Hardware Opening/Soldering the WII *INFO*

[Hooya]

Thanks. I got it back together and everything is still working perfectlyÂ

no problem. Before I started mapping the screws out when I took them out I put one screw back in the wrong place on a Wii.... I never did get it out, although now I know how I would fix my error. It made no difference in the console and the customer probably will never notice.... It's OK, that guy stepped on one of my pets and was too stupid to realize it was squealing in pain under his foot before I pushed him off of the poor damn animal. So I don't feel to bad.

 

[Phrostay]

I'm looking at Jaycar parts:
+46w Goot 240v Soldering Pencil (Is 46w Overkill?)
+Goot Lead-Free Solder 0.8mm dia.
+Red-Light (Kinky) Duty Hook-Up Wire 25m

Is the above okay? Dicksmith has Lead-Free Silver Solder with a 1.0mm dia.

Of course I will be practicing a lot before I do anything...

 

[Hooya]

The iron will be fine as long as you don't hold it on the solder points for more than half a second! If it doesn't melt the solder in half a second the tip is oxidized and needs to be cleaned, it doesn't need more time. Buy tip cleaner too, you'll be glad you did.

I have no idea about the wire, but it sounds like it'll be too big.

The solder will be good.

 

[Skull Kid]

I have a question about soldering the wires to the DVD drive points.. I'm assuming there's actually already solder on the points, so do I simply touch the wire on the point and then hold the iron to the point?

 

[Hooya]

I have a question about soldering the wires to the DVD drive points.. I'm assuming there's actually already solder on the points, so do I simply touch the wire on the point and then hold the iron to the point?

You could do this fine for points 5, 6, and 7, as those seem to have easy melting solder. For some reason points 1 and 8 don't tin as easily in my experience, so adding solder to those is helpful. Those are the easy ones anyway. I tin all the points though, just to make sure to make good connections.

And you really only touch the iron to the point, it shouldn't take more than half a second to melt the solder if your iron is tinned. Any longer than that and you're just risking melting stuff.

 

[Skull Kid]

Thanks for the response... one other question, the wire I got says 30-Gauge 105' C Kynar Wire (they didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for 30AWG), but now that I've seen pictures of other people's installs, this wire seems way to thin. I know someone else already asked this but did I get the right wire?

Here's the one I got: http://www.action-electronics.com/pdww.htm#Wire

 

[Hooya]

Thanks for the response... one other question, the wire I got says 30-Gauge 105' C Kynar Wire (they didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for 30AWG), but now that I've seen pictures of other people's installs, this wire seems way to thin. I know someone else already asked this but did I get the right wire?

Here's the one I got: http://www.action-electronics.com/pdww.htm#Wire

You got the right kind of wire. It might look too thin because you're looking at really really enlarged, zoomed in pictures of these installs. Once you get your Wii open you'll see what I mean.

 

[taiguy]

for those of you who took apart your wii without paying attention which screws went where

-Top black plastic
[controller ports on the bottom]
(from left to right)
- small black
- small black
- longer black

-Side of the Wii
[disc drive on the right]
- Silver Triwing, Top Left
- Silver Triwing, Bottom Left
- Black triwing, top right
- Black triwing, bottom right

-Bottom of the Wii
[disc drive to the right]
-Silver triwing, top middle
-Silver triwing, top right
-Silver PH, bottom middle
-Silver PH, bottom middle right
-Black long thin PH, bottom right

-Top of Wii
[Disc drive to the right]
-Silver PH, top middle
-Silver PH, top right
-Silver Triwing, bottom middle
-Silver triwing, bottom right

 

[cardyology]

Hey guys. m gonna do a wire install this weekend for my Wiikey.

I have:

30w soldering Iron,
0.15 roisin solder (with flux built in)
Wiikey
tiny phillips and tri-wing
30AWG Kynar.

Sooo.... my question is, I wanna do the wire install, would there be any disadvantage to using longer wires, and running them out the back of the wii's housing somehow, then attatching the wiikey to the other end - EXTERNALLY?

I saw a guy from germany who used an empty MALE 9pin D-Sub conncetor, mounted in the back of his wii case, then he mounted a wiikey, a wiinja and a cyclowiiz to three separate FEMALE 9pin D-sub connectors, meaning he can swith chips whenever he wants.

I wanna do it this way too. Is there any reason not to use longer wires? I thought about soldering 30awg kynar in lengths of about 12 inches, running them out the back, then trimming them (if nessecary) and attatching the chip to the other end OUTSIDE the wii case (with the male/female dsub connector in between). Wiill this work??

I've not soldered for a few years but used to do a bit so Im confident I can solder the wires to the wii DVD board.

 

[BlueStar]

Just got my replacement Wii and obviously it's a newer model to my faulty original, with a LEH1100* serial number. I gather this means it's got the DB2 chip, but will it also have the new board layout which makes it harder to solder? Do the major chips work with DB2 properly now? I remember they claimed support but then some were saying it was a shoddy workaround.

Read stuff on this at the time but didn't pay much attention because I had a first-gen unit and now I can't seem to find stuff on it because DB2 is too few characters for the search engine.

 

[shtonkalot]

Is there any reason not to use longer wires? I thought about soldering 30awg kynar in lengths of about 12 inches, running them out the back, then trimming them (if nessecary) and attatching the chip to the other end OUTSIDE the wii case (with the male/female dsub connector in between). Wiill this work??It should work fine as long as you don't stuff up

I have a DE-9 connector on the back of my wii and have a few chip dongles made for the homebrew chips. I know quite a few people have done this as well.

Just got my replacement Wii and obviously it's a newer model to my faulty original, with a LEH1100* serial number. I gather this means it's got the DB2 chip, but will it also have the new board layout which makes it harder to solder? Do the major chips work with DB2 properly now? I remember they claimed support but then some were saying it was a shoddy workaround.

Read stuff on this at the time but didn't pay much attention because I had a first-gen unit and now I can't seem to find stuff on it because DB2 is too few characters for the search engine.

1st thing, it's D2B not DB2. Try "panasonic D2B" in the quotes for your search engine troubles.
Some of the original modchips (Wiinja V1, Cyclowiz V1) didn't support the D2B chipset but any recent modchip should be fine.
The newer Wii DVD drive boards without one of the points don't seem to be popping up as expected, I've modded quite a few Wiis and am yet to see one.
I believe the missing point only affects the install of the WiiKey though. AFAIK no other modchip uses that missing point anyway.

 

[vegenigma]

I believe the missing point only affects the install of the WiiKey though. AFAIK no other modchip uses that missing point anyway.

So what happens if you install the WiiKey on a system missing the point?

 

[Hooya]

I believe the missing point only affects the install of the WiiKey though. AFAIK no other modchip uses that missing point anyway.

So what happens if you install the WiiKey on a system missing the point?

nobody knows... it's never been done! At least, nobody has bothered trying to install a WiiKey without using that point (why would you?). Maybe the chip just doesn't work, like there's no modchip at all.

Of course, you can still attach that point directly to the drive chip itself even if such boards are found.

 

[Goldcoastr]

best review & info ive seen on web so far much great full

 

[sublime311]

I need some help. I've burnt away the pads on my wii so it's not taking on any solder. Has anyone got any info on what I should do?

 

[Hooya]

I need some help. I've burnt away the pads on my wii so it's not taking on any solder. Has anyone got any info on what I should do?Â

Take it to someone that knows what they're doing to fix the problems you've caused.

Seriously, I'm not trying to be mean, but it's not difficult to solder a chip to a normal Wii, if you mess it up enough that the pads are torn off you don't have the skills to repair it and install to the much more difficult alternate points. Take it to someone that really knows what they're doing. Check out the buy/sell/trade forums here and at WiiNewz and find someone in your area with good repair skills.

 

[Goldcoastr]

costly misteak this to fix cost fair bit thats if its fixable

 

[cartman100]

I need some help. I've burnt away the pads on my wii so it's not taking on any solder. Has anyone got any info on what I should do? 

Hi sublime311 , this place will be able to fix it no problem , www.ghost2fitter.co.uk

they charge £29.99 to fit your chip , doesnt matter if the pads are missing either, mine had 2 missing after my brother did a bad mod install , just contact them

 

[ziddey]

anyone successfully solder onto cut legs? tried and failed? or everyone just directly went to filing off the d2b package?

 

[pcornall]

I'm planning on soldering a cyclowiz chip in my wii later this week using the quicksolder technique. I'm a novice solderer and so read this thread through and done some research. I've also opened up the wii and examined exactly what I need to do. The only thing that is seriously worrying my is bridging the connections because at least two of the connections on the cyclowiz are incredibly close and the whole thing is so tiny. So, I was wondering if anyone has any good tips on how to avoid bridging the points, especially in terms of soldering technique and given I'm not going to use wires. I've got some desoldering braid, but I'd really like to not have to use it and get it right first time rather than struggling with the panic of having to try and get rid of excess solder.