Wiiboy - BlueLemming's First Portable

[BlueLemming]

Hey guys, figured I'd make a worklog for this considering how far I've gotten.

This is my first portable ever. It was originally going to be a GC portable but after being unable to find a Wiikey Fusion, I decided I may as well use my Wii which was already softmodded to use a hard drive.

I tried various ideas for casing but I couldn't find a case that fit I was really satisfied with.. So I thought why not use the Wii case itself as it's already the perfect dimension? Some of you may think that's a horrible idea but I'm building this for myself (for now, anyways) and I'm perfectly fine with it so I'm gonna stick to it.

Most of my parts are coming from dealextreme so I'm still waiting for some to arrive (free, but long, shipping).

Here are the specifications:

• 
  
  Built in gamecube controller
  
  3DS slidepads replacing the analogs
  
  PSP D-Pad (That's the plan, anyway.)
  
  Switch for using port or built in controller as player 1
  
  Switch for 4.3" screen or A/V output
  
  Battery with plug-in and play (http://dx.com/p/ysd-12680-rechargeable-high-capacity-6800mah-li-polymer-battery-blue-140120)
  
  Stereo headphone jack
  
  Loading games from hard drive

I was very skeptical about that battery but I just tested it and it does power the Wii with no screen. These next few days are crazy for me but once I have an hour or 2 to kill I'll test the battery's lifetime.

There's not much to show for pictures other than a disassembled Wii with a battery and screen, however I did make this quick mockup of how it'll look with the Wii case eventually.

The start button, D-Pad and C-slider will probably move to a more natural-feeling position.

One thing I like about this design is you'll be able to stand it up like a normal Wii and plug it into your TV. It doesn't include a sensor bar because, as I said earlier, it was originally going to be a GameCube portable and that's still the idea with this. Of course, the sensor bar plugin is still there for the TV.

I'm expecting the 3DS sliders to arrive in the next few days so I'll make an update then!

 

[Mr.Mike]

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q= ... 5910108825

or maybe for a case you could just use this one. Its a dragoncube arcade stick thingy

 

[BlueLemming]

or maybe for a case you could just use this one. Its a dragoncube arcade stick thingy

I could, but I might if I'm going to use another electronic's casing I may as well use the Wii's, right? I'm afraid I might end up frankensteining anything else right now.

I tested the battery for 1.5 hours with no screen but had to turn it off there because I went out. I checked the voltage of the battery afterwards and it dropped to 10.5, so the Wii wouldn't turn on (even with the charger plugged in). Looks like that's the downside of this battery so I'll be leaving the original power plugin as well as the battery charger plugin. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to test it for longer but so far, a $27 battery is doing more than what I've expected.

Edit:

Battery lasted 2 hours 15 minutes without a screen. One odd thing I noticed, though, once the voltage dropped to 11.4v~ it didn't seem to have enough power when booting up a GC game as the Wii would just turn off. If I plugged in the charger then the game started fine. Wii games started with and without the charger, and the Wii turned on with and without the charger. Very odd, indeed.

Edit 2:

Found out that depending on if the battery is plugged in, not plugged in, or using the original wii power cord, changes the video mode settings I need to use on Wiiflow. So I can still boot up GC games with my battery not plugged in, which is good (yet, confusing) news.

Tested out the battery with the screen and it lasted 2 hours. That was purely just sitting at the Super Smash Bros Melee title screen. I think I used up more power on my test with no screen because I spent 20~ minutes playing Super Smash Bros Brawl (using Wii power?), 10~ playing Melee, then the rest on the Melee title screen. So I used the rumble quite a bit and that probably brought down the battery by a bit.

Faced with a new problem, though. The video output while playing GC games moves to the right by about 60 pixels (black border on left side, right side gets cut off). Wii menu and games are fine, but when it goes into GC mode it moves. Tried all kinds of settings on Wiiflow and the Wii system settings, used original power cord, still stayed off-center. I'm wondering if its the soldering connection to the power so I'm going to remove the screen and battery connections and see what happens.

 

[Akira]

What screen are you using and with what connection?

I am too building a wiip, and using a vga screen.
I am having trouble with gamecube games and video out as well.

Because i use 480p and gamecube games use 480i or 576i i get a black screen.

Same goes for a lot of virtual console games. They all have different resolutions.

You could use dios mios and force a display mode for gamecube games.

As for me the easiest way to fix my problem and still use glorious 480p progresive screen and play vc and gc games is to have a switch, the screen also takes composite video for troubled games and resolutions.

 

[BlueLemming]

I'm using this screen
http://dx.com/p/4-3-lcd-monitor-for-vis ... -pal-73626

But it does it on my TV and on my screen, so I know it's the Wii itself. I unsoldered the battery and screen connecters and it went back to normal. Re soldered them back on, screen screwed up again. Unsoldered, still messed up. So I know it's not a software thing. I'm wondering if it's oxidation on the A/V outputs? There's a bit on there from the heat of soldering the power plugin. It's such a weird problem. I can't tell if it's the soldering connection (nothings shorting), the oxidation, or something else that's moving around when I take it to my workbench to solder and hook it back up again. The only soldering I've done is to the power plugin.

The OTHER weird thing, which is related to this, is my video settings for game/system/NTSC/PAL and setting for no DVD patch sometimes needs to be changed when I take it to be soldered and hook it up again. I'll test a game and it works, but the screen is messed up so I'll desolder or try to fix a connection, hook it up and then the Wii shuts off when I try to boot a GC game. So I switch the video setting or no dvd patch and it works again. This whole situation is just bizarre.

 

[BlueLemming]

Well, after putting this project on an unexpected delay, I finally got the motivation to start it up again. I stopped it originally because of the disappointing screen displacement on GC games and inexperience with casing.

I actually managed to fix the screen problem by remodding my Wii, and I've been researching ABS cementing so I think I can do it. I have 30 days till I leave for college so looks are no longer an issue right now .

I think I'll probably hook up Xbox 360 triggers on the backside of it; the smaller the triggers the better. If you pick up your Wii and hold it like my diagram, you'll realize how uncomfortable GC triggers would be there (the Wiiboy itself is a tank!)