Wii modding - new Wii's cannot be modded.

[spystyle]

Hello from Maine,

A while back I modded 3 Wii systems, it was pretty easy.

So yesterday I picked up a Wii because I had a leftover modchip (WiiKey). I took the system home and disassembled it, ready to perform the surgery, when to my surprise I saw the guts were different!

Yikes!

So I scoured the 'net until I found the right info, here is the skinny. At the time of this writing there are 3 versions of the Wii:

Version A DVD chip is marked "D2A" or "DMS". These are very easy to mod.

Version B DVD chip is marked "D2B". These can be modded but are much more difficult than the above.

Version C DVD chip is marked "D2C" and can not be modded at the time of this writing.

Here is the good news: Each Wii box and Wii console has the unit's serial number on it, so you can discover what the Wii version is without having to bring it home and disassemble it! Here is the chart:

North American Consoles (USA, Canada, and Mexico) have 3 prefixes LU1, LU3 and LU5. LU1 production seems to have stopped LU3s are still produced in small quantities and LU5s seem to provide most North American production.

LU1
LU10000xxxx - LU10580xxxx D2A/DMS/D2B without cut pins
LU10580xxxx - LU10613xxxx (gamble) Could have D2B or could have D2C
LU10613xxxx - [And Higher] Have D2C Chips

LU3
LU30000xxxx - LU31539xxxx D2A/DMS/D2B without cut pins
LU31539xxxx - LU31546xxxx (gamble) Could be safe could have cut pins
LU31546xxxx - LU31867xxxx Have D2B Chips with Cut pins
LU31867xxxx - LU31874xxxx (gamble) Could have D2B with cut pins or could have D2C
LU31874xxxx - [And Higher] Have D2C Chips

LU5
LU50000xxxx - LU51522xxxx D2A/DMS/D2B without cut pins
LU51522xxxx - LU51634xxxx (gamble) Could be safe could have cut pins
LU51634xxxx - LU52386xxxx Have D2B Chips with Cut pins
LU52386xxxx - LU52390xxxx (gamble) Could have D2B with cut pins or could have D2C
LU52390xxxx - [And Higher] Have D2C Chips

So I had this un-moddable Wii and was all upset. I printed out the above chart and put it in my pocket. I returned the "bad" Wii and found a "good" used Wii at a video game store. I simply carried that chart around with me until I found a winner.

Now I have a modded Wii and my daughter is so happy, but I hope that stupid remote doesn't go flying and knock me in the head.



Cheers,
Craig



WiiKey purchase:

http://tinyurl.com/2xrkol
http://tinyurl.com/26x4zw


Wii modding tutorials (excellent, with pictures, free registration required):
http://tinyurl.com/yrrn97





P.S. This thread is not to discuss weather or not you approve of modchips, it's about me giving other like minded modders a heads up.

[ChadTower]

Wow that's a craptactular soldering job.  That thing is going to come off the first time that person moves the console.

[spystyle]

Agreed, but it's incomplete. Two points still are not soldered. Also he used uninsulated wires.

I like the picture because it show the modchip and the "A" chipset.

[CheffoJeffo]

Courtesy link to previous (now butchered) thread on same subject:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=71557.0

spystyle -- If you want to selectively exclude opinions other than yours, perhaps you can apply for a position with the post police.    Until then, unless people break the rules, I think you have to accept that other people will think differently and may post in your precious threads.

Let's let the moderators do the moderating, shall we ?

EDIT: Might want to lock this now before anybody else chimes in ...

EDIT2: Too late.

[patrickl]

Why is this so important that you need to start another thread?

[spystyle]

Because I didn't like how the other one went South.

Please, let's try to focus and stay on topic.

This thread is a head's up for Wii modders.

All other content is off topic.

 

[hypernova]

I figured it would be common knowledge that new versions of any consoles eventually come out that are initially incapable of being modded.

[spystyle]

Yup, logically they would take steps to thwart modding, but it still warrants a detailed head's up.

[versapak]

Yup, logically they would take steps to thwart modding, but it still warrants a detailed head's up.

Exactly.

Thanks for the heads up.

Tis a bummer that I apparently waited to long to replace my broken Wii.


I highly doubt I'll be able to find one that can be modded in my area. Guess my wiikey will just sit there as decoration.

[spystyle]

Hopefully you can find a used one somewhere, using the serial number chart in the first post you can identity the "good ones" pretty easily.

Or wait for them to figure the C version out. When my daughter first got a PSP it was the "wrong version", but a couple months later there was a fix.

Good luck!
Craig

[Hoopz]

Ahigh is that you?   

 

[Frosty]

So, what kind of homebrew will that new modded Wii be running?

[Singapura]

There's no such thing as an unmoddable Wii. http://www.wiiloaded.com/wii-news-Modding-the-Unmoddable-Wii-a-10173

[pointdablame]

There's no such thing as an unmoddable Wii. http://www.wiiloaded.com/wii-news-Modding-the-Unmoddable-Wii-a-10173

That is the second version of the system, there is now a third.  The third IS currently unmoddable.

[ChadTower]

Key being currently, of course... they'll break that one.  They all get broken eventually and the Wii will be quick.  I think the industry learned a serious lesson from the "unbreakable" Xbox.  They hired some of the best security experts out there to design that scheme and one guy broke it in his spare time.

Of course, that one guy was an MIT doctoral candidate, but hey...   

[spystyle]

It's true, it seems that both "teams" are equally smart.

[ChadTower]

It's true, it seems that both "teams" are equally smart.

It's not even close.  You've got a handful of experts on the manufacturer's side and you've got every other expert in the world on the hackers' side.  Manufacturers have no chance of winning that battle and sooner or later they're going to find a different method than brute force security.

[spystyle]

Agreed, but I wrote "equally smart" not "equally numbered"

It's a good point though, they are outnumbered :)

[northerngames]

are the solder points missing now?

or has the whole area been removed and now a blank board in that area?

[spystyle]

http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?p=592113#post592113

Some solder points are missing, and the chip which the solder points lead to is completely different inside.

Each solder point leads to a "leg" on the chip. So if they simply removed the solder points we could simply solder directly to the "legs"

But this chip is completely different, though it looks the same. Before anyone can mod the "C version" they will have to discover the pinout of that chip and wire the WiiKey accordingly.

That chip is h3ll small! Soldering to a leg is nearly impossible for all but the elite. But I've read about a trick to solder tiny tiny things:

Using a regular soldering iron, and trying to solder to a tiny tiny leg without bridging to the surrounding legs, is super difficult. A small glob of solder would bridge 3 legs and cause the system to fail. But what I read about was simple and smart:

Solder a tiny wire to the tiny leg, the solder glob will probably bridge 3 legs. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to hold a "wick" - it's made of braided copper, it sucks up solder when heated. Heat the wick with the soldering iron, hold the wick to the glob, it will suck up all the solder - but it will not suck up the solder that is connecting the tiny wire to the tiny leg because the wire is blocking the wick.

That's how you do "nano soldering" with a standard soldering iron!

I wish I could find the link to that tutorial...

[ChadTower]

Something that small would be done with brushed on paste and an SMD reflow iron.

[SNAAKE]

Ive soldered directly on the legs before..its not hard at all..all you do is give it a "touch" and use the thinest tip. and I used masking tape the cover the area so I dont mess anything up. I had a guy bring me 3 wiis to fix..apprently he messed up THREE times and realized he simply cant do this...

[spystyle]

Something that small would be done with brushed on paste and an SMD reflow iron.

Truly, but using the method I wrote about, you can solder tiny things with a $10 iron.

I think the high end irons go for about $200.

Try what I wrote, you'll say "duh" I should have thought of that!

That's what I said when I read it.

Still trying to re-find that tutorial....The Google Gods are not smiling on me this morning....

Ive soldered directly on the legs before..its not hard at all..all you do is give it a "touch" and use the thinest tip. and I used masking tape the cover the area so I dont mess anything up. I had a guy bring me 3 wiis to fix..apprently he messed up THREE times and realized he simply cant do this...

Groovy, you are a pro, check your mailbox in a week, I've elected you to mod my PS2!

As for that guy who messed up three times -

I had a catastrophic failure myself, I couldn't figure out why solder points were falling off the board and nothing was working. What I later discovered is that you can not use an extension cord with a 15 watt soldering iron - it won't get hot enough to work properly. That guy was probably using an extension cord on a 15 watt soldering iron.

Cheers,
Craig

[ChadTower]

I have tried that, actually... wouldn't want to do it on anything I couldn't afford to throw in the trash.

[Green Giant]

Ive soldered directly on the legs before..its not hard at all..all you do is give it a "touch" and use the thinest tip. and I used masking tape the cover the area so I dont mess anything up. I had a guy bring me 3 wiis to fix..apprently he messed up THREE times and realized he simply cant do this...

I had to do the same thing on mine when I broke off one of the solder pads.  I have to disagree with you in that it wasn't that easy.  I guess if you have really steady hands it is.  I managed to get a single strand from a stranded wire on there, and then I coated the thing with a hot glue gun.  Stuff works great and there is no change of bridging or losing the tiny connection.  If you have a razor blade on hand, you can run it between the legs to ensure no bridging occured and you are good to go.

As for unmoddable, I am sure someone will make something similar to the solder free dms4 snap on bios chip to attach to the legs.  This won't last.  If they really want to discourage modding, they should friction weld the case together, that would suck for modding.

[spystyle]

...If they really want to discourage modding, they should friction weld the case together, that would suck for modding.

They could release a console which the entire board is dipped in molten plastic, the hard "carbon-fiber" type. But then they themselves wouldn't be able to repair a system.

It would be a trade-off and determined hackers would probably made a "boot-disk" style mod for it.

I have tried that, actually... wouldn't want to do it on anything I couldn't afford to throw in the trash.

You didn't like it? I thought it was so cool... It seems flawless.

[ChadTower]

Have you actually tried it, though?  It sounds great conceptually... it doesn't really account for the fact that solder wicks to heat, and so that solder that you say is "blocked by the tiny wire" is just going to wick around it and up to the heat source. 

[shardian]

Have you actually tried it, though?  It sounds great conceptually... it doesn't really account for the fact that solder wicks to heat, and so that solder that you say is "blocked by the tiny wire" is just going to wick around it and up to the heat source. 

I think the basic theory is that you pull up the wick before that last bit is sucked up. It seems you would end up with a crappy joint alot of the time though.

[ChadTower]

When you're talking about one strand of a stranded wire, with no mechanical connection, pretty much any joint is going to be crappy.

[spystyle]

Have you actually tried it, though?  It sounds great conceptually... it doesn't really account for the fact that solder wicks to heat, and so that solder that you say is "blocked by the tiny wire" is just going to wick around it and up to the heat source. 

Hey I found that tutorial I based my theory on:
http://members.lycos.nl/anthonyvh/index.php?page=smd

and no, I have not yet tried it but I'm convinced it will work, I think if the wick is applied gently and quickly, like a light touch, it will not suck the solder out from under the wire.

When you're talking about one strand of a stranded wire, with no mechanical connection, pretty much any joint is going to be crappy.

I use solid wire

..It seems you would end up with a crappy joint alot of the time though.

Maybe... Still, a "crappy" joint with hot glue on it would suffice...

I don't know, I'm not EE and I don't feel like spending $200 on soldering equipment. I will take "good enough" for $10 instead.

Cheers,
Craig
 

[ChadTower]

You can BYO SMD hot air reflow iron for about $20 in parts that reportedly works very, very well.  Use a single handed desoldering iron with the red bulb, take the bulb off, and put a cheap aquarium air compressor to route air through the hollow iron.

[spystyle]

http://tinyurl.com/hfzj3

Interesting!

[ChadTower]

The ones I've seen take the red bulb off entirely but that's the same concept.  Haven't tried it myself.

[spystyle]

I was thinking the same thing, why not remove the bulb? Also, couldn't they have done the tip in a cooler way?

But it's a start.

I guess for that to apply to soldering tiny wires to a tiny chip leg - a person would tin the tiny wire, flux the tiny leg, then place the wire on the leg and blow hot air onto it to bond them. I'll have to try that.

Cheers,
Craig

[ChadTower]

They'd use solder paste instead, most likely.

[Green Giant]

When you're talking about one strand of a stranded wire, with no mechanical connection, pretty much any joint is going to be crappy.

I use solid wire

I am talking about connecting to the tiny legs off the chip on the board.  I don't have solid wire that small, what gauge do you use?  Hell, I could barely distinguish between the legs with my eyes.

As for the single strand on there, the connection works great.  All the hot glue encases it in plastic making it shock proof.  I have moved the thing several times in whatever bag I have laying around, and still works great.

[spystyle]

I have crazy small wire!

http://tinyurl.com/288re3

30 gauge is so very small, you have to see it to believe it.

You could solder one to each leg very easily with this crazy stuff.

Cheers,
Craig

[SNAAKE]

^ thats what you are supposed to use for mods. it gets hotter than standard wire too..maybe because its so thin.

[abrannan]

I am talking about connecting to the tiny legs off the chip on the board.  I don't have solid wire that small, what gauge do you use?  Hell, I could barely distinguish between the legs with my eyes.

Radio Shack wrapping wire, 30 guage Kynar will run you under $3 for a spool.

Forget soldering to the pins, the D2B chips with the cut pins are a beast to Mod.  You have to file (or very carefully dremel) away the chip casing, and solder to the traces inside the chip itself.  I was able to do it using the above mentioned wire, and a 15-watt iron from RS.  No reflow iron, etc.

[spystyle]

IIR RS 30 gauge is uninsulated