Planning a Pelican Case Wii, need some advice.

[kingkholera]

Hello all. I'm working on making a Pelican Case Wii mod, similar to the one that Ben made. For now, however, I'm keeping the Wii intact, rather than internalizing it. This is a combination of doubting my own ability to handle it (for now) and only having one Wii. I have a few concerns that I'd like to address, and I figure that you fine folks could help me.

My first concern is with the monitor. I'm mounting an old 15" PC LCD monitor with built-in speakers onto the inside of the lid. I'm worried, however, about the case. I've stripped it down to the metal casing around the monitor, which would make it fit in my case (snugly). Will the monitor have any heating problems? It has an inch on each side (width wise) to the edges of the case, so I'd assume that it would be okay, but I wanted to be sure before I continued the project. If I do have to remove the metal casing (for any reason), how should I go about handling the ribbon cables? The last time I worked with one was on a broken DS, and I ended up ruining the top screen by messing with the ribbon cable. Though I've learned from those early mistakes, I'm a bit wary about trying it again, especially with something like a PC monitor.

Is there something you can put in between an audio source and it's speakers to control the volume? I've read about potentiometers being used as volume controllers on various devices, but I'm not sure as to how I'd do it with a 3.5mm stereo cable (which is what the monitor speakers use.)

EDIT: While I'm at it, has anyone had any experience with a Wii running component to VGA? I'm looking at XCM's Universal VGA Box as a potential converter, but I don't know how good the Wii looks through VGA. My dreamcast looks fine on it, but I'd always like a second opinion.

Thanks.

[samjc3]

for the monitor, you should be fine, and usually, the bigger the electronics are, the safer they are to handle. (in my experience)

for volume, doesnt the monitor have volume controls on it? if it doesnt, pull apart a pair of nonpowered computer speakers, the ones that only have a 3.5mm jack, and run your audio lines through that board. the audio in and out will be easy to find, if its hooked to the speaker, its an "out" and if its hooked to the cord, its an "in"

[kingkholera]

I'm confused. If they're non-powered, doesn't that mean that they lack volume control? I'm not entirely familiar with the terminology, but that's the way that I understand it.

The problem isn't that the speakers aren't loud enough or that they can't be adjusted. It's just that the monitor has a really clunky interface. Volume control requires hitting menu, clumsily navigating to a submenu, and then more clumsy navigation to get to the volume control, and then you have to do it all again to get out of the menu. In short, it's way too much of a hassle to change the volume on said speakers, and it'd be much easier to make an external solution.

[samjc3]

well, some nonpowered speakers dont have any volume control, but some do. im sure you can get a kit to build a volume control circuit, or you could use powered speakers and run it off from the battery, but most powered speakers take wall power, so 120 volts.