Hacking Chiip Opensource Modchip

[RobertsD]

@Roberts:

Thats a great looking chiip u built there, hats off to ya! i can only hope mine turns out close to that

Thanks!

Heres a closer up image of the programmer open.

 

[Takrin]

the second one i made awhile back made it look bit more organized

i had a old board laying around and attempted to etch it but the paper i was using sucked and didnt transfer the toner well also i cant seem to find my drill bits so prob have to buy a new set, its been tinned with lead free solder, wish it was cheap to just order 2x2 boards online

prob have to redo it with better paper or photosensitive board

 

[fiver]

The stuttering on some videos is a known issue (you will see this in WarioWare). I believe the issue is that Chiip actually slows the drive down a little bit. I don't have a lot of information about this but Cadex seems to be on top of it so maybe we will see a fix at some point.

http://chiip.descrambler.de/index.php/Compatible_DVD_Media

We finally got around installing the Chiip that we flashed last night. I have to say, I am impressed. It played everything we through at it. There were some stuttering issues with one game but that could have been a bad burn.

We also tested Gamecube homebrew by downloading the latest Genesis emulator and loaded it with hundreds of roms. It works perfectly.

TheTwins

 

[fiver]

Looks like German_Guy beat me to the punch on this one! Pretty neat.

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.ph...1558#post441558

Really, the cleanest solution would be to do something like this:

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/KC-300676.pdf

Install the chiip *inside* the backshell.  Use the DB25 side for plugging into your compy parallel port to program.  Use the DB9 side for plugging into your Wii.

That would be pretty sweet.

Yeah, that housing would be totally hot! Dual-purpose and all. And of course, the LED would have to show through a small hole in the housing!

 

[mikeosoft]

hey man i never knew it was possible to etch your own circuit boards with paper!!! please do show

 

[arthurkok2]

hey man i never knew it was possible to etch your own circuit boards with paper!!! please do show

i second that motion

 

[DrediKnight]

hey man i never knew it was possible to etch your own circuit boards with paper!!! please do show

http://www.headwize.com/projects/garbz2_prj.php

You can also use press and peel paper instead of the transparency method.
http://www.elexp.com/pro_npb5.htm

 

[mikeosoft]

Hey guys i received my digitech order today at 2 pm and got to work... here are the results:

went smoothly, about to open up the Wii without a triwing, only a small flat-blade screwdriver as mentioned by someone else earlier.

 

[Stripey_Horse]

I used a nice little flat blade screwdriver. Worked OKish.

 

[blueskies]

mikeo: nice bub.

flatheads worked allright for me, but they stripped the triwing screws a little bit. hopefully I can find some regular screws to replace them when I reassemble. My only problem now is that I put down way too much solder on the dvd drive, and it ended up covering 3 or 4 points. The desolder braid that I bought didn't work too well this morning, but I got a new iron, so hopefully that will help fix this problem. Also, one of the pads lifted off the board (oops). It'll probably still work if I solder to the same spot, right? I really hope so...

 

[Dylanwhat]

Mike, don't get a DUI

Disassembling under the influence.

I couldn't resist.

 

[mikeosoft]

thanks blue, landlord was here earlier otherwise u woulda seen the bongs

 

[blueskies]

hey, modding under the influence apparently works well for some of us. I just smoked a bowl or two while/after watching 24 (GREAT episode btw...), then got to work on fixing last night's attempts to install the chiip. I cleaned up the solder (desoldering braid is my new best friend. I love you desoldering braid), had to wire one straight to the panasonic chip, which wasn't that hard. Everything that I've tested works great so far with beta5.

Now to put the wii back together and PLAY!

 

[Takrin]

hey man i never knew it was possible to etch your own circuit boards with paper!!! please do show



http://www.headwize.com/projects/garbz2_prj.php

You can also use press and peel paper instead of the transparency method.
http://www.elexp.com/pro_npb5.htm

theres few methods, one i perfer is the inexpensive magazine paper, ripped a page out of game informer and used a laser printer then transfered it with a iron (clothing type). press n peel can be somewhat expensive and i think you pretty much get the same effect from using photo paper or magazine paper, photosensitized boards are neat but i'm kinda cheap so i do homemade version (also use any sharpie marker to touch up the board its somewhat acid proof when dried). for the acid goto radio shack and buy some etching acid or order some crystals off ebay (real dangerous to play around with these materials btw) google for homemade pcb or something like that try http://max8888.orcon.net.nz/pcbs.htm or http://hem.passagen.se/communication/pcb.html

requirement:
blank copper pcb board (radio shack like 4 bucks)
acid (Ferric Chloride, or your choice of etching acid)
laser printer (also works if you have a laser fax machine)
magazine paper, or whatever you perfer
rubber gloves

 

[arthurkok2]

mikeo: nice bub.Â

flatheads worked allright for me, but they stripped the triwing screws a little bit. hopefully I can find some regular screws to replace them when I reassemble. My only problem now is that I put down way too much solder on the dvd drive, and it ended up covering 3 or 4 points. The desolder braid that I bought didn't work too well this morning, but I got a new iron, so hopefully that will help fix this problem. Also, one of the pads lifted off the board (oops). It'll probably still work if I solder to the same spot, right? I really hope so...

you'll have to solder onto the corresponding pin on the panasonic chip

 

[fiver]

Cadex has made a public statement regarding the status of the source license for chiip:

http://chiip.descrambler.de/index.php/Open_source

At the moment I have mixed feelings about this but I certainly understand his position. It sounds like he is going to so something like what Sveasoft did with thier license model -- the big difference being that Cadex is never charging for anything.

I have enjoyed building my own chiip, working on the wiki, and seeing so many other people sucesfully build thier chiip (and in so many different ways!).

As the creator, Cadex is free to choose any license or release scheme that he likes. I'm not going to make any comments about my opinion (like *my* opinion really matters to anyone anyway) on this until things get fleshed out a little more.

 

[anitabill]

I really don't mind if he makes it open source or not. Although I agree that if he does release it, it may speed up the functionality of the chiip. But Cadex has done one hell of a job so far. He did not have to do anything and could have just kept the whole project to himself. But no…. not only did he release the firmware but put together very good documentation on how to build a cheap programmer to program the Chiip.

On that note thanks you Cadex and please keep up the good work. Please don’t stop working on it.

I for one am very grateful.

 

[mikeosoft]

yea i don't resent cadex at all infact, i'd be in the same mindset he's in if i was in his shoes. i think its important for us all to thank cadex for his hard work and i don't care if he doesn't release the source, i mean i'm just proud that i built one of these chiips and i feel a good feeling just knowing my money didn't go to some wiikey corp but instead my money went into the great experiancei had learning about wiring and soldering.

so thanks Cadex for the great work and please keep it up!

 

[Smack]

I sure hope cadex doesn't stop working on this cause I am about to install it in my Wii.

I finally got my parts from Futurlec after 9 business days. To be honest not bad seeing as it had to cross the continent from NYC to Vancouver and pass through customs Now it is time to put it all together.

wish me luck and here I go.

EDIT: A success and futurlec sent me WAY more resistors than I needed.

 

[xiaNaix]

Cadex has made a public statement regarding the status of the source license for chiip:

http://chiip.descrambler.de/index.php/Open_source

Chiip WikiFor modchips, the usual motivation is earning money. This is obvious in the case of popular commercial chips like WiiKey/Cyclowiz/Wiinja etc. - but it's not just coincidence that you can buy WiiFree and Wiip/OpenWii modchips too.

I currently tend to release Chiip as delayed source - meaning the source will be available some time after the binary version was released. That way others will still be able to copy Chiip's features, but it's a bit harder to do that from a binary version.

Wiip/OpenWii does have a commercial aspect to it since they sell a programmer for it but I don't see why he lumps WiiFree in there. It is an open source modchip with freely available hex and source. Just because some shops are selling pre-flashed chips with the code doesn't mean the WiiFree Team ever sees any of that money. Taking pot shots at the other open source chip projects and implying that they were using his code to build theirs is ridiculous. Seems to me he's just bitter that there are similar/better solutions out there.