Has anyone tried connecting a WODE and DVD drive in parallel

[kel01]

I've been trying to get a WODE and the original DVD drive to work in parallel on a switch for the last week with little success.

I tried putting a switch on the 5v and GND to switch between the WODE and DVD drive and left all the data pins from both connected in parallel thinking that without power and ground to one or the other that the data pins still being connected would not matter. Seems I was wrong though. Somehow even without power and ground to one or the other the data pins are still conflicting somehow.

I also tried disconnecting one data pin at a time on the WODE side to see if it might be just one or two data pins that were conflicting. I managed to get it working at first with 4 data pins disconnected, which would be do'able with a switch but then it crashed ingame on a few games that I tested.

So it seems at this point I either get rid of the DVD drive which I was hoping to keep if possible or find a double throw switch or relay that can handle all 18 data pins, if something like that is even available.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried this or if anyone has any advice on switching between the WODE and original DVD drive.

[emu_kidid]

tried connecting gamecube->Wode->dvd? I've heard that works.

[kel01]

For some reason I had got it stuck in my head that the the GC DVD drive would not work connected to the WODE that way.

Wouldn't the WODE be looking for a Wii drive revision and then complain when it recieves a GC drive revision instead just like the QOOB Pro or Viper does when it doesn't recieve a GC drive revision? Maybe I'm thinking too much into it and should just give it a try and see. Need to find a new FPC connector for the WODE first though as I removed it to make the connector for the GC.

[emu_kidid]

give it a try. The reason the Qoob/ViperGC "freak out" when they see a Wii drive is because they can't unlock the drive to enter debug mode using the "MATSHITA" "DVD-GAME" strings since that was the first thing that was changed on Wii DVD drives.

[kel01]

I Finally got around to trying the GC drive connected to my WODE via Flat-Wode and the first results are promising. I managed to boot an original disc and because I put disc 2 in first by accident it even swapped discs without any trouble.

I played the game for a few minutes and it played fine although the loading seemed a tiny bit slower but you would have to look really close to notice it. To be honest I haven't seen the game running on a stock GC for a long while so maybe it is like that normally. The second time I tried the game it got a disc read error just before a cut scene but that could be my laser or pot at fault, need to do some more testing to find out.

Unfortuanly it doesn't seem to work with backups, not sure why though, surely patching of CC backups would be no different on the Wii than on the GC, would it?

Maybe if I installed a XenoGC on the drive it would patch the drive itself and then the WODE would see the backups as originals?

[M tha MaN]

Anything new ?

I'm very curios =)

[kel01]

Anything new ?

I'm very curios =)

I managed to get originals working fine without any disc read errors by installing a new laser and turning the pot down to about 160 ohms, any higher and it would not be long before getting a disc read error.

I then installed the XenoGC and found that I had to turn the pot down even more than before just to get originals to work

The Xeno doesn't seem to have any problems patching the drive as indicated by the LEDs on the Xeno itself but as of yet I Cannot get any backups to even boot up.

I'm a bit worried about taking the pot down any further incase it burns out the new laser but in the name of progress I'm going to go ahead and try it anyway

To be honest I am just glad that originals work fine via Flat-Wode. With the WODE now installed I won't need to burn backups to disc again anyway.

[pr0ton]

I presume Audio Streaming isn't working on the games through the GC DVD drive->WODE->GC (+ optional Qoob/Viper)?

[kel01]

I don't own any audio streaming games so I'm not sure what the results would be. I'll have to pick one up sometime soon and give it a try.

Not sure about adding a Qoob/Viper into the mix. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they are compatible with the WODE or WKF.

[noobcube]

I don't own any audio streaming games so I'm not sure what the results would be. I'll have to pick one up sometime soon and give it a try.

Not sure about adding a Qoob/Viper into the mix. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they are compatible with the WODE or WKF.

Eternal Darkness is a great test for audio streaming, as it lets you know right away if it is functioning correctly or not. If you hear the intro poem once right after boot, audio streaming is working correctly. XenoGC has no trouble with this. Several Wii modchips (including Wiikey 2) never managed to properly support audio streaming. So-called "solderless" Wii modchips which connect via the ribbon cable cannot support audio streaming, as it has to be patched at the drive controller. If the game boots up fine but there's no audible intro poem, then streamed audio has probably been muted.

[kel01]

I still can't get backups to boot via Flat-Wode or Flat-Wode + XenoGC. I turned the pot down as low as I could, about 40 ohms.

@noobcube Thanks for the tip I will try to find a copy of Eternal Darkness next time I go into town or failing that I will grab one off ebay.

[noobcube]

I still can't get backups to boot via Flat-Wode or Flat-Wode + XenoGC. I turned the pot down as low as I could, about 40 ohms.

@noobcube Thanks for the tip I will try to find a copy of Eternal Darkness next time I go into town or failing that I will grab one off ebay.

Not too familiar with WODE. Is there a way disable flat-mode and play retail game discs normally without the WODE patching for DVD-R (i.e. straight pass-through)? There may be a problem if both WODE and XenoGC are patching the drive for backups. Seem to recall that some firmware versions were better than others on the GC side of things.

Regarding Eternal Darkness, AFAIK, retail discs should play normally, as the audio streaming issue only occurs with backups (DVD-R/SD/HDD). I'm not sure of the technical details behind why audio streaming support is such an issue for GC backups. It was quite frustrating finding a working GC audio streaming solution on my Wii.

[noobcube]

Here's a thread discussing audio streaming support: http://www.wodejukebox.com/forum/viewto ... 0&start=80

Reading through the thread, it appears that WODE does support audio streaming on retail discs, but not backups. One user reported that the D2CKey on his Wii was able to work with the WODE for audio streaming playback using disc backups.

[kel01]

Not too familiar with WODE. Is there a way disable flat-mode and play retail game discs normally without the WODE patching for DVD-R (i.e. straight pass-through)? There may be a problem if both WODE and XenoGC are patching the drive for backups. Seem to recall that some firmware versions were better than others on the GC side of things.

Regarding Eternal Darkness, AFAIK, retail discs should play normally, as the audio streaming issue only occurs with backups (DVD-R/SD/HDD). I'm not sure of the technical details behind why audio streaming support is such an issue for GC backups. It was quite frustrating finding a working GC audio streaming solution on my Wii.

I'm affraid there is no straight pass-through, only Flat-mode which tries to patch backups. With just Flat-mode and no Xeno it wouldn't even try to read backups, almost like it gave up after reading the first sector but with the Xeno and flat-mode it would read the disc right to the point where you would expect the banner to pop up any second and then stop.

I'm still wondering if it could be that the pot is a little too high even at 40 ohms. My old GC with XenoGC would read originals with the pot upto about 350 ohms but I would have to take about 170 ohms away from that for it to read backups.

With Flat-mode + XenoGC the pot needs to be at about 160 ohms on this GC just to read originals and if I go by the same rule as before and take about 170 ohms away from that it would take the value way below the 40 ohms that I tried.

I could not get the pot to go below 40 ohms as it is quite sensitive and even the slightest turn would loop back to just below 1K ohms. Lucky for me though it seems that 40 or even zero ohms is not the limit due to the 150 ohms resistor in series with the pot. Looks like I'm going to be taking that pot even lower than before

Here's a thread discussing audio streaming support: http://www.wodejukebox.com/forum/viewto ... 0&start=80

Reading through the thread, it appears that WODE does support audio streaming on retail discs, but not backups. One user reported that the D2CKey on his Wii was able to work with the WODE for audio streaming playback using disc backups.

Glad to hear that streaming works with originals although I'm still going to pick up a copy of eternal darkness just to see for myself.

Besides I've never played the game before and from what I have read it is supposed to be pretty good.

[emu_kidid]

It makes sense that it's failing to read backups in pass-through mode since it doesn't like to spin up backup media. Try flat-mode + no xenoGC + Swiss and let me know what happens then with a backup.

[kel01]

Good news, I got backups working with Flat-mode + XenoGC

I took the pot down to what would be -20 ohms under normal cicumstances, obviously I had to take the 150 ohm series resistor away to achive this. So now if I'm making any sense the pot is actually at 130 ohms where as under normal circustances it would be 130 ohms + the 150 ohm series resistor.

Also the Wode seems to see the backup that I tested as an original and even though the backup is out of region for my console the Wode does not try to region patch it.

So if the XenoGC's region patching works then maybe its audio streaming will too.

@emu_kidid. I seem to remember trying swiss with flat-Wode and it got stuck booting the apploader at about 30%. I can't remember if it was with or without the XenoGC installed but I will try it again with and without the XenoGC and let you know.

By the way does anybody know a definite way to find out if a game has audio streaming. I have seen the list of audio streaming games in the link below but do we have any way of knowing how accurate the list really is?

http://wiki-scene.com/Audio_Fix

I would just like to know which games I can run from HDD without any problems and which ones I will need to run from disc. I could imagine that it is not always easy to tell just by playing the games because if you have not played the games before then you may not notice that there are parts of the audio missing.

[emu_kidid]

nice work, I wonder if it's specifically your drive/setup that needed the ohms changed so far back (to what would've been negative). That audio fix list looks complete to me, and if anything was missed I'm sure it probably wasn't even worth playing

Can we see some pictures of your setup/connections? or have you posted it somewhere else on the forum I've missed?

[kel01]

nice work, I wonder if it's specifically your drive/setup that needed the ohms changed so far back (to what would've been negative). That audio fix list looks complete to me, and if anything was missed I'm sure it probably wasn't even worth playing

Can we see some pictures of your setup/connections? or have you posted it somewhere else on the forum I've missed?

I also wondered if it was something to do with my setup because at one point I was taking the WODE's 3.3v and 5v from the drive board plus a XenoGC which I thought may have been draning power from the laser hence the low pot setting but I have since disconnected the 5v and relocated the 3.3v to the main power connections on the motherboard and it made no differance.

On another note, strangely enough I could not connect the 5v source to the motherboard without it draining all power from the DVD drive and the LED above the controller ports but all 3 work fine when it is connected to the drive board.

I'll take some pictures tomorrow of my setup/connections and post them so you can take a look.

UPDATE: The good news is that I have ordered a copy of eternal Darkness from ebay so that I can test audio streaming from a retail disc.

The bad news is while I'm waiting for my game to arrive I decided to burn a backup of it to see if audio streaming worked with Flat-mode + XenoGC and unfortunatly it did not

The game froze on the poem screen with no audio at all. I had to reset the console which took it back to the poem screen with no audio but this time I could get past it by pressing the A button although even after that the audio on the Silicon Knights screen was missing also.

It seems that the WODE may be muting the audio. I hope it does not do this on the original aswell but I won't know for sure until it arrives in a couple of days.

[megalomaniac]

the xeno patches the drive to make the GC think a backup is an original and eliminates the region...
since xeno patches the drive before wode reads the disc, wode too would then see the disc as an original and within region, so no need for wode apply any patch..

the xeno (qoob/viper) have no issues with audio streaming...so with the errors you have described running eternal darkness, it appears flatmode may still be bottlenecking the audio streaming and may not actually be a true pass-thru mode..it will be interesting to see if this duplicates once your original disc arrives..however i think the issue will indeed be duplicated since wode sees the backup as an original...
IF audio-streaming worked while in flatmode, then it should work when not in flatmode also..but it wont..this is the design limitation whether it be hardware or software



as for audio streaming...
i have been on a recent quest to purchase audio streaming titles..i have purchased about 40 of the titles on the list...and a WKF on the way
my goal is to test and document what these issues are...and if hardware is affected differently (WKF vs WODE)
all most of us know is these titles have some type of issue because someone posted it on a list...but what exactly are the issues??

for example, eternal darkness crashes, we know this
ikaruga, no audio during gameplay, we know this..
zelda, no audio in the start up main menu...the rest of gameplay audio is fine...

little data like this could be good to know...if anything, i want to know!!!
the audio streaming list is a huge list of games and i dont think i will be able to find all of these titles...ill provide my "final" list of games i have purchased next week...
maybe collectively as a group, some others may own titles which i have not collected... we could potentially knock em all out and document these issues together..
also, multi-region releases should be considered..its possible one title on the list may not work properly, but the same title from a different region could work with no issues...
it will take a lot of time..the more people willing to help out, the more documentation we can obtain...
More details to come next week...

[kel01]

the xeno patches the drive to make the GC think a backup is an original and eliminates the region...
since xeno patches the drive before wode reads the disc, wode too would then see the disc as an original and within region, so no need for wode apply any patch..

the xeno (qoob/viper) have no issues with audio streaming...so with the errors you have described running eternal darkness, it appears flatmode may still be bottlenecking the audio streaming and may not actually be a true pass-thru mode..it will be interesting to see if this duplicates once your original disc arrives..however i think the issue will indeed be duplicated since wode sees the backup as an original...
IF audio-streaming worked while in flatmode, then it should work when not in flatmode also..but it wont..this is the design limitation whether it be hardware or software

This was aslo my concern, if the WODE sees the backup as an original due to the Xeno patching the drive then we could have the same results with originals too. I won't know for sure until my game arrives but it's not looking good.

as for audio streaming...
i have been on a recent quest to purchase audio streaming titles..i have purchased about 40 of the titles on the list...and a WKF on the way
my goal is to test and document what these issues are...and if hardware is affected differently (WKF vs WODE)
all most of us know is these titles have some type of issue because someone posted it on a list...but what exactly are the issues??

for example, eternal darkness crashes, we know this
ikaruga, no audio during gameplay, we know this..
zelda, no audio in the start up main menu...the rest of gameplay audio is fine...

little data like this could be good to know...if anything, i want to know!!!
the audio streaming list is a huge list of games and i dont think i will be able to find all of these titles...ill provide my "final" list of games i have purchased next week...
maybe collectively as a group, some others may own titles which i have not collected... we could potentially knock em all out and document these issues together..
also, multi-region releases should be considered..its possible one title on the list may not work properly, but the same title from a different region could work with no issues...
it will take a lot of time..the more people willing to help out, the more documentation we can obtain...
More details to come next week...

Sounds very intersesting although very time consuming and expensive (buying and playing through all the games at least once).

Would really be nice to know where the problems are in each title though, say for instance I own Zelda collectors edition PAL and resident Evil 1 PAL which are both on the list but I haven't noticed any missing audio on either when running through Flat-Wode or when running the NTSC versions from HDD. although I didn't test them for long so the streaming audio could possibly be later in the games.

[noobcube]

Why modchips have trouble with Gamecube audio streaming is something I do not fully understand. Specifically, I don't know why it is that some chips will play retail audio streaming games perfectly, but fail with backup discs. From what I understand, chips like YAOSM patch audio streaming at the drive controller, and supposedly patching is not possible through the ribbon connector (e.g. WODE, Wiikey Fusion).

Apparently WODE has something called "stealth mode" which is supposed to remove any detectable trace of the WODE in the connection from the DVD drive to the Gamecube or Wii. This might let the XenoGC patch the drive for audio streaming without allowing the WODE to mess it up. Worth trying, anyway.

Regarding audio streaming games, two examples come to mind:

Star Fox Adventures:

- Conversations with various characters in the game will be inaudible without audio streaming support
- Wiikey 2 and Wiizard modchips play these bits of dialog, but get stuck in an infinite loop
- XenoGC and YAOSM 3.2 play streaming audio just like a retail disc

Eternal Darkness:

- Audio streaming support is necessary in order to hear the opening poem and various sounds during the game
- Wiikey 2 and Wiizard modchips play the intro poem, but get stuck in an infinite loop
- XenoGC and YAOSM 3.2 play streaming audio just like a retail disc, play the poem once then continue to boot

[kel01]

Got my original Eternal Darkness yesterday and unfortunately it gave the same results as the backup did

There is only one more thing I can think of trying. Because there is no one else that can verify my results at the moment there is a small possibilty that it could be my bad soldering. My soldering on the FFC cable from the WODE to the GC was a rush job just for testing purposes which I have been meaning to re-do properly for a while. I noticed that on the GC/Wii drive pinout there are 3 connections for audio and I am wondering if the rush job on these connections inparticular may be causing the problems with audio streaming. It's a long shot but I have to replace that cable anyway so I will soon find out.

@noobcube I gave the stealth mode a try like you suggested but I'm affraid it didn't help.

@emu_kidid Ignore what I said about Swiss getting stuck booting the apploader with flat-mode. I tried it again with and without the xeno and it got stuck trying to initialize the drive instead. The drive would not spin up at all and the laser did not light up either. I haven't forgotten about those photos by the way. My camera is useless at close up pictures so I had to borrow one that wasn't only to find out at the last minute that the battery was flat Just charging it now so I can take some pics in the morning.


I found out what caused the DVD drive and LED to lose power when I connected the WODEs 5v supply to the motherboard. It was just a dry soler joint in the end

On a side note the WODEs flat-mode works with out of region originals but not very well. It boots the game but for some reason it forces my Gamecubes original video mode (PAL). So I recommend installing a XenoGC as standard when using flat-mode to avoid this problem.

I have come accross this problem before when botting games from HDD but only if I press the reset button to boot a mounted ISO instead of booting from the game menu with the A and start button. 480p games froze up just before the 480p option dialog and 480i games booted ok but in 576i which didn't look right.

[kel01]

Here's a few pics of my setup at the moment. It's a bit of a mess at the moment as I didn't want to finalise too much before fully testing. I had to sqeeze it all together to get the full case picture

The Gamecube from the top



The back panel with USB and SD card slot and a extra switch that I didn't need in the end



Close up of the WODE screen with joystick and eject button above



Inside of the lid. Should have cleaned that dust before taking the picture



Indside the Gamecube. Metal shield needs to be replaced under the DVD drive

[kel01]

...Continued

Connections from WODE to GC via the GC DVD connector.



Conections from WODE to GC DVD drive on the back of the DVD board.


I've also done some pictures to show pin numbers for the front and back DVD board connections and which traces need cutting, just need to finnish them and I will post them for anyone that wants to give it a try.

[infact]

/me likes your setup