Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and more

[Razor-keen]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

I've never tried to print anything that thin before. I'm sure u could but smaller traces become more difficult at a diy level. Its a flexible PCB. U can design your ribbon in eagle PCB and print it out on a solid ink printer, then dip it in etchant to develop it. The best material for this is lf9120 1 oz. Cu, 1 mil adhesive, 2 mil kapton. It thick enough to not wrinkle too easily causing problems when printing, and thin enough to feed through the printer.

If you solder a piece of solid wire into a vio, mosfet, or anything you can get to, you can overlay the kaplon and use solder paste to connect your overlay to the board(use soldet paste to keep from desoldering your jumper. You cannot get to anything below after this unless you heat it up to desolder your jumper, and start over with your ribbon/ flexible board) you can bring what you want together to a connector to your new board, or down back into your board through a different jumper.

You will need to anchor the overlay usually using the scew holes and a stand off peg. Getting the tiny jumpers through is the hardest part. Ancor it, then solder paste.Basically u can add your own layer to the board. They are one or two layers as well.

There's an instructable on reverse engineering a circuit board that's really useful for turning your scans into manipulable vector lines, to separate groups of components that you would like to separate and make into a separate pcb. Make sure to color the points for soldering to the original board on the schematics and original pictures of the board with matching color codes. I use the kapton to bring these points together and bring them over to a new board. I've never done anything as complicated as a Wii, so I'm not sure how well it would work...

I can't do much for awhile. I've aI've just purchased a house and will be in the process of moving. I havent had a chance to downloadthe scans you took or even get started yet. My computer is boxed up. Suddenly i wished it was a laptop lol.after that I have to do some studying before I take a test for my masters license. I hope any of this helps.

 

[cheese]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

I continued my attack on the WiFi chip from both directions, software and hardware.

For the hardware side, I bought thinner wire and solder, and started to re-wire that to my old board. I did some research on tolerances of wire lengths and came across this post which details what we need to know about wire lengths for high speed stuff. I also found this piece on digikey (which is the exact connector on the wii going to the wifi chip, 20 pin 0.5mm pitch molex, I shall be ordering a few of those ^-^, perhaps we can make a board like the MEGADrive for the Wifi board...). I'll look into potentially making some sort of board/ffc once I get the connectors in.

From the software side, I read through the code for BootMii to see what it boots and how, so I can potentially write a patch for the system menu to ignore the wifi chip's absence (the boot0-boot2 process don't check for working bluetooth/wifi hardware, so this patch would work on all systems).

 

[Shank]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Keep it up cheese. Im looking forward to this.

Patching the software to ignore checks such as wifi/bluetooth chips and the disc drive board would be the ideal solution. That would be the best way to go.

Also, the wii mini has no wifi chip and still boots. Maybe checking its code will reveal a way to do that on regular wiis as well.

I have a basic comprehension of computer science, but things like that are way outside my capability.

 

[cheese]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Hopefully getting a NAND dumper so I can start cracking the Wii minis software (since there's not an easy way to install homebrew on it, I need to crack the encryption instead of taking the key from the Wii .-.)
After that, gonna work on a patch for wifi (probably taking code and writing over the current menu stuff )

 

[Aurelio]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Wow this is amazing! I've just got a Wii that I'm willing to make portable. Have you made any update on this? I would like to trim my mobo a bit. Thanks

EDIT: Forgot to mention it, I have a RVL-60 board

 

[LOCtronicz]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

AWESOME WORK!!! It has been awhile since someone has done this type of work. Looking back at the gamecube days and seeing how tiny and plentyfull the gamecube portables have become

I'd be willing to chip in on the research. I have done allot of pin mapping on the Wii a couple of years back but never got the chance to share the info. I was able to run the wii of a custom regulator and trim the board, rewire the bleutooth. Didn't bother with the wifi as I was using the cpu-30 model which made me cut it pretty small already.

I have just rebuilt my work space and found my old board cuts and paperwork. I'll post my stuff when I get the chance. In the mean time keep up the great work!!

 

[Diminuendo]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Removing wifi might be a good idea purely for power consumption: It's not like online was particulary important for the wii gameplay wise.

A usb port could be left for the broadband adapter.

 

[LOCtronicz]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Here are some old pics of what I've done with the wii board. I believe also the smallest cut till now while retaining the original regulator. It is a C/RVL-CPU-01 model so not the most power friendly. Doing a 30 model soon enough as that also has the smaller processor and still retains the dimensions of the original 01 model. Which as you can see is a perfect cut to till the wifi module. Due to the many pics I just share my facebook album which should be visable for everyone to see even if you are not on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 64bf641ddd

As already has been stated using the wii as a gamecube replacement it can be used without a discdrive/modchip connected. It is then possible to cut the whole strip off till the edge of the heatsink from the controller port side. It should also be possible to cut if you are using the discdrive connector but it then need to be rewired which I will probably do anyway to make it as small as possible.

If I have anything new I will post it here.

 

[Shank]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Jesus thats amazing work for an RVL 01. It has 6 freakin layers. How on earth did you trim it down so much without shorting the layers, or severing hidden traces?

Also, do I have your permission to document your findings and pictures into this guide? I don't want to take your work without your permission.

As for progress, I moved into a new house recently, and have been too busy with that to work on projects. I have a dedicated electronics room now, so that will be very beneficial. Once I finish getting settled in, ill pick up right where I left off. I have not dropped the project, and have about 8 more wiis to experiment on. ShockSlayer recently gave me a dump of all his wii-related fils. I plan on organizing them and posting them once I have the time. I also plan to make a few more specific and mini guides for the wii, along with a super guide linking them all together. All in due time. Other considerations are a breakout board for the mx chip and its supporting components, and software mods to allow the wii to run without the wifi, disc drive, and bluetooth chips.

Blarg and I have been able to get it to a comparable size.

 

[LOCtronicz]

Re: Wii bit smaller: Revisions, Die shrinks, Layers, and mor

Yeah sure you can use my findings. As long as you give credit As for the cuts, made sure I cut straight, then sand with 150 grit, then scrap slightly diagonally with an exacto knife, then more sanding, then look under a magnifier and check that all the layers are not bridging each other. Worked everytime so far. Just make sure you tripple check the layers for bridges cause once you fry something it's already to late to salvage it most of the time.

Little update. Just revised my custom regulator and now have it running of 3.3v 1.5A max and 1.2v 4A max. This gives me full WII and GC functionality. Only thing is that the sound booster amp that boost the audio signal now does not work. but it is not really needed for portable use and if you do what to use it it will power of 7.4 or higher voltages.

the 1v line and 1.15v line is being powered together with 1.2v. Both can't be reduced so it is the limit. 1.2v is more stable when running both cpu and gpu of 1 regulator.

1.8v line is powered by the memory regulator on the top of the board. That supplies 1.75v which is powered from the 3.3v line. If you just wire the output to the 1.8v connection on the wii it will work.

As for the 3.3v always on signal, this can be power from a regular 3.3v line as it will be switched on and off using a regular power switch and not via the bluetooth remote. Be sure to remove the small sharp regulator next to the mx chip and wire 3.3v to the cap next to it.

For it to work you must use the above instructions. If not it won't boot or give problems. I wil post some wiring diagrams on how I got it to work and which regulators I am using to make it happen. More progress once I have it.

Going for a maximum cut so gonna see how much of the board I can trim of. As for the wifi module that will have to be rewired to the via's with 6 wires and power by 3.3v + gnd. So a total of 8 wires.

See my updated facebook album for the pics of the working board.