Question Disable stock regulators to test the board

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Hi everyone.

I was testing a 60 revision board to see if it works with voltages around 18v because I was planning a medium sized portable and use stock regulators without many cuts.

In 19v the board stopped working, it stays in standby and whem i press the power button of the board or wiimote(apparently the bluetooth module is working) the green led turns on and the red led does not turn off then disarms instantly.
I've done several measurements and I haven't found open fuses or any shorts(No sign of defective parts).

I believe that the problem may be in some part of the regulators. what do you think? is it possible to repair?

Even if I can't repair it, I would like to know if there is any way to disable the stock regulators without the complete removal of the components, like removing just the coils or anything like that to install custom regs and finally install the bbloader to disable wi-fi and bluetooth(Had not yet installed).
 

Stitches

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Ah dear, yeah 19v-20v input is the limit for stock Wiis. Sometimes unplugging the Wii and leaving it alone for a day makes it magically work again, but if Lady Luck won't deign to smile, you may have fried a regulator or two. I'm unsure of how many components you'd need to remove to safely supply external reg power, but Shank might know. He has all sorts of old data from ye originale Wiisearch effort.
 
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Ah dear, yeah 19v-20v input is the limit for stock Wiis. Sometimes unplugging the Wii and leaving it alone for a day makes it magically work again, but if Lady Luck won't deign to smile, you may have fried a regulator or two. I'm unsure of how many components you'd need to remove to safely supply external reg power, but Shank might know. He has all sorts of old data from ye originale Wiisearch effort.
Yes, if i'm not mistaken i saw a post of him saying that tested in 20v but 19v was my limit. The game runs fine for a while but after i shut down, won't turn on no more.
 

Shank

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The light turning off like that means there is some sort of voltage anomaly detected by the 2901. Its hard to tell what the issue is, and we don't really have much documentation on the Wii's voltage regulators behavior. If they detect anything slightly off, they shut off. I would suggest looking for shorts on each of the voltage lines. If you don't find any, blast the regulator circuitry off with hot air (remove all components within the seafoam green polygons as shown in the images here), clean the pads up, and run custom regulators to the board.
 
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I forgot something. after pressing the power button, the regulators make a noise and then turn it off.

Should I relocate the U10 if I remove the original regulators or only when trimming?
 

Senor Avocado

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I remember from a old thread that if you remove U18 you should be able to connect your custom regs with the stock ones still on there
 
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I made the decision to cut the mainboard and install custom regulators to see if it comes back to life.

In my case that I don't have the bbloader installed and any nowifi, bt ioses, what do I need to relocate after cutting? the bluetooth and wifi are enough to boot and access to HB channel and install the bbloader or do I need to put the MX chip or something?
 

Luca

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You'll need to relocate WiFi and BT if you're using something other than Letterbomb to homebrew the Wii, otherwise you have to relocate SD too.
 

Shank

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If you haven't installed software to patch out BT/Wifi, you should not trim the board. Instead, blast the regulators off the board with hot air, as mentioned in the previous post.

However, your board will still not boot under these conditions. The stock Wii motherboard has 2 3.3v voltage rails, and you will need to power BOTH for a stick Wii to turn on. You can do this by running a jumper wire from the primary 3.3v line to the 3.3v standby line. The 3.3v standby regulator is located by the wifi module, but the type of regulators used vary from board to board. The 01, 10, 20, 30, and 40 all use a linear regulator, while the 60 and RVK boards use a switch mode buck converter. As for solder points, The locations of the 3.3v standby pads vary from board to board, but it consistently runs to MX pins 17 and 27 on all motherboard revisions.

Summary: Don't trim the board. Remove the regulators. Run a thick wire from 3.3v to the 3.3v standby. If you cannot find a suitable 3.3v standby pad, you can use either pin 17 or pin 27 on the MX chip
 
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Ok. I already had soft modded the board before the problem.

I'll remove the original regulators and connect the voltages.

I did this question because i want to remove the gamecube ports and memory card and install in another wii that don't have these ports, so cutting will help to remove the ports with the hot air station without stress the board. I don't have the regs yet.

Thanks for the support.
 
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Hi everyone.

it's been a long time that I left this board in a corner because I had lost hope of reviving her, but i recently decided to put an end to this situation and bought some cheap regulators that everyone hates here on the forum but calm down it's just for testing purposes.

The chosen one was the MP1584 because I've seen it working normally in some videos. Added some low ESR capacitors to the regulators and so far they are working very well and stable, they heat up a little but at least for what I need that is to save this board and install RVloader they are working.

I removed all the components of the stock regulator from the top and the bottom.

This cut on the side has nothing to do with the process, it was made to remove the ports from the GC controls to make it easier to desold and reuse and install on another wii well before I decided to revive it, so here is the board:

IMG_20220721_132703466.jpg


IMG_20220721_132727984.jpg


IMG_20220721_132751241.jpg


I managed to make it work :awesome:, at this moment it is being fed with all the correct voltages, including 12v for the audio chip, I'm using an atx power supply.

As I said before, this wii was already hacked with the latest versions of software made with modmii.



Now I will describe the behavior:

1 - When I turn on the system it takes 4 seconds and then black screen.
2 - If a press and hold reset, does the same and then shows priiloader screen a fews seconds latter :awesome:.
3 - The BT does not work, does not sync with wiimote in any screen.
4 - BootMii (IOS) does not load in priiloader menu and HB channel, black screen - no screen - black screen.
5 - When i try to go to system menu - balck screen.
6 - Apps can be loaded via SD card and USB.
7 - Stock channels like VC games and Mii channel does not work - black screen.
8 - GC games runs fine by nintendont, Wii games loads in usb loader gx but... blackscreen.
9 - Without BT module the symptoms don't change, everything stays the same.
10 - Without WiFi module i get blackscreen in any sistuation, as expected.

IMG_20220721_181324501.jpg


My questions are:

What can be happening for the other things not to work?
Is it a problem with the BT module or the MX chip?
Is it safe to install the RVloader package? because I can't access bootmii in any way (I have a nand backup)
Does RVloader contain any patches for the MX chip?


It seems to me that installing RVloader will solve all problems, removing BT and WiFi.
 
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