Wii Internal Wavebird Mod - AKA Broken Wii

Edit: See below for the mod instructions.

Well I was going to post my details of a successful internal wavebird mod for my wii, but my ribbon connector for the drive data cable has broken.

The plastic ribbon connector which secures the data cable to the drive sheared in half with almost 0 force applied. So i have removed it, leaving just the solder pads on the drive board. Any suggestions on how (if at all) I can connect the ribbon cable to the drive board now? I'm ok with a soldering iron but these surface mount pads are a fraction of a mm apart. Time to buy a new drive? Does anyone sell wii spares?

If anyone wants the pinout or a guide on how I did my internal wavebird mod then let me know. It was working great until the ribbon connector snapped, effectively ruining my wii!

Edit: Luckily molex sell the surface mount connector similar to the original on the drive, and a friend is offering to mount it on the drive for me. All hope is not lost for my Wii!

I would be interested in this please.
Hiding the wavebird dongle inside would be sweet!

This is kind of bitter-sweet for me! I'll take some pics of what i did and post them on here soon.

Oh that SUCKS.

Can you fit 4 WB receivers in there?

[SIZE="5"]Wii Internal Wavebird Receiver Mod[/SIZE]

[SIZE="4"]THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS GUIDE IS AVAILABLE HERE[/SIZE]

This guide explains how you can mount your WaveBird receiver module INSIDE your Wii, so that it does not need to be plugged in/visible from the outside. Apologies for the blurry pictures, I did the best I could with the camera I had.

You will need:

• Triwing Screwdriver
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Some good thin wire
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Wire Cutters
• Electrical Tape or similar

Guide:

1. Carefully take apart your WaveBird receiver using the Triwing screwdriver. See Ryo's excellent guide for how he did this for his GameCube mod: http://www.totalgamerz.com/mt-archives/000189.html
2. Remove the circuit board and the GameCube connector from the casing. Set the channel to one you will remember. I set mine to 1 for controller 1.
3. Disconnect the GameCube connector from the main WaveBird board by unplugging the white connector.
4. Cover the metal shielding with electrical tape so it won’t cause any shorts where it is placed later:
   
5. Put the WaveBird board aside for now and pick up the GameCube connector. Cut the four wires on the GameCube connector as far away from the white connector as possible. Strip about 2mm of insulation from each of the wires attached to this white connector.
6. Cut 4 25cm (10”) lengths of wire and strip about 2mm from both ends. Solder a length of wire to each of the wires attached to the white connector. I used some heatshrink to cover the joins but if you don’t have any, use some electrical tape or similar.
   
7. Carefully take apart your Wii, all the way down to removing the motherboard from the base. Don’t worry about removing the Bluetooth or wireless modules. You will need access to the underside of the motherboard you it is necessary to remove the heat sink. I used the following guide to make sure I took it apart correctly: http://www.informit.com/articles/art...?p=677908&rl=1
8. Solder the lengthened wires from the white connector to the underside of the Wii motherboard onto GameCube controller port #1. See the diagram to work out which colour wire to solder to which pin. Place some electrical tape over the newly connected section.
   
   The colour on the pin refers to the colour of the wire attached to the white connector. Purple is ground, so choose either of the large solder points indicated by purple on this diagram. Do not connect anything to the black points on this diagram.
   
9. Place the motherboard back in the bottom part of the Wii, carefully routing the cables to the side of the GameCube port, away from the power and reset buttons at the front.
   
10. Screw the metal shielding back over the motherboard and route the cables diagonally toward the heatsink ON TOP of this shielding.
11. Screw the black plastic parts back onto the Wii. Be careful with the front part as it will be sitting on top of your wires. Make sure that the wires aren't over the screw hole for the front plastic part.
12. Attach the drive back onto the motherboard, on top of the wires.
13. Connect the WaveBird receiver back up to the white connector and place it next to the heatsink, in front of the power and a/v connectors. It should fit here quite nicely.
    
    On my picture I have not yet replaced the drive. This is just to indicate where to put the receiver.
14. Finally put the Wii back together completely and test. Make sure to set your wavebird to the same channel as the receiver.

Tips + Troubleshooting

• Check for solder bridges after soldering
• Cover the soldered area with electrical tape to stop shorts
• Remove the shielding from the top of the case to improve reception (Thanks Tom)

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and you may repost this guide where ever you like as long as I am given credit.

Originally Posted by brywalker

Oh that SUCKS.

Can you fit 4 WB receivers in there?

I can only really find space for 1 receiver inside really. Possibly space for more if some of the plastic is removed.

That is friggen cool.

Can you still use port 1 for a wired controller if you feel like it?

Yes it works perfectly if your wavebird is off using wired controllers on the same port. I made sure that this was the case because I always run out of batteries!

I'd like to think u can fit 4 somewhere

I did this with my Gamecube, but my Wavebird kept losing signal. Perhaps interference with my wifi and other wireless things, but changing the channel didn't help. Then again, I have 2 Wavebirds, and they both seem to lose connection every now and then, so perhaps its just my setup. However, the receiver inside the console definately reduced the signal quality, is yours still strong?

Great idea! I hate the look of having the wavebird reciever sticking out. I'll try this later.

Originally Posted by Rajveer

I did this with my Gamecube, but my Wavebird kept losing signal. Perhaps interference with my wifi and other wireless things, but changing the channel didn't help. Then again, I have 2 Wavebirds, and they both seem to lose connection every now and then, so perhaps its just my setup. However, the receiver inside the console definately reduced the signal quality, is yours still strong?

I was wondering when someone was going to take the GC wavebird mod to the Wii. I was going to, but I didn't want to break anything

Rajveer: I came up with the original GC Wavebird mod and never had any reception issues. You may want to check your solder connections.

EDIT: Great job BTW foobar2k

Now is anyone going to mod an internal memory card? ^_^

Nintendo should have made the CC work with cube game (I supose they might still at one point) and let it save to SD - even if that ment removing the cube ports. I wouldnt mind sacrifising the ability to move my save games over if that was the case.

Originally Posted by Mr Doctor

Now is anyone going to mod an internal memory card? ^_^

Nintendo should have made the CC work with cube game (I supose they might still at one point) and let it save to SD - even if that ment removing the cube ports. I wouldnt mind sacrifising the ability to move my save games over if that was the case.

Yeah i was thinking it is a bit annoying not having memory cards fully internal, but I've got a fakey extra long memory card, so it wouldnt be much use. At least nintendo made it possible to close the flaps seperately of each other, it looks ok having a memory card sticking out but the wavebird receiver was enormous.

Personally I've had no troubles with signal quality but i my sofa is only a few feet away from my Wii.

Ryo: Actually I found your article when searching to see if someone had done it for the wii already, it helped me working out the pinouts on the Wii motherboard, although they ended up being totally different! My multimeter came in useful there.

If anyone wants to do this, I want your Wavebird receiver scraps. Particularly, the controller port connector that isn't being used.