Discussion Wii Power Management System (open source)

Noah

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There should be another restock sometime next month. We post banner notifications on the top of the forums as well as ping everybody in our Discord when they drop.
 
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Hi sorry if this has already been asked if so please send me a link

from my understanding I could use a usb c poll detector set to 12 v

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/2027364062...MI0L_hwKml6QIVA-3tCh105wJvEAQYAyABEgK2ffD_BwE

then for my use either I a 1s4p or 1s6p of 18650s

If you have more cells in parallel you can charge at a higher amperage?

Does the board do this automatically would a simple code change be needed (I have no idea)

Really exicited to use this in my first portable

Thanks
 
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Here are the pcb files, code, and bill of materials for my Wii Power Management System.

4 buck regulators - 1v, 1.15v, 1.8v, and 3.3v
1 boost regulator - 5v
Battery management IC - seamless play and charge and battery protection
PIC microcontroller
I'm confused, when I searched up these stuff on ebay, I got nothing like what I see on the board. Also, there seems to be less components in that list than on the board. I'm new to this, can someone help me?
 

jefflongo

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I'm confused, when I searched up these stuff on ebay, I got nothing like what I see on the board. Also, there seems to be less components in that list than on the board. I'm new to this, can someone help me?
If you're wanting to build your own PMS board, you'll want to download the actual parts BOM from the GitHub repo . Additionally, you won't be able to find these parts on eBay. You'll want to order from somewhere like Digikey or Mouser. Lastly, assembling these boards is no easy feat; a hot air station is required. Unless you have experience soldering QFN parts, you might consider ordering a preassembled and tested board from the store instead.
 
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If you're wanting to build your own PMS board, you'll want to download the actual parts BOM from the GitHub repo . Additionally, you won't be able to find these parts on eBay. You'll want to order from somewhere like Digikey or Mouser. Lastly, assembling these boards is no easy feat; a hot air station is required. Unless you have experience soldering QFN parts, you might consider ordering a preassembled and tested board from the store instead.
I already ordered them and they got delivered.
Edit: nevermind, I found all the parts BOM
 
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Ordered what? The parts? The blank boards? The board from the store? I'm confused at what your question is.
The boards, but I found the BOM (I didn't notice it from before). I just have to order the parts and solder them on. Thank you.
 
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Can I attatch a sliding potentiomer or an spdt switch to the board to turn it on or off? Also, this might be a stupid question, but on the BOM, will I have to buy a cerain amount of an item where it shows a certain amount of references? for eg. under "Reference" in the first line it shows U1, U2, U4, U5. Will I have to buy 4 of that 1st item?
 
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jefflongo

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Can I attatch a sliding potentiomer or an spdt switch to the board to turn it on or off? Also, this might be a stupid question, but on the BOM, will I have to buy a cerain amount of an item where it shows a certain amount of references? for eg. under "Reference" in the first line it shows U1, U2, U4, U5. Will I have to buy 4 of that 1st item?
No, you'd have to write a custom firmware to support using a switch instead of a button. As for your second question, that is correct.
 

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Is there an ETA for when the RVL PMS will be back in stock again? Thanks.
 
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Hi Gmanmodz thanks for your design. I am just getting interested in creating my own portable wii, however the power management system board sold on the bitbuilt store is a bit too expensive for me. Recently there was the release of the raspberry pi pico microcontroller and i was wondering if code can be written to the pi pico to achieve similar results to your power management system design? Sorry if this is a dumb question as i am a complete newbie. This is the documentation for the pi pico. Thanks all for the help!
 

Stitches

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Hi Gmanmodz thanks for your design. I am just getting interested in creating my own portable wii, however the power management system board sold on the bitbuilt store is a bit too expensive for me. Recently there was the release of the raspberry pi pico microcontroller and i was wondering if code can be written to the pi pico to achieve similar results to your power management system design? Sorry if this is a dumb question as i am a complete newbie. This is the documentation for the pi pico. Thanks all for the help!
I'm afraid this is impossible. The PMS handles lithium cell charging, protection, management, and has several voltage regulators to run the portable system. A pi can't do any of that. You can use a pi for faster loading of PS2 games, but that's about it
 

StonedEdge

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I'm afraid this is impossible. The PMS handles lithium cell charging, protection, management, and has several voltage regulators to run the portable system. A pi can't do any of that. You can use a pi for faster loading of PS2 games, but that's about it
Technically, you can use the Pi as an i2c master to control the BQ and set all of its parameters but its not ideal as the Pi usually saps quite a bit of quiescent current (at least other Pi models, no idea about the newer Pi Pico). Check out the linux drivers below. There is already one written for the BQ25895m and there is a device tree overlay you can use to set the parameters. Indeed, you will still need to write code to handle the enabling of the regulators. This is easily done by sending the enable pin of the regulators to a high logic state.

I don't think Gman has any interest in using a Pi to control the BQ in any of his projects. A smaller microcontroller is almost always better suited for a small application like this, because it saps a lot less power when the system is off. If you turn off the Pi or the master device, the device will default to its default register settings. Of course, the Pi alone cant do any of this without using the charger chip. It needs a microcontroller to talk to it, unless you run it in auto-run mode.

Driver:

DTO:
 
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jefflongo

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Hi Gmanmodz thanks for your design. I am just getting interested in creating my own portable wii, however the power management system board sold on the bitbuilt store is a bit too expensive for me. Recently there was the release of the raspberry pi pico microcontroller and i was wondering if code can be written to the pi pico to achieve similar results to your power management system design? Sorry if this is a dumb question as i am a complete newbie. This is the documentation for the pi pico. Thanks all for the help!
Since I don't think this question has been adequately answered, the pi pico is a microcontroller. The PMS board contains much more hardware than just a microcontroller (which as Stitches mentioned is a battery charging chip, voltages regulators, etc) to power the Wii and charge the batteries. Those parts make up the bulk of the cost of the PMS (and the PCB itself). You /could/ design the system using a pi pico instead of the PIC microcontroller on-board, but it wouldn't allow you to remove the cost of all the other parts on board, and the pico micocontroller will likely cost more than the one that is currently used.
 

OfflineRocket

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Hey, so I've been looking to getting into portable builds recently, and I've been trying to do a lot of research and figuring out how I will accomplish my build. My main concern is the batteries, as I haven't done a project with them yet, but I'm eager to learn. I love this design, especially with all of the safety features in mind. I still have a few questions though:

1. This seems to be designed for the 18650 Li-ion batteries, but Li-Po batteries seem to be similar, and would fit my planned form factor better, so are they good to be used in this setup?
2. I know the circuit is designed with parallel 18650s in mind, would I need to have parallel Li-Po's? Or could I just do 1 Li-Po?
3. How much current will I have to work with? I'm thinking of doing a Pi CM4 board, and my screen draws about 0.6A max. The CM4 board should take a maximum of 1.4A, and with peripherals in mind, it'd maybe add 0.5A, so I'd be looking at maybe 2.5A? I've looked into the datasheets and see about 4A on that boost converter. I shouldn't need this, but is that theoretically the max? or is there other factors I need to consider for my maximum current?

Thanks in advance!
 
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