Discussion WiiSearch and Development

Shank

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In my mission to reduce the wii's power consumption to the absolute minimum, I have done some tests as to the absolute minimum voltage that the wii can run on when using custom regulators. The hope is testing these chips at different voltages will show what voltage yields the highest efficiency.

The circumstances:
RVL 40 board with stock regulators removed, and 3.3v and standby lines shorted together
Variable output linear benchtop power supplies hooked up to the 3.3v, 1v and 1.15v lines
x1 1000uf capacitor attached to 3.3v line / gnd
x3 470uf capacitors attached to 1v / gnd
x1 2200uf capacitor attached to 1.15v / gnd

All stock chips are in place
composite video out
wifi and bluetooth modules present
disc drive NOT present
SD card in slot
gamecube controller connected to port 1

I have the console modded to auto-boot into wiiflow, as that seems to require just slightly more current than running actual games. This will not only show what works, but what could be potentially a "safe" voltage to run at.

3.3v Results:
Console cannot maintain voltages below 2.98. Will reboot
3.0v= .75a average, .765 max
3.3v= .76a average, .775 max
4.0v= .78a average, .795 max
 

Gman

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This is awesome Shank but I wont be satisfied until you blow the Wii up ;)
 

Shank

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I'm going to post more tests on the other voltage lines, and will update my previous post.

I am being very careful to not burn out my Wii. But if I do, I have plenty left ;)
 

Shank

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Why did you use capacitors that big?
To ensure that there is enough to compensate for voltage drops that may occur, for testing purposes. Higher capacity allows for bigger voltage dips due to changes in current draw
 

Aurelio

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To ensure that there is enough to compensate for voltage drops that may occur, for testing purposes. Higher capacity allows for bigger voltage dips due to changes in current draw
Sure, but these capacitances are too high and not needed. With these capacitors the 3.3v line would take more than 100us to drop of just .1v.
 

Shank

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Sure, but these capacitances are too high and not needed. With these capacitors the 3.3v line would take more than 100us to drop of just .1v.
Certainly. I really didn't want to or know how to calculate how much I would need. I had a bunch of massive caps, so I just used those and went overboad.
 

Shank

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Back from mgc, straight to the workbench.
Got my computer to recognize the wii's Bluetooth module by connecting it through USB. Will post more details with pictures later.

More to come. For now, more tests.

Edit 1:
Oh my god. Plugged it in Windows size.
Installing drivers
Your device is ready to use

Edit 2:
Is this real life?
Screen Shot 2016-04-11 at 12.15.23 AM.png
It shows up on my mac.

Screen Shot 2016-04-11 at 12.24.04 AM.png

Windows 7 sees it, and knows what to do. I wonder... If i grab a wiimote and hit the sync button on... No. theres no way.
Screen Shot 2016-04-11 at 12.25.22 AM.png
This can't be real. Can I really connect to my wii remote on my computer by plugging the bluetooth module through usb into my computer?
Screen Shot 2016-04-11 at 12.26.05 AM.png

WAT

Edit 3:
Tried removing the Bluetooth module from its normal place on the wii and plugging it in through the wii's USB Port. It did not boot :/
 
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Law

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This is not incredibly surprising, I was actually going to try this myself at some point. The Wii's BT is literally an off the shelf USB broadcom chip (with possibly some slight hackery going on that isn't normally possible with a standard module, not sure). In any case, I've been working on a replacement.

Kind of disappointing that it doesn't work on a different port, that would make it easy to just rip out the bluetooth module and plug the spoof module right in the back for testing or temporary use, but whatever. Also interesting that the speed is listed as 12Mbps, which suggests full-speed USB. That's what I figured, but wasn't totally sure. Good to know, thanks for the info :)

Do tell if you discover any unusual quirks with that module though, I'm curious if there's anything nonstandard going on at all.
 

Aurelio

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Back from mgc, straight to the workbench.
Tried removing the Bluetooth module from its normal place on the wii and plugging it in through the wii's USB Port. It did not boot :/
That's because the USB ports and the bluetooth module are connected to two different buses. Unless you modify the IOS to handle the bluetooth module over the USB ports then there is nothing you can do
 

cheese

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Tried removing the Bluetooth module from its normal place on the wii and plugging it in through the wii's USB Port. It did not boot :/
ss and I had tried that as an option for rewiring, back when we were working on the trim :P
Would've included it in the guide had it worked, since most homebrew works with only one USB at a time.
EDIT: You oughta wire up the Bluetooth module to your computer so it turns on when you press the power button on the Wii remote
 

bentomo

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Nice find shank!

I wonder if it's possible to clone the bluetooth stack from the device itself.
 

cheese

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I wonder if it's possible to clone the bluetooth stack from the device itself.
AFAIK its implemented on a per-game basis (like the home menu), or at least in the IOS (like WiFi). I can't find anything in the Bluetooth spec about having the stack on the device itself... nvm, refer to law's post
EDIT: you may, however, find something by putting something on the two USB lines to see what's going over them in normal system operation.
 
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Law

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The device implements lower parts of the stack. I have no idea how the upper parts are done on the Wii, but as far as the module cares, it isn't important. It communicates with the host using HCI, which is fairly straightforward. If one were to replace the physical device without changing the software, you'd need to implement that interface over USB to perform the usual adapter functions. (as I've mentioned, I may or may not be working on doing that)
 

cheese

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The device implements lower parts of the stack.
Good to know
(as I've mentioned, I may or may not be working on doing that)
If you'd like I could hook my scope up to it, and see what kind of stuff shows up with a real and virtual remote (though you'd have to give me a bit to get it all together)
 

Law

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If you'd like I could hook my scope up to it, and see what kind of stuff shows up with a real and virtual remote (though you'd have to give me a bit to get it all together)
That could be handy, though it might be a bit hard to make sense of all the bits flying down the line without any help from some kind of logic decoder. Then again, unless there's something funny going on with that module, hopefully it should be standard protocol and nothing more.

My plan was to use a USB controller I picked up, spoof the device info, and just start implementing the HCI layer and hope for the best. Since the BT module is nothing special, I don't expect too many issues, but I don't dare underestimate the Wii's fussiness over hardware being tampered with.
 

Shank

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I'm looking into figuring out how I can connect the WiFi module to my computer.
It communicates through SDIO protocol, and uses a pretty standard off the shelf chip. While my Mac doesn't have SDIO support, Windows may play nice with it. If not, people have successfully been able to access it when running Linux on the Wii, so I may have to boot into that and see if the drivers will work.

The current problem is figuring out the SDIO pinout of the WiFi module using an oscilloscope so I can run some wires
 

Shank

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So I have been poking around the RVL-01s a bit.
First discovery is that the RVL-01 has a 2nd 1.8v line! On every other board, the onboard 1.8v low Drop-Out linear regulator powers both the RAM and the Video encoder. But on the 01, it has an extra section of switching regulators that regulates to 1.8v in addition to the 1.8v ldo. I haven't completely traced it yet, but it appears to only run to the video encoder, while the RAM is powered by the LDO. This explains why it wouldn't turn on when I ran the usual setup for custom regs.

I'm currently attempting to investigate power consumption and sand the layers of the 01. The first layer came off fine, allowing me to scan the second layer. Getting to the final layer of copper has stumped me. I'm having trouble removing the second layer to view the bottom layer without destroying it.
 

Gman

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Removing the smd capacitors on the video encoder makes the picture way too bright. I wanted to trim up to the video encoder pins. I guess I will trim up to those capacitors instead and then reconnect them to ground, that will probably work.
 

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ShockSlayer

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Half of those are actually resistors. You might be able to measure them/reference Shank's Super Meme and just add back the same value right there.
 
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