Not sure what you're basing this on, but there is no Bluetooth in this particular build. The Omega trim doesn't "include" the BT chip, you have to relocate it when you trim the board...which they're most likely not doing, in this case, as there physically isn't enough room in that case for it to fit without further modification. And even if they did, it's a fully enclosed aluminum shell, you'd need to route external antenna's to get it to work well which I suspect isn't going to look great/ideal for the kind of build they're going for.
But I do agree with your overall idea, people are clearly missing the point with a build like this. It's not supposed to be practical, this is pushing the already insane limits for a console board and it's crazy that someone has managed to get something smaller than the Altoid's tin "KillMii" Wii in a workable state. I've got a couple Wii's at work with various issues that I'm considering trying this on, just for shits and giggles.
People complaining about "butchering a Wii" clearly have no idea just how many Wii's are out there sitting around as unrecycled ewaste. You can pick up fully working Wii's for like $20 at a thrift store, and broken ones most people just give away for free at this point. "Just fix it!!"? With what replacement parts? Nobody makes them anymore, at this point the only parts available are pulled from other butchered systems, so the point is moot. Either way a "perfectly good Wii!" is being taken apart and trashed, so why not do it for something cool for the sake of cool instead of taking a part or two and junking the rest?
I'm basing this on the fact that I have never seen a Wii build that doesn't relocate the BT module. Even the OMGWTF trim doesn't include the BT module. It's just so small and simple to relocate that it might as well be relocated. I said "includes" for short hand that it is often included with no problem. Unless I'm mistaken, the KillMii included the Bluetooth module and still had room for a screen, a battery, and built in buttons. This is a larger form factor. I'm certain they could fit the very small Bluetooth module to pair a wiimote. Otherwise, it couldn't play Wii games well at all.
EDIT: while my foot is down my throat right now. I looked it up and you are absolutely correct. They did not relocate the BT module. I didn't see that part in the original post and assumed it wasn't mentioned. My bad! I guess this thing really is *that* compact
As for the rest of it, yeah. It just seems people like to complain for the sake of complaining.
Several things -
1. It removes the disc drive, which is an essential feature in the Wii's function. It may be harder to dump Wii games to the Kawaii Wii if it's your only console. Now sure, there are plenty of Wiis out there for this, but that actually leads to my next point...
2. There isn't an unlimited number of Wii systems. Eventually, every Wii available to consumers will either be broken or just simply not available. Anyone willing to make the Kawaii would need to cut up their Wii, which means one less original Wii hardware.
3. IIRC, Raspberry Pis are typically faster than the Wii ever was, in regards to CPU and memory speeds.
Actually, it would be even better if you could find a board with a FPGa chip to put in the Kawaii, so it could properly mimic the original Wii's hardware and cut out the need for emulation, but that would probably be much more costly.
1) Define essential. A Wii loads games just fine without a disc drive. Unless I'm misremembering, you can dump discs with dolphin so you aren't somehow reducing the number of viable options for preservation.
2) There may not be unlimited Wiis, but that number is pretty damn close. Also this can be made out of an already broken Wii. What do you suggest we do with broken consoles? Repair them? With what parts? They don't manufacture Wiis anymore so you have to cannibalize parts from another, working Wii.
3) that may be technically correct, but the Raspberry Pi, even the most recent one, has not been optimized, not does it have the GPU power, for emulation. GameCube and Wii emulation on the Pi might as well not even exist. Every console generation before that, the Wii can emulate handily, so in reality, the Wii is much better for retro gaming. In addition to all of that, a case for a SBC like the raspberry pi is *BORING*. "Look at me. I put this ring computer in a box". Maybe that's practical, but there's nothing fun about it. "look at this, I spent hundreds of hours softmodding, trimming, and relocating parts of this console so it can fit in a custom shell that can fit in a keychain" took some actual engineering skill.
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