Hacking Wiikey, Installed and ready

[andreq]

Hi,

I just received my Wiikey yesterday and installed it

comment are welcome

 

[arthurkok2]

ncie job

thx for the pics.

 

[ndsbob]

very good pictures - thank you

 

[thieves like us]

not bad for the materials that you used, however this is exactly why you should use the right materials: a good, quality solder and kynar wire.
there's a ton of flux residue on your solder points (since you weren't using the quick solder points, it was unnecessary to completely fill those two holes with solder).
and because you used 24-28awg wire with plastic insulation instead of 30awg kynar wire wrapping wire, the heat from your soldering iron shrank the insulation leaving a lot more of the wire exposed than necessary (which can result in a short occurring between one or more of the other wires).

 

[andreq]

not bad for the materials that you used, however this is exactly why you should use the right materials: a good, quality solder and kynar wire.
there's a ton of flux residue on your solder points (since you weren't using the quick solder points, it was unnecessary to completely fill those two holes with solder).
and because you used 24-28awg wire with plastic insulation instead of 30awg kynar wire wrapping wire, the heat from your soldering iron shrank the insulation leaving a lot more of the wire exposed than necessary (which can result in a short occurring between one or more of the other wires).

actualy... I used crapy Kynar wire from ebay (30 awg)... It was a god damn pain to strip, even with 3 kind of exacto knife. The insulation didn't melt.. I did strip that much as I find it easier like this. I eventualy placed the wire so the exposed metal wouldn't short anything.

As for the flux. I'm using a 3 yrs old radio shack $9.99 15 watt iron and last week I used it to do some hole in a plastic aquarium cover.... lets say the tip is not in great shape

.

I did put a bit too much solder in one of the Wiikey hole, but anyway it should not cause any problem... I wasn't aming at a total clean install anyway.

I wouldn't recomend this setup for a soldering newb... but it work well for me and took about 5 min

(removing the 40+ min trying to strip 20 peices of kynar wire to finaly have 6 "good" peices)

 

[thieves like us]

I've been hearing a lot about people purchasing sub-standard kynar wire off of ebay. just don't do it people!
good quality wire can be purchased from just about any hobbiest electronics shop or radioshack (just search on the word "kynar").
the beauty of the kynar covering is that it doesn't shrink or melt from heat and is pretty darn otherwise resilient, which is probably why you had a hard time stripping it with an x-acto knife (it can be done that way, but I wouldn't recommend it as you're more likely to slice open a finger than strip the wire (I've done this before and had to make a trip to the hospital for 4 stitches after I almost sliced the end of a finger off

).

your best bet is to use a pair of wire strippers (a tool made specifically for this task) but make sure that you don't cut into the wire itself under the cover (not many wire stripper have a setting for 30awg), otherwise you will weaken the wire which can cause the wire to break (at the point where it was cut) if you bend it too much.

 

[andreq]

Actualy I got a pretty neet "all awg" wire stripper but I couldn't get it to not cut and strip this cheap *** kynar.

But I do recommend the Kynar from radioshack. I used this for my ps2 mods and it was like 1000% better then this one. I still have some left...forgoten at my parent place...

Anyway the exacto method worked great on good kynar (last year)... but this one is sh**

 

[lenselijer]

My 3rd wiikey quicksolder install. First tin both the points on the chip and the wii board, then lay it over the points, tape it down, solder the 2 big points, take off the tape and solder the remaining 4 points. works perfect

 

[frendly5]

My 3rd wiikey quicksolder install. First tin both the points on the chip and the wii board, then lay it over the points, tape it down, solder the 2 big points, take off the tape and solder the remaining 4 points. works perfect

When soldering the 4 smaller points where is your soldering iron tip placed(point on board or on the wiikey)?

 

[lenselijer]

first on the wiikey and then i move the solder to the board until it sticks.

 

[joedodgy]

comment are welcome

umm.. its not the worst i have seen - but maybe considering getting a new iron.. i'm impressed you could do it with a $10 one, but I would discourage people from trying it with crappy equipment.. you just make it hard for yourself