Hacking do some reading FIRST! wiinja and cyclo FAQ

[mickcris]

On the subject of chips becoming obsolete due to Wii firmware updates:

This is still possible. Not in a "Your chip is now worthless" way, but in the way of the PSP.
The PSP has newer games being released that don't work on older firmwares.

The current mod chips sit on the DVD drive and modify certain bits as they get sent through.

Imagine: Nintendo creates a new format for the copy-protected section on their discs. At the same time, they release a new firmware that will be able to read and confirm legitimacy of these new discs.

Nintendo, knowing what the Mod chips will try to do, sets up the copy protection data so that when it is sent through a mod chip, it generates a change in the bits that would not be made in a system without a mod chip. The new firmware then detects this, and knows there is a mod chip.

Most likely, your systems will not be rendered useless ever, just kept from using newer games/pirating newer games. And there's no knowing Nintendo will ever go to a method like this. In the past they've not really done much about piracy. They did update their DS firmwares to stop Passkeys from working. Perhaps the current Wii Modchips aren't too different from the Passkeys in that respect.

However, since this is a developer backend, and a physical mod, I'd expect Nintendo to take little to no action.


But I don't have a Wii, or any money.

I'm just going to collect and wait for now.


Edit: As for the Wiinja vs. CycloWiz thing.... I agree that the CycloWiz is getting alot of paid-publicity, but from the start the Wiinja has looked really unprofessional and shady and bad to me. They have their own site up now but everything still looks really bad to me. I wish they had some real diagrams and installation instructions. Maybe better pics of the actual chip. Half of what they've shown of the chip has had their logo photoshopped onto it.
In the end, though, what you should make your decision based off of is the Quicksolder vs. Wire solder. That's all.

The mod on the wii works more like the one on the 360 than the psp though. It is bypassing the protection on the drive. The psp is doing something completely different. Microsoft still has not been able to detect the hacked drive firmware and it has been quite a while.

 

[xiaNaix]

hmm, i read somewhere where they talked about NTSC-U / NTSC-J games on these modchips...i cant seem to find it again...

does anyone know if they can play these two regions of games? or are these still region locked?

WiiKey supports imports from same video region.

It is unclear if CycloWiz has been tested with imports from the same video region.

Wiinja Team confirms they have not tested imports from same video region yet, as they don't have any to test.

 

[1NOOB]

can we burn the GC backup on a dvd +/- r/rw or only on mini disk(where i buy mini disk if its only on them)

 

[Hooya]

can we burn the GC backup on a dvd +/- r/rw or only on mini disk(where i buy mini disk if its only on them)

Full sized DVD will work just fine with all drive chip solutions. The Wii does not recognize a physical difference between the disks except to be able to load smaller media. Theoretically this could mean a Wii game could be on a small media as well assuming there was only 1.4 gig of data.

 

[fsimonp]

im going to buy a cyclowiz and ive got one question.
as seen in the video tutorial there has been fired (dont know the english word) three times.
is it correct that ive only have to fire this three times and thats it?

 

[Hooya]

im going to buy a cyclowiz and ive got one question.
as seen in the video tutorial there has been fired (dont know the english word) three times.
is it correct that ive only have to fire this three times and thats it?

the verb you are looking for is "solder". It took me a second but I realized what you meant by "fired".

Personally I think it's too hard to tell in the video. I think there are still 5 points that need to be independently soldered, even though there are only 5 holes... I would wait for a GBAtemp review of the chip as that will have all the details people have questions about.

People, we gotta be patient. All questions will be answered by the great Costello.

 

[fsimonp]

im going to buy a cyclowiz and ive got one question.
as seen in the video tutorial there has been fired (dont know the english word) three times.
is it correct that ive only have to fire this three times and thats it?


the verb you are looking for is "solder". It took me a second but I realized what you meant by "fired".

Personally I think it's too hard to tell in the video. I think there are still 5 points that need to be independently soldered, even though there are only 5 holes... I would wait for a GBAtemp review of the chip as that will have all the details people have questions about.

People, we gotta be patient. All questions will be answered by the great Costello.

so i only have to solder at these 5 places:

 

[Hooya]

That is exactly how I interpret the chip. It would be consistent with what we know about how the Wiinja is installed.

I'm afraid of people not taking care and just filling in that large space where the three points are close together. I can't imagine that bridging all of those points together is a good idea, unless that is what some of the extra stuff on this chip are for: re-splitting that bridge.

 

[bollocks]

One thing that makes me suspicious of this "Team Cyclops", which no one else seems to have picked up on (at least in this thread, I can't be arsed checking elsewhere) is that the same team had previously announced the CycloDS series of Slot-2 flashcarts, which were quickly revealed to be simple supercard clones ..

 

[Gods69]

thanks for clearing up

anybody else feels that opening the wii is probably harder than actually soldering the chip?Â

Video: Soldering the Wiinja chip

 

[ds_barf]

Video: Soldering the Wiinja chip

yeah i know, but i meant that the soldering is pretty easy but opening the wii is kinda scary

 

[Japala]

"Are these modchips region free?

Yes. As in you install it on a PAL Wii and it will be able to play PAL backups.
Sames goes with NTSC. Install on NTSC, play NTSC backups."

Don't think that this is the same as region free in the sense that most people understand it. It is true that ntsc-j and ntsc-u are playable with any ntsc console but as long as you can't play pal games with it, the chip is not fully region free and thus the answer should be "yes - limited" or something similar. At least this is my view of the topic.

 

[r0cksteady]

So, this morning the news has come out that the Cyclo is DVD Upgradeable (see the "evil" maxconsole posts today

) but I haven't heard this from the Wiinja side (though, in fact, I have heard speculation on the contrary for Winnja)... So, what's the truth here and, maybe a better question, is this something anyone envisions needing/using in the future?

 

[_Mazza_]

the wiinja is non-upgradeable, the admin states this in their forums in reply to a post, but the CycloWiz is upgradeable via DVD, I think the WiiKey and CycloWiz will be practically the same thing.

 

[r0cksteady]

Ah, thanks for the clarification Mazza... also seeing reports of the Wiinja having issues with the D2B chipset, will be interesting to see if the Cyclo has any issues and, if they do, if it would be a simple DVD release FW update to fix... the saga continues I guess!

Also, to the originator of this, can the information about "upgrade abilities" be added to the initial post to keep it up to date with the latest info or is that not the intention of this thread?

 

[openchip]

So, this morning the news has come out that the Cyclo is DVD Upgradeable (see the "evil" maxconsole posts today

) but I haven't heard this from the Wiinja side (though, in fact, I have heard speculation on the contrary for Winnja)... So, what's the truth here and, maybe a better question, is this something anyone envisions needing/using in the future?

cyclowiz uses parallax SX28 what requires 12V programming voltage on oscillator input OSC1, this where the switch "off for normal mode" goes.
SX28 does not have IAP (In Application Programming) feature, those it is UNCAPABLE to update itself, this must be done by external programming device. There is a wire from OSC2 (needed for SX28 flashing) going to "DVD cpu", so in case the update is possible the actual program that reflashes the cyclowiz must complete reside inside the DVD drive controller chip MN102 and also the programming software. I am not saying that is not possible at all, but should the update not succeed, then the cyclowiz is rendered dead meat. Also the update is only possible, if the cyclowiz was previously able to pull its own update into the DVD controller. Then that application starts, pulls OSC2 low, then user switches OSC1 to 12V with toggle switch, and the MN102 would have to implement the SX28 reflashing procedure. Of course this update can be monitored and would reveal 100% the new firmware that gets flashed into the SX28, meaning that 1:1 clones of cyclowiz would be possible.

The chips on wiikey does have IAP capability so it may be able to perform update of itself in more firendly and safe fashion.

 

[tgc_9013]

I have a game that's 4.700.307.528 bytes. What does that mean?

 

[ben_r_]

What about adding to this thread the answer to the question: How do I determine what chipset I have? And describe all the known ways to find out if you have a A, B or C etc. chipset.

 

[superrob]

I have a game that's 4.700.307.528 bytes. What does that mean?

Its Scrambled.
Unsramble it with Unscrambler 0.4 use search.

Its easy.
Either: use: http://nintendo-scene.com/wiitracker/ and type in your serial to get a estamate what your chipset might be.

Or open op your Wii take out the DVD drive and look at the Chip rigth under the 2 connectors.
It would say your chipset.
This IS the best way to find out BTW.

 

[Masta_mind257]

Im thinking of getting a wiinja deluxe with a wlip, but my Wii is a d2b so would model A work?