Worklog The Groupii

[LexRsnow]

A bit of a small update, but a good sign of progress!

Over this past week (after putting the project on hold for studying and schoolwork, among other limitations), I've been trying to get this project into a "working" state. I got my Plusivo about some weeks ago and my helping hands arrived soon after. It was time to put my soldering practice to use.

The end result?

Well, I don't think I'll see my joints in hell any time soon, but they aren't the greatest. Soldering to the Wii went smoother than I expected, and overall, the process was pretty straightforward. Next was the screen:

I decided to test composite video output with my Wii first before going ahead with VGA- -a decision the majority of members seem to make. So, I plugged in the battery, turned the console on, and... nothing- -until I realized you had to change the source to composite. After that...

The Wii is booting! This project is just going one step forward after another; I feel great! Anyway, that's all that's been done so far. Just a little more to go.

Oh! And a question:
Soldering to ground joints seems to be a big problem for me. I understand why ground in particular is difficult to solder to, and I tried to make them as good as I can, but I'm not sure if the problem is not holding my soldering iron on the pads long enough, the temperature (370* C), or just technique (holding the iron at an angle). Any advice?

 

[Stitches]

A bit of a small update, but a good sign of progress!

Over this past week (after putting the project on hold for studying and schoolwork, among other limitations), I've been trying to get this project into a "working" state. I got my Plusivo about some weeks ago and my helping hands arrived soon after. It was time to put my soldering practice to use.

The end result?
View attachment 27581View attachment 27582

Well, I don't think I'll see my joints in hell any time soon, but they aren't the greatest. Soldering to the Wii went smoother than I expected, and overall, the process was pretty straightforward. Next was the screen:
View attachment 27583
I decided to test composite video output with my Wii first before going ahead with VGA- -a decision the majority of members seem to make. So, I plugged in the battery, turned the console on, and... nothing- -until I realized you had to change the source to composite. After that...
View attachment 27584
The Wii is booting! This project is just going one step forward after another; I feel great! Anyway, that's all that's been done so far. Just a little more to go.

Oh! And a question:
Soldering to ground joints seems to be a big problem for me. I understand why ground in particular is difficult to solder to, and I tried to make them as good as I can, but I'm not sure if the problem is not holding my soldering iron on the pads long enough, the temperature (370* C), or just technique (holding the iron at an angle). Any advice?

I crank my iron to 380-400C if the ground spots are being difficult. I make a nice solder blob on the iron, put some flux down on the PCB, and then use the blob to make the joint. It requires a bit more cleanup, but I find it reliable enough

 

[LexRsnow]

Well, looks like I've bumped into my first real problem.

After (partially) soldering VGA into the screen, I wanted to see if the screen would show video with only one color connected. I turned on the system, and while the fan worked, the screen didn't turn on.

It wasn't much later that I found this little booger:

Then, after double-checking to see that the board had nothing else shorting, I turned it on and probed 3.3 volts. My multimeter showed 0.51 volts... I'm guessing that regulator's dead, but I'm not sure what my next move for this is...

I've attached more picture here in case anyone spots something, but anyway, the ultimate question is "what can I do about this now?"

And to clarify, I believe the regulator is unrecoverable; I don't think it's going to come back any time soon...

 

[Retro95]

I had a very similar thing happen to me when I was building my ashida. Everything was powering on, then I added some more wires, then it stopped outputting power correctly.

My 5v rail and 3.3 volt rail were only outputting 0.60 volts and the fan wouldn't turn on when the switch was turned on.

I ended up removing my batteries, and cycling power about a dozen times to fully drain the board. Then I SCRUBBED the board front to back with 99 percent IPA and hooked batteries back up and it fired up.

 

[LexRsnow]

Well, bad news, then.

I've been at it for about an hour and thirty and still... nothing. The 3v3 pad will fluctuate from .05 to .1 (I mean to say .051 instead of .51 in my original post), but it's not going higher than 0.128. 5v has started to have issues as well, fluctuating between 5 and 3.1 volts. It seems whenever 3v3 goes up, 5v goes down.

I think my next move is to replace the 3v3 regulator, but I don't know if that'll fix 5 volts, or if I need to get another regulator. Lots to think about...

I just wish I knew a little more about how everything was connected.

 

[Retro95]

Well, bad news, then.

I've been at it for about an hour and thirty and still... nothing. The 3v3 pad will fluctuate from .05 to .1 (I mean to say .051 instead of .51 in my original post), but it's not going higher than 0.128. 5v has started to have issues as well, fluctuating between 5 and 3.1 volts. It seems whenever 3v3 goes up, 5v goes down.

I think my next move is to replace the 3v3 regulator, but I don't know if that'll fix 5 volts, or if I need to get another regulator. Lots to think about...

I just wish I knew a little more about how everything was connected.

Before you go that route I'd recommend check for a short, voltage rail to voltage rail, and voltage rails to ground. Note that 3.3v to ground becomes around 4 ohms but isn't an actual short while PMS and Wii are connected. Then unsoldering every wire to the PMS and checking again. This will rule out if you developed a short on the Wii itself or another board that's causing this voltage drop.

Then solder only a battery, fan, and a button to activate the board and check voltages again.

 

[LexRsnow]

Hey, thank you so much for the advice; after I got back to my work station I isolated the Wii from the PMS and, sure enough, a flat-out 0 ohms between ground and 3.3 volts. Not to mention that the regulator has started working consistently again (when disconnected from the Wii)

Some other resistances are a little funky too, and I guess the Wii could use a good sponge bath.

Thanks a lot! I probably would've went through a lot more work otherwise

 

[Retro95]

I'm stoked that got the PMS working again! better the issue be on your Wii rather than the spendy power management board.

I'd definitely give it a good ol' SCRUBBIN' with tooth brush and 99 percent IPA. Then check resistances again.

If that doesn't resolve the issue, and there's no clear sign of shorting on the surface (damaged SMD component, solder blob, leftover flux) then I'd go over your edges again making sure you sanded them down working from low grit and finishing with 600 grit. Then bathe it again.

 

[LexRsnow]

Good news!... and bad news. Let's start on a positive note: the Wii has been re-wired to the PMS and still boots!

Bad news, however, is that RVLoader will not detect the microSD card. No biggie, I thought. I'll just do the troubleshooting myself. Here's how that went:

*inhale*

- Flipped around D+ and D- in case it was the wrong way around. Did not work
- Flipped it the right way around. Did not work
- Re-tightened the wire again. Did not work
- Actually flipped the microSD adapter the right way around. Did not work
- Did the first two steps again after flipping the adapter around. Did not work
- Reinstalled RVLoader on another Wii. Did not work
- Moved over to CM2. Did not work
- Flipped D+ and D- on CM2. Did not work.
- Banged my head against the wall. Did not work.

*exhale*

In case it wasn't apparent, I'm at my rope's end on what to do here. I checked the SD card, and it is FAT32. File structure hasn't been touched since I re-installed RVLoader... Anyway, I've posted some pictures of my wiring below; maybe someone will see something fishy that I can't.

 

[Retro95]

So you installed RVLoader onto another Wii, took the USB adapter and SD card and put it into the new RVLoader Wii. Then could not get it to boot into RVLoader with that USB/SD card?

Sounds like regardless of the formatting, it's not compatible with RVLoader.

Getting something compatible with RVLoader can be tough. They have a rolling spreadsheet with USB drives that the community has gotten to work. Myself personally I've had a 50/50 shot that a USB drive boots and then plays games without crashing.

Check out the RVLoader FAQ page to find the list of community deemed compatible drives.

 

[LexRsnow]

Sometimes, I only find out the answer after I've asked the question.
The next morning after I posted the above question it suddenly occurred to me (don't know how it didn't before) that I didn't wiring 3v3 logic to the board

"," I thought, "I wonder if that's the issue." I couldn't see anything else that could be. So I went through the same old song and dance of re-wiring usb...

...and it started booting

booted as well as I smashed my head yesterday.
It's time for another hole in the wall.
(Oh, and I should have clarified: I was using a Samsung EVO card, 64GB, for my Wii. I have some unexplainable bias against Sandisk that prevents me from buying their microSDs).

 

[Stitches]

I have some unexplainable bias against Sandisk that prevents me from buying their microSDs).

Same dude. Can't trust the brand name after decades of underperformance and near-omnipresent fakes

 

[LexRsnow]

This project needs to evolve

You know, maybe I haven't referenced it enough- -or maybe I've said it too much- -but this project was fun. At least, at first. I remember jumping into this saying, "Hey! Let's just give this a try. Get your skills developed" and all that. I started designing the case... for hours at a time. Just trying to learn how to work with the box and how to make something that I can at least look at. Finally, months later, the case was ready and it was time for the internals. Went smoothly, until I bumped into problems. "OK," I thought, "No biggie." Just move on. Keep moving on. Eventually, it worked to a point where I could be *satisfied*, but as I was moving on, wiring kept getting messier and messier. Wires started to come loose all the time. The mess, resoldering... it's a game of whack-a-mole. One mole down, another one up. I just wasn't going anywhere. I was bored

Finally, after I had the portable propped up and was playing for a while, one half just straight up fell apart. You know how, when you drop your phone on the ground face down, there's that suspense in picking it up? "Dammit, I just broke my phone" and all. I felt just like that when it came to my internal wiring, except unlike the phone example, I knew that something had popped out of its place. Sure enough, it did. At that moment, I realized that some serious rewiring needed to be done. Not only that, but the case work was (as I finally realized) a mess; it was not snapping together.

Recently, the Summer Building Contest has come to Bitbuilt again, and given that so much needs to be redone, this whole project is going to have to evolve into a whole new thing: whole new case, whole new concept, same circuit boards and thats pretty much it. The only way this project lives on is through the circuit boards which will all have to be unwiried and... Dammit, I hate saying that.

That all said, I didn't totally feel unsatisfied with the way things went; I put some hours into playing Melee by myself. I guess that was a nice part of the process. (See attached image).

Anyway, that's all for this "update." Time to get to work on the new case!