Hacking Post here if you installed your chip correctly!

[WarmWoollySheep]

Share your stories of success.


Soldering experience: Almost none, except when I was 10 I'd solder ants in my backyard. But for the last two weeks I've been reading the guides linked here and practicing on an old sound card.

The hardest part: Plugging the dvd cables back in, that took forever.

Tips nobody told you: Be careful with the flat DVD cable! None of the tutorials mentioned this, but you have to unclip that dark brown thing by flipping it upwards. Also, practice soldering on the tiniest points you can find, the Wii's points will probably be smaller AND closer together.

Did you break or forget anything? I ended up with about 5 extra screws and I have no idea where they go.

 

[hef]

Soldering experience: my friend did this work, cause my skill in soldering is very poor for these three small points.

The hardest part: packing wires compactly after soldering. They were too thick.

Tips nobody told you:also flat DVD cable. Nobody told about it.

Did you break or forget anything? Only one connector for wiinja

 

[starduck]

Soldering experience: 2 minutes prior to the job. I then told myself I was qualified for the job.

The hardest part: Not tearing the chip off the board after 2 hours and 45 minutes of it not working due to a faulty wires.

Tips nobody told you: How dangerous a scalpel may be when used with too much strength to remove them stupid rubber pads. Went right in my thumb. Seems like everybody had trouble with that DVD cable. I started with that white cable, and used too much strength, again, and the DVD cable pulled off by itself, and I saw that there was a flap that used to retain it. So ah!

Did you break or forget anything? Forgot screws.... Breaking... I almost destroyed 2 triwing screws, but managed to get them out by doing some buffer action on my triwing driver to shorten the tip, and apply excessive strength while twisting, because the screws were really beat up. Stupid Ebay triwing screwdrivers.

 

[Takrin]

Soldering experience: Moderate,i tend to solder stuff well but almost every project i tend to burn myself.

The hardest part: closing wii, the metal shielding put on slightly off gave me some problem scewing stuff together

Tips nobody told you: Flat cable doesnt need to be removed.

Did you break or forget anything?: burnt the tip of my finger, 1 extra skrew i did manage to put back but took forever since it was under the battery. also the pin broke off while pulling my atmega8 from its socket to install on wii.

 

[Reepa]

Soldering experience: None recently, last time I soldered was 4 years ago during an A-level Physics module, never on anything this small.

The hardest part: Getting the crappy lead free solder I used to flow correctly for the 3 small pads.

Tips nobody told you: Not that people haven't said, but you really don't realise just how small, and close together the pads are until you see them for yourself.

Did you break or forget anything?: nothing broken, clean and solid install, pretty proud with myself. Did burn my middle finger gripping slightly too low on the new iron though

Also lost my wii play and wii sports scores though, not sure if this was to do with removing the internal battery but it definatly happened while taking the console apart.

 

[hanman]

Soldering experience: Advanced, regularly replace DC Jacks on laptops and the like. ALL my consoles are modded.

The hardest part: figuring out how to route the wires. no big deal, really.

Tips nobody told you: the triwing i ordered worked on every other screw as well

Did you break or forget anything?: nope. all screws went back where they were meant to go.

WiiKey, 1st batch

 

[LaGzoR]

My story :


Soldering experience: I was an electrician for five years. But there point was too small...

The hardest part: Solder the three small point !

Tips nobody told you: You may look with a professional in order to help you ! Be careful if you soder without a professional...

Did you break or forget anything? I had a too big iron solder that's why i couldn't solder it correctly.

I have a Wiinja V1
You may write your chip too...

 

[TaMs]

Soldering experience:Friend of mine soldered it

Hardest part:To open wii without triwing

Did you break or forget anything? i destroyed the triwing screws (aka opened them without triwing) with drilling machine or whatever its called and replaced them with normal one's


Wiinja V1

 

[nexx]

Soldering experience: Modded some xbox and gamecube consoles.

The hardest part: Lifted a pad because i wasnt taking my time and didnt have the right wire so had to solder onto the chip.

Tips nobody told you: When soldering onto the chip i used some single core wire which i put a tiny amount of solder onto. I heated this up a few times before placing it onto the chip and just layed it onto the point and literally tapped it with the soldering iron. This was enough to get a good strong joint.

Did you break or forget anything? Havent screwed the console back together yet but no doubt ill have a few screws left over...

 

[kristijan08]

Soldering experience: None, thats why i payed someone to install it for me.

The hardest part: waiting by the phone for the phone call telling me the wii was ready!

Tips nobody told you: n/a but readin all the other comments sounds like it was a pain in the ass of a job!

Did you break or forget anything? I hope they didn't!! i've shaked my wii a bit and nothin rattles so heres to hoping!!

I have a Wiikey!

 

[lookout]

Soldering experience: Solder my Xbox 29 wires and PS2 - freaking small.

The hardest part: so many wires.

Tips nobody told you: clean the solder tip.

Did you break or forget anything? none.

 

[Kaphis]

Soldering experience: Electrical Engineering~ been soldering since grade 8 and I am now third year.

The hardest part: Stripped a screw with the triwing screw driver I got (getting it out with out the right tools was hard but found the Screw Remover bit and it came out with no problem

Tips nobody told you: Don't have to remove the black DVD ribbon, I worked with it connected.

Did you break or forget anything? Broke a screw..stripped it...

 

[kanja]

Soldering experience: Lots. I always screw up but i always fix it.

Did you break or forget anything? Had one wire on good but wanted to make it better. Pulled out the pad when desoldering. (unable to use this point anymore) Turns out allot of people have done this.

The hardest part: Tracing the loose pad back to the panasonic chip and soldering even smaller point. Got solder all over the chip shorting it out and spent 90 minutes trying to clean it up. Then making the same mistake two more times before getting it right, then the wire coming lose after i put it back together and having to take it apart and do it all over again.

Tips nobody told you: If you have a connection, leave the wire alone. It doesn't have to be pretty as long as it works.

 

[Serus]

I got my modchip today at about 11:15am, finished installation at about 12:15pm

Soldering experience: Not much, modded my PS2 and Xbox.

The hardest part: Soldering pins 3, 4, 5, 6

Tips nobody told you: The solder points were going to be so small! I couldn't believe it. They are about the size of the O on "In god we trust" on a penny.

Did you break or forget anything? Nope! Working Great! I've tested Zelda, Red Steel, FarCry, Super Swing Golf, Wario Ware and Metroid Prime for the gamecube..All work great!


Thanks to the help of this forum it all went very smoothly. Thank you to everyone for sharing all their experiences to help make it as easy and problem-free as possible!

 

[Dinzy]

Soldering experience: good with larger stuff

The hardest part: Opening the damned thing. Cheap triwing from foundmy broke on screw 3. I cut the system open due to impatience

Tips nobody told you: The wii plastic cuts like butter

Did you break or forget anything? nothing important

 

[modmanwii]

Soldering experience:Ive done like 20-30 Xbox1 with pinheaders and quick solder....

The hardest part: The solder holding my wires down kept melting whenever i went to do the point next to it, so I just did quicksolder. Took me maybe 30 seconds after 20 min messing w wires.

Tips nobody told you:HOW TO GET THE DAMN DVD RIBBON OFF! Broke mine, still trying to figure out a perm way to get it back down..

Did you break or forget anything? see above =)

WIIKEY SON!

 

[coolbgdog]

Soldering Experience: Not that much I modded my gc before so I was pretty sure at what I had to do.

The Hardest part: Finding this screw that was loose and rattling inside the wii.

Tips Nobody told you: I don't know.

 

[Kissell13]

Soldering experience: first time.....been practicing on an old lan card tho

The hardest part: Soldering the wires to the chip was very difficult.....soldering the wires to the points on the drive was cake.

Tips nobody told you: write down or mark or whatever u need to do to keep track of the screws. Its real hard to figure out which ones go back in what spot.

Did you break or forget anything?: Lifted a pad off of the Wiikey, and had to solder it to the corresponding leg on the wiikey chip, but everything works as promised.

 

[lebrand]

Soldering experience: None, practiced with old card. The tip about tinning the wire made soldering much easier.

The hardest part: Stripping the 30 gauge wire without a dedicated tool for the 15 or so wires for the Chiip.

Tips nobody told you: Use a multimeter for peace of mind regarding connections and no bridging of points. The pictures don't convey how small the 3 solder points are.

Did you break or forget anything? So relieved after the soldering went well that I forgot to label my wires which run outside the Wii through the outside of the USB port, only noticed after I put the wii together so had to open and close again.

Best Part: Big Yippee!! when everything worked like a champ.

 

[sdoc96]

Wiinja V2
Soldering experience: A fair bit - I've been soldering kits for 15 years and regularly re-cap motherboards and other devices that have the dreaded 'capacitor of death' syndrome.

The hardest part: Getting the tiny wires stripped to a safe length so they didn't bridge. Getting them the right length so there wasn't too much excess wire took a bit of time too, but not that hard. I also had to grind my soldering tip to a sharp point so it was accurate. Some of those pads were pretty small and delicate too.

Tips nobody told you: That flat DVD cable again - not the typical retainer, but once I worked out you just slip your finger nail underneath the ribbon side and flip the grey catch up, it was easy.

Did you break or forget anything? Nope - everything went well as I took my time and took photos so the screws didn't get mixed up, etc.