Hacking Post here if you installed your chip correctly!

[Edster]

Soldering experience: Not bad. Soldered many times before. Nothing this small though.

The hardest part: Stopping my hands from shaking and sweating. Finally calmed down after the third pad. Pads 3, 4, 5. Too close for comfort.

Tips nobody told you: None. Did lots of reading and watching YouTube videos. Knew exactly what to expect.

Did you break or forget anything? One connection came lose (pad 4). Redid it tonight and tugged on all the wires to make sure they are solid. Foundmy Triwing worked great for me. Got all the screws in place. Everything is good.

WIIKEY

 

[kdanarch]

I did it with the Wiinja V1

I was really nervous because the points were smaller than the last mod job (that I botched) but this time I had the proper tools and everything, and surprisingly I got it all hooked up and it worked.

Now I have to swap out my V1 with the V2 that my girlfriend should be picking up from the post office for me today.

I'm gonna boot up Smooth Movies for the first time with her and see if she takes to it :x Thank god for the Wii turning more girls into gamers.

 

[flashermac]

Piece of cake, had to be careful with my soldering iron though, as it's huge and hotter than Satan's house on curry night, but it all works, so woo for me

(wiinja v2 btw)

|fmc|

 

[cdndave]

Wiinja v1 (waiting on my PICs to try out all the free solutions out there)

Soldering experience: Some - I moded my XBOX about 2 years ago, a bit of soldering here and there (built a PIC programmer)

The hardest part: Keeping track of all the screws

Tips nobody told you: Printed a disassembly guide (from elotrolado.net) and taped the little screws to the circled spots on the guide

Maker sure you clean the board with a little alcohol afterwards to clean up the extra flux.

Did you break or forget anything? Had to open up the Wii a second time.. I got a bunch of DREs and after about an hour the Wii stopped "sucking" in the discs (but ejected them OK). After reseating the ribbon cable and wire bundle everything works awesome.

Dave

 

[andreq]

Soldering experience: Many diy project including homemade PCB with lot's of soldering. Modded 3 Ps2.

The hardest part: Stripping the cheap (ebay) kynar wire for about 40+ min.

Tips nobody told you: Ask your girlfriend for a pair of small plier to get the drive screw in !

Did you break or forget anything? : wasted about 2 feet of kynar.


WIIKEY

 

[ej76623]

Soldering experience: So easy a caveman can do it!

The hardest part: trying to find beer after 1:00am after doing a pulseVU and wiinja v2 install...

Tips nobody told you: Nobody told me that you can save a lot of money using geico insurance!

Did you break or forget anything? I forgot to buy beer before doing the install... beer + soldering = steady hands...

 

[kdanarch]

Soldering experience: Many diy project including homemade PCB with lot's of soldering. Modded 3 Ps2.

The hardest part: Stripping the cheap (ebay) kynar wire for about 40+ min.

Tips nobody told you: Ask your girlfriend for a pair of small plier to get the drive screw in !

Did you break or forget anything? : wasted about 2 feet of kynar.


WIIKEY

Damn those front drive screws. I found a trash bag twistie tie is a good "guide" you can use if you wrap it around the screw under the head. Once you get the screw into it's hole, just grab one side of the twistie tie and pull it around to the other side, and then pull it out.

 

[instigator]

Soldering experience: None (well, 1 Wiikey now!)

The hardest part: Not bridging those 4 tiny points

Tips nobody told you: Just a dab will do it! Do not loiter with your iron...

Did you break or forget anything?: Nope! Flawless install

 

[LordWill072284]

Soldering experience: None Until Wiinja Deluxe

The hardest part: Getting The Solder Of The Gun

Tips nobody told you: You Don't Need Solder On the Points On The Wii...

Did you break or forget anything?: Nothing At All, Worked Awsome

 

[alexwryt]

Soldering experience: Worked as electronic tech for 3 years

The hardest part: Reattaching that damn cable on the side. The cable is so tight and it's such an awkward angle to put it back in.

Tips nobody told you: Pay attention to which screws go where.

Did you break or forget anything?: accidently tried screwing the long screw on the top into the wrong hole; so that hole was stripped out and will remain screwless.

 

[Renegade_R]

Soldering experience: Next to nothing, practiced on an old CD player (points were way too big compared to the Wii) and a junk digital camera I took from my store.

The hardest part: Soldering the 4 mini-points. They were much smaller than I thought and I couldn't stop shaking because I was so nervous.

Tips nobody told you: Don't apply too much strength to the screws or you'll strip them.

Did you break or forget anything? I ended up scratching my Wii because of my stupid knife went into the wrong places. I also burned myself 3 times because my soldering iron was sitting on an iron ring stand. Stupid me kept touching the stand.

Modchip: WiiKey

 

[smid]

Soldering experience: Very little. The only chip I had soldered before this was a ViperGC.

The hardest part: Opening the Wii and making a map over which screws go where.

Tips nobody told you: I didn't unplug the flat DVD cable since I heard it's a pain to get it back in. Soldering went fine anyway. So.. my tip is to not unplug the dvd cable

Did you break or forget anything?: I don't think so

 

[jhoff80]

Soldering experience: Almost none, botched a xenoGC install, decide to go with wires this time, and practiced a little on an old minidisc unit (one of two that I had lying around).

The hardest part: Soldering to the reset button, also my wire kept breaking so I had to redo the soldering like 10 times for each point, took me a few hours to get it opened up, soldered, and closed again. Also I was going to put my wavebird receiver internally, but there was a stubborn screw on the fan duct that is pretty stripped now.

Tips nobody told you: I said this in another post, but to be careful because theres a little tiny nut for the battery that came off for me.

Did you break or forget anything? The right side of my datacable clip retainer broke, so I had to tape the clip down. Also lost the nut to hold the battery in place. Just remembered too that I lost one of the three screws to hold the black piece near the GC section down.

Modchip: Wiinja v2 in a socket, although I did wire point 3 to the reset button, that was pretty hard.

 

[ginjaninja]

I'd just like to say thanks to all on this forum for all your help this is my first time posting but I've been an reader for a good while. Thanks everybody.


Soldering experience: Very little. The only chip I had soldered before this was a PSX chip and i borked that up completely.

The hardest part: Practice. I had an old 1.3 gb HDD with very small points on it so i practice till i got the process perfect

Tips nobody told you: The little not behind the poxy battery part got loose and took a while to shake it out of the wii. really annoying little part that.

Did you break or forget anything?: nope everything went well.

Thining the wire was the key. no need to put any solder on the board at all. Just thin the wires and heat them up before you go to install, that way you only have to tap the wire on the point to melt the solder. very quick and not alot of heat transfer to the board.

here are some pics of my install

Mod chip install

 

[emirof]

Soldering experience: This was my very first soldering work. I practiced on an old soundcard before I did the Wii though.
The hardest part: Putting solder on the small points at the Wii.

Tips nobody told you: Nah

Did you break or forget anything?: At my first try the solder turned yellow by oxidation and I thought I was doomed, but with some desoldering it was fine again.

 

[Presto]

Wiinja Deluxe installed

Soldering experience: very expierenced

The hardest part: dam reset wire

Tips nobody told you: make sure you know what screws are what



Did you break or forget anything? no

 

[zosh]

Soldering experience: Minimal. Got myself up to speed on an old ISA SoundBlaster.

The hardest part: Convincing myself to solder to the three small pads. Doing it was not so hard after all.

Tips nobody told you:
- When soldering to pads of that size, it's easy to have too much solder just by tinning the wires too much.
- Twisted wire is fine for everything else but not for soldering onto pads of that size ... ended up using solid copper wires from a CAT5 cable.
- Finally: I found it easier to strip wires using my fingernails than with a dedicated, but much too clumsy tool.

Did you break or forget anything? I planned to have a female connector inside the case but for my life can't remember why I soldered a male one to the wires. Didn't want to re-solder afterwards and had to make an "extension cord" to the outside anyway.

And: Having produced your first working mod gives you quite a rush, I tell you.

 

[kdanarch]

And: Having produced your first working mod gives you quite a rush, I tell you.

Yes, oh yes it does

By the way, my Wiinja V2 came in the mail this weekend, and I already had my wii opened for the second and (hopefully) final time. Since it was a simple swap it went very smoothly. I accidentally bridged some solder on my old V1 so I had a chance to use my brand new solder-sucker

Now it's wrapped up with my invoice and I'm ready to ship it back to Spain for a replacement. What I'll do with that replacement, I have no idea. I flirt with the idea of premodding a console and selling it to a friend under the table, but as far as anyone who visits this board knows, I would never do such a thing ;o

I'm actually kind of hooked now. I want to start my own electronics projects now that I've mastered soldering (and the Wii forced me to master it. I'm not about to go attaching wires to processor legs or anything, but I feel fairly competent now). I'm considering building a theremin or something similar

I'm also seriously thinking about buying an old Greystation and modding it for my own enjoyment and for that rush of accomplishment :x

 

[grapperus]

Soldering experience: only done it a few times
The hardest part: no real issues,no need for tri-wing screw driver just get a small flat blade screw driver and use that works like a charm
Tips nobody told you: be carefull with ribbon cable the clip can break easiley

Did you break or forget anything? not a thing

 

[SilverAnalyst]

Yup, intalled and happy