[2024 Contest Entry] Thomii MK3 (AKA TBD)

[Thomothy]

Hey everyone,

I’m thrilled to share with you my latest project for the BitBuilt Summer 2024 Building Contest: the Thomii MK3. Following the naming conventions of my last two portables, the Thomii MK3 is designed to be a feature-packed, modern take on the classic Wii portable, inspired by the design of the Switch Lite. Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m planning:

Key Features:

• Front-Facing Surface Mount Status LED: Inspired by the GameBoy Advance, this LED will be the first status LED I have added to my design.
• Custom Controller PCBs: These will be hand-manufactured, aiming for a smooth transition between the controllers and the GC+.
• Laminated 3.5" Screen: To give it a sleek, modern look, I’m integrating a laminated screen that should enhance both durability and visual quality.
• Aftermarket Switch Buttons: Including a D-pad for a familiar and comfortable gaming experience, especially since I like using my portables for GBA and SNES games.
• HW2 Wii Mini: Chosen for its low power consumption, making the portable more efficient.
• Compatibility with 4LayerTech Boards and Yvetals ThunderVolt: ThunderVolt should allow for excellent undervolting performance, improving battery life and system stability.
• Battery Life: Equipped with 4x 18500 batteries, the Thomii MK3 should offer around 3 hours of gameplay while keeping plenty of space for the extra bits.
• Additional Space for Bluetooth and MX Relocations: To ensure a complete and versatile gaming experience, I’m hoping to include space for these components as well (but as always, this is the first item on the chopping block).

Progress Pictures:



I’m excited about the potential of the Thomii MK3 and can’t wait to see how it performs in the contest. Stay tuned for updates as the build progresses, and feel free to share any thoughts or suggestions!

Cheers,
Thomothy

 

[loopj]

Good news! You'll easily get more than 3 hours of gameplay on 4x18500s with a Hollywood 2 and Thundervolt! UltraWii Sakura had 5.5hrs on the same battery configuration, and that was with a Hollywood 1 and no undervolting. Undervolted HW2 uses ~3.3W, vs stock voltage HW1's ~5.3W so you could be looking at 8-9 hours of battery life.

 

[loopj]

Correcting myself here, I just realized you said 18500s instead of 18650s! So your original math checks out, looks like 3-4 hours.

That 1.5cm length really makes a crazy capacity difference!

 

[Thomothy]

That 1.5cm length really makes a crazy capacity difference!

Yeah I think the main issue is that 18500 is like 18650s less cool cousin. I wanted to go with 18650's this time around but design wise it just wasn't in the cards.

 

[VoxelTek]

Hey, nice work! I'm excited to see more usage of the Wii Mini! The reduced power consumption and heat generation could allow for some pretty cool (pun intended) designs.

The CAD for this looks pretty neat, although it is odd to see a PlayStation analog stick layout on a Nintendo portable lol
Additionally, I personally wouldn't use the + if I wasn't also adding the - and HOME buttons.

I also have a few questions regarding the design

• Are you planning to use VGA, HDMI, or DD for the display? please tell me you're not going to use composite
• Any plans for WiFi? With how small this is it would totally make sense if not, but it'd be really cool if it could be included.
• Is rumble going to be included? I'm a sucker for haptic feedback
• What colour is the case planned to be? The mockups seem to imply a sort of "baby blue", which doesn't look half bad
• Are you planning to make the buttons coloured, like the mockup shows?
  • If so, would this be done with coloured 3D prints, painted 3D prints, or resin-cast buttons?

No matter what choices you make for this, I'm sure it's gonna turn out good. I'm looking forward to this!

Also, to add on to what @loopj said:

The UltraWii Sakura had 4 18650s, each with a capacity of 3500mAh. In my brief research, the 18500s I found had 2000mAh of capacity. This means that 4 18650s total to a capacity of 14Ah, whereas 4 18500s total to 8Ah.

8/14 ≈ 58%, meaning that a normal non-undervolted Wii would last approximately 3h and 8min with these batteries.

The four 18650s give a combined capacity of ~51.8Wh. Dividing this by the playing time gives the power draw, approximately 9.4W. Subtracting the Hollywood-1 stock consumption from this gives 4.1W, which we can take as the approximate total power draw of all non-Hollywood components of the portable. Adding on the power draw of an undervolted Hollywood-2 (3.3W) gives a total power draw of 7.4W.

In your case, given you're using 4 18500s over 18650s, this gives a total capacity of approximately ~30Wh. Dividing this by the power draw (7.4W) gives an expected playing time of 4 hours!

So, for this portable, I'd expect you'd get somewhere between 3.5 to 4.5 hours of playing time, especially considering that I haven't factored in other reduced power draws from undervolting other lines. And if you can find higher-capacity 18500s, you could improve this even further!

You should probably take all these very very rough calculations with a grain of salt, and more guesswork than actual maths. Still, I think you should raise your expectations for this portable's battery life, I think it'll be pretty good!