Hacking Post here if you installed your chip correctly!

[Renegade_R]

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

That's so true, the moment I inserted a backup Wii Play disc and started playing it, my eyes lit up and I had a smile that wouldn't go away...as if I was doing weed

The first mod feeling is so awesome.

 

[jamezco]

Mod Chip - WiiKey

Soldering Experience - A lil bit when I was 15 ... I am 23 rite now ...

Hardest Part - To solder the WiiKey wit wires when my hand is shacking like crazy because I'm afraid of screwing up my WiiKey ... Then after that ... to solder the wires to the Wii ... hands shacking as well .... crazy .. is like I cant control it ... the amount of fear and pressure

Tips Nobody Told You - Soldering to the Wii is much more harder than to solder the wires onto the WiiKey

Did your forget or break anything? - Didn't break or forget anything but I have to find screws to replace my Triwing screws ... coz its stripped a bit already...

 

[lookout]

Hardest Part - To solder the WiiKey wit wires when my hand is shacking like crazy because I'm afraid of screwing up my WiiKey ... Then after that ... to solder the wires to the Wii ... hands shacking as well .... crazy .. is like I cant control it ... the amount of fear and pressure

That happen to me before

the only way to stop shacking to slap my hands

j/k just keep on practicing.

 

[Darkforce]

Mod Chip - WiiKey

Soldering Experience - Installed a XenoGC, though broke my SNES trying to do a 60hz mod! >_>

Hardest Part - Applying solder to the 2 larger points on the Wii; it didn't want to stick. Tip - rough up the surface a bit! Other than that it went pretty smoothly.

Tips Nobody Told You - Been mentioned before but definately do a wire install, there is a fairly big gap between the contacts on the Wiikey chip and those on the board.

Did your forget or break anything? - Temporily lost one of the sticky rubber feet!

 

[avatarx]

Mod Chip - WiiKey

Soldering Experience - I helped a friend mod his Xbox. Other than that none. I practiced on an old PGA to Slot1 CPU adapter before I installed WiiKey

Hardest Part - Stripping the very thin 30AWG wires...

Tips Nobody Told You - I learned this from someone else here. "Try using wires. Connect them to the Wiikey first, label them and then do Pad 1, 2, 4, 3, 5 and 6. 4 is hard to do if you have 3 and 5 in place. This worked for me." Also, when you do 3,4,5,6 - just tin the wires and don't add solder on the wii pad. tin some solder on the wires, wipe your soldering iron on a wet sponge, tin the soldering iron, connect your wire to the pad -> let the solder flow from the iron tip to the wire -> instant soldering.

Did your forget or break anything? - I didn't break anything but I burned my index finger with the soldering iron... it hurts...

 

[pandas0nic]

Chip - WiiKey

Experience - last time i soldered was about 4 years ago in college for my sound engineering course, made a small speaker and radio for electronics class. 10 minutes of practice with no flaws was enough to prepare me again.

Difficulties - It wasn't so bad, just have to be carefull not to bridge the points as a few are very close together.

Tips - Don't rush anything, you need to have patience, be thorough and be confident else you will panic.

Breaks - Nope, all is working perfectly fine. Didn't even get a burn

Also would like to say thanks to this forum for having a helpfull community with users who actualy have a brain unlike alot of other places

 

[ayo23]

Chip - WiiKey

Experience - last time i soldered was back in gr. 11 and 12... i'm almost finished 4th year in uni so... ya... but i took out some old computer parts and soldered a bunch of wires to get back into it.

Difficulties - I died at points 3,4,5... my hands were so shaky and it wasn't cuz i was scared... my hands just shake too much. lol. i kept bridging those points but cleaned it up with patience.

Tips - don't rush...

Breaks - hmm.... nothing. maybe just those stupid white stickers. i didn't peel them off cleanly. but ya... seems to be working fine. wiikey config disc worked. tried a call of duty 3 iso and it got an error on 6x but worked perfectly on 3x. might be the media i'm using. TDK...some...type... there's no label on them. i think they're printable discs. i burned at 4x using imgburn.

 

[Hogmeister]

Soldering experience: soldered off and on since i was a pre-teen kid. installed a few modchips in my day, repaired an xbox that was destroyed during a modchip install

The hardest part: had wire #4 fall off the wii dvd drive after soldering it, and had to get my clunky soldering iron w/ my shaky hands (yay caffeine) in between the other two wires.

Tips nobody told you: it's easier to remove the ribbon for the dvd drive than people make it out to be

uhhhh also, take your time

Did you break or forget anything? ended up having 2 pads fall off the wiikey because i'm a tard. also there was literally a thousandth of an inch piece of unmelted solder between the pad for wire #2 and the cap there right beside it causing problems after install.. had to take a microscope and some fun tools to get it out. other than that all went well

i'm a tard but it really wasn't as hard as most people made it out to seem, i practiced soldering on 2 or 3 small pads on an ISA soundboard from yesteryear i had laying around in teh closet and once i took the wii apart i realized that the pads were actually bigger than the soundboard, so it was all gravy

 

[Smack]

Chip - Chiip

Soldering experience: - a high school electronics class 10 years ago and lots of practice on an old video card while I waited for my parts.

The hardest part: - Not having proper wire strippers so some of my 30AWG wire ends snapped off. I resorted to melting the plastic, re soldering and all was well.

Tips nobody told you: - Not much as this forum has provided me with all the info I needed to get this done. Patience is key while soldering to the Wii board though.

Did you break or forget anything? - In the mess of taking this thing apart I have lost rubber foot and some of the white screw covers. Oh well. That is me being very disorganized.

 

[gloop]

Chip - Wiikey

Soldering experience: - Built a few radio's.

The hardest part: - OMG! What a little points! Glad I had good wires...

Tips nobody told you: - Well, we all know the story about the flat dvd cable...

Did you break or forget anything? - Nope, nothing at all.

And I want to thank Warm Wooly Sheep for the tip how to unplug the DVD-cable, and andreq for the clear pics from his installed Wiikey.

 

[mustnap]

Chip - Wiikey

Soldering experience: - have not done any soldering jobs after middle school (which was 8-9 years ago)

The hardest part: - the wire was really thin, and keeping the small points separated which was a bit hard.


Tips nobody told you: - i need to have a tweezer/magnetized screwdriver to put the screw of the dvd drive back into its place.

Did you break or forget anything? - when thought i'm done soldering every points, a wire was disconnected from both of the wiikey and the points on my Wii. I had to strip a new wire and solder it again.

All in all, i think it was worth all the effort after i'm done doing it and play some backups game.. =)

 

[aross6]

Chip - Wiikey

Soldering experience: - Read all the forums on soldering, watched the videos, practiced on an old 56K Dial-Up Modem... points were comparable to that on the Wii

The hardest part: - Getting the power cable back into the DVD drive... it was a pain!

Tips nobody told you: - It makes the job alot easier than people describe if you cut small strips of electrical tape and use them to isolate the points when working on the Wii DVD board. Also, there's no need to put solder on the Wii DVD board, just make sure you don't lift a pad.

Did you break or forget anything? - Nope, it was pretty straightforward, but it took me 2 hours (only because I told myself I was gonna be totally patient and take my time).

 

[geekrobot]

Chip : wiiKey

Soldering experience: soldered pickups in my guitar once before, but none wotsoever in electronics\pcbs or consoles.

The hardest part: I used an install from a user on one of these forums that's kinda a hybrid quickSolder \ wired method which involves aligning the wiiKey and the drive solder points as per quickSolder method and using small cuts of wire between the pads of the chip and the drive board. Check the tutorial here; my thanks to m37R01D for putting up such an awesome tutorial on his superclean method:
http://www.ps2-scene.org/m37r01d/Wiikey%20review.html
http://www.ps2-scene.org/m37r01d/Wiikey%20review.html

I can't imagine doing the quicksolder method, but straight-up wired installation with the chip taped down away from the points would've been easier, but not as clean as wot i ended up with. Hardest part for me, using the method i used, was making sure both the dvd drive pads and the chip ones were well soldered to small cuts of wire i used.

Tips nobody told you: Common sense, but use a magnifying glass on this install. For you first-time solderers, if you haven't seen the wiiKey or the drive points, they are tinier than you could ever imagine, so be sure to grab some .22 solder and 30 awg wire as all the guides say. If you want the easiest install method, go with the chip separated from the points and use small lengths of wire; the tiny standing-wire/quicksolder method is the best of both worlds, but is certainly not the easiest install.

Did you break or forget anything? Nope! So far, so good. I love the wiiKey and have a hard time believing there could be a better chip out there, but the installation did take me close to two hours as a sophomore solderer working on terrifyingly small solder points.

Completely worth every cent and second thus far, though.

 

[z0ner]

Chip - WiiKey

Soldering experience: - Used to race R/C about 8 years ago and did lots of soldering. MUCH thicker solder and wire.

The hardest part: - Being a jackass and not using any flux. I'm sure that would've made my life a hell of a lot easier. The tinning went fairly easy (as it should), and wiring to the WiiKey wasn't too horrible. If you're not used to it, nothing can prepare you for the ridiculously tiny surface that is the DVD-ROM.

Tips nobody told you: - The best tips have already been mentioned. THERE IS NO NEED for removing the DVD cables. It was a tight side-by-side, but I was able to lay drive right next to the Wii. Tinning the wire is of course a given.

Did you break or forget anything? - Yes and no. I lifted the pad on the DVD that went to #5 on the WiiKey, and was happy that the Wii still worked. If I would have bricked it I probably would have called in a pro. If you think soldering to a tiny ass pad on the DVD is bad, try soldering directly to one of the Panny's legs. That took some time, but I finally got it done. The only screws that are back in are two that hold the drive in and one that holds the case battery. Other than that my Wii is flapping in the wind until I burn a few more backups. I have no clue on which screws go where. Didn't label them

 

[Fatal]

Chip: Chiip / Wiip

Soldering experience: Not too much. About 3 projects worth.

The hardest part: Stripping the wire. I HATE stripping wire.

Tips nobody told you: The soldering isn't actually as hard as people make it seem.

Did you break or forget anything?: Nope, everything went by smoothly. I actually like my Wii better with the serial port on it.

Other notes: Practice on some old junk first. Then when you are ready, do the soldering when you are relaxed. If you are relaxed and concentrate it's really easy.

 

[wrxtacy]

Chip: Wiikey

Soldering Experience: i was a electronics major, but that was a while ago so i practiced on an old modem before

Hardest part: i accidentally unsoldered a solder pad on the wiikey and had to solder to the leg on the chip

Tips nobody told you: reading through everyones post and reading the guides it wasn't too bad

Did you break or forget anything: i got it all soldered on and put it back together and turned it on and it flashed and turned off. i thought great all that work for nothing. but i opened it back up and reseated the ribbon cable on the dvd and now everything works great.

Just take your time and the soldering is not that bad. its been a long time for me and i still got it. and now it works great!!!

 

[GamerzInc]

Chip: Wiikey

Soldering Experience: Installed every gamecube chip this past generation.

Hardest Part: Getting the ribbon cable back in and getting the wires to stick to the points on the Wii, other than that, smooth sailing.

Tips nobody told you: Luckily the little nut that keeps the battery in place stayed with the battery.

Did you break off or forget anything: One of the screws that keeps the dvd drive down was missing when I opened the Wii.

It's extremely easy I think for those with experience. As stated many times before: use small wire, a nifty iron, and take your time.

 

[alucard77]

Soldering experience: Never soldered before this install. I practiced and practiced. Now I can solder to legs. Thankfully I didn't have to solder to any legs for this install.

The hardest part: Trying to keep my eyes focused during install. After a while of looking at those small points they go all crazy.

Tips nobody told you: That putting the Wii back together would be a pain because of the little black plastic screen that goes on the underside of the Wii. I couldn't figure it out, so I just left it out. I don't think it has a purpose besides to at max keep dust out. But I have the Wii standing anyway, so it should be fine.

There were excellent tips given here though: for instance, print out the how to take your Wii apart instructions and taping your screws to the picture so you know where they should go.

Did you break or forget anything?: Nope, all went fine.

 

[Lazycus]

Chip: - WiiKey on D2B

Soldering experience: - Years, but the last console work was putting a Viper GC in a GameCube. Never anything this small.

The hardest part: - It took forever to remove my screw on the battery cover. A frustrating start but happy that was the hardest part.

Tips nobody told you: - I've seen it a few places but the best placement I think for the WiiKey for a wired install is in the plastic rectangle right above GC controller ports 2 and 3. Take your time. Verify all connections with a multimeter after soldering and after you place the chip in it's final spot. Print off a disassembly tutorial and use it to label all your screws. Secure all wires with electrical tape.

Did you break or forget anything?: - Didn't feel like taking pictures but I should have.

 

[genxor]

Chip - Wiikey

Soldering experience: - About 8hrs/day on SMD components for the last couple of months, prior to that very little

The hardest part: - Trying to find a 0.25mm wire stripper in electronics stores around here. I had no luck so I just used my teeth in the end. That, and getting it back together.

Tips nobody told you: - Take photos as you disassemble your Wii so you know which screw goes where. It'll save a lot of time.

Did you break or forget anything? - The little plastic covers that go over some of the screws. They kinda flew away as I removed them.