Wii DVD/Wiikey Fusion/WODE + GC Portable Discussion

[liquitt]

BUT, if I can use the GC's drive and Wii's boards, that would save a ton of work. But I still don't know if this is possible (at least not for all games), at the very least because the GC's drive was not designed to read dual-layer discs.

no even that it wasn't designed to read DL-DVDs - it wasn't designed to read anything above the 1.4 GB mark on a DVD

[Ashen]

I've thought about turning my Gamecube into a Wii (just for the aesthetics) by taking the Wii's guts and putting them in a GC shell. But I thought it would take a ton of modding because of the GC's odd drive configuration. BUT, if I can use the GC's drive and Wii's boards, that would save a ton of work. But I still don't know if this is possible (at least not for all games), at the very least because the GC's drive was not designed to read dual-layer discs.

To what extent are the drives really swappable/compatible with the other system's motherboards? I ask because I don't know what these other boards are in this thread, listed as Wiikey Fusion (the blue one) and WODE Jukebox (the onyx colored one). Are they a necessary intermediary for Wii Drive <-> GC mobo (some kind of driver?), or are they for something else entirely?

The chips/boards mentioned in the other thread are Wii modchips that allow game loading from SD/HDD.

I'm not sure if you'd be able to pull off trimming a Wii motherboard enough to fit it inside a gamecube. It may be possible though. There is alot of good modding information on the Wii here: http://forums.modretro.com/viewforum.ph ... dee4e93bc7 and especially in Palmertechs Wiiboy thread: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=284 Palmer did tell me he had trimmed his Wii motherboard down to the about size of a CD case. He also told me last night that he killed his board somehow but didn't specify what happened.

As for the drives being interchangeable, It may be possible to use a GC drive on the Wii if you reverse the pinmatch in the other thread. But the most it would ever do is play GC games on the Wii. Your probably better off trimming a Wii DVD drive like so and making it top loading if you want to put it in a GC shell:



That is a Wii drive I trimmed for use in a GC portable. It could potentially fit inside a GC case. Good luck man!

[Durgan]

Ahh, ok. Thank you. And thank you for the links.

Yeah, I think you guys are right, and so it wouldn't do a whole lot of good to have a Wii with a GC drive. Guess I'll just have to see what I can do with a Wii's drive.

I have some experience trimming, and I'm quite good at soldering. I'm just worried about the inner layers of the Wii's board.

Which brings me to another question, does anyone know of any good resources for circuit schematics? Obviously that would help a lot in avoiding inner layer traces (and/or in rerouting them) or for digging a little deeper into the workings of a board in general (in terms of understanding; no pun intended, lol). And just last night I was looking all over for GC controller schematics (The white coating on the controller's pcb makes the traces difficult to follow.), but I couldn't really find anything. It's not the first time I've had a hard time finding a schematic.

[linkerm]

Excuse me guys, i read this post, but i not undertand very well some tings. Example, The sundriver chip works in gamecube? Other Is posible use 2 differents chips at the same time? Example wiikey fusion like extraible media, an sundriver like hdd. Or one bloks the other?. Originals mods chips of gc are compatible with these wii chips? Example qoob or viper. For the sundriver is posilble load a dol program, example game menu with the qoob or similar an play backup from sundriver? Thanks for yours answers. Forgive me for my bad english. I have the idea of connetc first the wiikey fusion to the read gc port, and connetc the sundriver to wiikey fusion dvd port. And load the utilities by mean of qoob sx. Is this possible?

[Ashen]

Jesus.... after reading about Techknotts mishap last night here: http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6472 and then reading this crap that he linked to: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209187 its really makes me wonder whether its safe to put these battery's in my portables... I'd hate to be playing the damn thing and have it explode in my hands... or even worse have it burn someones house down I sold one too... fark!

[LOCtronicz]

@ Emu_kidid - What firmware do you have running on the WODE?? As I have updated to the latest and connected it to my gamecube and it will just keep on displaying reading disc. If I use the slave board to select another game it does the same....

Don't know what the problem could be.... Any idea's?

EDIT: I figuered it out. I was loading games from an SD card. I had it inserted when the gamecube booted but it will not load anything that way. You have to take out the sd card let the gamecube boot the linux image and then insert it once the wode menu has been loaded.

As for the cross region loading. It doesn't work. There are many games you can load cross region but games like all the mario games and all the zelda games will not work. I'm going to test a bunch of games on the wode to really see what works and what doesn't. Also gonna g o through the standard voltage tests to see what the lowest voltage it can work on.

As for the slave board it is not needed. If you don't want to use the lcd. You will have to rewire the sd card and usb port to the wode itself and soldering on that thing is tiny. Be warned that you might mess up your connector in doing so. The 5v for the USB port is given not by the wode but by the added usb supply.

More info to come.

[LOCtronicz]

Got a dead wiikey fusion chip here. A believe it has had a bad flash. Does anybody know how I can flash it without using the gamecube? As the gamecube is not seeing the fusion and neither is the wii.

I need to flash it with a jtag programmer I think.... If anybody has some info let me know.

[Ashen]

Zen, the wiikey team have a recovery iso image for FW 1.2 on their website. You will need to do a bunch of special stuff to get it to run though. Everything is in the readme file they include though. Good luck man.

[infact]

Ashen, this recovery image is only useful, if the chip is not entirely dead, the firmware on the wiikey fusion is divided into 2 parts.
The recovery image will use the first part to flash the second part. The first part (recovery) will be intact most of the time and load the recovery image from sd card without the second part working (this behaviour is useful for what i call gameboy feeling - you write a iso to your sd card and use the sd card as gameboy cardridge, any iso will load).
But if the first part of the firmware got corrupted, it is unlikely to work with the instructions they included. You have to flash the chip by hand then.
Good luck zenloc and i hope this helps.

[Ashen]

Badoink! Believe it or not... I know what every single one of those wires does...

[emu_kidid]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

[infact]

Badoink! Believe it or not... I know what every single one of those wires does...

Yay! Looks like you got plenty of room in there. Any hidden features planned?

[LOCtronicz]

@ Ashen: Looking good...... Very curious to see what you paint job looks like.....

Got the WODE up and running and have to correct a couple of things I said before. It does enable 100% cross region loading (I had some setting wrong at first). The NTSC motherboard's av chip however doesn't support PAL output. The image will be very bad, flickering or missing colors. PAL boards however do support NTSC output. As seeing it also has RGB too a PAL board is the way to go.

What I first noticed is that the cfg image wouldn't always direct boot. I thought of removing the sd card I have in it and then it booted all the time. So I though that was the problem. I now have a sd card in it and a usb hardrive connected and it boots fine everytime. So don't really know why sometimes the timing is off but it only happened a couple of times after that it always booted.

If you disconnect the slave board it will also load the cfg image directly everytime (if you changed the settings to do so) Following the traces of the sd card and the usb port we should be able to hardwire them directly to the WODE board itself without to much trouble (I'll be trying that in a couple of weeks) However if you want to use the disc changing function (for multidisc games) you will have to load the second disc with the lcd and 4way joystick on the slave board.

Also the WODE works off 3.3v just like the wiikey. The 5v line is only needed for a USB hardrive. If you wire pin 32 on the WODE to the middle chip of the regulator you don't even need to connect the left power cable.



@ Emu_kidid: I have tested a bunch of games and most of them work but there are a couple which I have encountered which don't work properly. When I load Twilight princess it boots un into a disc cover is open screen. The game has loaded up fine but that is the first in game screen I get. Bot on PAL and NTSC from SD and HDD. Also the zelda collection disc with teh n64 zelda games on it both don't work. The iso will boot and I can select the game put rumble on or off and then it hangs on a black screen. Also PAL and NTSC iso's give me the same problem. DO these games work for you??

Another little test I was doing is connecting a wiidrive to the WODE to see if it works and it loads all original cross region games as far as I can tell. I've tried some and all of them work. You need to enable flatmode from the cfg boot image or from the lcd to make it runs games from the wiidrive. Also I tried a backup of mario kart I had and it sees the game in the disc channel but when I start it it hangs on a black screen. Also tested a couple of GCOS discs I had laying around and non of them will boot (not even load in the disc channel) I haven't tested swiss yet though.

[LOCtronicz]

Any news on porting WODEflow over to the gamecube?? That would be awesome if you could get that to work.....

[linkerm]

Hello somebody please can tell me if the sundriver works on gamecube? Is possible to conect the sundriver and the wiikey fusion? The wiikey fusion to gc port and the sundriver to wiikey dvd port.

Its possible use the wiikeyfusion + gc or wii drive in the gc? Are these chips incompatible with qoob or similar?

tanks

[emu_kidid]

so you want Gamecube -> WiikeyFusion -> Sundriver? It should be possible in theory but I don't think the Sundriver emulates the drive init broadly enough for it to work. The Sundriver seems to be catered specifically to respond to the Wii reboot/startup sequence - which is why it can get away with a lot less hardware.

I'd use a Wode, it seems to be more robust than the rest when it comes to accepting the drive commands in random orders.

Also, zenloc, it's on the cards. we'll see..

[linkerm]

Thanks for your answer emu. you right about of the problem on my idea to connect both Chips. But i think perhaps it is possible by means of software or complementary circuit.

I see this video http://www.youtube.com/user/Ashen123451 ... bxXJEhSzy4

It is possible to be seen the gc loads sundrivers menu. The question is, the sundriver works fine in gc or not?

The sundriver is in this moment in stock in a shop in my country. For that reason it is my question about if sundriver like works on gc to buy inmediately.

Thanks.

[emu_kidid]

so far none of us have got a sundriver working 100%. That video is about as far as it got - if you can find one with the latest version of the code on the sundriver or buy the tool to update it you might get it working - but it's too much effort when you can just buy a fusion or wode and they work better - much better.

[linkerm]

Very thanks for you answer and clarifying me about this. The problem is buy wiikey fusion or wode jukebox.
These chips not in stock in my country, only sundriver. For that reason I thought the posibility of use sundrivers chip.

[sm4rty]

sorry for the dumb question but i read all 62 pages but couldnt find a link to the used ffc flat ribbon connector which is posted here a few times.

can someone give me a link to a shop where i can order the right ffc connector?
i think it has to be a 32p zif socket.
the best were when you can give me a linkt to the adaptor which has the small holes because it is easier to solder.

and i need a shop which delivers to germany.

@ emu_kided: i read that you are planning to sell these zif sockets in your webshop, do you sell them already?

kind regards

[Ashen]

These are the connectors suggested to use:

http://www.proto-advantage.com/store/pr ... id=3400013 http://www.newhavendisplay.com/index.ph ... ts_id=2476 http://en.esskabel.de/adapter/datasheet ... 0-set/186/ http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=6598834882 + http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=5686938034

The first two listed are probably your best bet. The protoadvantage connector is pricey and you need to call and specify exactly the connector you want from digikey. The newhaven display connector is probably the best ready made connector. It has 36 pins though so if you go with that you will need to make sure you have your flat flexible cable aligned correctly when setting it up. hope this helps!

[sm4rty]

yes thx.
which one du you use?

im trying to order the esskabel product, because its a German shop.
now i have to contact them^^ but its not as easy as i thought because of my ugly working times

tried to order the www.newhavendisplay.com zif connector.
but 84$ shipping to germany is too much for this small piece

[infact]

German alternative shop (I bought here): http://www.lcd-store.de/xaranshop_k014013s001_1.htm, Ax50FFC05-S
You have to specify that you need 32 pins though.

[Ashen]

German alternative shop (I bought here): http://www.lcd-store.de/xaranshop_k014013s001_1.htm, Ax50FFC05-S
You have to specify that you need 32 pins though.

Nice! I will add that to the megaguide.

[Hugo_Peters]

Couldn't someone make a program that shrinks the GC iso and then patches the HEX of the iso to work with WBFS following Infact's method?