Ashen's Wii Laptop ~ Worklog ~

[Ashen]

So this thing is getting a bit of a redux.

here we go:





Just some pics of a prelim hookup of the stuff I'm going to use to make sure it worked together right. Please excuse my messy workspace. Nothing is modded yet except the screen. I have the 3rd party controller board hot glued to the back of it because I was using the screen for something else until recently. I'll have to remove the controller board/hot glue and do some doctoring up to the screen case to make it useable for this project anyway.

The plan is to build a custom case for everything that's going into the bottom half from those wood strips you see in the pictures along with some Lexan sheeting that I have yet to acquire and cut. I hope to use the original hinges from the dell laptop monitor and hope to use some of the vinyl car wrap to make stuff look pretty.

Here is the component to VGA converter I'll be using for this project:



Its made for arcade boards but works very nicely for this also. I got it off ebay for like 30 bucks a while back.

That's it for now I guess. More updates as I make progress.

Little bonus because I think its awesome and I'm excited for Halloween next week. Check out the costume I made for my son:

 

[Shank]

Awesome. Really looking forward to it.
Im curious why you went with a Component to VGA converter board instead of one of the chips used in the wii-vga cables.

First thing that came to my mind upon reading this: Does the decision of the revival of this project have anything to do with any of blargamans recent trimming breakthroughs?

I am ready for you to blow a hole in everything we think we know about the limitations of wii, its trimming, and capabilities. Im rooting for you, and will send you broken wii boards if it will help.

GO, ASHEN, GO!

 

[Ashen]

I used that converter because it gives the best picture quality out of all of them that I have here, and space is not really a critical factor in this case.

I'm not trying to be debbie downer when I say this, but I'm not really interested in Wii trimming. I've never really seen the point. The most practical way to get full functionality of the Wii remote is to build a laptop, which is most likely going to be large enough to accommodate the full board anyway.

 

[Shank]

I was unaware of a difference in video quality. Is it significant?

There is more to a wii than the remote... I might be up to something

 

[rocfield]

Como você conseguiu ligar um cabo VGA em uma tela de um laptop?
É possível com qualquer tela?

Ótimo trabalho!
Parabéns!!!

 

[Ashen]

I don't speak French, sorry. Here's my best attempt at an answer after a google translate.


Its a 3rd party controller board that they program specifically for the LCD panel you have. After you purchase the seller will contact you for your specific LCD info.

Something like this: http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_kw=LC ... 0785928127

The seller I bought from was njytouch. They are great to work with.


son parti 3ème carte contrôleur qu'ils programment en particulier pour l'écran LCD que vous avez. Après avoir acheté le vendeur vous contactera pour votre info LCD spécifique vous.

Quelque chose comme ceci : http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_kw=LC ... 0785928127

Le vendeur je l'ai acheté de njytouch était. Ils sont parfaits pour travailler avec.

 

[lyberty5]

Ashen that's not french that's portuguese (probably) ! I'm so offended

btw your googletranslated french is terrible, but your son's costume is a beast, I'm in awe

EDIT : but from what I understood of his statement, you got the most part of what he meant.

here's what google translate says of it in portugues (hope i'm not wrong) :

É uma placa controladora do 3o partido que programar especificamente para o painel de LCD que você tem. Depois que você compra o vendedor entrará em contato com você para sua informação LCD específico.

Algo parecido com isto: http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_kw=LC ... 0785928127

O vendedor que eu comprei da era njytouch. Eles são ótimos para trabalhar.

EDIT 2 : Nice fat battery on that ego btw

 

[thecasperrojas]

@Ashen

his just asking where did you get the VGA converter to be able to use the laptop screen
and if it work with any type of laptop screen

 

[Ashen]

Ahh, well flax. I'm an idiot. I need to pay closer attention. Don't know how I got it in my head that that was French. Thx for fixing my mistake.

 

[ttsgeb]

njytouch is pretty good, but I've found that there's a real benefit to looking around on alibaba for these things. I have no clue who I bought from, but I found their product to be about 30x better than njytouch's. There's also a much greater selection there, so you can probably find something that does what you're looking for. For example, the board I got takes VGA, HDMI, DVI, Component, S-video, and composite inputs, and has an easy to use OSD. My njytouch boards suck in comparison, and they cost just as much.

 

[Ashen]

Good to know Tim. I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm perusing for screens/driver boards.

Update time. Yay!

So I've got a lot of the work done to the case bottom half. Still have to make all the holes for switches/ports/etc but I actually feel like I'm getting somewhere now. Here is a thickness shot with the screen:



and the back with the hinges. Not sure how I'll hide them yet, or if I'll even bother:



aaaand open:



After all that I've started trying to work out parts placement, Here's a shot with most of the unmodded components I'm going to be using. I still need to get an audio amp, and maybe a few other things I haven't thought of yet:



And then I removed a bunch of unnecessary ports and stuff from the boards. I hate the crappy solder that chinese companys use. Its always just about Dang near impossible to desolder stuff with a ball pump. I end up ripping/cutting stuff off every Dang time:



Also shown is the unmodded heatsinkand fan I'll use. I'm going to need to cut/mill it down a bit. The fan is from a PS2 slim i think. I can't remember anymore.

Thats it for now.

 

[E64]

how many volts are each battery that youre using?

 

[RedmagnusX]

I take it from the pictures that you're going to be excluding the optical drive from your build? If so, were you thinking of hard modding the Wii at all? Personally, I'm Woding my Wii laptop build simply because of the ease of use and not having to use a special file system in order to load games onto it. It's still soft modded for Emulators and such however and it retains the optical drive as well.

I have that same upscaler board in my build as well, but mine is the dual output version (8220). It works very well, but just as a heads up, it does get kind of warm. I've already had one go bad on me from the heat.

 

[Ashen]

I take it from the pictures that you're going to be excluding the optical drive from your build? If so, were you thinking of hard modding the Wii at all?

Correct. No optical drive in this build. I'll be using a USB loader to load all of my Wii games and Devolution/Nintendont to load GC titles. I'd considered adding in a Wiikey Fusion, but on a Wii its kind of pointless when I can just have one huge HDD with all of my games on it without having to buy extra hardware.

You don't need any special filesystem either. All of my drives I use on my Wii's are fat32 formatted.

I'd like to see more of your project! Don't you have a worklog here?

 

[RedmagnusX]

I take it from the pictures that you're going to be excluding the optical drive from your build? If so, were you thinking of hard modding the Wii at all?

Correct. No optical drive in this build. I'll be using a USB loader to load all of my Wii games and Devolution/Nintendont to load GC titles. I'd considered adding in a Wiikey Fusion, but on a Wii its kind of pointless when I can just have one huge HDD with all of my games on it without having to buy extra hardware.

You don't need any special filesystem either. All of my drives I use on my Wii's are fat32 formatted.

I'd like to see more of your project! Don't you have a worklog here?

Unfortunately, I don't have a worklog at the moment as I haven't gotten around to making one yet LOL. I'll see what I can come up with when I get the time though.

That's good about the not having to use the WBFS file system anymore. I remember that being such a hassle in the past. So much so, that I just resorted to Hardware mods years ago for the sake of avoiding it. Haha. That should explain my ignorance to the fact that this has changed.

Another reason why I went for wode though was for better compatibility with games. I know that with soft modding you get very good compatibility these days with both Wii and Gamecube games, but I have come across some games that don't work. I agree that this isn't a big enough issue to consider spending any extra money however. In fact, I'm also using a wode because I had a spare laying around. LOL.

 

[Ashen]

More progress.

 

[Stormower]

I have the same WD USB 3 HDD than you !

And the projects is awsome, like your otherz ones...
Thanks for the guides, it will help me to make my first GC mod

 

[RedmagnusX]

That's coming out great so far Ashen! Keep it up! I just finished wiring everything up in mine. It's basically done. I only need to vinyl wrap it. Here's a pic of it since I remember you wanting to see it.



I decided to keep the optical drive in mine and I went with a soft mod instead due to you informing me that I didn't have to mess around with WBFS. Thanks for that by the way, now I can save the Wode for my next Gamecube Project.

 

[Ashen]

That looks fantastic man! Are there batteries in there somewhere?

Here's a little vidja sneak peek at mine all wired up.

 

[orangeziggy84]

What loader is that in the beginning of the video?