The WiiBoy rev3 has reached a very stable point where I’m happy to call it finished. Casting the case turned out to be difficult and I’m not ready for it so the case was professionally printed by Shapeways with their nylon powder services. The finish has some printed artifacts (much less than standard PLA FDM) but it is incredibly soft and smooth.
The internals are my best. The use of 7 custom pcbs greatly eliminates a lot of wiring. Although I spent months designing the case and pcbs, the assembly is very quick now.
Some may criticize the standard Wii trim and how I could’ve fit more batteries, but I love the neatness and cleanliness of the wiring. Also using 2 battery cells allowed me to design better shoulder buttons which is a challenge to pull off on a portrait style handheld.
The USB-C features are still my favorite part. The pcb turned out to be pretty universal and I’m reusing the USB-C assets in other projects now.
Maybe later this year after GC+ 2.0 is released, I’ll certainly be redesigning the controller pcb for a WiiBoy rev4. I can try to push the custom pcbs to be even more integrated by reducing the number of pcbs and using some FFC cables for the inter-connections. But for now I’ll focus on other projects like the summer portablizing competition.
