Ruggedised Wii System ~ Worklog
Hi, I've been lurking for a while and some of the posts here inspired me to create a ruggedised Wii for taking with me for overseas work.
My main goals for this project are:
1) Portability - The Total weight and Size need to be kept to a minimum - I have been building into this case: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD
2) Survivability - The unit must be shock proof & water tight when closed, I don't want to have to baby this thing when travelling overseas with it.
3) Self Contained - All peripherals + games need to be stored in the case - therefore I will be using a HDD usb-loader soft-mod & leaving enough room for a controller, headset & power pack.
4) Duplication - I have where ever possible used parts from devices that are in common supply, as i will be wanting to make a few of these as gifts in the future.
High Level Design:
My design will be using Perspex Sheets to seperate the various boards from eachother, each board will be screwed to the sheet it sits on, and each sheet will be seperated by spacers:
Here is my progress So Far:
Before we move on - please note I have taken these photos with my mobile phone - so the quality will be sub par.
Firstly I took apart the Wii and the DVD player and soldered them together as necessary - at this point the boards were connecting using their own power systems - these get joined later on. I have also added mountable switches to the Wii for mounting on the case.
Next I moved onto the screen assembly:
Here you can see the layers of the screen as described in the high level design:
And the finished Screen placed in the top half of the Case:
The LCD will be backed by a rubber mat and a rubber seal will be added between the perspex & case rim for shock proofing.
The next step is to start on the bottom layers (Wii DVD Board, Wii & HDD):
Then the DVD Mobo & Power Regular Layer:
This last image shows that there is enough room for the controllers, and though it is not in the photo - an IR headset will go in here as well.
Next Steps:
Next I will be working on locating a power supply that is smaller than the Wii power brick that the system currently runs from.
I will also be measuring my hand cut Perspex panels and having them rebuilt by my local supplier cut to size, this will allow the entire unit to be screwed together tightly and securely.
I am also looking at getting an Iceberq heatsink+fan as featured in Ashen's Wii Laptop (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9390&start=20) Props for pointing out the unit - I couldn't find anything nearly as good!
Some things I am having trouble with:
IR Issues
I had an idea to use the on-board IR headset from the Portable DVD player I disassembled to double as the sensor bar for the Wiimote. However I have run into an issue with the Wiimote picking up the IR signals properly. I'm not sure if this is because the IR LEDS have too narrow of a transmit angle (the IR headset works at a wide angle so I'm guessing this is not the problem) or if the wavelength of the IR LEDS are not suitable for the Wiimote.
After some research I can see that the ideal Wiimote LED wavelength is 940nm, and i suspect that the ones in use are around the 840nm mark (I'm guessing this is the case because i can see a faint glow from the leds when the unit is on.)
What I will try to do is replace the IR LEDs on the system with some that transmit at 950nm and then replace the receiver on the headphones to work on this new frequency. Alternatively i have read that the Wiimote doesn't use an IR received but a camera looking through an IR filter - perhaps if i was able to get a new material to filter the lower frequency my problems may also go away. If its all too hard ill just mount the sensor bar LEDs next to the IR LEDs. (though this is not as elegant as i would have liked.)
Can anyone Comment in this issue with some pointers?
Battery Issues
Currently I'm running the entire system from the Wii PSU, and am using a voltage regulator to provide 9V to the LCD + IR (is there somewhere I can pull 9v from the Wii itself? I have heard that the sensor bar uses 9V but haven't yet confirmed this with my multimeter as I'm out of the country.)
I want to eventually power my entire system through a LiPo System purely due to the weight / power advantages. However im wondering if i should try to assemble my own pack with all the necessary protection & indicator circuitry or just use something like this: http://www.energizerpowerpacks.com/us/products/xp8000/.
I'm after Opinions on whether I will be able to make something similar without a weight or cost blow-out? (I'm not saying that I will be able to make something BETTER - but making it myself will me more satisfying.
)
Heat Issues
I'm looking at installing a Low Profile Heat sink with a fan, but i would like to get some pointers on how I can measure the heat of the GPU and what levels are safe - I would like to avoid guesswork, would it be an idea to put in a temperature sensor as a safety?
Hi, I've been lurking for a while and some of the posts here inspired me to create a ruggedised Wii for taking with me for overseas work.
My main goals for this project are:
1) Portability - The Total weight and Size need to be kept to a minimum - I have been building into this case: http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD
2) Survivability - The unit must be shock proof & water tight when closed, I don't want to have to baby this thing when travelling overseas with it.
3) Self Contained - All peripherals + games need to be stored in the case - therefore I will be using a HDD usb-loader soft-mod & leaving enough room for a controller, headset & power pack.
4) Duplication - I have where ever possible used parts from devices that are in common supply, as i will be wanting to make a few of these as gifts in the future.
High Level Design:
My design will be using Perspex Sheets to seperate the various boards from eachother, each board will be screwed to the sheet it sits on, and each sheet will be seperated by spacers:
Here is my progress So Far:
Before we move on - please note I have taken these photos with my mobile phone - so the quality will be sub par.
Firstly I took apart the Wii and the DVD player and soldered them together as necessary - at this point the boards were connecting using their own power systems - these get joined later on. I have also added mountable switches to the Wii for mounting on the case.
Next I moved onto the screen assembly:
Here you can see the layers of the screen as described in the high level design:
And the finished Screen placed in the top half of the Case:
The LCD will be backed by a rubber mat and a rubber seal will be added between the perspex & case rim for shock proofing.
The next step is to start on the bottom layers (Wii DVD Board, Wii & HDD):
Then the DVD Mobo & Power Regular Layer:
This last image shows that there is enough room for the controllers, and though it is not in the photo - an IR headset will go in here as well.
Next Steps:
Next I will be working on locating a power supply that is smaller than the Wii power brick that the system currently runs from.
I will also be measuring my hand cut Perspex panels and having them rebuilt by my local supplier cut to size, this will allow the entire unit to be screwed together tightly and securely.
I am also looking at getting an Iceberq heatsink+fan as featured in Ashen's Wii Laptop (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=9390&start=20) Props for pointing out the unit - I couldn't find anything nearly as good!
Some things I am having trouble with:
IR Issues
I had an idea to use the on-board IR headset from the Portable DVD player I disassembled to double as the sensor bar for the Wiimote. However I have run into an issue with the Wiimote picking up the IR signals properly. I'm not sure if this is because the IR LEDS have too narrow of a transmit angle (the IR headset works at a wide angle so I'm guessing this is not the problem) or if the wavelength of the IR LEDS are not suitable for the Wiimote.
After some research I can see that the ideal Wiimote LED wavelength is 940nm, and i suspect that the ones in use are around the 840nm mark (I'm guessing this is the case because i can see a faint glow from the leds when the unit is on.)
What I will try to do is replace the IR LEDs on the system with some that transmit at 950nm and then replace the receiver on the headphones to work on this new frequency. Alternatively i have read that the Wiimote doesn't use an IR received but a camera looking through an IR filter - perhaps if i was able to get a new material to filter the lower frequency my problems may also go away. If its all too hard ill just mount the sensor bar LEDs next to the IR LEDs. (though this is not as elegant as i would have liked.)
Can anyone Comment in this issue with some pointers?
Battery Issues
Currently I'm running the entire system from the Wii PSU, and am using a voltage regulator to provide 9V to the LCD + IR (is there somewhere I can pull 9v from the Wii itself? I have heard that the sensor bar uses 9V but haven't yet confirmed this with my multimeter as I'm out of the country.)
I want to eventually power my entire system through a LiPo System purely due to the weight / power advantages. However im wondering if i should try to assemble my own pack with all the necessary protection & indicator circuitry or just use something like this: http://www.energizerpowerpacks.com/us/products/xp8000/.
I'm after Opinions on whether I will be able to make something similar without a weight or cost blow-out? (I'm not saying that I will be able to make something BETTER - but making it myself will me more satisfying.
)Heat Issues
I'm looking at installing a Low Profile Heat sink with a fan, but i would like to get some pointers on how I can measure the heat of the GPU and what levels are safe - I would like to avoid guesswork, would it be an idea to put in a temperature sensor as a safety?
