Let's talk about Wii trimming

[Shank]

I've looked all over the stickies, forums, and Internet for info on trimming the Wii for months. I have fried almost 10 boards, most I don't even know why. There is so much on the gamrcube, but almost nothing on the Wii. What little there is on the wii is so scattared and difficuilt to piece together. Can we build up a database? If any of you have progress, information, pictures, information, or guides, or links let's get it all in one place. There was a trimming thread before, but it died down. I'm deleting new here, but can we make ano official wii trimming and board info thread?

 

[Bush]

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9390&start=10
Trimmed board seen in this thread

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9170&start=10
Wii board info

http://imgur.com/8LY8gVR
http://i.imgur.com/9kOSkww.jpg
I trimmed this board and it worked

That is the all the info I could really find when I was working on my portable. I trimmed it, but just the outer shielding. Anything more killed my boards and there were too many layers of traces that could be causing problems to warrant further effort in my project.

I also made a diagram for the gamecube controller inputs, in case anyone feels like finding these points elsewhere on the board: http://i.imgur.com/W7kG0hh.png

Hope that helps a little.

 

[Shank]

http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=9390&start=10
Trimmed board seen in this thread

Great info. Thanks Bush! How was ashen able to cut that board so much without it shorting? every time i cut it that much it just decides to inexplicably stop working.

Edit: Also, I would love to dump the album of my findings, but I don't know where I found most of them, and cannot cite the source. Should I dump them or not?

 

[orangeziggy84]

Here's some stuff I found

http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=11585&start=20
http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=11585&start=30

 

[Blargaman91]

I feel that much sanding and testing of individual Wii revisions is necessary to move forward. Often you cannot pinpoint a problem because lots of the Wii's hidden layers are still unclear, and different revisions have different layouts and layers.

 

[Shank]

As I said before, a local pawn shop sells working wiis for $15 each. I would be willing to purchase and ship a few and even consider subsidizing part of the cost if it would be beneficial to the community

 

[watsug]

Someone in the UK should buy this lot and sell a few to mee
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390936587865

 

[Shank]

I have bought a few more wiis and took High Resolution photos of them, as my scanner has a fixed focal point, and the images were blurry. I have included front and back of 3 separate uncut board revisions, and front/backs of all my cut boards that no longer work, in case they are helpful. Here is a link to the album. I can post the photos directly here if needed. WARNING: HI RESOLUTION. BRACE YOUR ISP's ANUS
http://imgur.com/a/npLbg

 

[DuHasst0]

If you going to start that, what we need are scans of the boards with serial numbers, model revision, all components stripped, then sanded to the hidden layers, then go from there. Although, if your willing to pick some more up I would be interested in a few and see what we can come up with.

There are several revisions of the board I think quite a few more than the cube.

 

[Bush]

I've got 2 dead boards I'm willing to sand/donate to this cause. That being said, I hope you understand what a momentous undertaking this is. The GC is bad enough; the Wii has too many layers for this to be an easy project.

Given that, it would be wonderful to be able to trim more than just the ground shielding. If we could get Zenloc and Ashen in here I'm sure they could shed some light on the subject. The key issue here are the layers and traces. While the main power line takes ~12v, all it really does is drop that down to 5v, 3.3v, and the like. 12v isn't used to power anything on the board to my knowledge. We really need to find where this line diverges into the regulators, and map out the power traces (with respective voltages) to see where it is risky to trim. The common issue with trimming seems to be accidentally bridging layers of traces; this doesn't happen with the shielding, as it has only one layer on each side. If we could visually see where power is being distributed, we could probably remove some components from certain areas where we don't need power to flow (for instance, the USB ports, AV out circuit, etc. where we can use other points on the board) to make it easier to trim these areas by lowering the amount of traces that can be bridged.

Anyone have a belt sander and a scanner that wants to mess with my dead boards?

 

[DuHasst0]

No belt sander but I feel I have the patience to do this by hand. I don't have access to a scanner but, I should be able to get some good shots, if not, then I'm getting some transparency paper and use my gfs moms scanner.

 

[Shank]

Agreed Bush. Those are some good points, most of which I can confirm from experience and busted boards. You are implying that we could remove unnecessary parts to cut connections before they reach potentially problematic areas, correct?

I don't think anything actually uses the 12v line either. ShockSlayer made some progress with the wii's regulator(s) a while back. I have not done any work personally on the regulators. I know my way around the motherboard, though.

In my album, I have several cut up boards that no longer work. I will gladly hand all of those over to anyone is willing to go through the process of donating their bodies to science.

Blargaman and I have been discussing and trial-and-error-ing trimming, and have found that the corner by the power button is VERY prone to shorting for unknown reasons, and trimming it down can remove the aforementioned shorts. The hardest part is that it is so difficult to track shorts, as there are so many undocumented, unknown, and mysterious places they could be. Different revisions of boards also have different levels of trace visibility. The wii has so much untapped potential, so Im willing to do whatever I can to help the cause

 

[Blargaman91]

I've made this cut on a Rev C CPU 40 Wii with success so far:

No rewiring was required until a section near the wifi module was cut. That would be right about where the red circle is:

A few things happened there: A 3.3v trace, a 12v trace, and a voltage I'm not sure about that were going to the front were cut off. The 12v hardly matters because I can't find anything using it. The 3.3v trace, however, seems to have provided power to the bluetooth module and MX chip as well as various smaller things like the power button. Reconnecting the both bluetooth module and MX chip to 3.3v allowed the board to come on again.
The voltage I'm not sure about is used by the disc drive LED. It is also present in the power plug going to the disc drive.

The 3.3v I'm referring to, by the way, is the 3.3v line that is on when the console is off but plugged in.

 

[Diminuendo]

Blarg, this stuff is like boardporn

 

[Shank]

Very good finds Blarg! I may have to try this rewiring method to see if I can get any of my boards working. I have a few questions:
How do you know its a revision C board?
How in gods name were you able to figure out what severed?
Where is that one wire that goes behind the board connect to? (picture please? )
How are you able to tell that it is actually fully functional?
Do you think the 12V line goes to the wifi module or components on the CD drive?

 

[Blargaman91]

I'll take pictures as soon as I can, but to answer the questions:
-It's a rev C because it said so, before I cut that part off.
-I found what was severed by literally looking at the hidden layers from the side. When the board is sanded down to absolute smoothness, the hidden layers are distinctly visible where they were cut and you can even poke at them with a meter to see what they're connected to.
-The red wire going underneath the board is connected to a small trace that delivers power to the bluetooth module.
-The only thing I've done to test functionality is access the home menu. I'm going to assume everything else still works because the SD, GameCube, DVD, USB, etc. data lines are still intact, haven't been messed with.
-I do believe there's 12v present in the DVD power plug. I don't know what it's used for. Not the wifi module, though.

Edit: Here's that photo.

 

[Bush]

Jesus man, this is fantastic! I've got a board that powers on, but has a corrupted sysmenu. I might try your cut out and see if I can't get some LEDs to come on.

 

[Blargaman91]

I've got a board that powers on, but has a corrupted sysmenu.

What does a corrupt system menu look like/come from? I've never experienced that.

Just shaved off a little more in the front and in the back.

One thing I didn't notice is that in the previous cut, in my post above, 5v was also cut from the DVD power plug. That must be rewired for the DVD drive to function.

By now the cut is just uncomfortably close to many vital components, so I guess the next thing to do is start really relocating. The first thing to go should be the bluetooth module, way out on the edge of the board. I'll see how well I can rewire it.

The biggest cut in size will probably come from removing all those regulators and using our own, which I believe has been done before. Hidden layer info is still crucial though, and my cut on this Rev C certainly doesn't apply to many other board revisions.

 

[Shank]

I've got a board that powers on, but has a corrupted sysmenu.

What does a corrupt system menu look like/come from? I've never experienced that.

Just shaved off a little more in the front and in the back.

By now the cut is just uncomfortably close to many vital components, so I guess the next thing to do is start really relocating. The first thing to go should be the bluetooth module, way out on the edge of the board. I'll see how well I can rewire it.

The biggest cut in size will probably come from removing all those regulators and using our own, which I believe has been done before. Hidden layer info is still crucial though, and my cut on this Rev C certainly doesn't apply to many other board revisions.

Blarg I... uh... wow... This is amazing! You are putting your Dremel where you mouth is, and putting us all to shame. Keep em coming, man!

 

[Bush]

I've got a Rev C/CPU-20. I might try to trim just the bottom ground, as well as the USB/AV areas. Any trouble on that side?