Worklog Wii U R&D Thread (WURD)

[icy_system]

Hi everyone, I’m not sure if I’m posting in the right place — if not, just let me know and I’ll delete this.
I’m trying to order the CafeFlex from JLCPCB, but I’m a bit of a beginner when it comes to custom PCBs.


JLCPCB gave me this error:




Then they gave me two options:


A: They enable the "replace file" button so I can try to fix it
B: I accept that the solder mask opening will expose the copper or trace, which might cause a short circuit


Thanks a lot for any help, and again, let me know if I’m posting in the wrong section!




Edit: Might be worth mentioning — I picked 0.11mm thickness and 1/3 oz copper in the JLCPCB settings, which might be tighter than expected. So maybe that’s why they flagged the spacing. Still learning the ropes here

I had the same question when I was ordering mine, so I asked Yveltal.

Not sure about the thickness and copper, I heard it's better to get the slightly thicker one.

Also, he does sell these on his website now, so that is an option as well.

 

[zal16]

Hello everyone!
I want to do a undevolting on my B1X Wii U
It's possible with stock regs?
If so, which regs reference voltage pins can I modify the voltage?

 

[goodguy123]

Does anyone think this would be a good shell (or at least shell style) for a Wii u portable? Its pretty chunky and its been proven that a lolwut fits in a dmg shell. obviously with Xbox style controls vs playstation

 

[rhlp]

heya! im a complete noob to all of this, but, as of now, how small can we make a wiiu?

 

[rhlp]

I took last week off to work on a different project, but I'm back in the Wii U fray now. Long update incoming!

I cut out the SMC and RTC from a WUP-01 motherboard. I was so excited, I forgot to take microscope photos of the bare daughterboard! But here are some pics of the relocation.

View attachment 28975
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Because I didn't rewire the SMC pins that normally enable the rear USB port protectors, I had to remove them and jumper 5V across the pads.

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Despite taking shortcuts like this, the SMC and RTC still required an annoying amount of wiring. I2C for the SMC, EXI for the RTC, power button, R/B/Y LEDs, and all the GPIOs for the wireless modules. But the relocation worked!

View attachment 28980
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After this, I spent some time cleaning up and consolidating the wiring and regs in preparation for a preliminary trim.
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I was able to run the 3.3V line from the Pico's onboard regulator, which was convenient. I also moved the Pico to beneath the SOC (not shown).

Next up was the flash memory. Since the eMMC and NAND are tied to the console, you can't use ones from a different motherboard without some dumping/reflashing shenanigans. In other words, the NAND daughterboard must be cut from the same motherboard. This is an irreversible step and must be done at the same time as a mobo trim, which is why I saved this relocation for last.

NAND/eMMC daughterboard...
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...and with wires attached. The eMMC uses 4-bit SDIO (6 wires) and the TSOP NAND uses the same ONFI type interface as the Wii NAND (17 wires).
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Here's the trimmed Wii U motherboard after sanding. Keep in mind this is just a preliminary trim for testing purposes.
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The NAND wiring was tricky. The NAND, eMMC, WiFi module, and even the debug port for the Pico de_Fuse modchip all connect to the same 0.8mm pitch grid of vias under the SOC! I also had to remove the Wifi module and move it to make room for the NAND daughterboard as mentioned previously.
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After reconnecting Wifi and 3.3V/GND:
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The fact that the components are so spread out has actually been a blessing in disguise. It means we can relocate everything with daughterboards instead of expensive custom PCBs. But a FPC for the NANDs, Wifi, and Pico wouldn't be a bad idea.
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It boots! First ever trimmed Wii U! I played some BotW and WWHD, and it's totally stable.

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And finally, a size comparison with a stock mobo. Again, this is just a preliminary trim. Final trim coming soon!

View attachment 28995

as a total noob to all of this, and as someone who can only solder by making large balls and dropping them on where i want to solder too, this is truly amazing to see come together. beautifull work.

 

[zal16]

I just bought a second defective wii u and I made this purchase for a very specific reason: it is from the rare WUP-50 rev!!!

As already mentioned, it is defective and so I bought it for less than 20 bucks, considering that it is a WUP-50 (or even any other rev) was an excellent deal.

When I turn it on and press the Power button, the red LED flashes.
I made some measurements on the outlets of all the coils of the DC-DC converters and when I press the power button with the voltmeter connected, it "presents a value" and quickly disappears when the front LED starts to blink in red, except for the 1.15v rail (which feeds the Espresso) which has no voltage, even no peak.

Can you tell the main component responsible for generating this 1,15V voltage?

 

[portabalizeEverything]

I just bought a second defective wii u and I made this purchase for a very specific reason: it is from the rare WUP-50 rev!!!

As already mentioned, it is defective and so I bought it for less than 20 bucks, considering that it is a WUP-50 (or even any other rev) was an excellent deal.

When I turn it on and press the Power button, the red LED flashes.
I made some measurements on the outlets of all the coils of the DC-DC converters and when I press the power button with the voltmeter connected, it "presents a value" and quickly disappears when the front LED starts to blink in red, except for the 1.15v rail (which feeds the Espresso) which has no voltage, even no peak.

Can you tell the main component responsible for generating this 1,15V voltage?

From what I can see from the documentation and WUP_50 scans, the 1.15V rail is connected to the Q1037 (Power Mosfet: TPCA 8A11-h) and Q1031 (Photo too blurry for me to read the part number, you would have to check on yours). Those are the "main" components, but there are many other factors that could be causing issues. Since you say it presents no power at all it could also be one of the other components connected to the supply rail. I believe that the WiiU uses buck converters for power, not LDO (Linear Regulators), and so there are many more than just one chip that can affect the voltage. Things you could try include:

Check continuity on the two legs of the inductor L1005

Check that C1242 and C1245 are both working

Check that R1199 has the correct resistance (should be around 7.5 miliohms, if it significantly less it may be causing problems)

Check capacitor C1394 and Resistor R1331

Also could you tell me what information is on the Q1061, it appears to be a buck converter/mosfet, but I can't tell and it only seems to appear on the 1.15V rail, so it could be a problem

The more information you give the better, do you see voltage on any of those chips? I have not looked at the chips on the bottom, those seem mostly capacitors, which shouldn't cause this problem.

* A picture of your board in high-ish quality would be very useful as any blown components will be spotted and I can double check your board matches the datasheets I have been going off of.

 

[Lazr]

So 2 years ago I posted in this thread about SMC/RTC removal, and I just want to expand on that here.

tldr; SMC can be removed for free, RTC needs to stay (for now)

I've always had the thought that SMC can just be removed and the Wii U will work just fine, but I didn't actually prove it out. My post from 2 years ago was with de_Fuse, which was pretty much doing PoR on the SoC for the exploit effectively replacing the ICs. This is also most likely why Yveltal had issues trying to replicate it.

With my work on the Wii U Micro I figured out that the RTC is what does PoR on the SoC, so that left the SMC with module GPIOs / LEDs / Power and eject buttons (there is more it does but these are relevant to trims).

• Module GPIOs were figured out long ago, none of the connections to the SMC are required for them to function, so that's a freebie.
• LED's while nice to have, aren't required.
• With the SMC removed, how are you going to power on the board? Well, if you short TP9 with GND, it will turn on. It seems that RTC is what responds to TP9 (or otherwise known as a "fake power button"). Maybe it's a leftover from early development before they added the SMC? (or you can just force the 15v PFET on lol)
• This is also banking of anything running on the Starbuck actually caring about not getting a response from the SMC.

This time my setup consists of: SMC removed, RTC present, and a Pico purely for navigation in minute/logging. With the front buttons removed, it's not possible to navigate minute_minute without a Pico. There's a de_Fuse firmware that just takes the DEBUG port output from minute/IOSU (with a stroopwafel patch) and puts it on the Picos serial console with no reset shenanigans, and takes keyboard input from a PC and communicates that with the Wii U running minute. The software setup guide uses the fastboot minute though so this is not an issue, but with a testing setup I wanted the full minute and needed to wire a Pico (Okay I just realized I didn't NEED to if I set up the autoboot config but I like the logging still).

Anyway, it works! I'm able to launch Wii U games, vWii (though can't do much because no disc drive) and WiiVC/HAI!

Note that this board has a bottom RTC.
Because I tested on a stock console there we're some things to do to get everything fully working:

• Short TP173 (connected to pin 7 on WiFi) to 3v3, otherwise the WiFi module doesn't work
• Remove R250 (connected to TP172 and pin 13 on BT), otherwise the Bluetooth module doesn't work. I figure that this is the module PoR for when the SoC is on, and with reset always low the module is never executing its code (not confirmed to be the moodule PoR but it's likely).

These are not a problem for trims. 3v3 should be wired to pin 7 on the WiFi module anyway (already done so on cafeFlex), and because the GPIOs between Bluetooth and the SMC are not required, R250 will not be connected to the pin and therefore (what is probably reset) will just be floating.
Idk the practicality of this though. SMC is an extra 2 wires for its I2C and it gives you LEDs that can be used for early-boot (boot0/boot1) diagnostics which can be useful to test a NAND relocation (not eMMC though).

Regarding RTC, because it does PoR and the SoC reads it for the "mode to boot in" (ie normally boot, ECO boot/PONLG_TMR, sdboot/UNSTBL_PWR), if RTC is removed EVERYTHING is set and it will forever go into ECO mode. ECO is standby mode and the GPU is not turned on/enabled in this mode. Idk the full extent of this but it's what requires RTC to stay for now. It can probably be replaced with heavy software patching (not sure) or a microcontroller.