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Worklog Learning wii moding with a Noldendo Wii Micro

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Hi !
I'm making this thread to keep track of my first Wii moding
My goal is to make a Noldendo Wii Miicro (with slight modifications) to get skills and being prepared to build an ashida after.

But first, here is the board used :

PXL_20241130_112958437.jpg

I installed RVloader on it making sure to patch out wifi. I tested it with a game and everything works fine.
Then I relocated U10 and re-tested. And once again, It booted.

PXL_20241130_120746287.jpg PXL_20241130_125050421.jpg PXL_20241130_125033811.jpg

Then I removed the BIG memory card slot and tested once again. And it booted.

Now it's time for the trim. I made couple of errors here :
- I didn't remove components that were on the path of the dremel before the cut.
- Because of that, I ripped while cutting and damaged a corner on the cut
PXL_20241201_233314296.jpg But since C301 is removed, I hope that this dent didn't kill my trim.
- My dremel need new brushes. It vibrates a lot. Because of that, the cuts are quite rough

PXL_20241130_160357651.jpg PXL_20241130_182749436.jpg

So now it's time for sanding. and removing all the components around the edges.
I got up to 600 grit since I don't have 800
Here are my resistances values :

resistances.png


Then, it's testing time ! I hooked up a PMS and a battery (I don't know if it's possible to use the pms without a battery but I didn't managed to do it). Pushed the button and... Nothing...
The CPU and GPU get warm, voltages are good but I got no video signal.
I did a little bit of troubleshooting today and tried different things but nothing worked so far.

What I tried :
- Removing the 1.8v regulator and using the one from the PMS
- Tested my cable with a working wii just to be sure.
- removing some more edges components.
- Sanding more
- Add the 5v on the video port.

PXL_20241201_213630303.jpg PXL_20241201_233351441.jpg

I'll try to investigate more next week. If someone have any idea, feel free to answer to this thread or ping me on discord.

Thanks for reading.
 
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Ok so I did some more sanding. Now the edges are pretty clean. Wired everything back up. Powered the board but still nothing.

I found out that my USB-C cable and power plug was bad and that's why I wasn't able to power on the board without battery. But other than that, no more progress.

I don't really know what to try next other than trimming another board.
 

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A few things to note it is not possible to power the RVL PMS 2 without a battery and also the RVL PMS 2 is not meant to power 6 layer motherboards (Which is the one in your pictures) it is meant for 4 Layer Wii motherboards. This could be the reason for your issues with it booting. It is recommended to use the RVL PSU Plus from Crazy Gadget for Noldendo micros builds or other micro Wii builds. You can purchase one from his Etsy. The other issues you mentioned should not affect the board and your resistances seem fine.
 
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Oof. Well... That means that I have a spare RVL PMS 2 for my futur ashida if something goes wrong.

Thank you for pointing it out. I didn't knew that. Guess I'll buy one RVL-PSU. That means that I'm stuck until it arrives.
 
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Oof. Well... That means that I have a spare RVL PMS 2 for my futur ashida if something went wrong.

Thank you for pointing it out. I didn't knew that. Guess I'll buy one RVL-PSU. That means that I'm stuck until it arrives.
Yeah the 6 layer boards used in the Noldendo draw more power than the 4 layers boards and the RVL PMS 2 does not output enough power for the 6 layer Wii boards. If you're building a Noldendo you'll want the RVL PSU anyways since its powered from wall power unlike the RVL PMS 2.
 
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Ok so I recieved the new PSU, quickly wired it up and still no signal... I'll try to investigate the problem in the next couple of days but I don't really know where to start. I measured all the tensions and they're all good.
 

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Ok so I recieved the new PSU, quickly wired it up and still no signal... I'll try to investigate the problem in the next couple of days but I don't really know where to start. I measured all the tensions and they're all good.
Did you measure that all the voltages are correct? You could try sanding again to make sure you throughly remove shorts between the layers.
 
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I re-sanded with 800 grit. Still no signal. The edges seems pretty smooth.
PXL_20241219_103900719.jpg
Also I checked continuity from the AVE chip to the connector and it's all good. If anyone have another suggestion on what to check, it'd be appreciated.

Otherwise, I have another wii that I can trim but it has some capacitor problem. Works fine on composite but component is darker.
 
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Nold

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I re-sanded with 800 grit. Still no signal. The edges seems pretty smooth.
View attachment 36575
Also I checked continuity from the AVE chip to the connector and it's all good. If anyone have another suggestion on what to check, it'd be appreciated.

Otherwise, I have another wii that I can trim but it has some capacitor problem. Works fine on composite but component is darker.
That looks pretty good imho.. if it's not the u10, then maybe redo the power wires on the wii. add some more solder and heat them up nicely so you get a good connection.

Did you mask the GPU/CPU during trim? maybe something got under there, which would be a bummer..
 
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I'll try to redo the soldering even tho I don't really believe it'll fix it since I desoldered a couple of time ro re-sand / take measurments. I might try to resolder U10 tho.

For the masking, I did mask the CPU/GPU while cutting and in the first sanding. But after that, all the other sanding were done unmasked. That might be my mistake.
 
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Update :

I 3Dprinted a liittle support for the RVL PSU and now everythiing is nice and tidy (kinda)

PXL_20250114_104840743.jpg

Next I sanded and wired up the controler ports. Then I mounted everythiing in the original case just to run it with a game for about an hour to see if everything works fine. And it does indeed work fine. I tested all 4 ports and they all works.

PXL_20250115_142517818.MP.jpg

Originaly, I planned to do some modifications like adding an HDMI port. But II think I'll stick to the original design first. II'll be able to add it later if I want.

Next steps on the list :

- Bring 12V to the audio amp
- Find a resistor to put back on the sensor bar since I cutted through the original one
- Wire the MX chip.
- Wire the bluetooth
- Print the case.
 
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