Combination? Wii U+Raspberry Pi 3=Awesome?

[Brik Builder]

Wii U/Raspberry Pi 3 Laptop?
I had been wondering now that the first Wii U laptop has been made, I was thinking, what could make it better? What about a little more power and actually working as a laptop? The raspberry Pi 3 is a neat little computer $35 dollar computer that is amazing for little tasks and tinkering and now comes with even more processing power than the other models. Since this is my first real post(with hopefully more to come) I apologize for any noobish mistakes.I was wondering if it was possible to run the Raspberry Pi 3 in parallel with the Wii U's processor and amplify its emulation capabilities, and also maybe make it useable as a real laptop? Since the Wii U also I good as processing graphics, maybe it could also help with that? Coul it be possible to use them to boost each other for gaming and applications for normal computer tasks such as, I dunno, better YouTube?Dunno how well I explained that but, I'll try to explain more in the next part:

The Plans:
Materials:
Wii U
Dremel
Bloodwood
Assorted Nails and Wood Glue
Possibly Extra Fans
Scrap Wires
Raspberry Pi 3
Ips Screen
Scrap Keyboard
Arcade Buttons
Rubber Feet(For keeping laptop in place)
And Possibly More...
Questions...
I was wondering how could I slim the Wii U to make it fit better, such as what is necessary, and what is beneficial for long term usuage. Also any ideas how we could slim the raspberry Pi 3? I also wanted to know if anyone has any ideas of running both at the same time. Really any information I helpful.
Visualization:
My end goal is to get a comfortably sized laptop that can take advantage of using the raspberry Pi 3 for assistance in emulation. Also since the Raspberry Pi 3 can use accessories, I was thinking of adding a keyboard and arcade machine controls to make it even more worthwhile. Most Wii laptops I have seen have blank insides and are really just screens but hopefully we can add a little more usefulness. Basically it's a Raspberry Pi Laptop with amazing emulation capabilities plus an arcade cabinet.
Note: If anyone has any tips or ideas on how to make this better or know how this could be achieved help would be greatly appreciated. Once the plans are complete, I will attempt to realize this laptop. I want helpful criticism!

 

[samjc3]

It's definitely possible to build a laptop that has both a WiiU and a raspi inside. However, making them assist each other with emulation in any particular capacity is a nonstarter - it's probably not impossible, but you'd need full low level access to both machines, an excellent grasp of bare metal coding and distributed computing design, as well as compiler design, so you could make a compiler that could target your very unusual hardware configuration. So yeah, not impossible, but the kind of people that have the level of skills involved have jobs at Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, and so forth. The only realistically viable method I can see for them to assist each other would be to use the raspi to tranlsate inputs from various devices into a usable format for the WiiU.

With that out of the way, I like a lot of what you're proposing - a raspi for basic computing and emulation up to 6th gen, and then a WiiU so you can play Bayonetta 2 forever. And bloodwood is gorgeous done right.

For slimming down the consoles, I'm not gonna claim to have seen the inside of the WiiU, but as a general rule of thumb, slimming is all about eliminating extraneous stuff, like ports, slimming out the heatsinks, and if possible, unstacking the disc drive from the mainboard. Same general idea on the pi - desoldering the ports will get it as thin as reasonably possible. If you wanted to go further, you could desolder all the GPIO pins, but I doubt it's gonna be that imperative.

 

[Brik Builder]

It's definitely possible to build a laptop that has both a WiiU and a raspi inside. However, making them assist each other with emulation in any particular capacity is a nonstarter - it's probably not impossible, but you'd need full low level access to both machines, an excellent grasp of bare metal coding and distributed computing design, as well as compiler design, so you could make a compiler that could target your very unusual hardware configuration. So yeah, not impossible, but the kind of people that have the level of skills involved have jobs at Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, and so forth. The only realistically viable method I can see for them to assist each other would be to use the raspi to tranlsate inputs from various devices into a usable format for the WiiU.

With that out of the way, I like a lot of what you're proposing - a raspi for basic computing and emulation up to 6th gen, and then a WiiU so you can play Bayonetta 2 forever. And bloodwood is gorgeous done right.

For slimming down the consoles, I'm not gonna claim to have seen the inside of the WiiU, but as a general rule of thumb, slimming is all about eliminating extraneous stuff, like ports, slimming out the heatsinks, and if possible, unstacking the disc drive from the mainboard. Same general idea on the pi - desoldering the ports will get it as thin as reasonably possible. If you wanted to go further, you could desolder all the GPIO pins, but I doubt it's gonna be that imperative.

When you say "bare metal coding" are you referencing assembly code? If so (or anything close to that) then most likely it probably isn't feasible for me, a tleast right now.
How could I get the Raspberry Pi to translate input devices to the Wii U? First to connect the devices, would it matter if it was connected to a usb port or GPIO pin? I hadn't thought of the Raspberry Pi assisting the Wii U in that way, so could you point me in the right direction to learn more? That would be pretty cool if you could play games with a custom controller on the Wii U. Also could I possibly have the Raspberry Pi be in charge of startup? Like from the menu, you could choose to just use the Pi or boot int the Wii U? Just one more thing, know any place I could take a look at the Wii U's internals and are there and services for soldering and desoldering components? Being a 14 year old boy, I may not have access to all the necessary tools to do this myself. Thank you very much for your help!

 

[grossaffe]

When you say "bare metal coding" are you referencing assembly code? If so (or anything close to that) then most likely it probably isn't feasible for me, a tleast right now.

Allow me to translate. Using the Raspberry Pi to "boost the Wii U" would be a chore for a highly educated and experienced engineer. Sometimes I think we're not liberal enough with the term "impossible" and it gives people the impression that something might be feasible with some hand-holding. Most anything is possible with enough expertize, but sometimes that level happens to be the "you had to have engineered the Wii U yourself".

How could I get the Raspberry Pi to translate input devices to the Wii U? First to connect the devices, would it matter if it was connected to a usb port or GPIO pin? I hadn't thought of the Raspberry Pi assisting the Wii U in that way, so could you point me in the right direction to learn more? That would be pretty cool if you could play games with a custom controller on the Wii U.

Well aside from the USB Gamecube Controller Adapter, the Wii U's control devices connect via Wifi (Gamepad) or Bluetooth (everything else). Maybe if you put a lot of effort into learning you can manage connecting via USB (and I don't anticipate that being a simple task), but realistically, it's probably above your head at this point as you'd have to familiarize yourself enough with the Gamecube Adapter's communication protocol to communicate to the Wii U, and you'd have to familiarize yourself with whatever device you wanted to use instead to have the Raspi communicate with and understand it. Don't let me discourage you, though, if you think you're up to the task; certainly doesn't hurt to start researching and getting an idea of what's involved if for nothing else than to have some initial familiarity which will make it more understandable in the future if you want to revisit it when you're more experienced.

Also could I possibly have the Raspberry Pi be in charge of startup? Like from the menu, you could choose to just use the Pi or boot int the Wii U?

That is probably the most doable thing so far. I'd imagine something simple utilizing an HDMI switch and the Raspi's GPIO. Use the GPIO to send a signal to select the output over the HDMI, and wire another GPIO into the Wii U's power switch to turn it on.

Just one more thing, know any place I could take a look at the Wii U's internals and are there and services for soldering and desoldering components? Being a 14 year old boy, I may not have access to all the necessary tools to do this myself. Thank you very much for your help!

This I'd recommend doing yourself, just don't screw up . Desoldering isn't too hard with the right tools (you can get a very usable soldering iron for $5 from Walmart's Automotive section by 3M), and soldering's not so bad depending on what you're doing. Start simple and gain experience.

 

[Brik Builder]

Allow me to translate. Using the Raspberry Pi to "boost the Wii U" would be a chore for a highly educated and experienced engineer. Sometimes I think we're not liberal enough with the term "impossible" and it gives people the impression that something might be feasible with some hand-holding. Most anything is possible with enough expertize, but sometimes that level happens to be the "you had to have engineered the Wii U yourself".


Well aside from the USB Gamecube Controller Adapter, the Wii U's control devices connect via Wifi (Gamepad) or Bluetooth (everything else). Maybe if you put a lot of effort into learning you can manage connecting via USB (and I don't anticipate that being a simple task), but realistically, it's probably above your head at this point as you'd have to familiarize yourself enough with the Gamecube Adapter's communication protocol to communicate to the Wii U, and you'd have to familiarize yourself with whatever device you wanted to use instead to have the Raspi communicate with and understand it. Don't let me discourage you, though, if you think you're up to the task; certainly doesn't hurt to start researching and getting an idea of what's involved if for nothing else than to have some initial familiarity which will make it more understandable in the future if you want to revisit it when you're more experienced.


That is probably the most doable thing so far. I'd imagine something simple utilizing an HDMI switch and the Raspi's GPIO. Use the GPIO to send a signal to select the output over the HDMI, and wire another GPIO into the Wii U's power switch to turn it on.

This I'd recommend doing yourself, just don't screw up . Desoldering isn't too hard with the right tools (you can get a very usable soldering iron for $5 from Walmart's Automotive section by 3M), and soldering's not so bad depending on what you're doing. Start simple and gain experience.

Sorry for taking so long, just wanted to say thanks for the further guidance! I'm gonna take some time to do more research on this and maybe bring a project back for you guys back at modretro!

 

[laingsoft]

If I was you, and I had the money and time to pursue a project like this, I would do something along the lines of what Groose has pointed out.

Set up the laptop to boot from a Raspberry Pi, or a Linux stick, Heck, any single board computer with a few GPIO pins would do. Then what you could do is write a little program that allows the raspi to switch the hdmi signal to the Wiiu when you want to play it.

As for actually extending the Wiiu with a raspi, for less effort, you might as well just figure out a software mod and roll your own custom firmware. I'm sure the cpu and gpu of the wiiu could outperform any $30 single board computer on the market. That said, unless you really know what you're doing, that's not going to happen.

 

[Brik Builder]

If I was you, and I had the money and time to pursue a project like this, I would do something along the lines of what Groose has pointed out.

Set up the laptop to boot from a Raspberry Pi, or a Linux stick, Heck, any single board computer with a few GPIO pins would do. Then what you could do is write a little program that allows the raspi to switch the hdmi signal to the Wiiu when you want to play it.

As for actually extending the Wiiu with a raspi, for less effort, you might as well just figure out a software mod and roll your own custom firmware. I'm sure the cpu and gpu of the wiiu could outperform any $30 single board computer on the market. That said, unless you really know what you're doing, that's not going to happen.

Thanks and yeah I don't really think i have the right tools to make the Wii U and Pi run together but HDMI switch is definitely possible. I'm at the moment trying to write up a few plans for slimming it down a bit.