The Ignition Project

Also, my car is >200,000 miles now. Still running great. Go Nissan.

I’m looking for a $50 AMD Athlon 64 X2 for Socket 939… I keep getting outbid on eBay, so I’m asking you guys if you might possibly have the heart to let this thing go for $50… :)

Also, my Evolve Black Katana case is here. It’s pretty cool looking, but the paintjob looks just a tad better than something I could do myself. It’s still pretty good. I give it 3 out of 5.

I bought Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I expected it to run on my drivechipped Wii (chipped for homebrew btw). Well, it’s the first Wii game that’s dual layer, and the WiiKey incorrectly assumes that all dual layer discs are GameCube multi-game discs. Great assumption, as it was true. Now it’s not. And unfortunately, WiiKey’s Website is showing the default RHEL test page and apparently has been for some time now.

Shit.

So Googling around, I found out that the WiiKey is compatible with the OpenWii firmware. Great! Except the sucky part is that OpenWii requires programming the chip directly rather than using a DVD. Not that big of a problem, I guess. The biggest problem I’m going to encounter in swapping my WiiKey to run OpenWii is the fact I have to solder on SMD chips and I don’t have good enough magnification (I could probably use a jewelers magnification thingy). Also my soldering iron tip is quite large and my soldering iron doesn’t really have a selection of bits for it with a finer point than what I have. Meh. Also I have to take apart the Wii again, which is an adventure in itself…

So… What am I going to do? I could just desolder the WiiKey and say “screw it”, but that defeats the purpose of it (especially since huge strides have been made in homebrew). So, I think I’m going to do this:

1. Using this guide I’m going to rewire my WiiKey (yes, I’ll take pictures) and put a port on the back of my Wii which will connect to a modified parallel port cable.
2. While I have the Wii open, I’ll take it apart the rest of the way and put it in a new awesome case.
3. I’ll also install a switch on the Wii so that I can turn off the modchip if needed (this switch would be required because the diagram shows that the WiiKey requires power from the parallel port during programming, and I don’t want the possibility of shorting the Wii - so I’ll probably install two switches, one for programmer power ON/OFF and one for DVDROM power ON/OFF). This will avoid this problem from ever occuring again.

Though, like an idiot, I “quicksoldered” the thing to my Wii. In hindsight, it would have been faster to actually use wire, since I ended up tearing a trace off the drive and had to solder to the actual drive chip (luckily the “debug port” pins that were left on the drive are just shortcuts to the pins on the actual chip).

I’ll keep everyone posted with updates.

If you’re going to SXSWi08, let me know if it’s worth it. Austin isn’t that far away (half day’s drive) and I don’t know if I want to go.. but maybe. Maybe next year. (Also, maybe we might have a booth .. we being MacroDeck). While I’m thinking about it, you guys should be playing with Places now. It’s up. It’s working. New features every few weeks. Is awesome.

We just got a spam attack. I marked all of the messages spam (they were all spam). I’ve also limited the comments form so that hopefully only humans can fill it out. Unfortunately, JavaScript is involved, so to leave a comment, you need JS turned on. Additionally, after 60 days, the comments for an article will be disabled. Hopefully that quenches the spam problem.

If you missed part 1, you should go back and read it, so you understand why I’m taking apart such an expensive monitor.

Before I cut the end of the cable off, I wanted to know what I was working with. Maybe the cable was simple to replace. Maybe it was something that I could easily find. By following this take-apart guide, you’ll see, the cable is really simple to remove. The Mac mini and Nintendo Wii are much more difficult to open up (though not really that hard).

But a word of warning: After I took apart the monitor, and saw how easy the cable was to replace, I tried to locate one on the Internet. Nobody sells one. So, I went to an Apple store. Evidently, even though the monitor is easy to service, they send the monitor back to China and have the underaged children with small hands refurbish my monitor and they send me another refurbished one. There is a $120-$200 cost for this. Unless, of course, you take it apart first, in which case the refurbishment charge is $800 (for those keeping score, that’s $300 more than I paid for it). Even though the monitor is not under warranty, taking it apart is one of the Seven Deadly Apple Sins. So, don’t do it if you’re in the same boat I am. Unless you have a cable already, in which case, let me know how you got it! :)

So, anyway, on with the guide.

I own a 20” aluminum Apple Cinema Display. When I bought it, it was the best 20” widescreen you could buy. It’s still quite awesome. Except, the DVI connector is permanently attached to the monitor. Which wouldn’t be a problem if you were a normal Apple user in that you have a studio and keep your stuff in mainly the same place.

Well. I’m not. I go to LAN parties. I move my monitor two or three times a month. Lots of stress on the DVI connector. Finally, the DVI cable gave out. And, it’s not under warranty anymore (I was two days late getting AppleCare). And unlike every other manufacturer of hardware I know of, they won’t sell end-users repair parts. And it’s not like I can just go to a parts store and order a part. I have to pay Apple however much money they want for labor and then however much it costs for the cable. Which probably will end up around $100. For a DVI cable. That costs $2.

So, what am I doing? I’m doing the absolute geekiest thing: I’m soldering the $2 (free) DVI cable on to the attached Apple DVI cable. But, I did take it apart. It’s extremely simple to get it apart and replace the cable. And I’m hoping David from Galaxy Hardware Publishers can find a cable for me, just in case my solder job fails.

I’ll post take-apart pictures and a take-apart guide in part 2.

Read this.

The Catastrophe!