Never soldered in my life, worth me modding my own Wii?

[suhailp]

I'm interested in purchasing a modchip for the Wii, one of the main concerns I have is that I have absolutely no experience in soldering, so should I buy a premodded Wii? Some other issues I have is what modchip to actually get (or have preinstalled), my knowledge on the subject is poor but by my understanding is the CycloWiz better than the Wiikey since the new update? I will be modding a PAL system so it would be nice if the NTSC compatability was good.
One final question since I'm already here, is what is the best website to purchase a premodded wii at a reasonable price within the UK, with a switch preferrably for updates, this is of course becuase I'd rather not try to mod the console myself.

[*StoneCold*]

Hey, if you have zero soldering skills then no you should not touch it, its just not worth it as you will more than likely wreck it as the parts are so small!

As for the best chip, they are basically the same but the wiikey is safer in the update department, just have to pop in a dvd and flash where as with a cyclowiz you have to use a switch and theres been reports from people killing their wii's this way.

As for buying one, i can sell you one for £265 premodded with an original wiikey (none of that clone crap) via royal mail special delivery.

This will come with the receipt for you and is always brand new!!!

PM me if you want to talk more.:)

[izz]

i've never soldered before in my life and i modded the wii myself. prior modding the wii, i did spend about 2 hrs learning how to solder before doing the wii.. modding the wii is not very difficult.. as long as you have patience, you'll be fine..

[apexi350z]

if you can pay someone to do it for you, then do it. if not, I wouldn't recommend doing the soldering yourself. on a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this about a 7 on degree of difficulty.

[poface]

7out of 10

pffft


maybe for a ps2 i will give it 7 out of 10

i give this 3 out of 10....

[naive1016]

Is it hard to mod a wii with a wiikey? I also want to do it myself because I cant find anyone to do it for me. Also is it easy to break it?

[naivri]

heres what to do before you mod your wii

buy a soldering iron, 12W or 15W with a tip round about 1mm

Buy a flux pen

buy some 30awg wire

buy some really thin solder (dont go for the lead free stuff, environmentally friendly is good, but lead stuff is better)

Now get an old motherboard or cdrom or anything with small soldering points

Practise on it until you can solder easily

Then buy your wiikey (and be amazed at how small it really is)

Idiots guide to soldering:
1) Cut wire to required length and strip ends off (leaving about 1mm bare)
2) apply flux to the end of the wire
3) apply a small blob of solder to the tip of your iron (called tinning the iron)
4) touch end of the wire with your tinned solderring iron, solderr will go onto the end of the wire
5) flux onto solder pad on cdrom/motherboard, whatever you got to practise on
6) tiny blob of solder onto soldering iron
7) touch (not hold) the pad with your blob of solder on the iron, it will jump off towards the flux. The pad will now be a bit bigger and easiler to solder onto
8) more flux onto the pad
9) place the end of your tinned wire onto the top of pad
10) touch the wire with the soldering iron (may need to hold it for a second or so...no longer)
11) wire should now be soldered.
12) wiggle the wire to check its solid

do that until you can do it really easily on your practise board

then get your wiikey and try it for real. Dont quicksolder it!

[soulfoot]

personally i gave my general location and found someone nice enough to do it for 20$ (look around you will find my post) so i wouldnt be suprised if you could find someone to do it for you too, i've seen too many modders in the UK to count so i'm sure you will have some luck

[Gazza123]

I got some to install a wiikey but it was messed up.

Had to end up getting it done professionally although it was a wiinja deluxe the guy put in as he said that Wiikey's were unreliable as he's had to take loads out of machines.

[t0lerence]

Wiikeys unreliable? Compared to Wiinjas? lol

Anyway, as someone whos mods Wiis, I can say if you have no experience, DO NOT attempt it!

Some of the repairs ive done, unbelieveable how easily people bun out the pads! Ive done 4 now where I have had to solder onto the IC chip directly!

[dohclude]

I do mod installs too, and I would definitely not attempt it if you have no experience. The Wii's solder points are very small and very fragile and I can almost gaurantee you will destroy them.

[11111]

I got some to install a wiikey but it was messed up.

Had to end up getting it done professionally although it was a wiinja deluxe the guy put in as he said that Wiikey's were unreliable as he's had to take loads out of machines.

hahahah lol

[soulfoot]

hahahah lol

wiikeys have a bad rep for a few reasons

1. prolific clones
2. bad quick solder instals
3. word of mouth from people that echo what they read on forums

anyways i had the exact oposite experience, had a "professional" lined up that had no clue what he was doing, found someone local and got it done for less than half what the pro would have charged if i let him. I musta found the only asian in the US that was willing to install a mod but didnt know what a wii looked like.

I mean i hate to succumb to stereotypes but one would think knowing the top 3 gaming machines would be a part of his profession as well as culture.

wish i had a video of him holding the wii in one hand and the mod chip in the other when he asked me "who made these, and, is it made by the same company"

really glad dipswitch saved me from that disaster

[kienny]

i've modded my wii my self and i've virtually had no previous experience of soldering.

if you have no interest at all in learning to solder, i recommend you get someone to do it for you since buying the parts and the time spent on practicing soldering is quite a lot. I would say it's cheaper to get it done by someone else if you think you could've been working during the time you spent on practicing for your wii.

about the difficulty level, if you use the right stuff (12W iron etc) and be careful i think it was pretty easy and hard to go wrong. do some research.

[numms]

i've modded my wii my self and i've virtually had no previous experience of soldering.

if you have no interest at all in learning to solder, i recommend you get someone to do it for you since buying the parts and the time spent on practicing soldering is quite a lot. I would say it's cheaper to get it done by someone else if you think you could've been working during the time you spent on practicing for your wii.

about the difficulty level, if you use the right stuff (12W iron etc) and be careful i think it was pretty easy and hard to go wrong. do some research.

Same story here. I had ZERO soldering experience and simply followed the instructions posted all over the forums... 30awg wire, 15w iron, .015 guage solder, flux, find an old board and practice, practice, practice. Take your time, do it slow, and just be careful, you should be fine. I think the majority of the "botched mod" installs could have been avoided if the directions had been followed. I had never soldered anything before in my life and after practicing for a couple hours, had no problems with the exception of seeing how small those points were inside the wii. Got a little scared, but marched on. All in all, I would rate my solder job as a 7/10. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and found it easier than I thought it would be.

[tundro]

Totally agree with numms. I hadn't soldered at all until I decided to chip the Wii. But instead of rushing into it I spent a week searching for and reading tutorials. Then I went out and bought myself the tools of the trade (30 awg wire, solder, 15w iron, flux, multimeter, etc.) and broke out a few old modems and a CD-Rom drive to practiced on. Found the smallest points I could and messed with it until I got them to solder correctly. Then I order my chip... got it in hand... opened up the Wii and got down to business. I didn't have any problem soldering in the chip (Cyclowiz with update switch) however two points of warning. First, take your time! If you rush you WILL mess it up. This isn't a race. From opening the console to screwing it all back together it took me about an hour and a half. Second, the points on the Wii's drive are really small, even smaller than what I was expecting. So hope you have a steady hand.

[sensesfail958]

it's pretty simple. I've never soldered before and I modded mine and a friends. I just praticed for like 2 minutes on something before I did the real thing.

[jimgiggles]

With the scarcity of the wii right now. I wouldn't chance it. If you really enjoy playing it. get it professionally done. If they were everywhere, and you didn't mind buying another one if you screwed up i would say go for it.

Then again. I am a fairly experienced modder, having done dish ird's and xbox 1's I still feel a bit funny about doing a wii at the moment.

I would try practicing on old satellite recievers. The points are very small, and theres a lot of tutorials out there..

Just my 2 cents

[numms]

With the scarcity of the wii right now. I wouldn't chance it. If you really enjoy playing it. get it professionally done. If they were everywhere, and you didn't mind buying another one if you screwed up i would say go for it.

Then again. I am a fairly experienced modder, having done dish ird's and xbox 1's I still feel a bit funny about doing a wii at the moment.

I would try practicing on old satellite recievers. The points are very small, and theres a lot of tutorials out there..

Just my 2 cents

Your 2 cents really is worth it's weight in gold, but depending on the desire of the person, this isn't really an issue. It's DEFINATELY something that should be taken into consideration by anyone thinking about this.