Worklog Wii U R&D Thread (WURD)

[Lazr]

Welcome to 2025 everyone! There's been loads of progress getting Wii U Trimming more accessible, and I plan to share it all here for the peeps that aren't in the discord.

Arguably the most important thing is PortablizeU (link), which is an AIO package by Yveltal to make the software setup on the Wii U before trimming super trivial. Along with that, we (Yveltal and I) have released a guide on how to use it and set up everything properly. The guide can be found here. The software setup was a PITA before this (even for me!), and the only issues I had during testing were due to user error (Simply forgot to copy stuff to the USB drive..)

Next thing is I have created and released a guide on trimming all motherboards with the A5X (WUP-01/WUP-30/WUP-40 SoC). Obviously these shouldn't be used for portables due to the increased power draw compared to the B1X (WUP-50 SoC), but using these motherboards for "Micro" consoles is perfect!

I also created a complete Wii U Revision Identification guide some months ago, but never posted about it here. A link for those interested:

https://bitbuilt.net/forums/index.php?threads/wii-u-revision-identification-guide.6593/

Hoping to see more Wii U trims come out of these developments, whether it be LOLWUN or LOLWUT.

 

[portabalizeEverything]

Man this is great advancement! with those other board trimming guides maybe ill get the confidence to sacrifice my old wiiu to the trusty dremel! Thanks again for your guys' hard work and determination, if there is any way I can help let me know. I don't have much experience portabalizing, but i have experience basically everywhere else in electronics.

 

[AWhiteRavio]

If this gets big I wanna try this as a first build. [I do know its hard to do]

 

[portabalizeEverything]

If this gets big I wanna try this as a first build. [I do know its hard to do]

The mod itself already fairly organized and straightforward if that's what you mean by "big", but this mod will be ESPECIALLY hard (not to mention pricey as wup50 boards are extremely rare). My suggestion, start out picking up some random motherboard and practicing your soldering skills because you will make mistakes soldering tiny things. then try a normal wii mod, then maybe attempt a wiiu mod. seriously, this is not a good first project unless you already have already amazing soldering skills.

 

[AWhiteRavio]

I guess I will duct tape a wii in a cardboard case to a gamepad and battery

 

[zal16]

I made some scans of Gamepad motherboard. He has SIX layers!!

Google Drive: Sign-in

Access Google Drive with a Google account (for personal use) or Google Workspace account (for business use).

drive.google.com

I hope it is useful to someone

 

[Lazr]

oooo, nice: DRC-20! Both GamePad board are fully scanned now!

 

[zal16]

Have other models?

 

[Lazr]

Theres two board revisions that I know of: DRC-01 (the board I scanned) and DRC-20 (the board you scanned). DRC-01 is the launch retail board, and I believe DRC-20 came around during 2013/2014 with the WUP-30.

 

[YveltalGriffin]

I made some scans of Gamepad motherboard. He has SIX layers!!

Google Drive: Sign-in

Access Google Drive with a Google account (for personal use) or Google Workspace account (for business use).

drive.google.com

I hope it is useful to someone

Thank you very much for sharing these publicly! May I copy them into my Wii U Docs GDrive folder?

 

[zal16]

I have another gamepad paired with my japanese wup-50 console.

He have MAIN/AU/HF - C DH -01 writed on the board

This is a (japanese) variant of your DRC-01?

 

[Lazr]

Yes

 

[zal16]

Thank you very much for sharing these publicly! May I copy them into my Wii U Docs GDrive folder?

Yes.
Your Gdrive files is public too?
Because i have interest to see more of Wii U things

 

[Lazr]

The docs folder had been linked earlier in the thread, but ill link it here too: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T8iTm93AhAHYFhyDN9PrxH_x5npnDAZo?usp=sharing

 

[zal16]

The docs folder had been linked earlier in the thread, but ill link it here too: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1T8iTm93AhAHYFhyDN9PrxH_x5npnDAZo?usp=sharing

Thanks

 

[zal16]

Yes

Hey man, have you the ios patches to run vWii without disc drive?

Sorry for the offtopic

 

[Lazr]

Aaaaaand there goes the need to relocate the WiFi! Thanks to @GaryOderNichts, we now have a patch that removes the need for the WiFi module! It took a bit of effort to find the root problem, but it's just a two-liner ASM patch:

In my testing, you can use the WiFi module with this patch, but it's a race between the interface and driver (or the other way around)
A release build can be found here for those who want to give it a try. It'll also be added to the PortablizeU zip later tonight!
Both trim guides will be updated soon as well!

EDIT:
Wii VC is not affected by this patch. HAI-IOS still requires the WiFi module, otherwise the game does not boot. I hadn't tested Wii VC before posting, as I didn't have any installed on my testing unit, but I did know I needed to test it sooner or later.

vWii also doesn't work, but that's not much of a surprise considering it's IOSes obviously do use the WiFi module.

This should be a trivial fix....for those who know how to patch HAI. I do not. From what I understand it should be possible to take Aurelio's patched WD module and shove it in HAI.

 

[CrashBash]

No Wi-Fi is huge.

How are board scans looking - do we have a "Compendium(s)" yet? I could upload them to BitBuilt's hosting to make sure they're publicly/available long term/etc.

 

[YveltalGriffin]

All of the scans and my pseudo-compendium are on my GDrive, linked in this post (and below). Nothing in there is as polished or complete as the Wii Compendium.

Wii U Docs

You're welcome to mirror them! Just know that the folder is 32GB and more stuff might be added down the line

 

[mems26]

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:

"The spacing between pad and trace/copper is smaller than 0.225mm, the spacing between solder mask opening and trace/copper is smaller than 0.2mm, which is not enough to proceed."

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