Wiikey Installation?

I just wanted to post about my experience installing the wiikey.
I found several instruction sites and all of them said it was easy. It is definitely not and required LOTS of patience and five trips to radio shack.
First blocker: Couldn't get the thing open. People say you can open the tri-wing screws with a tiny flathead screwdriver, but I was stripping them, so I just stopped and ordered one online. After that I finally got the thing open.
Then: My solder and tip were way too big. Tried a coldheat solder but the tip was way too big. Got a 15 watt solder and as small of a tip as I could find. I also had to buy a desoldering bulb to suck out the last crap job I did.
Then: I couldn't make a bridge between several of the points. The solder wouldn't stick and there was no way to make a straight line without it spilling everywhere. I read about flux, went back to radio shack and bought some flux paste and tried again, but still no go.
Then: Read up about using tiny wires to bridge between the points even with the quick solder method. Gave that a shot using just a single strand of copper from ONE of the wires in a four wire set of telephone wire. Closed it back up and it didn't work. The wii functioned normally and would play gamecube cames but gave me a disc error message inserting any 12 cm disc, including backups.
Then: Bought non insulated wire to bridge the points using quicksolder. Followed some net advice first and fluxed and tinned the points first, and fluxed the tip of the wire and stuck the wire to the points first, then clipped the wires short with a nail clipper, then put the wii chip down next to them to solder them to it. But the wire was too thick and snapped off every time I tried to bend them. ARRRGH unsoldered and cleaned everything and started over.
Finally: I bought insulated wrapping wire, the kind you use to make speakers or electromagnets. SCREW the quicksolder method. I taped my chip on top of the gauze-y electrical tape on the board that comes with the wii. I carefully measured each wire about 2 mm too long, stripped the ends, and then cut the stripped ends short so very little was exposed. Took lots of patience and tweezers. I took photos but everything's too small so it's blurry. It was VERY hard. BTW I just covered everything in packaging tape because I didn't have electrical tape but I know it's not conductive anyway. Put everything back together and now it works great!!
Worth it but VERY hard and tedious. I have a multimeter but I couldn't even test the chip because my multimeter test probes are too fat.

 

can somebody help me on how to install the matrix infinity green dot. i need the full manual on how to install matrix infinity green dot modchip. the infinitymod.com and matrix-mod.com doesn't work do u have any alternates?

PLZ...........HEPL!......

 

@jjbball45

Isn't that a PS2 Modchip? Go to the PS2 forum and post your question. This is the Wii section.

I installed a WiiD chip and had a hell of a time doing it. I Finlay got my girlfriend to help me by holding the wires to the contact points and had it installed in 15 minutes. So try getting an extra hand to help hold the wire to the contact point. Then you have both hands free to do the soldering.

As most others have said do a wire install and forget about the quick solder method.

 

Yeah I did 2 cyclowiz chips and did the quick solder method. Worked fine but then when i did a wiikey. NOT HAPPENING.
That extra soldering point kills you.

When you were soldering did you prepare each of the soldering pads on the chip and on the dvd drive.

I found that putting an extra bead of solder on each will make it easier.

then you just use one had to hold the wire and the other for the iron.
Just touch the wire to the bead of solder adn then touch the iron to it and remove. It will melt the solder quick and then get hard just in time for the wire to move into the bead and then stay.

You really dont need a third hand.

Done 11 wiikeys already

NOTE> Get a magnify glass with stand.

 

The best way to install the Wiikey in my opinion ist to go directly to the board with no wires. Justdab some solder onto the Wiikey termination points and trace them back to the leads on the DVD drive. Install done in about 5 minutes. Also, put a piece of electrical tape across the top to prevent any shorts. Works like a charm.

 

if you are insure, let a pro do it, don't risk your Wii!

 

You wouldnt happen to have pics do you?
Would love to see how you got your solder rivers clean and neat.
I dont think its as easy as doing this with the cyclowiz.

 

I might be new to this site but I have to sat one thing, If you do not know how to solder you should really have some else do it for you that way you don't ruin you console. Soldering is a tricky thing, one thing is you have to use a low watt iron as to not burn any chips or traces up. I use a 15Watt iron with a 0.025" pencil tip and have modded my Wii with the WiiKey using no wires at all. It works flawlessly and have had no problems. I have also modded several other consoles but will not get into that in this forum. If you are new to soldering try practicing on something else before attempting something as small as the contacts on consoles.

 

Please have a look at 'www.death-zone.org', under the Projects - Hacking the Wii section and look in 'Installing the WiiKey' - there are many pictures there which I think you'll find quite helpful.

My soldering connections aren't perfect but then the tip of my iron was a little big and wasn't quite hot enough, but other than its asthetic qualities it works perfectly.

- Raston

 

If you have had experience modding Xboxes with the miniscule D0 wire solder, shouldn't this be an easy job with a fine tipped soldering iron? Also, instead of tinning a length of exposed wire which could short your system, why can't you just roll a little bit more wire out (still insulated and shielded), solder to the point on the Wii, and then loop it once through the hole so it's taut and then solder it onto the point to make a close suspension support, thus greatly reducing the chances of a short?

 

To get a good solder connection with the wire and the spot you are soldering to, you should really tin the wire. As far as looping the wire you can do it but I would not recommend it due to the fact that when you putting the Wii back together there might be a chance that the wire will get pinched/crimped and break thus causing the WiiKey not to work and/or cause a short.

 

I just installed a WiiKey Clone with regular insulated wires shortened up just enough. It holds the chip up just fine, but I put some electrical tape over it just to be safe. Works great.

As for being unsure and having a professional do it...I AGREE. If you can't steady a soldering iron on this job or if it's your first job, then stay away. The contacts are miniscule. Start with something cheap and simple like a GC chip job and work your way up.

 

I hope ya left the little soldering mishap in the description, if not you did the buyer dirty.

 

Of Course I did. I have been a good ebayer since 2001.
100% all Positive feedback.

 

Ok, I have solder for 25 years and still did some stupid stuff to my Wii for my first install. I was anxious and started in the middle of the night with all the wrong tools. I have stripped a few braids from a wire and made my own wires. Unfortunately, I could not find my adjustable temp iron and used a bit more than 15 watt. So, I ended up soldering a wire down to the middle of the four connect points, went to bend it over and bang pow the copper lifted and tore the contact point right off of the board. Being decently adept at soldering I bridged a wire down and thought I caught the little sliver of copper trace line in the glob of solder. In fact, a multi tester from the point on the WiiKey to the firmware gives me resistance, so I must have made connection, right? Well, while finishing the other soldering points and doing a good but not great job I also tested and had resistance on the firmware chip, but no continuity from point to point on the WiiKey. This all sounds great, right. When I solder the two top points (big holes) I filled them instead of using a wire. I hope that is not a mistake.

I turned on the Wii and all the original games work, but the config disks do not boot up. I tried two types of DVD-R and burned at 2x. Is there any other way of testing before I tear it back out and try and figure out how I am going to solder to the firmware chip. Oh yeah, for the faint of heart cover your eyes, I put one drop of crazy glue on an edge to hold the WiiKey in place(I know I usually use my glue gun.....but could not find it).

Ok any thoughts before I start reworking this would be helpful. I am not eager to solder to the chip, are there any other solder points (left to right it is the second one on the WiiKey). Should I try to rebuild the contact point with radio shack trace stuff?

 

Okay I just soldered in my wiikey but i haven' tested any games yet, but the thing is though that i tried an original game and it has run,does that mean the wiikey is okay?

 

I have a question: Once you install the wiikey you need to install their software on your wii. Is this done simply by burning the software from their website onto a dvd and then putting it inside the Wii disc drive?

 

If your Org games still works, that means you haven't fudged up the installation of the wiikey. The only way to test it out if you have already put it all back to gether again is to insert a game you burned. If it plays Your golden.

If you still have the board open. Use a multimeter and make sure you didnt short any connections and that all your connections are good.

Unlike the cylowiz which has a LED on it to tell you if its up and running when you power the unit on. It its a steady green everythign is fine. If its flashing green you missed a connection.

 

After you solder the WiiKey on you dont need to do anything else.
It will work fine as so. The Wiikey Software I believe is mostly for setting the DVD speed and gamecude settings.

But you dont need to worrk about it.

But yes you simply burn the image to a dvd and then insert the dvd. It will only allow you to change settings. It doesnt accually install anything.