Modding The Light Bar For Always On, A tutorial! Options

[japanwings]

Nice. And everything works as it should?

Yes, works perfect.

[sicknasty413]

Finished this mod a few minutes ago!



...That's not the final picture. It looked a lot better, I promise!

I actually had a lot of trouble with this mod. Ended up disassembling the Wii like 3 times. Ended up retouching all the points and going overboard with electrical tape. Then it worked!

Good stuff though pablot, my friend was very happy

[Koga]

I installed this mod the other night but unfortunately I'm having an issue. It sounds like the same problem Wii Modder had/has. When I plug the Wii in, the standby light is on and as soon as I try to power it up, both the power light and the disc light bar flash on and then immediately the whole system shuts down. I have to unplug the power cable from the back of the console to get it back to where it started.

So, from the advice you all gave Wii Modder I assume I have a point that's grounding to metal somewhere.

I accidentally got some solder on TP51 (directly beneath point C for the transistor) but I think I removed it sufficiently. You can see in the pic it looks pretty clean now.



Any thoughts? I felt like it should have been good to go but obviously not...

Any help is appreciated!

[SICKdimension]

Looks like a clean install. Do you have a multimeter? If so you could check to see if TP51 is still shorting to TP52. You can also tape over the whole assembly so that it doesn't short on the metal shielding when you put the motherboard back in the case.

[Koga]

Thanks for the quick reply SICKdimension. I'll check for the short and add tape as suggested and post back my results.

[Koga]

Hmmm.... Well the continuity test was fine for TP51 and TP52. I also checked all my other solder spots and my transistor for continuity and they seemed fine as well. (I had to remove the resistor to test the Base wire but it was fine too.)

I then added some electrical tape over everything but I still got the same scenario with the console just shutting itself off when I pressed the power button.

I removed the whole mod and my Wii operates properly, so it's definitely something with my layout. I'm just not sure what it could be.

Something to note: with the mod installed and the Wii not working, whenever I plug it in the standby button looks red, however with the mod removed and the Wii working fine the standby button looks yellow/orange. Is the red color something to troubleshoot off of? Or is it just a "problem" type issue?

[Koga]

(Is there a way to edit posts? I'd rather that then triple post.) Anyway, I put a different resistor in my mod, added electrical tape both under and over everything, added some electrical tape to the metal housing as well just in case, checked everything with my DMM before I closed it up, and it still gives me the same error result

I'm wondering, is this mod 100% compatible with all Wii systems? The only thing I can think to try is swap out the transistor just in case for some reason it's bad/the culprit.

Any thoughts?

[throwingks]

The mod should be compatible with all consoles. Make sure you have the right transistor in the right position. If that doesn't work, replace it.

I am leaving the posts alone. No need to merge, you can tell by the time stamps you were respectful.

[SICKdimension]

Did you buy the resistor specifically for this? Are you sure it is NPN?

[Koga]

Thank you again for the quick replies guys

I bought a few 2N3904 NPN transistors from RadioShack as mentioned at the beginning of this topic. The flat side of my transistor is against the pcb so the collector is on the left and the emitter is on the right so that should be good to go.

Are transistors extremely heat sensitive? For the heat shrink tubing I quickly use a heat gun. Could that be a problem?

I'll go ahead and swap out the transistor here in the near future to see if that helps.

[Koga]

Still no luck. I totally redid my mod with a new 2N3904 NPN transistor (from RadioShack), new resistor, new wire etc. I didn't use heat shrink tubing as I thought perhaps my heat gun fried the last transistor. I insulated everything heavily, including the metal tray that sits next to the bottom of the pcb/the mod when the Wii is closed. I checked everything with my DMM before I closed it up too.

Here are two pics of the current non-working mod:




Is there a difference between a "2N3904" and a "2n3904" transistor from RadioShack? I could only find the "N", not the "n" as stated in the directions, but I assumed they were the same.

I have the transistor placed with the flat side against the pcb, so I believe I'm reading it correctly with the collector on the left and the emitter on the right.

I'm about out of ideas here.

[pablot]

that sure looks like a solid install.. and n or N doesn't matter i the name.. I'm sorry, but I'm all out of ideas too, maybe try again with another transistor (you might have been unlucky as hell with that one..)

[Koga]

Alright, I'll try swapping out the transistor again here in the near future. I've got a list of mods I'm working on and since this one has been so finicky for me I think I'll wait a few days to let my frustration go away

[kmccann]

I installed this mod the other night but unfortunately I'm having an issue. It sounds like the same problem Wii Modder had/has. When I plug the Wii in, the standby light is on and as soon as I try to power it up, both the power light and the disc light bar flash on and then immediately the whole system shuts down. I have to unplug the power cable from the back of the console to get it back to where it started.

So, from the advice you all gave Wii Modder I assume I have a point that's grounding to metal somewhere.

I accidentally got some solder on TP51 (directly beneath point C for the transistor) but I think I removed it sufficiently. You can see in the pic it looks pretty clean now.

*IMAGE NOT INCLUDED*

Any thoughts? I felt like it should have been good to go but obviously not...

Any help is appreciated!

Hey, I know this post is a little old but I just did this mod on a Wii over the weekend with the same results (install mod > power on > lights flash > system shuts down). However, I was able to fix mine and since I stumbled across this thread as I was trying (unsuccessfully) to find someone with a solution I figured I would contribute. My initial setup was a 2n3904 and a 1/2 Watt 1K Ohm resistor (both from RadioShack). I decided to buy some other components and give them a try before I went with the far less impressive "ground the led board anywhere on the wii" mod. Lucky for me, my first guess turned out to be right. I swapped out my 1/2 Watt 1K Ohm resistor with a 1/4 Watt 3.3K Ohm resistor and everything worked exactly like it should (LED always on with the system on and off when the system is in standby and off). Now, I do not know if the issue was the 1/2 Watt vs the 1/4 Watt (original mod never made any note of wattage that I saw) or the 1K Ohm vs the 3.3K Ohm (original mod said anything from 1K to 10K was fine as I recall), but my suggestion to anyone doing this mod is to go in the middle of the 1K to 10K Ohm range with a 1/4 Watt resistor.

Summary of my working LED always on mod:
-2n3904 NPN Transistor
-1/4 Watt 3.3K Ohm resistor
-Exact same schematic as the original mod

GOOD LUCK!!!

[V0rt3k]

Is this mod still working?? I tried it but when I poweron the wii it gives me the yellow led and the fan isn't working... When i disable the mod the wii works normal...

I am using a wii with firmware 4.1