The Wii SP 2.0 – JacksonS’ Latest Masterpiece

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After finding success in last year’s summer building contest, Jackson clearly followed the time tested motto of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Jackson kept his portable looking mostly the same, but an in depth look into the features in this portable reveal the drastic upgrade that it truly is.

Jackson certainly earned his 3rd place in the contest.

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The bottom part of the portable holds a headphone jack and video controls.

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The top part holds a lot. Here’s a list (from left to right):

  • 3D printed triggers
  • A button to toggle between three different controller options. This portable contains the necessary circuitry for a GameCube controller, a sideways remote (with motion controls!), and a Wii classic controller. The three diffusers next to the button each have an LED behind them, and the LEDs are used to indicate which controller is currently in use.
  • Below the button is a single port that supports charge and play at the same time.
  • The USB port is used for any extra USB peripherals such as a breakout box or a keyboard.
  • The mini USB port is used to access the internal flash drive, which removes the need to take the flash drive out of the portable to add new files.
  • The HDMI port is used to output video to an external monitor.
  • A Bluetooth sync, reset, and power button for the system
  • A vent to allow hot air to escape the unit.


That’s a whole lot of features, and they were made possible by the various circuit boards that he designed himself.

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This board contains the regulator circuitry, the charging circuitry, and his USB system.

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This big board contains everything needed for video: both for the internal screen and the external HDMI out. It also contains the various ICs and components needed for a Wii classic controller and a stock GameCube controller. The array of pads on the top left are there to make soldering up a normal Wii remote easier.

The internal Wii remote is something very unique to this project. Jackson did this last year with the first Wii SP, but this year he went all out in finding the best way to cut down and rewire the Wiimote.

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This is his trim next to a standard Wii remote. Pretty small, eh? By trimming it this small, he had to rewire the accelerometer and the EEPROM chip, but it functions just like a normal Wiimote would.

An internal Wii remote is super cool, but one of the most unique features of the Wii was how the Wii remotes interacted with the sensor bar. Jackson recognized that without this feature, he would be pretty limited in terms of which Wii games he could play. The solution? A simple little board, nicknamed “TouchMii”:

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This board is used to convert the signals generated by a touchscreen into the pointer signals from a Wii remote, which allows you to touch the screen where you would click with a Wii remote!

The final internals ended up looking like this:

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Everything is organized and in its place. Even the Wiimote wires look really nice, which is significant considering there were several dozen of them.

Jackson’s worklog can be seen here, so definitely check it out if you want more details about his PCBs, or more information about the build in general.

Unfortunately, this wraps up our series of articles about the 2017 building contest. But fear not! Everyone is gearing up for this year’s contest, so expect some more beautiful portables from Jackson and everyone else.
 

Comments

I've never seen anything like this in a portable! Props to you, man. This has a fully flushed out feature set. It's the perfect Wii portable.
 
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