Been quite some time since my last update, finals are over now and I've been having more time to work on this.
After testing for some time I've been noticing some issues with the controller ports. I've had issues with ports 1, 2, and 4. Readjusting wires and removing hot glue was fixing it but I haven't been confident that the issue is truly resolved. So I went ahead and removed all the hot glue (hindsight, don't hot glue over the solder points but just on the wire before it, wow that was a pain in the ass to get it all off). Rewired each data line with 32g magnet wire as opposed to 24g magnet wire. Made the wiring cleaner this time and I feel a lot more confident about those. This is the last time I'll probably be wiring to the bottom of the board so here's a pic of that plus the current setup right now.
My original plans for shoulder buttons was to use a Wii classic controller shoulder buttons because I needed buttons that were thin enough to fit on the thin side of the case. However, they're pretty long so it would be a tight fit next to the video connector on one side and the SD card slot on the other. After being inspired by
@Redmagnusx 's custom shoulder buttons on his newest portable, I decided to try to create ones like that. So I picked up those pushbutton switches from digikey, disassembled them, shaved down the insides, and created a double tact setup on some perfboard to hot glue to the bottom. The end result is fantastic. The buttons feel amazing and they're the perfect size for this portable. So huge shout out to
@Redmagnusx ! Here are some pics of the process of making them.
In terms of casework I'm nearly finished cutting out the thin side of the case. The cutouts aren't the prettiest, but the best I could do by hand. The connectors fit well which is all I care about. I made a fan grill (didn't want to compromise the strength of the case sides too much) and put some fan filter mesh over the grill so hopefully the airflow works well. The grills aren't aligned quite right but I had to make that compromise in order to fit the things I needed to fit into the case sides. Here's a pic of the sides so far. I just need to make cutouts for the shoulder buttons, SD card slot, and AV port.
My audio amp (from the BOM) will arrive tomorrow and I picked up some 1W 8 ohm speakers that I was recommended. So I will wire those up tomorrow hopefully pretty easily. After that I will frankencase the controller shell into the case (the part I'm most nervous about tbh). Then I can finally work on the internal controller. Hoping to finish this portable by the end of June!