Wii Internal Wavebird Receiver Mod

You will need:

• Nintendo Wii Console
• Nintendo Wavebird (including Receiver)
• Triwing Screwdriver
• Phillips Screwdriver
• Some good thin wire
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Wire Cutters
• Electrical Tape or similar

Guide:

1. Carefully take apart your WaveBird receiver using the Triwing screwdriver. See Ryo's excellent guide for how he did this for his GameCube mod: http://www.totalgamerz.com/mt-archives/000189.html
2. Remove the circuit board and the GameCube connector from the Wavebird receiver's casing. Set the channel to one you will remember, I set mine to channel 1 for controller 1.
3. Disconnect the GameCube connector from the main Wavebird board by unplugging the white connector.
4. Cover the metal shielding with electrical tape so it won’t cause any shorts where it is placed later:
   
   
5. Put the Wavebird board aside for now and pick up the GameCube connector. Cut the four wires on the GameCube connector as far away from the white connector as possible. Strip about 2mm of insulation from each of the wires attached to this white connector.
6. Cut 4 25cm (10”) lengths of wire and strip about 2mm from both ends. Join each of the wires coming from the white connector to one of the long lengths of wire you have just prepared using some solderSolder a length of wire to each of the wires attached to the white connector. I used some heatshrink to cover the joins but if you don’t have any, use some electrical tape or similar.
   
   
7. Carefully take apart your Wii, all the way down to removing the motherboard from the base.This part of the process is probably the most complicated, so take your time and make sure you note down where all the different screws go. Don’t worry about removing the Bluetooth or wireless modules. You will need access to the underside of the motherboard you it is necessary to remove the heat sink. I used the following guide to make sure I took it apart correctly: http://www.informit.com/articles/art...?p=677908&rl=1
8. Solder the lengthened wires from the white connector to the underside of the Wii motherboard onto GameCube controller port #1. The following diagram indicates where to solder each wire. The colour on the pin refers to the colour of the wire attached to the white connector. Purple is ground, so choose either of the large solder points indicated by purple on this diagram. Do not connect anything to the black points on this diagram.
   
   
   
   Here is what mine looked like:
   
   
   
   
9. Place the motherboard back in the bottom part of the Wii, carefully routing the cables to the side of the GameCube port, away from the power and reset buttons at the front.
   
   
10. Screw the metal shielding back over the motherboard and route the cables diagonally toward the heatsink ON TOP of this shielding.
11. Screw the black plastic parts back onto the Wii. Be careful with the front part as it will be sitting on top of your wires. Make sure that the wires aren't over the screw hole for the front plastic part.
12. Attach the drive back onto the motherboard, on top of the wires. Again be careful that the wires aren't routed over screw holes.
    
13. Connect the Wavebird receiver back up to the white connector and place it next to the heatsink, in front of the power and a/v connectors. It should fit here quite nicely as you can see below on my motherboard:
    
    
    
    On my picture I have not yet replaced the drive. This is just to indicate where to put the receiver.
14. At this point, before screwing the case completely together, it is probably wise to power up your Wii and test if the mod is working. This saves a lot of hassle later if you find out that for some reason it is not working.
    
15. Finally put the Wii back together completely and do a final test. Make sure to set your wavebird to the same channel as the receiver.

Tips + Troubleshooting

• Check for solder bridges after soldering.
• Make sure to only strip a small section of bare wire, to ensure that there are no shorts when you put your case back together.
  
• Cover the soldered area with electrical tape to stop shorts.
• Tom suggests if you have any issues with reception, you could remove the shielding from the top of the case, although I have never had any issues myself.
• Check your batteries in your Wavebird!