There are many requests to have the light bar constantly on. This could be solved by a future firmware update, but if you want it on now, there is a (simple) hardware way. This mod will make the Wii have the light bar on when the Wii is on, and off when it is in standby.

What is needed:
- Tear down instructions for the Wii, found here
- An odd nintendo screw driver to open the Wii (explained in tear down instructions)
- A NPN transistor (2n3904 for example, can be bought at radioshack)
- A resistor in the range of 1k-10k ohms
- Some moderate soldering skills.

In this post you can see a schematic of how the light bar is controlled. Imidiately when you plug in power to the console you will get 12V through the resistor to the two LEDs that are connected in series. What turns the LEDs on/off is the NPN transistor that connects/disconnects them from ground. What we will do is add our own NPN transistor and control it so that the LEDs get a path to ground when the Wii is not in standby.

If you know nothing about transistors you can read about it here. What we need is a signal to that turns on the transistor (opens it up) when the Wii is not in standby. The best source I have found for this is the signal that controls the standby LED.

So we will simply connect the base of the transistor to the standby signal through the resistor. Connect the collector to the ground side of the LEDs and the emitter to ground. The picture below shows how to solder it. I haven't done this install in person as I don't have a Wii yet ( ) so I can't show any install pictures. First one to do this mod will have to snap some pictures of it!


(click for a larger version)

As you can see there are test points to solder too, and those are easy enough to use. A top install is harder but if there is need for it I'll make a top side install diagram.

Happy hacking!

/pablot

Nice, thanks! Too bad my PulseVU just showed up

very nice work my man.

would this mod stop the fading (if you have a message) from working? or don't you know.

well, if I have understood it correctly, the message pulse only shows when the console is off, right? So then this mod won't interfere at all. If the message still pulses when the console is on, well.. then it won't be shown.. since this mod makes turns the LEDs on full when the console is on, but its not harmful.

/pablot

well personally ive only seen the message pulse when my wii was on, in saying that, it was only once, and i did have a message waiting for me. I don't use wii-connect24 so i wouldnt see it when it was off anyway.

I just wondered if perhaps it returned control to the console in such an event, but i guess something more than a transistor would be required for this.

thanks.

Hehe, not too shabby. A tutorial from a guy who's never even seen a Wii.

I always found that too be odd..He must be a smart one

Ya. He doesn't own a 360 either. I wonder where how he figures all this out?

Hmmm interesting......but either way, kool mod!

He must be the 2nd coming of Jesus...

The console gods sent him......

haha, easy on the praises, its just electrical engineering which I find very entertaining. I love to help out and inspire others.

Have a good new years everyone!

/p

I have Jesus on my Wii. Maybe thats how he figures it out.

*Knocks on Wii asking if Pablot is home*

Btw, Happy New Years.

O'Malley

Is this info still valid? It is different from what you have in the pinned topic...

Thanks

Well I don't think Nintendo changed the hardware so this should still work.

Well I am going to do this when I get my replacement case... I will take lots of pics!

You may want to add this to your pined topic on the matter... Just thought... I am anxious to give this a try!

i will be trying thiw as soon as my radio shack get the npn transistors in .

Got my transistor from the shack... I have the following resistors, which would suit best?

1k Ohm 1/4watt
10k Ohm 1/4watt
4.7k Ohm 1/2watt

any of those resistors should work

Ok... Great!

I got it sodered up, just need to soder it to the three points on the motherboard... Working on painting up a replacement case, when I get it finished I will perform the final mod. I will post up some pics once I do...

All done!





Drew up a schematic if anyone needs...


Thanks for the mod Pablot!

nice install! And nice NES mod ;-)

Thanks!

Working on a Nintendo logo for the front next...

this stays on when the wii is off?

or on when the wii is on?

it will be on when the wii is on, and on when the wii is in orange standby and off when it is in red standby

No...No... Your confusing this with the single wire mod you posted pablot...

It make turns the leds on when powered on, and off when it is in standby (orange) or completely off (red)...

Look...

In the case of the resistor, what difference will we see depending on the value?
I.E. Higher value resistor = dimmer light?

I don't belive it affects the brightness of the leds since you are not interupting the power to the leds themselves... This is basically just a circuit to turn them on when the system is powered up... The resistor is just to "condition" the current. (I belive, could be wrong)...

you can use it somewhat in that way, but its not good and often fails.. if you want to dim a led you have to use a PWM

Um i need some help plz, i have hooked up all the wires at the right spot but when i plug my wii in i get the standby light (where red is normal for frist plug) and when i hit the power button it goes dead, whats going on, also my wii is still taken apart, one more thing is my front lights (i have modded) have stoped working or have become very dim and i do not know the problem and wish to fix it cause i love my little wii. plz help
and if this helps you help me the light has the organial small light and i 3mm on top.

heres my pcb


anything wrong?

You really should wrap those wires. At least with electrical tape.
Is that an NPN or PNP?
What is the value of the resistor?

Is it upside down?

As in E soldered to C and C soldered to E.
Your B look right.

ok so c doesnt go to c?
and e doesnt go to e?
its e=c and c=e?
i have to wires covered but i uncovered them for the pictures, ill try it out, i have e to e and c to c, thank you.
o god i hope this works.

No, no, no!!!!

It is supposed to be right.

I was asking if you did on accident.

ok so i have it right?
so y does my wii turn off with i hit the power button?

ok well heres what ive been able to do so far. i unsoldered the transistor off and then the wii turned on and worked fine,
Problems:
1. when wii is turned on and then trans put back on, works fine but light is still on at standby
2. solder pad came off the wii (how can i fix it?)
3. if trans hooked up and i turn the wii off it wont turn back on (wait let me check that, nope nvm itll turn back on)
4. dont know where esle to solder the B point to.

Umm.. I was just thinking that could anyone tell me if this ---> http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=j...jutut003ah8.jpg <--- transistor is good?

Yes, that transistor will work.

To Wii Modder, it looks like it could short out on the screw hole there when the screw is inserted. Other than that, provided you did use a NPN resistor, and not PNP, it looks right. The problem with the solder pad coming off is a problem though. I'm not sure where else to use for that.

Pablot (original poster) won't have internet access for a few weeks, but he might be able to give further input then.

How is that VulseVU chip? I was thinking about getting it. and is it alot harder then installing the wiikey? I installed a wiikey today (quick solder) and it was a lot easier then I thought it would be. a hell of a lot smaller, but very easy.

The PulseVU is a very easy install. (Especially V2.) It doesn't have a quicksolder option though; you have to use wires, but the points you solder to are ginormous. Unfortunately though, it's sold out right now.

at least the points are big. wiikey was my first modchip, everything before was softmodded, and my god I opened it up and seriously stared at it for a min. every pic and video makes the wiikey, hell the wii solder area in general look huge. and for wire installs (I have never really soldered wire for anything important or up to date) this is going to sound awkward I guess but can I use speaker wire? lmao. reason being is I have alot laying around and it's always worked for what I needed it for.

Speaker wire is too big and clumsy for this type of work. It is still wire though, so I guess it technically will work, but it would be hard to attach securely.

Ok, i did this mod but a little more "compact"

Nice. And everything works as it should?

Yes, works perfect.

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

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!

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.

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