Worklog First Wii Portable (unnamed so far)

GingerOfOz

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Smoke is never good, I really doubt anything you could do with video wiring could cause it.

Take some high quality pictures of the front and back of your board, that always gives us something to go off of.

Also, when you say solder joint on the button, what button are you talking about? The Wii definitely shouldn't be getting hot enough to melt solder, so I don't think that's what happened.
 
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9854C96C-869A-4777-A70B-1AC44010F4FE.jpeg
3DBD648E-7DEA-4A70-83CF-19B0DE3209B8.jpeg


When I say button I mean the tact switch required for the PMS to work.
 
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jefflongo

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Sorry for no updates but there hasn't been much happening I'm afraid. I decided to scrap my first attempt and move on to my second one. This time however I'm using an RVK-01 board. I've just completed the U10 relocation and checked continuity on the ground pins on the U10 and my trace is cut + wire connected properly. I can post a picture later but the problem is that the wii isn't posting. When I plug the DC power cable in + the audio/video cables the power LED lights up red (normal). However when I press the power button it flashes green and then goes out. Later when I try to unplug and plug the power cable back in the LED flashes green quickly again and then goes out. When i later wait a minute or so with the cable out and re-insert it it yet again lights up red (normal). So my question is: Does anyone know if this is related to the RVK-requiring some extra procedure or did I screw something up. I'm pretty positive it's the latter seen as I think the wii is struggling to boot because it's not detecting something (perhaps the delayed signal from u10). This time I'm even more determined to get this thing working!

PS. In case it wasn't clear I already have all the software installed

Pics:
FF638D82-4E08-49CC-9D55-1BA7D8E0D28F.jpeg

A970FB9E-0408-439D-BCD8-1A00D8C3AD24.jpeg
 
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Stitches

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Did you properly sever the specified U5 trace? You could possibly try plugging the wifi module back in just to see if it's an IOS problem.
 
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Your wire is going to the wrong pin on U10
Sorry for the shitty picture. The angle it's takem from makes it hard to see. But the wire is connected to the right pin.

Did you properly sever the specified U5 trace? You could possibly try plugging the wifi module back in just to see if it's an IOS problem.
I cant find any continuity between the pin on U10 and the via the trace leads to. I also tried the wifi module; no success.

The only conclusions I can draw now are these:

1) magnet wire not properly connected to gpu via - I've resoldered that point several times. The magnet wire however is not inserted into the via but rather connected to a small solder glob filling the via. Could it be that the wire has to be pushed all the way in and the soldered? Or is the ring of the via good enough?

2) faulty u10 - Unlikely since this was a very clean relocation but you never know. Could try with U9 just to check.

3) RVK-01 boards being slightly different - very unlikely but I've noticed that 1 or 2 components don't look the same as the picture of the board found in @Shank 's guide here:http://forums.modretro.com/index.php?threads/wii-board-revisions-guide.14059/

I'll probably try with U9 but this is really irritating me because this shouldn't be that hard.
 
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Sorry for the shitty picture. The angle it's takem from makes it hard to see. But the wire is connected to the right pin.



I cant find any continuity between the pin on U10 and the via the trace leads to. I also tried the wifi module; no success.

The only conclusions I can draw now are these:

1) magnet wire not properly connected to gpu via - I've resoldered that point several times. The magnet wire however is not inserted into the via but rather connected to a small solder glob filling the via. Could it be that the wire has to be pushed all the way in and the soldered? Or is the ring of the via good enough?

2) faulty u10 - Unlikely since this was a very clean relocation but you never know. Could try with U9 just to check.

3) RVK-01 boards being slightly different - very unlikely but I've noticed that 1 or 2 components don't look the same as the picture of the board found in @Shank 's guide here:http://forums.modretro.com/index.php?threads/wii-board-revisions-guide.14059/

I'll probably try with U9 but this is really irritating me because this shouldn't be that hard.
Hang in there man, we seem to be in a similar situation. But I definitely had the same thought about the difficulty lol..
 

cheese

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If you're using the onboard regulators and it doesn't stay green, that means there is most likely a short somewhere, or the trace isn't fully cut. Try following the trace up the board a bit and cutting again there. The RVK boards are the same as all the other 4 layers, with the exception that they don't have the gamecube ports.
 
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If you're using the onboard regulators and it doesn't stay green, that means there is most likely a short somewhere, or the trace isn't fully cut. Try following the trace up the board a bit and cutting again there. The RVK boards are the same as all the other 4 layers, with the exception that they don't have the gamecube ports.
I might have already read this somewhere, but you can perform the u10 relocation without trimming the board? I thought u5 was needed for running the Wii with the onboard regs
 

cheese

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I might have already read this somewhere, but you can perform the u10 relocation without trimming the board? I thought u5 was needed for running the Wii with the onboard regs
You can do the U10 before trimming, but if you don't cut the trace you will cause the wii to shut off almost immediately
 

Stitches

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Sorry for the shitty picture. The angle it's takem from makes it hard to see. But the wire is connected to the right pin.



I cant find any continuity between the pin on U10 and the via the trace leads to. I also tried the wifi module; no success.

The only conclusions I can draw now are these:

1) magnet wire not properly connected to gpu via - I've resoldered that point several times. The magnet wire however is not inserted into the via but rather connected to a small solder glob filling the via. Could it be that the wire has to be pushed all the way in and the soldered? Or is the ring of the via good enough?

2) faulty u10 - Unlikely since this was a very clean relocation but you never know. Could try with U9 just to check.

3) RVK-01 boards being slightly different - very unlikely but I've noticed that 1 or 2 components don't look the same as the picture of the board found in @Shank 's guide here:http://forums.modretro.com/index.php?threads/wii-board-revisions-guide.14059/

I'll probably try with U9 but this is really irritating me because this shouldn't be that hard.
I'd try cutting of the tinned end of the magnet wire, re-tinning it and putting the tinned end inside the via and resoldering it with heaps of flux. Sometimes it doesn't make proper electrical contact if you just glob it, no clue why. I ran into that problem when putting a Trinket chip in my Switch recently. It's also worth making sure that the ground blob of the U10 is actually connected to ground. I had a Wii not work because of that and I had to run a jumper wire to a nearby ground pad before it would boot.
 

rcb123

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RK32QT2/
If you want to use usb c for power you can use an xacto knife and carefully cut this open to take out its board (usb c end), it will negotiate 12v from usb c for you
just know that I have never tested this (might in the future) and that a custom solution would be better in this case
 
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