**guide** Soldering-troubloeshooting-pic12f629 Progging-wiikey Install Have A Look!

[thecheekymonkey]

Again apologies for reposting, cant edit my old title, the guide has sort of changed to include quite a bit more.

If your contemplating installing any chip into your wii and your not sure of where to start, or unsure about soldering etc etc then read this guide.

If you want to pogram your own PIC12F629 with a homebrew hex, then read this guide.

If you wish to install an external socket then read this guide.

neary finished it now, just a few more little things to put in, but they can wait, its taken a long time to write this.

Its 8.8 meg in PDF, excuse the host if its shite i`ll get another, also excuse the shameless plugging of my site on there, i watermarked my photos, intending to release it as a word document, then decided to do it as a pdf and this has watermarked each page :S


here it is.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=Homebrew_Wii_install_Guide_TheCheekyMonkey.ra r

and here

http://www.bigdisk.co.uk/483235 PASSWORD = monkey

and here on eurasia

http://www.eurasia.nu/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=124

this is what it contains :-

2. ……………………………………………………………………………………Tips / Tricks
3. ……………………………………………………………………………………Opening the Wii
4. ……………………………………………………………………………………Install Schematic
5. ……………………………………………………………………………………Installing your socket externally
6. ……………………………………………………………………………………Choosing your Open Source hex code
7. ……………………………………………………………………………………Programmer
8. ……………………………………………………………………………………Programmer Layout
9. ……………………………………………………………………………………Programming the PIC16F629
10. ……………………………………………………………………………………Reprogramming the PIC16F629
11. ……………………………………………………………………………………Troubleshooting : Soldering
12. ……………………………………………………………………………………Troubleshooting : Desoldering
13. ……………………………………………………………………………………Examples of other installs (wiikey / cyclowiiz)

oh and millions of photos...................


Its quite large i know, but i didnt want to degrade the photos with low rez.
any commments, please keep em nice ;).

[thecheekymonkey]

OK TRY THAT, CLICK ON THE LINK, THEN ON THE NEW PAGE YOU`LL HAVE TO RIGHT CLICK ON THE DOWNLOAD LINK AND SAVE TARGET

IF ANYONE ELSE WANTS TO HOST ETC ETC, NO PROBS

[kurze]

Looking forward to reading it and seeing pix, could use the help.

[kurze]

Whoa amazing guide, very clean. Thank you very much!

[BanditBBS]

OMG, thank you for this, its exactly what I needed!

[thecheekymonkey]

building cheapo programmer today, and will be adding that also, including parts list / order number from maplins (rip offs, i know, but they are readily availible from there)


also update soldering stuff as well, all to come tonight ;)

[shiz]

good info cheeky,
One addition,and im not sure wether the "userport" program or whatnot addresses this. I was having an issue opening IC prog under XP, and getting a "Privileged Instruction" error code which in turn locked the software. Im not sure weather this issue was common with other users, but after trolling around for the information i fixed it by changing some settings in ICprog.
IF you go to Settings and then OPTIONS in ICprog, and you change this:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7477/icprogconf3zv2.jpg
that fixed my problem and i was able to use ICprog and flash several 12f629s
(thanks eprom from openwii)

hope this helps someone...

Edit: I actually have a question with regards to the OSCAL value.
what happens if you lost or didnt write down the oscal value, and the chip was erased before doing so? In the spot where i SHOULD have the oscal value i now have 3FFF or 0000. Can an arbitrary OSCAL value be entered or is it absolutely necessary to KNOW that original value?
thanks

[mistermisfit]

Edit: I actually have a question with regards to the OSCAL value.
what happens if you lost or didnt write down the oscal value, and the chip was erased before doing so? In the spot where i SHOULD have the oscal value i now have 3FFF or 0000. Can an arbitrary OSCAL value be entered or is it absolutely necessary to KNOW that original value?
thanks

I lost the OSCAL value on 3 chips while trying to get my programmer to work. After I threw away the ebay programmer and built one for €1 :p I reprogrammed the chips and used an oscal value of 3480 in each one. It doesnt seem to affect the operation of the wiifree code.
Hope that helps.

Just remember to keep a note of the value next time :D

[thecheekymonkey]

good info cheeky,
One addition,and im not sure wether the "userport" program or whatnot addresses this. I was having an issue opening IC prog under XP, and getting a "Privileged Instruction" error code which in turn locked the software. Im not sure weather this issue was common with other users, but after trolling around for the information i fixed it by changing some settings in ICprog.
IF you go to Settings and then OPTIONS in ICprog, and you change this:
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7477/icprogconf3zv2.jpg
that fixed my problem and i was able to use ICprog and flash several 12f629s
(thanks eprom from openwii)

hope this helps someone...

Edit: I actually have a question with regards to the OSCAL value.
what happens if you lost or didnt write down the oscal value, and the chip was erased before doing so? In the spot where i SHOULD have the oscal value i now have 3FFF or 0000. Can an arbitrary OSCAL value be entered or is it absolutely necessary to KNOW that original value?
thanks


userport should sort this out, i always have to use userport when accessing the parallel or com ports on my pc otherwise i get access violations, i`m sure there are other programs which do the same, and even that setting may correct his ( i cant seen the screen shot in your post, i`ll include this once i can)


as for the OSC value, it is important you write this down, you can writer other values and get it to work as others have said in the past, out of 10 chips, some will have the same value, and the rest unique. keep trying and see what works.

[shiz]

userport should sort this out, i always have to use userport when accessing the parallel or com ports on my pc otherwise i get access violations, i`m sure there are other programs which do the same, and even that setting may correct his ( i cant seen the screen shot in your post, i`ll include this once i can)


as for the OSC value, it is important you write this down, you can writer other values and get it to work as others have said in the past, out of 10 chips, some will have the same value, and the rest unique. keep trying and see what works.

its weird that you cant see that picture?! here is the url again edited:
hxxp://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7477/icprogconf3zv2.jpg

Furthermore, the same guy that provided the info above provided some further info with regards to the OSCAL value:
Originally posted by Eprom
ok if you do not have your original value of oscal, try using this

34AC - for mi this is the better always detect the game
3440 - sometimes fails detection
3444 - sometimes fails detection

try using 34AC, this is oscal values for pic 12F629 for 12F675 i do not have a clue.

I have 2 PICs that im going to try out later this evening. One i have the proper OSCAL value entered (i remembered to write that one down :p) and the other has the 34AC value as per his advice. Everything else being the same, ill see if there are any issues.

[tamzarian]

Why can't you just use stranded wire on all the points?

[thecheekymonkey]

the reason why you shouldnt use multicore wire for the data points (small points) is because :-

1. its thicker
2. the insulation will shrink back

the main reason is

3. once solder is infused into it, it becomes very stiff, now youve just applied heat to a very small point, the solder would more than likely penetrate a couple of mm`s up the wire making the end like a rod, any moving of the wire runs the risk of straining the joint and pulling the track off.

using kynar which is thinner, and solid core hence much more malleable is more suited to this work , or you could even use ceramic coated wire (wrapping wire).

All this is just my way of working out of 8 years experience with this type of work.

Use multi core for the VCC and GND, its carrying current, common sense , you dont have to, and it will work just the same without, but is a good practice to follow, and will limit possible problems.

[tamzarian]

I see what you're saying, I have been practicing my soldering skills and have torn a few tracks off of an old board - probably because of the solder leaking up the wire. I'll be sure to buy some kynar before I really install the thing.

[Mastershredder]

I see what you're saying, I have been practicing my soldering skills and have torn a few tracks off of an old board - probably because of the solder leaking up the wire. I'll be sure to buy some kynar before I really install the thing.

Keep practicing as much as you can. I started out repairing old motherboards (replacing capacitors) and fixing traces on random electronics. Just from doing that, people were amazed when I could modchip a PSX in 5 minutes :)

Make sure when you use the kynar to strip off the insulation, then take your nippers and cut the wire so it's about 1mm in length at the most. You don't want much wire exposed past the solder joint.

Also, make sure your soldering iron is around 15watts. More than that will get too hot, too fast and WILL damage mainboards.

[tamzarian]

I've got a 30 watt iron, and I've soldered some wires onto tiny pads in an old cell phone (worked out OK, a few pads came off). Will the 30 watt be too much for my Wii?

[shiz]

you should use a 15watt.

[Slyman]

Couldnt really find the multi-core wire anywhere. Could anyone give me an indication of a brand/manufacturer or where i could purchase some? Unless its against the rules of course.

[thecheekymonkey]

Couldnt really find the multi-core wire anywhere. Could anyone give me an indication of a brand/manufacturer or where i could purchase some? Unless its against the rules of course.

you can just use an old IDE lead.

things to remember with this is, strip the wire, tin it, then cut it down as the insulation on this wire shrinks a lot.


i have a 100 meter roll of bell wire availible from maplins, cpc, rsonline etc etc

[Slyman]

Yes i read that in your guide cheeky, thanks for that info.

So the bell wire should do the job then? Cheers again mate.

[thecheekymonkey]

no probs ;)

[Slyman]

nice one. Thanks again. Blowing a right wad of dosh on gear to do this compared to the £30 for a soldering iron, solder and flux for the gc. Atleast ill be able to use it again when needed for other consoles i get. Cheers for the guide btw mate, been studying it like mad.

[thecheekymonkey]

no sweat at all, i do have some updates for it, but i havent got time to do them yet ;)

[Mastershredder]

I never even saw a wii last week and yesterday, I was able to open it up and solder my wires. Then I finished building my JDM programmer, flashed my PIC with wiifree 1.51 speedfix and everything is running superb. No loud drive noise or anything.

BTW if it helps anyone:

I decided I didn't want to do any kind of case modification until the open source chips are perfected, then i'll just install it internally. I used 30AWG wire for pins 5, 6, and 7. For the GND and VCC, I used 26 AWG stranded. I cut 8 1/2 inches and soldered them down. Then I used a dab of hot glue about 2 inches away from the solder points to keep the cable steady and taped everything over to prevent shorts.

Finally, I took some nippers and cut out a small notch out of the top right of the fan (if you're looking at it from the back. Then I ran the 26AWG wires through the top right fan grid (on the top case cover). For the 3 30AWG wires, I simply held them to the top left where the USB notch is cut out on the top case cover. After reassembly, I just soldered them to the appropriate points to my 8 pin socket. (I marked what goes where on the wire first).

A little double sided sticky tape and some electrical tape to secure the wires and I have a wonderful wiifree mod.

Thanks again cheekymonkey!