Hacking SD Card activity LED mod

[XFlak]

DeadlyFoez's SD Card activity LED mod

I (XFlak) personally saw this Wii's activity light in action, and I gotta say, it looks pretty sweet, and its REALLY cheap to make, $2 something to build, but of course u gotta know what ur doing. I'm lucky that I don't even need to learn this stuff because I'm friends with the infamous DeadlyFoez.

If you have question on how do this, u can contact DeadlyFoez at his second favourite wii hacking forum (just google "My SD Card activity LED mod")

So I decided to try and see if I could add in a NAND activity LED to my wii. For this I used my PICAXE 08M micro controller to to read the CE pin of the NAND flash chip to determine if there is activity. When there is any NAND activity, the CE pin become low (0 volts), but when idle the CE pin floats at around 3.5 volts.

The SD card activity is determined by pin 7 of the SD card that the PICAXE reads. When idle, pin 7 floats at a voltage range, but when there is activity then the voltage will bounce all around.

I changed the way that I have it now it before. Now the blue SD card activity LED is placed above the SD card slot and the red NAND activity LED is to the left of the SD card slot.

I also added in a headphone jack to the right of the SD card slot. This headphone jack is used to reprogram the micro controller.

The video below demos the activity of the NAND and SD card activity LED's.



CODEstart:
setfreq m8ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ;Make sure the frequency is set to 8 Mhz
low 0 , 1ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ;Make sure pins 0 and 1 are low
main:
readadc10 4,w0ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ;Read pin 7 of the SD card.
if w0 < 604 or w0 > 620 thenÂÂÂÂ ;values between 604 and 620 are when the SD card is idle.
ÂÂÂÂtoggle 0ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ;If there is activity then toggle pin 0 (the blue LED)
else
ÂÂÂÂlow 0ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ;If there was no activity then make sure pin 0 is low
end if
readadc 2, b2ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ;read the CE pin of the NAND flash
if b2 = 0 thenÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ;A value of 0 means there is NAND activity
ÂÂÂÂtoggle 1ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ ;If there is activity then toggle pin 1 (the red LED)
else
ÂÂÂÂlow 1ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ;If there was no activity then make sure pin 1 is low
endifÂÂ
goto mainÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ;Go to the main: label to loop the code.

Future additions:

Wifi activity indicator
CPU temp monitoring
Fan speed controller
Backlit LCD displaying various things.
NAND reprogramming via PICAXE and SD card (No infectus needed)
Wiimotes that will explode if my wife has been playing games and not doing dishes

 

[mauifrog]

That is pretty cool I want one. To bad deadlyfoez can't comment more on these things HERE (hint, hint, wink, wink)
Just in case the mods do remove your link xflak, this one should persist.
My SD Card activity LED mod by deadlyfoez

 

[DJ_Eric]

Neat trick. Can you get any more details about this? Maybe a schematic and all parts used? I'd like to see where he got power from for the micro controller.

 

[XFlak]

I'll mention it to Foez, any extra info he can provide will have to go through me though, so you may get a quicker response by going to the link where the topic was originally posted

 

[XFlak]

I got some pics but no schematic.

http://bit.ly/ecm1dB
http://bit.ly/ihom7t
http://bit.ly/hTEQ4k
http://bit.ly/e64E4Z

In these pics, the 08M is actually upside down with the pins facing upwards.

And this is the updated code.

start:
setfreq m4
low 1
readadc 4,b1

main:
readadc 4,b2

if b1 > b2 then
ÂÂÂÂlet b3 = b1 - b2
else
ÂÂÂÂlet b3 = b2 - b1
end if


if b3 > 7 then 
ÂÂÂÂtoggle 1
else
ÂÂÂÂlow 1
end if

let b1 = b2
pause 50
goto main

 

[cojiro]

I'm interested, but what is his "second favorite wii hacking forum"? wiinewz, wiihacks? can you pm me the link?

 

[XFlak]

mods removed the link, just google "My SD Card activity LED mod"

if u can't find it after that, PM me and I'll send u a link

edit:
code updated a 2nd time

 

[XFlak]

first post updated, Foez added a NAND activity light, soooo sweet

 

[giantpune]

looks pretty cool. tell him he needs to slap some little windows in the white-swingy-sd-card-door so he can put that back on and close it all up. then itll look like a fucking storm-trooper wii.

 

[DJ_Eric]

This kinda sucks. I was just working on getting all the parts so I can recreate the same thing for when I am using sneek and figuring out it's bugs, but then this update comes and I am enticed to go just as far.

Xflac, Do you still have the original post? Could you add it back. I would like to follow in the same steps. I don't really need a nand access light, sd card is good enough for sneek.

 

[XFlak]

This kinda sucks. I was just working on getting all the parts so I can recreate the same thing for when I am using sneek and figuring out it's bugs, but then this update comes and I am enticed to go just as far.

Xflac, Do you still have the original post? Could you add it back. I would like to follow in the same steps. I don't really need a nand access light, sd card is good enough for sneek.

here's the original post on google cache!

link

 

[tueidj]

You could easily mod sneek to flash the slot led on SD card access.

 

[DJ_Eric]

You could easily mod sneek to flash the slot led on SD card access.

Maybe YOU can, can many others like myself, not so likely. I'm actually starting to see the usefulness of having a nand access indicator too. And the wifi indicator and exploding wimotes, that could be fun. :evil laugh:

 

[tueidj]

Funny, saying a bunch of soldering is easier than adding 2 lines of code sounds like something DeadlyFoez himself would say. You wouldn't happen to be related perhaps?

Edit for XFlak: I said related not retarded, how is this flaming? There's no insult here.

 

[XFlak]

tueidj, u have a point, adding it so sneek would be awesome and easier, but it wouldn't work running off real nand like Foez's Wii, and that is equally awesome

take a down on a notch on a flaming in my thread plz

mad respect for Foez, anyone who says otherwise is ignorant, perhaps brilliant, but ignorant all the same. Give the guy a chance, and at least flame him on wiihacks where he can at least respond... I mean... common, say it to the man's "face", figuratively speaking

 

[WiiUBricker]

Funny, saying a bunch of soldering is easier than adding 2 lines of code sounds like something DeadlyFoez himself would say. You wouldn't happen to be related perhaps?

He most likely didnt know that adding just 2 lines would get the job done. Also he doesnt know what lines have to be added and where.
If you want to be helpful at this matter, point out what lines and where these line have to be put in the source of SNEEK.

Besides, as Xflak said, it wouldnt run on real nand.

 

[DJ_Eric]

@tuedj, To me, looking at someone else's work and reproducing it is easier than learning how to code and how to compile things. I'm certainly not on the level as you are. But since you do know how to do it could you please speak up and show us where to add the code and what code to add? I'd like to try out both methods if I can figure out how to compile.

Xflac, you have posted that he had the picaxe chip upside down, do you know why he did it that way? Did he give you any internal pictures from after adding in the other stuff?

 

[DJ_Eric]

Ok. This took a little bit of time to figure out. I bought the surface mount 08m with a breakout board. I isolated the breakout board from the motherboard of the wii using double sided sticky tape. Instead of using a headphone jack for the reprogramming port, I just put in a serial connector coming out the side of my wii. It was a little easier that way so I didn't need to screw around with so many wires and such. Instead of adding led's, I just tapped into the disc drive led's since there is 2 of them. The top one I use for flash access, the button for the sd card access. I may go ahead and change the top one to a red led in the future just so it is easier to discern which one is flashing. Another thing I did do is add a switch for the bottom led so if I need to I can revert it back to it's original connection of being a drive slot led.

Unfortunately. This was still a days worth of work to figure out. The only real help that I got from what deadlyfoes had said about this modification was the info on which pin of the flash and the sd card to gather the data from. My values for the sd card pin were slightly different.

What is great is I have a few friends that love their wii now that I've modded it using xflacs modmii app. I have gotten them convinced to let me do this modification to their wii for a decent fee. When they saw it they loved it. Luckily I got a few torn apart wiis with many spare front faces that I could add in all the components onto the face and only nee to do 2 soldering spots on the motherboard. WIN!!

Thank you xflac and deadlyfoes. This was a fun little project that I can now use as my homework assignment for my electronics class. Double win.

 

[OncleJulien]

Give the guy a chance,

how many times has he been banned? thats how many chances he's had.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Luckily I got a few torn apart wiis with many spare front faces that I could add in all the components onto the face and only nee to do 2 soldering spots on the motherboard.

You need to solder 3 points onto the wii's motherboard at a minimum. You need 1 for the CE pin of the NAND, 1 for pin 7 of the SD card, and 1 for the 5 volt power. Good luck cramming it all onto the front faceplate.

@OncleJulien, there's always room for one more chance.

Thank you Mthr. You are the best there is