Hacking Post here if you installed your chip correctly!

Crush · Mar 23, 2007

Chip: WiiKey - Modchipstore had it in stock, at my door in 48hrs

Soldering experience: 3 xbox tsop, 1 xbox XENIUM GOLD
, 1 DuoX 2

The hardest part: Waiting for my new tri wing screw driver since I threw old one away.

Tips nobody told you: all info needed found via this website

Did you break or forget anything? No, all works like a champ

JayPea · Mar 23, 2007

Chip: WiiKey

Soldering experience: I read about how to solder, then practiced on something I had handy. I did read about it ALOT though.

The hardest part: unboxing my new soldering iron and positioning my laptop to read the .pdf from wiikey.cn as they don't include instructions.

Tips nobody told you: You can quicksolder with small, stripped, kynar leaving the chip in the "quicksolder" place, with minimal fuss. Much easier to remove if I ever need to.

Did you break or forget anything? I broke a dinner date promise and forgot mothers day. Mom still isn't talking to me.

Louse76 · Mar 24, 2007

QUOTE(modshroom128 @ Mar 23 2007 said:
i did

I really don't think you can classify what you did as anything near correct.

modshroom128 · Mar 24, 2007

QUOTE(Louse76 @ Mar 24 2007 said:
QUOTE(modshroom128 @ Mar 23 2007 said:

i did

I really don't think you can classify what you did as anything near correct.

Click to expand...

hahaha, all that realy matters is that i got the job right.

plexo · Mar 24, 2007

QUOTE(JayPea @ Mar 23 2007 said:
Chip: WiiKey

Soldering experience: I read about how to solder, then practiced on something I had handy. I did read about it ALOT though.

The hardest part: unboxing my new soldering iron and positioning my laptop to read the .pdf from wiikey.cn as they don't include instructions.

Tips nobody told you: You can quicksolder with small, stripped, kynar leaving the chip in the "quicksolder" place, with minimal fuss. Much easier to remove if I ever need to.

Did you break or forget anything? I broke a dinner date promise and forgot mothers day. Mom still isn't talking to me.

orb_nsc · Mar 24, 2007

Chip: Chiip ($5 do-it-yourself modchip ftw!)

Soldering experience: Some electronics experience, I installed the Qoob Pro in my Gamecube. Those were some tiny soldering points too, so I wasn't too worried.

The hardest part: Getting wire small enough to make it work. My 26 awg wire was way too thick, I ended up stripping a 80pin IDE cable and it worked pretty good.

Tips nobody told you: I studied this pretty good, didn't run into any issues. I wish the Wii disassembly guides wouldn't leave out crucial steps though (the one I used left out a couple important triwings right before removing the heat shield.)

Did you break or forget anything? I still have two triwings left over, probably from the missing heat shield step. Otherwise, everything works great! What a relief to put it all back together, turn the Wii on, and A) it doesn't blow up and B) My backups boot right up!

Cyan · Mar 25, 2007

Chip: Wiikey 1st batch (modchip.it)

Soldering experience: Some electronics experience at school, but never sold points this small.

The hardest part: Find which place I could fix the chip to. And trying to solder wires too rigid that they were breaking the solder pads.

Tips nobody told you: don't use rigid wires (phone wire), they are hard to position and are breaking the solder pads, tension are too strong. Use soft (flexible) wires, after that it went flawlessly.

Did you break or forget anything? No, but I had to solder a few times on the chips before I switched to soft wire. I'm just afraid about the electronic rubber tape I used to fix the wiikey, the chip is a little in mid-air, I hope it will maintain the chip enough in Wii vertical position.

Critical_Impact · Mar 25, 2007

Soldering experience: None

The hardest part: Having to go back to the store that did it because one of the solder points fell off

Tips nobody told you: Get them to test the damn thing before you drive 40 minutes and then realize it doesnt work.

Did you break or forget anything? Again, checking the wii to make sure it plays backups.

slappynutz · Mar 25, 2007

Soldering Experience: Very Little. Screwed up my Gamecube trying to install a region switch a few years ago. Had to get a professional repair that ... so I was kind of crazy to try the Wii.

The Hardest Part: Keeping track of the screws. Taped the screws to a disassembly guide as I worked to get it open. The guide was missing a screw location for the faceplate which didn't help either.

Tips Nobody Told You: You don't need to remove the dvd cable. I didn't, but it's probably a good idea to anyway. You don't want to run the risk of accidentally touching the cable with your soldering iron and destroying everything.

Did you forget or break anything: Nope. Install worked first try. Everything is perfect. Used black electrical tape to secure the chip to the drive, and I'm kind of concerned it will dry out and flake with time, but other than that everything went according to plan. Surprised myself actually.

mosca.br · Mar 25, 2007

Soldering experience: Almost nil, been a long time since I soldered something. I have already done some stuff, but basicaly much bigger than the wii. I practived with an old hard disk a few weeks ago to improve.

The hardest part: Finding a good place for the chip + socket, ended up leaving it near to the heatsink.

Did you break or forget anything?: There is one screw that I have no idea where it should have been placed.

I also scraped the paper covers for the screws.

WiiFree on a pic 12f629

Psiloz · Mar 26, 2007

Soldering experience: Casual, some robotics projects, and door access panel school project.

The hardest part: Re-assembling from scratch after dismantling whole Wii while following Youtube vid all the way. (Can't be only one to do this)

Tips nobody told you: Job this small, better to tin the wire. And have a positive attitude. (If you think you're gonna screw up - you probably will)

Did you break or forget anything: Some screws and 2 tiny metal plates left over.

airrich · Mar 28, 2007

Soldering experience: xbox v1.6

The hardest part: tinning the wires

Tips nobody told you: nothing, i read up a lot before installing

Did you break or forget anything: nope

wiikey, wired install

7llusion · Mar 28, 2007

Soldering experience: Done some at a school project(soundblaster for mp3), tried on an old comp card(I think it was a graphics card)

The hardest part: Putting back the Wii

Tips nobody told you: What kind of tri-wing driver I needed, I had one slightly too big, the size of the Wiikey

Did you break or forget anything: I broke some plastic at the back of my Wii =/, I also forgot some screws...

klyick · Apr 4, 2007

Soldering experience: Minimal, I practiced on a old laptop motherboard and lcd.

The hardest part: The soldering. I lifted enough pads on my practice, I was nervous as hell.

Tips nobody told you: Wrap the wires together with tape or similar, and the wiikey can fit very nicely in the front of the case.

Did you break or forget anything? I have to stress that the damn dvd power cable is a pain. Be VERY careful putting it back in, because you can bend pins when you put it in, like I did. Luckily for me, I could bend it back, you could be not so lucky.

bluebright · Apr 4, 2007

Product: WiiKey

Soldering experience: Eh, about intermediate. I've soldered a lot of jobs before, but on cable, audio stuff, nothing to complicated...or small.

The hardest part: Just soldering the fraking points...the tiny ones that are only 1mm away from each other.

Tips nobody told you: Not much, just find a good spot to mount the chip and make sure the wires are not touching when bent down to put the DVD drive back in the case.

Did you break or forget anything?: No, but I put back all the parts that I left out last time I modded my Wii.

ZeeMox · Apr 4, 2007

Product: WiiKey

Soldering experience: None. I practiced for a couple hours on a video card first.

The hardest part: Taking the bloody thing apart. The soldering was scary, but not nearly as difficult.

Tips nobody told you: I read so many threads, looked at so many pictures, and watched so many videos, I don't think anything caught me by surprise by the time I worked up the balls to actually mod the stupid thing.

Did you break or forget anything?: I almost disassembled the DVD drive instead of removing it, until I realized I was removing the wrong screws... that was a near tragedy.

I also have one left over screw. Wups.

Redsquirrel · Apr 4, 2007

Product: WiiKey (or a clone anyway)

Soldering experience: Have modded several Gamecubes with qube chips.

The hardest part: Had a few problems getting the chip to work. Im not sure why, maybe it was pressure on the chip? Took a couple hours to sort out.

Tips nobody told you: The points where smaller than I had first thought. Still it was not hard, especially when I had worked on the more complicated (IMO) Gamecube motherboard.

Did you break or forget anything?: Only to screw a few screws back in under the GC faceplate. I put them back in a few hours later.

Doing a few more for friends, shouldnt be anywhere near as tough next time

michoubar · Apr 4, 2007

Product: WiiKey (not clone)

Soldering experience: xbox and psx

The hardest part: solder the 4th wire ; i was at the limit to do a shortcut

Did you break or forget anything?: nothing

th3sandm4n · Apr 27, 2007

Soldering experience: nada
The hardest part: Soldering those damn small points
Did you break or forget anything: Thought I broke the ribbon to the DVD drive, but it just clipped off. Also dropped a drop of solder on one of the ribbons

I was scared

Took 2 installs

First one was with short wires to look pretty, became too messy, so did it with longer wires. Success!!!

bliss-chris · Apr 27, 2007

Product: Chiip

Soldering experience: Years of working as an electrician, but it's the first console I openend. I was floating in sweat.

The hardest part: Removing the vastly tightened Triwing screws. Fuck them!!! Oh, sorry for the cursing. Censor that, please?

Tips nobody told you: The wires leading out of the case must be long enough. When you put back in all the Wii's guts and close the case, the wires get shorter by a few centimeters, because there's quiete a few sharp bents and curves, especially when you lead the wires out through the back. Beware not to have them cables too short! I had to add 5cm after closing the case.

Best is to have the cables really long without the plug attached to it and cut the cables to measure when you've closed the case, but beware to note which wire's what.

Did you break or forget anything?: No, but I was very close to ruining some Triwing screw heads. I better replace them with something good, because I don't know whether they'll come out the next time(s) I need to open the Wii, which hopefully won't be necessary anymore.

Hacking Post here if you installed your chip correctly!

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