Wiikey Review

This review is based on executing homebrew and imports ,not pirated games. Please support developers.


Wii Key - $36 + free triwing screwdriver.
(foundmy).


Buying Experience

I chose foundmy because of their reputation for fast service. I've heard a
lot of horror stories about other sites, and true to their reputation they
were fast and friendly.

When I placed my order there was a three day wait on stock.Foundmy
called me to notify me of this and confirm my order. (And probably to make
sure I wasn't some estonian hacker)

Foundmy gives good discounts when you buy, I bought a component cable
for $14, which is is normally $20. The gecko adapter is $14.

I highly recommend the gecko adapter because the wiikey can load emulation,
gamecube multi-images and homebrew off of it. Burning a dvd each time can
use up a lot of discs and wear on the laser.

Features:

I decided on wiikey because unlike earlier chips it is more flexible and
upgradable. The Wiikey uses an ATMEGA8L-8AU that has some
advantages over other PIC based methods that have a reputation
for disc read errors (DRE).

The modchip works on the DVD drive controller, not on the wii itself,
so there are problems with some import games. Japanese games like the
naruto series for gamecube and Wii do not work due to audio streaming
or region checking. Currently no chip works to change the region of
the mainboard, it acts upon the drive. While a problem game may load,
upon loading it will not work or will lock up.

Using a mod chip can inadvertently brick your Wii. Because the Wiikey or
any Wii mod chip defeats the DVD region encoding, it can load the wrong
firmware. Running a Japanese or US game on a not up to date PAL Wii is
trouble. If you see ANY Wii update prompt, do NOT CLICK YES. Turn the wii
off and double check. Better yet, log into the Wii and upgrade manually.

That said, the Wiikey offers a friendly, menu based system for operation
that is above anything else at the moment.

The wiikey offers the following features:

• Direct boot of wii backups
• Direct boot of GC backups
• Direct boot of homebrew in GC mode
• Supports all currently available console/drive versions
• Supports D2B chipsets
• Sophisticated (true) update mechanism via DVD (future proof, expect
• cool features to come)
• Direct boot of different NTSC region Wii games/backups on US and
  
• JAP consoles
• Partial support for NTSC region Wii games/backups on PAL consoles
• Boots different region GC games/backups (partially without swapping)
• Supports multi-disc games for BOTH Wii and Gamecube
• Supports DVD-R / true DVD+R and +RW support (no bitsetting required!)
• Improved readsettings for recordable media
• Built-in audio fix
• Supports fullsize 4GB discs for gamecube homebrew
• Stealth mode
• 512 byte EEPROM to store configuration
• Quicksolder interface - no wires required
• Unique disc backup application via sdcard
• Compact design, best quality components, rock solid high speed controller
• Professional ESD packing
• Recovery mode - Can recover from a bad flash

The key features to pay attention to are the D2B chipset compatibility,
the sdcard backup method and the recovery mode.

D2B chips in the DVD drives of newer Wiis aren't compatible with older
modchips.Many vendors are dumping older chips without telling people
about this "small" issue.

The Wiikey has a menu driven feature for backing up a Wii game.
The Wiikey dumps the game to the Gecko SD slot. The only issue is trying to
find a 4GB sdcard. Checking ebay, a 4GB card is hard to get, let alone in SD
card size.

If you are lucky enough to have/ afford a 4GB card, the Wiikey dumps
the data to a *.wii file. You'll need Rawdump2.0 or "Wii UI" by chossy to
convert the image to an ISO file.

The recovery mode feature is nice to have. Other chips claim to be
upgradable, but if there's a problem your chip is probably done for.

Installation:

The Wiikey came from Foundmy with no instructions.

ZERO, zip , nada. The packaged contained one chip, one cable.
No instructons.

I had to find the manufacturer's website, and the PDF on the web
site is a complete joke. You'll find no help on taking the wii apart,
so I have filled in some of the details.

>Disassembly

Taking the Wii apart will requires a small triwing driver, and a small philips
driver. There are more than four kinds of screws on the Wii. IT IS
IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER WHERE THE SCREWS GO. I will say this is very
crucial, as some of the screws are similar in size, but the lengths will vary
and can damage the Wii if put in the wrong hole.

Step 1.

Remove the plastic feet and small thin plastic screw covers on the wii.
(Use a hair dryer to soften the small plastic decals over the screws if you
are anal about things like that. I just threw mine away.)

Step 2.

Remove the screws on the top by the gamecube ports. Slowly remove
the panel. underneath are more screws.

Step 3.

Remove the screws on the side, and bottom. SLOWLY pull the face off and
using a pair of needlenose pliers, remove the front assembly wire from it's
connector. Using your fingers will result in tearing the wires, and a painful
repair. Remove at the socket. Slowly and evenly remove the top half of the
Wii to prevent hangups on the sides. If it catches or won't give, you might
have forgotten a screw.

Here is a video (not mine) of the process. Horrid music , you might want
to mute it.

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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yRowSobFSFA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object>

Once inside is the tricky part.

You will have to remove four large screws on the DVD drive. Remove them
without letting them fall into the drive. SLOWLY lift the drive and you will
see two connectors.

#1.

White cable. Slowly work it from the connector. WHEN PUTTING THIS BACK
IT GOES INTO A SMALL NICHE BELOW IT IN THE WII. IGNORE REPLACING
THIS IN THE NICHE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

#2. Ribbon cable. LIFT UP the brown edge, do not pull up or out.
This connector has a flappy edge that holds it in place, it is not an insertion
socket.

Remove the drive and flip it over, and there is the the DVD chip.


(alternate ground indicated above)

Now, for those who are timid modders, this ranks a 8/10 for difficulty. If
you have older eyes , or eyes that stain easily like mine, you might want to
use a magnifying headset. The Wiikey is TINY.

Here we encounter the first real problem of the Wiikey. The PCB thickness.

The PCB is so thick an amateur attempt to make a solder bridge could
result in error. What happens is solder fills the two holes for VCC and
ground resulting in a "mushroom" of solder underneath the PCB. This can in
extreme cases make a short. What it usually does is make the board wobble
and the install much harder due to the proximity of the remaining solder
points.

That said, I preferred to tape down the PCB somewhere and use wires to
make the connections. I used kynar wire for the four small points and
thicker wires off the 5v line of an old power supply for the VCC and ground.

I also used a different ground point. I picked a ground point that did not
need to pass through a small eyelet in the board. The alternative ground
shown above is nice and wide and safer in my opinion.

That having been said, this install is not for the novice with a 20,000 watt
solder iron. You can lift off and destroy the pads on the Wii if you are not
careful. As a comparison, this is no harder than a PSONE modchip install.

The key is to use wires and not the solder bridge as shown on the maker's
web site. One mistake that way, and you have a real mess to fix. Foundmy
did include a small kynar kit with solder. However small gauge Kynar is not
suitable for voltage or ground. Do yourself a favor and take the few
seconds more to use wires.

For the novice, you can try filing a small "u" in the tip of your iron to
cradle a small ball of solder. You can also try cutting tiny pieces of solder.
Soldering is easier if you tin the wires (coat the ends with solder first).
Using solder, or tiny pieces, mound up the points on the PCB. Then go in
with the iron and touch solder, wire and iron at the same time.
There is no need for extended, prolonged application of heat. This is what
makes the traces lift off the PCB.

Reassembly:

Carefully secure the Wiikey to the underside of the board. Reattach cables.
The ribbon cable must go all the way to the bottom of the connector
before you latch it. Doing this incorrectly will result in it falling out.The
ribbon cable folds up under the Wiikey, so there is no need to go crazy with
the electrical tape.

Make sure you don't forget the white cable must go into a small recess in
the black plastic for a level fit.

Here's the hard part, the two silver screws in the front of the drive.
Save yourself some time by using needlenose to place them into the holes.
If you screw up, they will fall backwards into the drive, which is a BAD
thing. I lowered them in with the pliers, then stood them up through the
front and placed them into the holes.

Operation:

The Wiikey runs in a stealthy fashion and does not have any kind of menu
like some people are used to on an XBOX. This is because the chip is a DVD
drive mod, not a system bios mod. You have to burn a setup DVD from
this page to access the chip's features.



Wiikey Configuration:
- Region Override: (on/off)
- Audiofix: (on/off) - (use audiofix for GC games?)
- Drivespeed: (3X/6X) - (select dvd drive read speed)

For some reason my chip came with "no region" set on off. This was semi
annoying while I waited for the DVD to burn. The setup disc is padded to
4gb, so this took some time.

Disc Backup - The disc backup takes some time, and does require a 4gb sd
card or a sd card adapter (gacko) with 4gb micro sd. If you use a small card,
expect a ton of file chunks.

SDload - Loads files off the SD card. This is the same as the gamecube
gameshark exploit.

SNES9X - The SNES emulator is the same. However no annoying gameshark
tricks are needed this time around. This is where the gecko adapter comes
in handy for files.

GCOS - Load gamecube files from a DVD, great for multi game dvds.

MFE Player - If you so decide to, you can play media files on your Wii. Why
you would go through all the trouble of converting media to the Wii format
is beyond me, as we all have about 15 dvd players by now thanks to
PS2, PS3, XBOX and the 360. Let's just say it's nice to know it's there.

Summary:

>The Good

*The Wiikey loaded homebrew, backups, and imports without problems.
*It's a high quality chip with great features. For the experienced modder,
it offers a good solution to your needs.
*Easy and safe upgrades

>The Bad

*The Wiikey install is not for the amateur or faint of heart. It is unforgiving
if a mistake is made. Yes a no wire mod is sexy, but using wires lowers the
degree of difficulty substantially, to that of a PSONE job.
* Instructions: What instructions? Oh, you must mean this one page PDF.
* Not set for imports - I had to burn a 4GB dvd just to change one
software toggle.
* Foundmy included wires with the chip, but the small gauge Kynar wire is
not appropriate for use with VCC or Ground.
* Uses a ground point I feel is unreliable.

Overall, there are far more plus points than minuses to the Wiikey. Most of
the detractions are over the tricky installation, not the product's features. I
would highly recommend the Wiikey based on it's excellent features. Once
the installation hurdle is crossed, it's an excellent product.

I give it a 8/10 : minus one point for the instructions, and another for the
tricky install.

 

The update that is coming out can now load from dvd. However, if
you have a gecko, you won't need to waste a dvd for a 256kb file...
You also need a gecko to do emulation or homebrew without
burning a dvd each time.

 

That's one way to do it. I prefer wires so that if there's any vibration
or drop I won't get a crack in the solder connection.

 

The wiikey firmware update was delayed, I will post a review when it's released.