Official Wiikey Fusion to GC MOD troubleshooting thread!

[Ashen]

So yea.... I've got a HUGELY annoying issue of my own, that I've never encountered before. Nor have I ever heard anyone breath a word of having the same issue. Its not an isolated incident either. I'm having this issue with 3 Gamecubes so far. I think I may have pissed off the Wiikey Gods by using a WODE in the Revolution....

So yea, here it is:

Wiikey Fusion, works fine, boots normal, boots Linux image beautifully. Once Linux image is booted though, one of two things happens:

1. SD card inserted - Wiikey boots to game selection menu, ALL games on my properly formatted with WBFS manager 4.0 show up fine in the list. Controller does not work to move the cursor around AND after maybe like 3 seconds of being in the boot menu the Wiikey automatically boots the first game on the list EVERY time.

2. SD card not inserted - Wiikey boots to loader menu and automatically enters the "config" section of the loader. Once in there, it toggles the first option selected in the menu back and forth.

To me it seems like the controller is "stuck" at some point, but it doesnt make any sense. In the IPL the controller works fine AND when the wiikey boots the game on the card automatically it works fine. I've even tested different games just to see.

So yea... EVERYTHING works fine, except the Wiikey boot menu. Totally *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ed....

The first time I noticed this little issue was when I was putting the revolution together. Naturally I wanted to test the revolution first with a Wiikey, as I'd rather Kill a Wiikey if something was *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ed than my WODE. I didn't think much of it when it happened on the Revolution, I only booted it up once just to test and I figured I may have bumped a button or something, I hooked up my WODE and went on my merry way. WODE works perfectly fine BTW, obviously.

Fast forward a week or so. I decide to re-do a board that I had lined up for a commission for a member here because I wasn't happy with the old board I'd wired a while back. Now I wired up a brand new board that I'd IPL transplanted to. I end up haveing the SAME issue that I had on the revolution and as mentioned above. So yea, after LOTS of *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ing around and killing one Wiikey I figure maybe it has something to do with the IPL transplant.

Today: Cut ANOTHER board. DOL-CPU-20, should work perfectly. Long story short... SAME ISSUE.

I've used multiple different FFC's that I've wired to including one I know works for sure as it was part of the first board I wired for SS's XGC. Also, both of my remaining Wiikeys work PERFECTLY on my test GameCube, which is wired the same way I wire all my boards.

I just don't know... I'm losing my mind trying to figure this out and every idea I have to try and fix it results in the same.... results...

I'm going to cut another board tomorrow DOL-CPU-30 and try again. My supply of GC motherboards is getting down to the nitty gritty though. Hopefully I just got a few bum boards...

 

[hailrazer]

Wiikey Fusion, works fine, boots normal, boots Linux image beautifully. Once Linux image is booted though, one of two things happens:

1. SD card inserted - Wiikey boots to game selection menu, ALL games on my properly formatted with WBFS manager 4.0 show up fine in the list. Controller does not work to move the cursor around AND after maybe like 3 seconds of being in the boot menu the Wiikey automatically boots the first game on the list EVERY time.


I'm going to cut another board tomorrow DOL-CPU-30 and try again.

That's my problem.

I have a DOL-CPU-30. Just boots to the game menu and then no controller. I have three brand new Wiikeys , same thing. I have 4 replacement ffc's, same thing.

I have re-wired it 3 times now, same thing.

I have done the "minimal" cut on the Gamecube board, THAT's IT.

I am going to rip open another Gamecube and try again. Maybe not all Gamecubes are actually compatible ?

 

[Ashen]

That's what I'm thinking Hail. I just got done wiring up another board (DOL-CPU-11), AlmostWTF cut and everything works perfectly. I think its SUPER odd that no one has run into this until now though.

So far I've made 5 portable GameCubes. The two GameCube Fusions used a CPU-20 and CPU-30, The Fusion micro used a CPU-11 and the 2nd Micro used a PAL CPU-10 board. The Revolution used a CPU-30.

I made up 25ish adapters for people over on the GCForever forums and a few people here and there, I've wired up maybe 5 or 6 boards for commissions and I've NEVER seen this issue pop up. for me to have 3 boards all of a sudden that behave this same exact way is just ODD....

 

[hailrazer]

Just rewired it to another virgin DOL-CPU-30.

It works perfectly.

Made the exact same cuts.

It works perfectly.

What are we missing Ashen ??????

 

[Tchay]

That is extremely odd.

And, Ashen, remember how I told you about my gamecube not booting up until I toggled the wiikey switch? I realize that there could be a wiring error, but perhaps its also a revision related thing. It is being used in my Envision and works fine, I just have to hit the switch to turn on the system.

As for you and Hail's problem. I would compare the boards, then use an analyzer on the MX chips of a working board and a non working board (can you still do that Ashen???).

Ashen, have you tried swapping MX chips from a "good" board to one of these funky boards??? See if it makes a difference. Then we'll slowly narrow down the differences in the motherboard.

It doesn't sound like wiring is the issue. And since hail got his wiikey to work on another board, then we know its NOT the wiikeys that are faulty. Its a revision issue (assuming no human error has happened with the wiring, which I doubt).

 

[Ashen]

What are we missing Ashen ??????

I dunno man, I'm glad you got yours working though. At least now we know we may have more board incompatibility issues that we previously thought. I'll investigate the matter further in the future, right now I have a bunch of board commission work and possibly a full portable commission lined up. So I need to focus on that stuff, plus the holidays and all that jazz are keeping me busy atm. Might be a month or more till I get to look into it any further.

Min cut though? Trim that board! Tiny(ish) is in.

remember how I told you about my gamecube not booting up until I toggled the wiikey switch? I realize that there could be a wiring error, but perhaps its also a revision related thing. It is being used in my Envision and works fine, I just have to hit the switch to turn on the system.

I could be wrong, but I doubt its a revision thing. It sounds to me like a dataline is bridged to ground. When you turn the system on, the protection circuit on the MB is preventing it from booting because of the bridge. When you toggle your wiikey switch, you are breaking the connection to ground to whatever is bridged, so then the gamecube turns on. The amazing part is that everything works properly after the fact. Thats just my guess though.

Sadly, after the whole Wii DVD drive/Wiikey discovery was made I sold my logic analyzer. So I no longer have the ability to do that kind of thing.

The MX chips I used for the IPL transplant to the first board I wired were from a board that I knew to work with the wiikey perfectly, so its not that. Something more elusive is at hand. I'm sure if and when I figure out the issue I'll kick myself.

The whole thing might be a moot point though, Foundmy FINALLY shipped out my Flatmii Fusion. So if that chip actually worksand works better than the wiikey does, well then *Can'tSayThisOnTV* the Wiikey.

 

[Tchay]

I can't find any good info on the flatmii. How does it work? Same as the wiikey? You solder up the pins to the DD pins of the mobo and then use ISO from an SD card???

 

[Ashen]

Yea, it takes Micro SD cards and has a screen to select games sorta like the WODE:

 

[ShockSlayer]

Well, if it takes microSD cards, it's compatible with regular SD cards too. Does the WKF adapter fit?

SS

 

[Ashen]

I'm sure it will fit. But its probably not compatible. I'll let everyone know if it works once mine gets here.

 

[ShockSlayer]

If not, it would only be due to a different pinout. They are probably close though, meaning we could probably get it to work just by cutting some traces and rewiring them.

Or if it's ridiculous just straight up wiring a slot would be easier.

SS

 

[Ashen]

Yea, I'm curious to see if the chip has a "GC Loader" like the wiikey and WODE do, or if it only has the little screen to select iso's from. Hopefully it has a loader so we can ditch the little screen.

 

[public-pervert]

I've got a DOL-002, ntsc, made in brazil. I take a little look on the mobo and looks exactly the same as US ones. But it's DOL-CPU-10, it'll not work with wiikey fusion, right?

EDIT: Please take a look in this document and see what they said about Gradient's DOL-002. They said something about a very special IPL version 5.0

http://wiki-scene.com/GameCube

 

[lyberty5]

wired my wiikey fusion today

i only wired the data lines, and then a common ground and 3.3V

The cube boots and shows there is a disk drive, and if i click my NC switch (wii eject) the wiikeys led shines like it does on my wii..
But it has never gone any further, the cube says it can't read the disk...

What should i do, could anyone help?

Also it's worth noting that there are wii games on my sd card... don't know if it has any role...

Thanks guys

 

[Ashen]

Is the Wiikey updated to firmware v1.5? If you haven't updated it, it wont boot unless a SD card is inserted with ONLY the v1.5 update on it. After you update, you can have whatever you like on the SD card.

 

[lyberty5]

it is actually in 1.5.. but thanks for the info..

any other suggestion (don't really want to rewire everything...)

EDIT: i actually uptaded it on my wii first, don't know if that changes anything

 

[harvey263]

Well, I can re-confirm that DOL-CPU-10 is incompatible. I somehow missed the finer points of IPL versions when reading the guide (and still a little confused). After nothing but freeze ups, I eventually found this thread and realized my problem.

I do have another Cube: DOL-101 / DOL-CPU-50. So that makes it NTSC-U v1.1 or v1.2, and compatible right? Thanks

EDIT:
I went ahead and tried, it works great. This is really cool - thanks for the awesome guide, Ashen.

 

[j4yf0x]

Hey there! I know, I'm a little late for this "Wiikey Fusion on the Gamecube" thing, but I just haven't had the time yet - so I hope it'll still be okay to write.

• I'm not really into this IPL/Rev./DOL stuff, but I figured - according to the compatibility list here - since I found "DOL-001(EUR)" on the bottom of my Gamecube case plus the fact, that it's PAL, it's got to be compatible. Is that my first mistake already?

• C, NC and NO is a bit confusing to me, don't know if it's because of the different meanings of "open" translated to German, but: PIN 29 Wiikey Fusion is always connected to GND except for when I press the button? Or the other way round: when I press the button, then there is a connection between PIN 29 Wiikey Fusion and GND and otherwise PIN 29 is just left blank?

• Is there anywhere a list of Wiikey Fusion LED status meanings to be found?

That's it for now, I really would appreciate every hint or advice... Thanks

//EDIT: additional to the second point above, what my problem is: does "normally open" mean "circuit open" (no connection) or "connection open"?

 

[harvey263]

• I'm not really into this IPL/Rev./DOL stuff, but I figured - according to the compatibility list here - since I found "DOL-001(EUR)" on the bottom of my Gamecube case plus the fact, that it's PAL, it's got to be compatible. Is that my first mistake already?

• C, NC and NO is a bit confusing to me, don't know if it's because of the different meanings of "open" translated to German, but: PIN 29 Wiikey Fusion is always connected to GND except for when I press the button? Or the other way round: when I press the button, then there is a connection between PIN 29 Wiikey Fusion and GND and otherwise PIN 29 is just left blank?

• Is there anywhere a list of Wiikey Fusion LED status meanings to be found?

Hey j4yf0x- I was a latecomer too.. maybe this will help.

• No idea whether your GC is compatible, but it has been said that the majority seem to work. See my earlier post - I did run into one of the motherboards identified as not working.

• Pin 29 should be connected to GND with a "normally closed" switch [*google translate="stromlos geschlossen" / "normal angeschlossen" ?]. So, it is always connected to GND unless you are pressing the switch. You can use a 2-pin switch for this and just ignore the 1.9v to common (C) pin as shown in the guide.

• This is how my LED behaves when working correctly:
  Power on the GC and the LED begins flashing a faint blue (barely noticeable).
  Press the switch and the LED flashes bright blue for a second or two. (gc-linux should load)
  Then it will randomly flash bright blue as you are playing a game.
  A red light means something is wired incorrectly. An incompatible GC motherboard will not cause a red light - the LED should act normal, but games won't load.

 

[Ashen]

Heya j4yf0x, you are correct in that all PAL GameCube models are Wiikey Fusion compatible. The IPL revision doesnt matter at all if you have a PAL Cube. You are also correct that pin 29 on the Wiikey must always be connected to ground (normally closed or circuit closed). The only time you want to break this connection is when you initially boot up the GameCube and press the button to load the linux based bootloader.

I don't know of any LED error list that exists for the Wiikey Fusion. The Wiikey team is pretty secretive about the internal workings of the chip. Pretty much what you want to see is:

When you boot the GameCube = Very faint continuous flashing of the blue LED. You need to look real close to see it.
Pin 29 button pressed to load the bootloader = Bright blue flicker of the blue LED.
Game running = continuous flickering of blue LED indicating "disc loading"

Red LED flicker or continuously on is generally bad and usually means there is something misconnected or connected wrong. The red LED does sometimes flicker if there is no SD card inserted though too.

EDIT: Harvey beat me to it. ;D