Comments on: Wii dual NAND flash hack

By: Princessb89

Princessb89 — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:41:35 +0000

Nice. It takes a lot of guts to put solder to a $250 console.

By: Wii Dual NAND Flash Hack - Hack a Wii - Wiimote Hacks, Mod Chips, DIY Nintendo Wii projects and more

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:22:45 +0000

[...] Via [...]

By: J. A. Streich

J. A. Streich — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:37:22 +0000

@Solenoidclock:

1. There are already multicore microcontrollers like Parallax’s Propeller.

2. This approach wouldn’t work for “dual core MPUs.” But would work to switch programs running on the MPU, barring you don’t flip the switch mid-execution.

By: morcheeba

morcheeba — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:05:09 +0000

Hey carpe! Chips this size can be a pain - I use a $200 stereo microscope from ebay & that helps a lot. Also know that flash memory chips typically use only 1/2 of their pins, so if you mess up, look at the schematic and see if it actually matters.

I added 32KB of memory to my TI Basicalc http://www.datamath.org/graphing/ti-74.htm
.. but it's a lot easier to do when it's in DIP packaging! Here's its PCB:
http://www.datamath.org/graphing/jpeg_ti-74.htm

By: Carpespasm

Carpespasm — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:49:17 +0000

This is really cool. I wish I had a steady enough hand to solder surface mounted chips. Just not reliable enough with it to trust myself. Great to see someone use chip stacking though. Isn’t that how people used to add more memory or storage to old computers and video games?

By: Dzugavili

Dzugavili — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:33:27 +0000

Quite similar to the XBox 360 modchip or the PSP chip, both of which were so god damn obvious that no one noticed.
I can’t wait to see where this is going, but he really needs to add an easy-flash interface for this to be a spectacular hack. The only issue right now is that he has to take them out to flash them. Perhaps wiring two platforms into the case would be an option?

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:09:27 +0000

I’d like to see someone complain about this being a hack or not being a hack, because it is the perfect definition of a hack. It is so brilliant, yet utterly simple and one of those things that make you go “duh! why didn’t I think of that!”

By: Psion

Psion — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:58:07 +0000

This reminds me of hacks made to the TRS-80 Model I to add lower-case letters or speed the computer up.

By: Jaykie

Jaykie — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:54:26 +0000

@nardella:
there isnt.

But now they have the ability to test to make changes to the wii without having to buy a new one if they fail.

By: Edward Nardella

Edward Nardella — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:44:21 +0000

Wow that is sweet, I didn’t know there were custom firmwares available for the wii, thought you had to launch TP at every boot to access homebrew.

By: Solenoidclock

Solenoidclock — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:42:45 +0000

This hack is so straightforward it’s hilarious. We’ll be seeing dual-core microcontrollers next.

By: tiuk

tiuk — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:03:12 +0000

nice to see a real hack