2021 Contest Entry: TropicPug's WiiFicial

[TropicPug]

Hi all,
Planning to make another portable over the summer since school term ends in a few weeks once I've finished the G Wii I was working on (just have the assembly left to do).
This is just a placeholder thread until then, having a bit of a think about designs and I'll start work-logging on here soon!

Edit: Started!

Once I have finished this portable, I'll list the full worklog by editing this message so that it is easier to read through than scrolling through the whole post.

 

[TropicPug]

Hi all,
It's been a while but I'm finally back and ready to design the portable.

Introducing the WiiFicial: The Wii portable that might hopefully look official

Design Specification and Justification:
- Look as much like an official product as possible. - The Wii was the console me and my generation grew up with and remember very fondly throughout our childhoods. I'd love for this to look as much like an official product as possible so that others look at it and instantly associate it with the Wii/Wii U line of products.

- Include HDMI out functionality. - Given this is portable, I'd like to be able to hook this up to my school's teaching projectors during my and my mates' free periods in school. This isn't a necessity, but it would be a very nice function to have.

- Over 2.5h of play time, over 3h of battery life. - I'm one of those people that gets anxty and switches off their devices once they hit 20% or so. A good 3h battery life would be much appreciated if I get into a game and want to play.

- Comfortable to hold. - Obviously I want the console to feel good to use for extended play periods. I'll make sure to design the console to be smooth and fit comfortably into the hands and hopefully avoid a boxy design.
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Beginning Designing:
I began by getting some pictures of different Wii products and designs from the Wii/Wii U era. I took a deeper look into the finer details and stylistic choices in the designs to try and replicate the style for my portable.

Observations:
The Wii's design is very angular, with slightly rounded edges. This is very-much in contrast to the majority of Wii accessories such as the controllers, that are very rounded. This rounded design continues on with the Wii U gamepad and Wii U console being more round in shape than the Wii, there are a few peripherals such as the Wii LAN adapter that are more boxy, but most of things Wii related have a curved shape and I should design with this in mind.

The Wii/Wii U follows a very simple design philosophy of simple block colours with a blue home button and red power button. There is small grey text that marks the product as 'Wii' or 'Wii U' on everything.

Both the controllers and the console have a glossy or semi gloss sheen on the front or all over, and a more matte coating on the back.

There are no screws visible on any of the controllers/consoles, any surface screws are deeper down in order to not be an eyesore. Sometimes, such as in the case of the Wii U gamepad and both consoles, these holes are covered with a thick sticker.

The back of both the Wii and Wii U consoles have letters and symbols that stick out for inputs, such as USB and SENSOR BAR. There are even slightly embossed ones for the covered ports such as the GameCube controllers, memory cards and SD.

Ideas To Incorporate Into Design:
Shape:
- Create a curved design similar to the controllers.
- No screws should be visible on the surface of the console. Either make them deep down or find some form of sticker that can cover them, or both.

Colour:
- Simple colour scheme, block white, to mimic that of the official products.
- Gloss front, matte back.

Fine Details:
- Nintendo logo embossed. Any output / input ports should have a slightly embossed logo that makes them look professional and more official. (though there could be an issue with the quality of my 3D printer printing things like this).
- Potentially use waterslide decals for logos and buttons such as 'POWER' 'START' 'SELECT' and other such buttons to give more of a Wii like feel.
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[Luca]

Someone with a similar mission to you built a portable, long, long ago... Have a look: https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/wii-sp-2-0.1416/

 

[TropicPug]

Thanks Luca for the link. I love the look of JacksonS's portable and I hope mine comes out as well as his did!

I've been doing some 3D modelling to fit the buttons of a Wii Classic controller into my portable. I really dislike theGameCube controller button layout and sticks and honestly pretty-much everything about the controller (pleasedonthurtme) and would prefer using a more traditional button layout.
After a few attempts, I've been able to get a working prototype of button holes for the Wii Classic controller D-Pad and ABXY. I actually found the buttons held better once a few posts had been snapped off, and it doesn't cause the buttons to spin!
I'll release this model to the model repository once I've gotten it good enough to my liking.
Link:NotYetUploaded

I also spent some time assembling some U-Amps and GC2.0+ that I got the chips for a while ago. It is my first time assembling such chips and I hope they work! I'll flash the code to them and hope for the best.

I've also decided upon a few changes.

1). No HDMI output.
I've had to make some sacrifices due to time and costs and HDMI is something that sadly has to go. I thought about it and in the end it wasn't worth the effort. I'll just focus on making this portable functional.

 

[TropicPug]

Hi all!
Got some more done today.

Modified the driver board to allow for a 3.3V input and removed a load of capacitors to make it thinner (massive thanks to Aurelio for helping me and Benge for showing the board on his O-Wii portable that I could see and mimic).

I designed an enclosure for the LCD to test the fit on it, the plan is to fit the LCD in the enclosure, then have the LCD driver board and Wii motherboard screw on top of that, allowing room on each side for the cells etc. I can also work out the sort of size of my portable once I have the thickness and can begin to fit in the button mounts and 18650 cells.

Only issue I forsee in the near future is that my 3D printer seems to print really badly on the right hand side, I think its due to the bed being off level because of the glass bed heating up and warping.
If I can't get this sorted in time, I'll have to print as is and use Polyfilla to fill in the inevitable gaps.

 

[TropicPug]

Hi all,
I got some more modelling done today, I've done the button and joystick holders as well as the front of the shell. I'll get some more done tomorrow hopefully.


EDIT: I ought to note, that the Wii boardmodelled here was not my own work, it was from Jeff's Assortment of Various Models Link: Model - Jeff's Assortment of Various Models | BitBuilt - Giving Life to Old Consoles


EDIT (as to not double psot): 13th July
Got some more work done today, button holes and holders for most things (the only one elft to do is power which will be placed along the side of the shell).
I'm really pleased with how this is shaping up, the dimensions are really a lot smaller than I thought I would be able to make it (around 114 x 213mm, for reference the switch is 102 x 239mm).
The only possible issue I see is with fitting the 18650 cells into the design given they are quite large, but even if they get too big, it shouldn't be an issue, since I can just extend the shell out a bit more.

I've tried to design the system to fit into one side and then the other slots over and screws in, I feel like this will help me when assembling, since when I attempted to assemble a G-Wii, wires travelling over the two halves made it really messy for someone like me whom is abysmal at wire management!
.
EDIT 17th July
Spent some time prototyping the triggers, I worked out that I could fit the Wii Classic controller triggers on the shell with a dual tact mode, but I would need to trim them down a little. I also made little mounting boards for the audio and power jacks as well as holes for them in the side of the shell.
Now all I have to do is fit in the cells, add a Z trigger, RGB LED (RVL-PMS indicator) and create the fan vent before creating the back of the shell. I can then move onto the aesthetics of the portable, looking more at rounding the edges, adding some bevels and all the wii decals and ensuring everything is working before my first test print.
The thickness looks good enough for 18650 cells, however, due to the way in whcih I have laid out components in this shell,


EDIT: 18th July
Got some more work done today, worked out that I have enough room to fit 6 18650 cells! A lot more than I had expected. I will, however, stick to 5 cells, since I don't want the portable to feel too heavy on one side (the 5th cell is used to offset the weight of the motherboard since it is off-centre).
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I have also added the last few things, so I am about to do my first test print! Wish me luck!

EDIT: Tuesday 20th July
Hi all,
Been a while. I’ve had issues with my printer. The glass bed is warped and the extruder clicks and jumps off the rails! I’m going to try and set up a 3DTouch module and work out what the issue with the extruder is.
I got one good sheet front print, but haven’t got a back shell complete yet, had issues like the extruder stopping halfway through print (twice), layers not sticking together, then the clicking!
I hope to have a good print done by the end of next week, I’m gonna try following a few guides and see where that gets me, otherwise I might have to call an experienced friend over and get it fixed

EDIT: Friday 30th July
Another unfortunate update... Got a BLTouch hooked up and was getting ready to set it all up and spilt my cup of water on my printer! The heating element on the bed reads -14C and will not heat. I’ve got a new heat bed arriving next week along with a new print bed since the glass bed is warped and I might as well get this all sorted and hope it starts printing again!

 

[TropicPug]

Monday 9th August
Finally got the printer up and working. turned over the bed, set up a BLTouch module and it seems to be nice and level!
I did some test prints and found that some parts of my shell were just too small and needed to be modified so that they didn't snap off so easily (button holders, L/R trigger holders, cylinders surrounding screw holes).

I'm quite happy with how the print turned out. There's quite a lot of salmon skin, but I'm planning to sand down and paint the shell white to try and make it look as much as a professional injection moulded part as possible.

The portable looks pretty thick, but it feels nice and comfortable to hold and the button holes etc. fit well. The dimensions are about that of a switch but slightly taller and much thicker.

 

[TropicPug]

It’s starting to all come together! I’ve had issues with the screen, so it’s outputting 576i rather than 480p, which isn’t a big issue, since you can’t run PAL GameCube games in 480p ;(

Audio and controls are working, I’m just waiting on some Wii remotes to fill in the power buttons and others across the bottom, then I’ll get it fully assembled! Happy days!

 

[wiiplayer]

It’s starting to all come together! I’ve had issues with the screen, so it’s outputting 576i rather than 480p, which isn’t a big issue, since you can’t run PAL GameCube games in 480p ;(

Audio and controls are working, I’m just waiting on some Wii remotes to fill in the power buttons and others across the bottom, then I’ll get it fully assembled! Happy days!
View attachment 18710

I hope you stop having issues with the screen. Its good your audio and controls are working