since it's extremely boring.

But to make things quick though, I've planned making a Shopify website where I could sell my kits.
I also tested shipping packages to multiple countries to get familiar with the custom declaration, and shipping in general.

I tested sending packages to France, the United States and Canada, and all went extremely well and pretty fast (~10 days)
Thanks a lot to the people who received my package! Learned a lot from it!

The issue I was now facing was pretty simple, what do I need to upgrade? I already worked a lot on the design, but what could we upgrade even more to reach perfection?
There is no answer to that, or at least, not yet.

My idea is pretty simple: produce and sell 5 Beta Kits to multiple person on the community, and get their feedback.
I won't share the name of the 5 people I chose, but free to them to talk about it or make Worklogs when they will receive it

Also, one more thanks to Bryce who is working a lot on the upcoming guide the kit will need. The work spent here is huge, and truly perfect.

So what's next to do?
The next step is ordering everything for the five beta kits, assemble each boards by hands (no PCBA for the moment) and package them.
I'm just waiting for some little details, but ordering will be soon!

I'm also contacting companies to get special order, like a custom size copper plate for the cooling system for example, which takes a lot of time. Just need to know exactly what I'm buying before ordering.

Since the goal of the Beta revision is having feedback, the price does almost not include bargains.
This means, Beta and Final kit prices won't be the same. So for the moment, I don't have the exact price of the final kit, thanks for your understanding.

I do know how much I want the kit to be sold, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep those prices, especially now, since Trump added a new huge tariff of 39% on Switzerland, and I don't know how much it will impact shipping.

I'll keep everyone updated here.

Finally, I'm also collaborating with @JamesPi to design multiple box for the kit. We're experiencing multiple ideas, and see which one will look the best.
I made one myself, which looks good in my opinion, but we need to see if this will be the final design or if we find something even cooler.
To give you something to see for the months I didn't give updates, here is the prototype of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kit Beta box I've designed!!!

What do you think about it?

That's all for this time! I'll get everyond updated here! Stay tuned!

SPECIAL THANKS!
- @Bryceshaw06 for the guide and all the feedback
- @JamesPi for the work on box designs
- @YveltalGriffin for the help, advice and PCB review
- @Aurelio for the help with software issues
- @supertazon and @SimplyStevii for the general help

Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and see you next time!

 

[randomguy]

Wow,what a crazy work @Xenii,I'm really excited to see your final kit!We are definetly going into a new era for the kits for portables console with your kit and the n64 kit of @Downing !

 

[Customledmods]

Great job man! excited about this will be ordering once available.

 

[GreaterMichiganModding]

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the episode Xii-Boy Ultra Kit #1!
The Xii-Boy Ultra has been released a few months ago, and I thought it would be good to give a little update to that Worklog.

If you read some messages I posted in the BitBuilt Discord Server, or here directly, you might have seen that I mentioned multiple times a story of a "Xii-Boy Ultra Kit". After that, I received practically every single week questions about when it would come out, and at which price. So I thought I should talk about it today.

After the release of the Xii-Boy Ultra, I worked away from modding. I needed to do something different, and needed to earn a bit of money for the future projects.
I found a little job, that I've been working on for a few months. Hopefully, I finished it a few weeks ago, so I was happy to really work again on that kit.

Let's talk about the kit!

The first step was to correct everything that needed to be corrected. I mean by that little issue of the shell, buttons, or PCBs.
I'd like to give a huge thanks to @Bryceshaw06 who took a lot of time for giving me feedback all along the build. 90% of the update I've made are with his help!
I suggest you to read his Worklog to know pretty much all the issues he had. I'll only be talking of some issue and show what I did to correct it.

First, I also wanted to say that most of the issues he had were just due to the early PCB revision I sent him. Most of them have already been fixed since.

ISSUE #1: BATTERY TABS
Since the Xii-Boy Ultra is WireFree, the batteries are connected with battery tabs to the Main PCB. When I received my PCB, the tabs really didn't fit well. It was really hard to install them. Once they were installed and soldered, you needed to bend them with pliers and then unbend them at the tip to make connection.

It was really tricky, but was working fine on my side. However, Bryce spent a huge amount of time to make them work. So I looked for new tabs. After hours of searching, I found those!

View attachment 39753View attachment 39754

You can see the gold one was higher, and also not deep enough to make proper connection with the cells. On the right picture, you can see them that they are way better aligned with the cells. We still need to bend them once, but it should be much better now.

Hope this will be solved!

ISSUE #2: Xii-Strip Pogo

My Xii-Boy Ultra and the current GitHub BETA revision uses Pogo pins to power the Wii using a Xii-Strip.
This system was extremely easy to install, and seemed to be a great solution!
However, Bryce told me they were pretty hard to solder onto the Main PCB.

Then, he had a more important issue. The Wii was constantly crashing if we didn't push on the Wii motherboard where the Pogo pins were.
The issue is caused by the Xii-Strip being HASL and not ENIG. This means instead of being cover by gold which does not oxide over time, it was covered by Leaded HASL, which oxides really quickly. The result were that his Xii-Strip was already oxidized and didn't make proper connection with the Pogos.

I had that issue as well, but since it looked like crashes, I just thought it was USB
This problem is fixable by just using ENIG surface finish on the Xii-Strip.

However, I didn't really enjoy that idea. After thinking more, I thought Pogos were unadapted for that use. The Wii motherboard does not have screw posts on each sides of the Xii-Strip, resulting in contact issue.

Since I was not a fan of Pogos, and I wanted to definitively get rid of the issue, I decided to replace Pogos by a PicoLock cable. Still WireFree, but way more reliable.

In that time, antoineok finds out the Xii-Strip was too thin near the 3.3V area, and could easily shake and break during manufacturing. Once again, to solve that, I simply connected the 3.3V part to the main one, making the strip stronger than it's ever been!! View attachment 39755
Since the Wii had a screw post here, I just kept the screw hole, and made the screw post in the shell 0.8mm shorter.

This will also make the Wii easier to test, since we won't need to screw the motherboard in place to power it!

ISSUE #3: Shell's Button
To make the build easier to assemble, Bryce suggested me to add notches on every button of the design. This prevents them to be inserted backwards, and also make them more stable!

I first added notches for the Z triggers, as well as letter for orientation!
View attachment 39756

Following by the Power and Sync buttons!
View attachment 39757

And finally, the Volume and Brightness buttons!
View attachment 39758

ISSUE #4: Small issues and final polishing
I also spend time upgrading pretty much every part of the design.

The PCBs have been upgraded to rounded, which is better for high frequencies, and also way more beautiful!!
View attachment 39759

I also corrected the issue of bending the Shielded Flex at a 90 degrees angle to install it. Should be way better now

The shell also received some little updates, and everything is now better thanks to Bryce.
Please take note that some of the changes are not available now on my GitHub, since they deserve some testing.

Now, let's talk about the kit!!
So first, yes, the kit is still something I'm working on.

I first searched a lot about the administrative side of the project. How to make an online shop, how to ship packages, etc.
Those were all the questions I was wondering about. I'm not going to explain everything I searched, since it's extremely boring.

But to make things quick though, I've planned making a Shopify website where I could sell my kits.
I also tested shipping packages to multiple countries to get familiar with the custom declaration, and shipping in general.

I tested sending packages to France, the United States and Canada, and all went extremely well and pretty fast (~10 days)
Thanks a lot to the people who received my package! Learned a lot from it!

The issue I was now facing was pretty simple, what do I need to upgrade? I already worked a lot on the design, but what could we upgrade even more to reach perfection?
There is no answer to that, or at least, not yet.

My idea is pretty simple: produce and sell 5 Beta Kits to multiple person on the community, and get their feedback.
I won't share the name of the 5 people I chose, but free to them to talk about it or make Worklogs when they will receive it

Also, one more thanks to Bryce who is working a lot on the upcoming guide the kit will need. The work spent here is huge, and truly perfect.

So what's next to do?
The next step is ordering everything for the five beta kits, assemble each boards by hands (no PCBA for the moment) and package them.
I'm just waiting for some little details, but ordering will be soon!

I'm also contacting companies to get special order, like a custom size copper plate for the cooling system for example, which takes a lot of time. Just need to know exactly what I'm buying before ordering.

Since the goal of the Beta revision is having feedback, the price does almost not include bargains.
This means, Beta and Final kit prices won't be the same. So for the moment, I don't have the exact price of the final kit, thanks for your understanding.

I do know how much I want the kit to be sold, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep those prices, especially now, since Trump added a new huge tariff of 39% on Switzerland, and I don't know how much it will impact shipping.

I'll keep everyone updated here.

Finally, I'm also collaborating with @JamesPi to design multiple box for the kit. We're experiencing multiple ideas, and see which one will look the best.
I made one myself, which looks good in my opinion, but we need to see if this will be the final design or if we find something even cooler.
To give you something to see for the months I didn't give updates, here is the prototype of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kit Beta box I've designed!!!
View attachment 39764
What do you think about it?

That's all for this time! I'll get everyond updated here! Stay tuned!

SPECIAL THANKS!
- @Bryceshaw06 for the guide and all the feedback
- @JamesPi for the work on box designs
- @YveltalGriffin for the help, advice and PCB review
- @Aurelio for the help with software issues
- @supertazon and @SimplyStevii for the general help

Thanks for reading, have a nice day, and see you next time!

Very excited for this kit! I was hoping there would be something like this eventually, and you did it you madlad. i want to build this one day and was wondering what the kit would include and the price!

 

[Xenii]

Very excited for this kit! I was hoping there would be something like this eventually, and you did it you madlad. i want to build this one day and was wondering what the kit would include and the price!

Hi!
First of all thanks for your support! I really appreciate

I have planned to release a new worklog episode tomorrow or Saturday, since there are some updates I wanted to talk about.
I’ll also talk about delay, production and prices there.

I’ll try to answer everyone at the same time, I get that question a lot, so I guess it’s time for a new episode

 

[GreaterMichiganModding]

Hi!
First of all thanks for your support! I really appreciate

I have planned to release a new worklog episode tomorrow or Saturday, since there are some updates I wanted to talk about.
I’ll also talk about delay, production and prices there.

I’ll try to answer everyone at the same time, I get that question a lot, so I guess it’s time for a new episode

LETSGOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Xenii]

Hi there!
Welcome to the second episode of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kit worklog!!
I just wanted to apologize for not having made that episode earlier. I've been pretty busy

I also wanted to change a bit how the worklog's episodes are. Since I'm mostly dealing with manufacturers, spending hours to find the perfect parts over many websites, I don't really make any physical progress, or progress in general. Of course, I'm making things, modifying and polishing the design, but that's not as interesting to read than the classic build and troubleshooting episodes. To slightly change the formula, I'll from now share the progress I've made (if I made some), and then answers some questions I get asked a lot. Hope you'll like this episode!

Xii-Boy Ultra Beta Kit organization, decisions and overall progress
Part #1: Number of Beta Kits
I first wanted to make 5 Beta Kits, so the minimal quantity of PCB I could request. Fortunately, after the first episode, some people asked me to become Beta Tester.
Since more people wanted to Beta test the kit, and since I wanted to make a new XB3, I decided to order 10 PCBs and make 7 Beta Kits, including mine. I'll have 3 leftovers that I might sell for a really low price, or just keep in case I missed something

I won't share who is going to Beta Test the kit, but if they accept to mention it, up to them!

I'm unfortunately not going to accept more Beta testers for now, so if you wanted to be one, I'm sorry to say it won't be possible, except if I make a new revision.

Part #2: Shipping and Tariffs
I know you heard of it enough, but I thought it was pretty important to make the point of the tariff situation.
In the previous episode, I mentioned Switzerland now faces 39% of tariffs when exporting goods to the United States.
I was hoping it wouldn't change a lot of things (except the custom fees), but unfortunately, it did.

When I sent a package to @Bryceshaw06 for his build, delivery costed only CHF 17.-
The postal service I used was the Swiss Post, and both Bryce and I were really pleased by how the package has been shipped. No damage on the box, absolutely perfect.

But since the tariff situation is changing almost every single day, the Swiss Post had enough of it, they didn't really follow what was going on. So they decided to stop all the deliveries to the United States. Oooops.

I was pretty sad when I've heard that. I've spent the entire next day finding an alternative for that issue. Some company asked up to CHF 300.- for just a delivery.
I ended up finding that UPS was the cheapest. It seems to have changed, but the price should be CHF 64.- which is better, but unfortunately still too high.

On the 6 Beta Kits I'm going to sell, 4 are going to the United States. As you can imagine, asking CHF 64.-, or USD $80 per person is pretty high.
Instead, we decided to send all the 4 Beta Kits to one place in the United States, and then ship them forward the country to the 3 other Beta Testers.

For the final kits, I hope the Swiss Post will be able to send packages to the United States. If it's not possible, maybe we could store the kit somewhere in the United States, and sell them here. I think this is the best idea.

Part #3: Copper Plates, Speakers, Sticks and Fan
At first, I wanted to buy each copper plates piece by piece, and trim them by myself.
Unfortunately, that solution was pretty expensive, and took a lot of time. Trimming copper is not fun.

Instead, I've contacted multiple sellers on AliExpress to know if they could offer trimming services. They all declined.
I then followed the advices of @YveltalGriffin, and tried to ask on Alibaba. They almost all accepted, but the minimal order quantity was 300kg.
As you can imagine, I won't order 300kg of copper plates...

I then tried to contact custom heatsinks manufacturer. And this time, I was able to get a quote! Some asked up to CHF 30.- per plate, which is really expensive in my opinion. But I ended up ordering 50 plates for USD $180, which is equals CHF 2.9.- per plate, which is much better than every online metal shops, like Online Metal, and it's way cheaper that what I was able to get in the past.

Speakers are a different story though. When I designed the Xii-Boy Original, back in 2024 (I'm getting old lmao ), I took a lot of time to find the perfect speaker.
I chose some from Aliexpress, which were pretty high quality, and costed like 10 bucks for one portable. I ordered 4 speakers, which I was able to use for both Xii-Boy Original and Pocket.

But for some reason, when I ordered those same speakers again for Xii-Boy Ultra, I received a way shorter cable which was like 10 cm shorter!
It was great since it allowed me to have connectors on the Controller PCB.

Unfortunately, when Bryce and @Hili made their builds, they both had different connectors. Bryce got 1.5mm JST, and Hili didn't get any
To definitively solve that issue, I decided to contact the official seller on Alibaba, and I was able to order 50 speakers for USD $80, which is way cheaper than where I used to buy them. This time they will have the correct lenght and connector.

The sticks also required a special revision for the triggers to work properly. This means I spent countless hours searching for the correct revision, and I ended up finding a lot of 20 pieces of REV 5, which is the revision we're looking for the kit. Each kit will come with 2 of those sticks for the triggers.

For the fans, I decided to change for Winsinn ones, since they apparently are quieter and overall better compatible with PWM signals. They overall are high quality as far as I heard. I tried contacting them, but I didn't get any answers... I ordered some through Aliexpress, we'll see!

Part #4: Manual assembly VS JLC PCBA
This is a part I've struggled to decide.
PCBA offers a great service of PCB assembly, but this came at a cost. To save on costs, I decided to assemble the Beta Kits by myself.

Some people had issues with that assembly services, and I really wanted to avoid those. I'd rather order every needed tools and components and assemble everything by myself. I might change that decision for final kits, we'll see if it's too annoying

Part #5: Box Design
I mentioned @JamesPi and I were trying different designs of the Xii-Boy Ultra Kit box design. I ended up choosing my design was the one I preferred.
The things I like a lot in my design is that it's really simple and sober. It looks like the Gboy Kit, and I think this is a great thing since people will understand well that it's a new Gboy Kit if I can say so!

Also, compared to all the designs we tried, mine shows a non assembled top shell. I think this gives a feeling I love to have. I think every modder here got that feeling once. I'm talking about having your portable's shell in hands. It's even more intense when you ordered the shell. You've been waiting a lot for that shell to come, and when you receive it, you have only one want, it's to assemble it.

That's really the idea and feeling I want to give with the kits. Having the feeling that it's not finished, and you have to assemble it is the key of a kit, and I think this design transmits it well.

Design changes and upgrades
During the last month, I didn't really change the design, I mostly upgraded things that bothered me, or the people who have made a Xii-Boy Ultra during the few months since the Beta Release on Github.

A thing I made though is to make the trigger system better.
I noticed two things that I did not like.
The first was that the triggers had a gap under them. It was not a big issue, but I think it looked bad.

It's now fixed.

The second issue I've noticed is that the triggers didn't get back to their neutral position. Resulting in some false detection in RVLoader. Sometimes, without touching them, the triggers showed 5 in the Button Tester.

This was due to a missing hole in the shell.

Again, this is now fixed. I quickly printed a new prototype, and it works much better

On the PCB sides, I have good news.
AntoineOK was able to test the new Xii-Strip design!

This apparently works way better! Thanks to him for the feedbacks!

On the controller PCB, there was a screw that needed to be trimmed. The Xii-Boy Ultra uses only 2 kind of screws: M1.7 4mm and M1.7 6mm.
The longest screws are used to close the shell, and for the triggers to be well fixed.
All the rest of the console uses 4mm screws. All, except one: the screw that secures both GC+ 2 and the Controller PCB.

To solve that, I decided to make a hole in the PCB to make the fixation taller on the shell.
This allows us to use a classic 4mm screw, instead of a ~5mm screw we needed to make.
It doesn't change at all about durability or strength, it's even better since the screw will properly fix the PCB in that region, a thing that the previous screw did not really well.

And this is how it looks in the shell:

Speaking of the shell, I also decided to make that new Beta Kit revision a bit more round.
The REV1 (current revision on the Github) has sharp angles, which I decided to change following some advice from YveltalGriffin.
This is the new rounded Xii-Boy Ultra shell, and the shell I'm going to order!

In the last episode, I mentioned the button being not aligned with the Main PCB, which allowed them to leave the shell. The buttons were really wobbly, and you were able to remove them from the outside with a tweezers. I fixed it by replacing the button lower in the shell.

This correction results of the buttons being not centered in the shell's thickness.
The only revision that have centered buttons is the one Bryce and I have. The current revision is 1mm thicker to avoid collision issues, so the buttons are already not centered.
However, they will be even less centered here. Is that a big issue? I don't think so. I think it's going to be more natural to press the buttons.
I also think it's a price to pay to have solid buttons. That was a little design sacrifice I needed to pay.

This is what it looks like from the side.

Order and current state
A few weeks ago, I made a Google Form for the Beta Testers. This allowed them to configure their kit.
It was a simple temporary solution for the upcoming Shopify website that isn't here yet.

For the final kit, I'll allow multiple shell choices, like SLS, FDM, Resin or none (if you wanna source it by yourself).
There will also be multiple other choices we will be able to select. I really want to avoid waste, so if for example you already have sticks, you can select to not integrate the sticks.

Anyway. With that in mind, I got all the choices from the 6 beta testers!
I was able to order!

I started my ordering session by buying a new soldering heating plate. The current one I have is 5x5cm, which is pretty small, and would require to assemble the big PCBs in multiple steps, which is long. With that new 15x15cm hot plate, I'll be able to assemble up to 2 Main PCBs at the same time!

I also ordered stencils for most of the PCBs. It will save me a lot of time. I also 3D printed Jigs for applying the solder paste easily by keeping the PCBs secured.

Since it was my first time ordering on Aliexpress on my own, I made a new account. This means I had the "Welcome Deal". It's a great deal, and I was able to save 12 francs on my hot plate, but it also made impossible to order more than one piece of everything that had that offer (and believe me, there were a lot...)

I then proceeded the payments for both copper plates and speakers on Alibaba (thanks a lot to YveltlaGriffin who took the time to explain me how it worked
)

Following by Digikey! All the components I needed for the build! I made an Excel file that I will probably make open source to make the ordering process easier for everybody that is not going to order the kit.

I then remade the final Aliexpress order. At that point my wallet started to scream a bit. He seems alright for now, hope he will stay alive for the next order

Finally, JLCPCB...
I think ordering through them is really stressful. We generally get a lot of mails containing tens of errors. You have to accept them to proceed, and it's sometimes really scary. I ordered 5 shells, 10 of each PCBs, and I also got some USB-GC2 for the upcoming Xii-Shop.

Right now, I'm dealing with them about the errors, and I also made a mistake by giving them the wrong files. Hope we'll be able to fix that. In the worst scenario, I'll just cancel the order and start over. But generally, they can enable a Replace File buttons to avoid those issues.
Once everything will be on the right way, I'll be able to proceed the payment. It's the most expensive order I've ever made through JLCPCB, so I'm pretty stressed, and I hope I won't get a lot of custom fees...

My wallet right now:

Don't worry buddy we have ordered everything we need

So yup! Happy to announce that everything has been ordered! Still dealing with JLCPCB as always, but that's the normal process.

Beta Test, feedback and Discord Server
To get all the feedback at the same place, I made a Discord Server called the Xii-Lab!
I'll officially share the link to join when the Xii-Shop will be available. For now, only Beta Testers are in it.
It's a neat server James, Bryce and I spend time to make it great. You'll be able to share your builds, ask questions or help, follow the early development of my further projects, and so more! I first wanted to make a server for the Xii-Boy Ultra, and one for the Xii-Shop, but we ended up deciding it was better that way. All at one place

Question and Answers
Like I said at the beginning of that post, I'll now answer frequent question I get asked multiple times about.
Of course, I'm still really happy to answers question through the forum or on Discord, but since some questions were asked frequently, I thought it would be great to give more precision. Feel free to ask some question that I'll be able to answer through the next episodes.

Question #1: When will the kit be available?
Since the Xii-Boy Ultra kit still needs to be tested, I will start working on the Final Kits when I got all the feedback from the Beta Kit.
If the Beta Kit goes well, I hope making the kits available in December, or at the beginning of 2026.
However, if something goes wrong, I will need to try some more, and the kit will be delayed. Honestly, this is a really tricky question that is hard to answer.
I'll try my best, but sometimes things don't go like we would like. I'll try getting everyone updated here through the following weeks.

Question #2: Is the Beta Kit Revision already open-sourced on GitHub?
Not yet. To give the best support and experience possible, I want to test by myself any new revision.
Many things change from the current released version and the new Beta Kit revision, and I need to test to make sure everything is alright.

Question #3: When the Beta Kit Revision will be open-sourced on GitHub?
Since I just ordered, I hope receiving anything I need in two weeks. Then, I'll probably need one week of assembly, and testing.
I'll then assemble all the Beta Kits, and when I'll get a chance, I'll share the new revision on GitHub.

Question #4: Will the Kit be available in the United States?
I try my best to make the kit available in the United States. We might need to find a definitive solution, but I'll keep everyone updated if the tariff situation becomes clearer and less confusing for postal services.

Question #5: How much the Kit will cost?
That's a tricky question. I already try to answer it the best I could, but I'd like to add precision here.
The current Beta Kit offers a fair price with piratically no bargain. The goal isn't to make money on the kits. The goal is to test the product.
Furthermore, the Beta Kit price has been calculated for 7 units, and 10 PCBs. The order quantity impacts a lot the price, and since I do not know how much Final Kit I'll order, I have no idea of how much the kit will cost. But based on my current calculations of the Beta Kit prices, my goal is to keep the price of the kit at around CHF 200.- (or USD $250). Please consider this price may change a lot. It depends on many things, and it's terribly hard to know how much it will cost. I still need to know the custom fees for the current kits to understand how much they cost, and make a fair price for the Final Kits. This number is a goal, but we're sometimes not able to follow all our goals. I'll try my best to keep my head above water and make a fair price for y'all

Question #6: What will the kit include?
Listing everything the kits contains would take a lot of time
Instead, I'm going to list everything that the kit does NOT include for now, with a little explanation.
The kit does NOT come with:

- Tools or consumable (I think this makes sense. I'm not going to give a solder iron, flux, solder or thermal paste in the kits)

- Trimmed Wii motherboard (Trimming a Wii takes a lot of time and it's a tricky task to do. I might try to transform an old 3D printer into a Wii Trimming Machine to allow me to sell trimmed Wii on my Shop, or maybe only do that on special request. I'd also like you to know that we pays invoice for the trash here in Switzerland, and that our trash bags are taxed. Throwing away multiple Wii shells needs a special organization that I currently can't face)

- µSD Card (Those are inexpensive, but there is a lot of different speeds, capacity and kind. Also, SD card are really expensive to source here. I didn't find anything much cheaper than CHF 20.- even by sourcing online from reliable sources. I don't like ordering storage from Aliexpress, and Amazon is not available here.)

- 2x 18650 cells (Those are inexpensive as well, pretty easy to source, but a pain to ship. You need extra registration, agreement, and etc. I guess shipping is already a big mess, I don't want to add this to the list)

- 4LayerTechnoligies PCBs (There are multiple reasons why I won't include those boards in the kit. First, and the most logical reason, their delivery fees are low, most of the modders are from the United States, and I think it makes more sense for you to order from them, instead of buying them with the kit with an extra cost for delivery and custom fees. Furthermore, this would add CHF 260.- to each kit. This means with the same initial money spent, I could make way less kits.)

Question #7: When will the Guide available?
Bryce and JamesPi collaborate a lot to make an awesome guide. Huge thanks for y'all for that big work I couldn't handle alone
Bryce is working a lot on it, but I don't really know yet when it will be available. I hope it will be ready for Final Kits.
Maybe @Bryceshaw06 could give his opinion? I do have images and videos from the guide, but since it's not a final version, Bryce would like to keep that under the cap for now. Which is something I respect. I'll let Bryce talk about it if he wants to

Question #8: Is there anything I can do to help you?
I get that question a lot, and for now everything seems under control on our side.
I'll reach you guys if I need any help, feedback, opinions or else. Thanks though!

Conclusion and Special Thanks
This was all for that episode. I hope you like reading it. Sorry for not having releasing it earlier.
To sum up, the design received a little layer of polish.
Everything has been ordered, except JLC that I'm still dealing with.

Next episode will talk about all the parts I'll receive, and assembly.
I'll probably make a new thread in the Cutting Edge for my new Xii-Boy Ultra REV2 I'm making!

Hope I'll be able to make a new episode in a few weeks.

As always, I want to thank all the awesome people that were able to help me over the last month of that huge project the kits is.
Special Thanks:
- @JamesPi for all the help about the Kit in general, boxes, ideas, feedback. An awesome friend that is helping me a lot
- @Bryceshaw06 for all the work given for the Guide
- @YveltalGriffin for the help about Alibaba dealing, PCB advice, and everything else. The guy that make all of this possible!
- @supertazon and @ModdingMarius for their constant support and motivation!
- @Gman for his help from his Gboy Kit knowledge
- @Aurelio for his constant help and support about RVLoader and 4LayerTech! (and congrats!)
- The Xii-Boy Team (Bryce, JamesPi and I). A nice little team who is helping me a lot with decisions, choices, and many designs ideas.
- The BETA Testers (Feel free to say you're one of them if you want) for having ordered the Kits! An awesome team of talented people. I'm really happy to collaborate with y'all!


Hope you enjoy reading that long and pretty boring episode!
Thanks a lot for all the support and attention!
Have an awesome day, and see y'all next time!!

 

[GreaterMichiganModding]

Damn bro this looks sick af.

and yeah the idiotic orange man making it more expensive for americans, wooo horray!

do you by any chance have the pcbs open source so i could pick up some of my own?

 

[randomguy]

Well it's already open source on @Xenii's github

 

[Xenii]

Damn bro this looks sick af.

and yeah the idiotic orange man making it more expensive for americans, wooo horray!

do you by any chance have the pcbs open source so i could pick up some of my own?

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.