Worklog Summer Contest 2025 -- A Wii U DS portable

[VoxelTek]

Hey!

I didn't enter the comp last year, and I didn't want to miss out this time, so I'm formally entering into the 2025 "Summer" Contest.

Not much has happened so far, I'm still in the process of even thinking about what I want to do, but I think I've got a fairly good idea. I want to make a Wii U portable in the style of a Nintendo DS/3DS, a dual-screen portable console smaller than the Wii U's GamePad.

This early into this project, there's not that much to share, but I do have some early CAD screenshots!

It's worth mentioning I'm still working on my WiiBoy Micro, so it might be a bit hard to juggle the two of these. However, I think I might actually be able to do this. Wish me luck!

 

[VoxelTek]

So! Update time!

First things first, I've pretty much completed designing a power board for the Wii U, which I'm naming "Bistro 2". This takes a voltage input, around that of a 1S Li-ion battery, and outputs all the voltage rails the Wii U uses. I still might instead opt to modify @YveltalGriffin's original Bistro instead, but I'll think about it.

I was originally planning to use @Redherring32's 100W charging board that was made for his Xbox portable. And while I still will be using that, I'll be modifying it. Turns out, the battery charging chip can only charge at a max current of 8.192A, meaning that a 1S Lithium battery can be charged at a maximum of ~34W, quite a bit less than the 100W that the board can negotiate for over USB-C. This isn't a problem, however, just a bit of wasted potential.

Since I won't be using the full 100W, though, I've decided I'm going to use melonHD!

Originally, I was somewhat reluctant, as it can negotiate for a max of 15V/3A, or only 45W. I wanted faster charging, though, so I was leaning towards using the original charging board design for PD negotiation. However, now knowing that the charge power will be capped at ~34W (for a 1S battery), the melonHD wouldn't be any worse for charging speed. Not to mention, it's super cool.

Now, one issue I'm facing is how to have HDMI going to both the melonHD and the top display. At the moment, I'm thinking I might go the "janky" route and get a cheap HDMI splitter off of Amazon, and slightly modify it to suit my needs.



As part of the melonHD thing, I've designed a flex for the Wii U, for HDMI! @Lazr kinda asked me to, and I needed to do so anyway for my project, so I quickly designed something with help from her and Yveltal. It's available here, but keep in mind it's completely untested. While it should work, order at your own risk. Not like anyone would be ordering it given the current situation in the US.

Anyway, that's about it for this update. I'm still working quite hard, and I'm still quite unsure on how I want to proceed with some aspects of this portable. I am grateful for all your support, though!

 

[VoxelTek]

Welp, things are changing. Hopefully for the better.

So I kinda changed my approach to this whole thing. I've completely redone Stormbreaker, and integrated the +1V, +1.15V, and +3.3V lines onto it. The shape kinda looks like a capybara, so that's what I'm naming the board. Either that, or "cafébara".

I'm also planning to use melonHD, so that'll be cool. Still need to figure out how to split the HDMI signal between the built-in screen and the USB-C port, but I'm sure I'll come up with something.

The remaining regs not on Stormbreaker capybara will be fairly small and largely just linear regs, so I'll be making a small separate board for them. Weird choice, I know, but I think it'll turn out okay.

Haven't worked on the case design much recently, should probably get back to that.

In other big news, my WUP-50 arrived yesterday!!!
It's now largely modded, although there are a couple things I still need to do. Either way, this is actually now possibly possible!


On a side note, my Wii Mini mobo I was planning to use for my WiiBoy Micro seems to be dead, which is really sad and annoying. So that project will be on hold for a bit, or maybe I'll just use a regular 4-layer mobo in the meantime.

 

[trevor403]

You should consider using a hacked version of Vanilla on the second screen! I have it working with a minimal linux install on an Orange Pi right now which is nice for a portable. It isn't too hard to setup and it can be hacked into a minimal gstreamer app if needed!

 

[VoxelTek]

You should consider using a hacked version of Vanilla on the second screen! I have it working with a minimal linux install on an Orange Pi right now which is nice for a portable. It isn't too hard to setup and it can be hacked into a minimal gstreamer app if needed!

I am still considering using Vanilla for the second screen, however I've been told that it would probably be a better idea to stick with the original gamepad. It seems likely that the original gamepad hardware, while no means perfect, would be less of a power hog than a custom vanilla setup would be.

Still, I'll keep exploring my options.

 

[trevor403]

would be less of a power hog than a custom vanilla setup would be

Yeah that is almost certainly going to be the case... Even low power SBCs don't have great performance-power profiles and require tuning. The original gamepad sounds like a really good option.