Wii D2C, Modding your D2C Drive

[Zetr0]

Disclamer

The information here is for information purposes alone, this allows you to play your LEGAL backup of software and of course home brew.


Now that craps outa the way, lets talk Wii Hackery, there are plenty of options on the market today, from chips to clips but lets take a look at what happens when all thats left is the hard mod.

so sit back tip a glass to my m8 Merlin, and prepare for one of the scariest Horror stories known to hacking....

[Zetr0]

History

It was a rainy dark night.... the wind was howling like a crazed banshee.... Yorkie sat alone.... dimly lit in a pool of light from 3x Doplar magnifying lamp...

slow screeching emanates from the plastic box in his hands... the box known as Nintendo Wii had befallen to him that Christmas... and it was at this time he was modding it.... for the second time...


(cue clash of thunder and flash of lighting.....)


It would seem that the gods of fate were angry at the Old Skool Hacker, for he had not appeased them with the ritual blood letting ceremony (nicking your fingers open on something)... and with this they punished him accordingly....

As an unknown Yorkie4 placed on the clip on the D2C chip, the wrong kind of crinkle crunch was heard....

.... the Gods had made their dissatisfaction known

as Yorkie4 looked on in horror as the damage unfolded to his eyes....

(cue pan out of room)... as the wind howled in concert to he feelings.... Yorkie4 wept in the soft pool of light from his workstation lamp....... knowing that his Wii D2C chip was cursed by the Gods....

[Zetr0]

The next morning I have my best m8y turn up with a pained look on his face... with out the correct tools my dear friend stood no chance against the Gods of Hackery....

so with me he left the drive and mod chip...

and i am pleased to say.....

IT LIVES!!!!

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So what had the Gods done to Yorkie?

well the clip had crunched two of the legs to oblivion, it was looking hopeless... as Yorkie attempted to remove some of the solder his soldering iron lifted two tracks and made any further attempt perilous.

so .... stay tuned to the next post to find out what i had to do...

[sarek2k]

@Yorkie4 the moral of the story leave it to the professionals like Zetro

@Zetro nice mood setting in the factual story

[Zetr0]

A long time ago.... (last weekend to be exact)

Alas there was no place for me to solder, one of the legs had been completely destroyed and the other was in accessible.. it was in trying to make the second one accessible it too was destroyed...

I was left with no choice.... the Gods of Hackery demanded a sacrifice...

I took out my Dremel and fitted it with a micro grinding head. and slowly took the plastic from the casing of the D2C Chip... slowly exposing the the tracks inside..

the Gods were appeased by this Sacrifice and allowed me to do this un-hindered...

but I knew that next would indeed be one of the greatest Challenges of Soldering...

using Red 30AWG Kaynar wire I repaired what was once made irreparable...


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under maximum magnification

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[Zetr0]

After the Sacrifice

So with the chip and traces repaired, I set onto continuing the mod.... it was tricky, this is the smallest I have soldered to date...

here it is almost complete.... just a few lines left now...
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Here is an over-head shot
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To finish this mod, I cut some small disks of Hot Glue from a stick and use a low heat from my Hot-Air to melt it in place... this adds both structural rigidity to the hack, but also better protects it from any corrosion.. (theres was exposed copper tracks on the chip)

I have to admit, this was a challenge, But I believe that I have picked up some new or atleast improved some skills..

I have continuity tested all the lines and NONE of them are bridged or shorting in anyway... Whooo says I

so yes .... a horror story gone good.....

..... untill..... the next time

[Harrison]

That is some dedication to resurrection! You must have some serious patience to solder all of that lot correctly. Great work!

If I ever complete mess up any electronics I know who I will be turning to.

[Zetr0]

@Harrison

my patience was tested.... on more than one occasion.... one instance that had me cheesed was when i was soldering the final side of the chip with the 5th pin in and then pins 2, 3 and 4 sprang from the chip....

the only thing one can do is stop.... breathe in.... breathe out and start again... preferably with coffee

[Harrison]

I can imagine!

I kind of know that feeling from building PCs and trying to connect all of the internal audio connectors or firewire connectors for a case's front panel. It is very fiddly on Asus boards as the pins are right at the back of the board next to the rear audio outputs, so you can only just get your fingers in there, or some tweezers. So often I finally get all but the final wire connected up, go to push the final one on and 4 of the others pop off again!

[Flushentity]

That is some awesome soldering skills there. I tried to dremel my D2B chip to expose the tracks that nintendo tried to remove, i did the job ok, and could see the tracks, but my solder skills are about as good as stevie wonders. I had to send it off after bridging the contacts to many times. Hats off to you Zetro - Nice modding m8ty

[TheCorfiot]

@Zetro

Seriously impressive soldering skills mate, but also handling the dremmel to the point of not damaging the encased chip contacts, whew...

Doing that to a DIL chip is one thing but that type of package,

Hats off & well done my friend.

TC

[ravepants]

Aaah,

Fine bit of hackery there mate

Now you need to try the new bootmii exploit from team twiizers

all you need is an SD card and bannerbomb, even works with the latest IOS and system 4.0e

Give us a nudge if you want more details.