News

From Chiip-Wiki

News

03.04.2007, 16:50 CET

I nearly forgot about the logo voting! Well: The voting for the new Chiip logo is over now. Double votes per IP address removed, the new logo above got the most votes. Congratulations to Xabier for this great piece of artwork !

03.04.2007, 15:50 CET

Beta 7 is now available in the Download section.

Not much new in this release; for DMS/D2A users absolutely nothing should have changed, Beta 7 only fixes some bugs for D2B users and is mainly a test version for D2B. (thanks to 7G(ghosthk) for his help!)

While most DMS users say Beta 6 works fine for them, some others report of strange bugs. That's why Beta 5 should still be regarded as the last stable release because I couldn't yet figure out what's behind those bugs.

Now for some more general news. I've found someone with both a D2B drive and a DVDTool cable, which means that one of the two prerequisites for Chiip getting a GPL license has already been fulfilled. So if Beta 7 is reported to work properly for almost everyone, the source might already be released by tomorrow.

And once again, I'll be asking for a little help now.

First of all: I don't have any experience with open source projects managed by multiple people. But I'm sure some of you out there do have such experience, so I'm looking for ideas how this could be done best.

For example I was thinking about hosting the source at sourceforge because as far as I know it's the best place for open source projects. But I don't know if something like Chiip complies with the sourceforge rules and I'm too lazy to look it up ;-) . So I'd be glad if someone who already knows could tell me.

Next, I'd like to have a few more people helping improve the Wiki.

I could also need someone managing the Tools Supplies page that contains shopping carts recommendations. That's a task similar to the user pics page, people who have shopping cart recommendations for certain countries/shops will send you that information and you'll add it to the page so people can easily look up where and what to buy.

Also if you have any other idea how you could improve the Wiki - maybe because you've done some modification you'd like to present / you have better pictures for building the hardware / whatever - simply send a mail to chiip(AT)trashmail(DOT)net.

31.03.2007, 11:56 CET

First of all:
A new Chiip version is out: Beta 6, available in the Download section.

Changes to beta 5:

• 6x DVD speed - no more stuttering videos
  (can be switched to 2x to reduce noise using an easy trick: start a game, return to the Wii menu and start the game again)
• Improved DVD+RW media acceptance
• Improved fault tolerance
  (chip automatically resets if something went wrong during the disc login - simply wait until the LED turns back on again)
• Improved code

Beta 6 is just a "public test version" though, there will probably be a new one very soon. I expect it to not work properly for everyone, especially on D2B drives. I really need some feedback from people with D2B drives! And what I actually need most is someone with a D2B drive and a DVDTool compatible cable that would run one little DVDTool command for me. Please send an email to chiip(AT)trashmail(DOT)net if you can help!

There will be a new version with Wii and Gamecube region free soon.

Now for some important other news:
You've probably realized that there was no update for over two weeks. Not only was I really busy the last few weeks, I was also undecided if I should really continue the Chiip firmware development at all. As you see I have decided to do so, but meanwhile I've realized one thing:

The decision that Chiip shouldn't be truly, undelayed open source was a stupid one. I simply do not have the time and resources to handle something like Chiip & implement new features all alone, at least not with the same speed as a commercial project like OpenWii (which recently seems to more and more turn into being ClosedWii).

So instead of simply stopping Chiip firmware development, I want to turn Chiip into something really community-based. I simply don't want to be about the only one behind Chiip, I want to reduce my Chiip involvement and let others play a bigger part.

First of all, I will soon publish Chiip under THE free software open source license, GPL. Btw, one side effect of using the GPL license will be that commercial uses will be allowed then - so to all the modchip installation stores that kept asking me for permission to install Chiip firmware into customer consoles etc.: You will soon be allowed to do so. And without paying any fees at all! Publishing under the GPL license will happen as soon as

• someone with a D2B drive and DVDTool cable has contacted me

and

• a version is reported to work about as fine as Beta 5

Since being open source doesn't necessarily mean others will be able to add new interesting features (if you've had a look at the OpenWii or WiiFree source you'll know what I mean - it's all just reads/writes to cryptic memory addresses), I will publish as much background information as possible to let others really comprehend what's being done and enable them to find new features by themselves. The Chiip source has always been organized to work with DVDTool compatible cables as well, which means that you can develop using C on a normal PC running Linux/Windows - and for testing, you don't need to flash a micro controller, you can run the code directly on your PC. Your PC only needs to be connected to your Wii with a simple parallel port cable. Once you're finished, a simple recompile should automatically produce versions that run on all supported micro controllers.

Furthermore there will be forum soon. It's a big mistake that there is none yet.

To sum it up: Chiip now desperately needs more people being involved, a real team behind it. So if you think you could help in any way or even take over some part of Chiip, please send me a mail!

For example, Chiip needs...

• People who have experience with Gamecube homebrew development
• People who have DVDTool compatible cables
• People with coding experience who could improve/port the code etc.
• People who have some knowledge of the DVD controller internals
• People who will test new firmware versions on different region/different chipset/different firmware version Wiis (there will soon be a form that you can use to apply as a firmware tester)
• People who could improve the Wiki in any way - for example by correcting spelling errors, managing certain pages like the user pics/shopping cart recommendations/pages about different micro controllers etc.

Please, send a mail to chiip(AT)trashmail(DOT)net if you think you can help!

15.03.2007, 14:49 CET

I've made a little page on the Blinkcodes.

14.03.2007, 18:17 CET

Please vote for the new Chiip logo!

14.03.2007, 12:49 CET

Read Cadex' statement on why Chiip isn't open source yet.

14.03.2007, 11:40 CET

There is a new feature wish list survey that gives you the chance to have an influence on Chiip's next features. Please take part!

10.03.2007, 23:35 CET

A list of compatible DVD media has been added to the wiki. This might help a few people that have problems choosing the appropriate discs to burn their images. You can help to improve this list by contributing info on the DVDs you have tested! More info to all this can be found here!

10.03.2007, 19:12 CET

User Pictures of successful Chiip implementations are here!

08.03.2007, 17:57 CET

Chiip v1.0 beta 5 is available now. The only difference is that it runs Gamecube backups and homebrew on 12cm disks as well as the smaller ones. You may realize there's DVD+/-RW support mentioned too - it probably worked with Beta 4 already, but I didn't know. :-)

I've only tested DVD+RW, but I assume DVD-RW works too.

Features:

• Works with Wii and Gamecube Originals
• Works with Wii and Gamecube Backups from the same region
• Works with Gamecube homebrew
• Probably works with different region software using swap trick
• Works with DVR+R / DVD-R / DVD+RW
• Works with DMS / D2A / D2B chipsets
• Works with both ATmega8L-8 and ATmega8-16 on 3.3V supply

Known bugs:

• Stutters on some videos because the drive is not running at full speed
• No Gamecube audiofix yet

(all free modchips currently have these problems)

Not implemented yet:

• Auto-region patching for Wii / Gamecube
• Update via DVD

08.03.2007, 10:27 CET

Good news everyone! I think I already fixed the problem, there will be a beta 5 that supports 12cm Gamecube discs within a few hours.

08.03.2007, 07:36 CET

There hasn't been enough feedback yet to know 100% sure why Gamecube backups don't work for most people - but so far all indications are that it has to do with people running their Gamecube backups from full-sized, 12cm DVDs, not the 8cm Mini-DVDs that Gamecube originals use.

This would also explain why it worked fine on my and the other Wii that Beta 4 was tested on before the release, as we both tried Mini-DVDs.

Now that I probably know what the problem is, I can try to reproduce that error and fix it. I hope to provide a fixed Beta 5 within the next 24 hours.

08.03.2007, 01:06 CET

We desperately need feedback from everyone who's tried Beta 4 yet. There is a nice little Beta 4 Survey now that should take you just about 30 seconds to answer.

07.03.2007

I've got plenty of feedback from people saying that - contrary to the announcement - Gamecube backups won't work. The problem is that I can't reproduce that error, they worked fine on the two Wiis that beta 4 was tested on before the release.

Furthmore it seems that beta 4 doesn't work with D2B Wiis from Japan - all other D2B users that gave some feedback reported it works as far as I remember.

I could need a few people who have both that problem and a DVDTool compatible cable available. If you do, please drop me a line.

More information on that later.

Important update - 06.03.2007, 23:03 CET

I forgot to note that Beta 4 needs a different command for flashing the firmware, since it uses a 4Mhz clock.

To flash beta 4 with Avrdude, use the following command:

avrdude -p m8 -c sp12 -U flash:w:chiip_firmware_v1_0_beta_4.hex -U lfuse:w:0xE3:m -v 

this will set the low fuse byte to value 0xE3, which stands for a 4Mhz internal clock.

06.03.2007

Beta 4 is publicly available in the Download section now. It has the following new features:

• Compatible with D2B drives (expect problems though - I know of only one person that has tested it on a D2B drive so far)
• Original discs work fine now
• Should work fine on 3.3V even on those few ATmega8-16 that didn't work on the 3.3V supply so far
• Not based on Cyclowiz anymore - so games known to have problems with the Cyclowiz v1 - like Call of Duty 3 and Rayman - work fine now
• Discs already present in the drive when the Wii ist turned on work fine now
• Should run on all AVR micro controllers with at least 2kb flash memory - like the popular Attiny2313 or the 8pin Attiny25. (Needs a recompile and different installation instructions though, which should be available a few days later)
• Will soon be available as a softmod for Linux/Windows and as a PIC version too
• In contrast to beta 3 (that I sent to a few testers yesterday) this version DOES have support for Gamecube backups from the same region

If you're trying Beta 4 on a D2B drive - please please please give me some feedback! by sending an eMail to chiip(AT)trashmail(DOT)net.

The next important features to be implemented should be

• Wii Regionfree
• Gamecube Regionfree
• Gamecube Audiofix

If you have any information on how to do this - please send me an email. Sooner or later I would figure that information out by myself, but you can make this happen sooner than later.

05.03.2007

Sorry, some more delay... :-( I planned to send beta3 out to a few testers yesterday already, but it was just 1-2 hours ago that I could finally do so. So in case there are no other critical errors, it will be out publicly available within 24 hours.

03.03.2007

I didn't have enough time today to really finish the next version already, so everything gets delayed by one day: The new version will go out to beta testers tomorrow & will be publicly released on Monday.

The new version will

• be bugfixed (work with original discs / work with Rayman Raving Rabbids and Call Of Duty 3 / accept backups already present in the drive when the Wii is turned on)
• not be based on Cyclowiz anymore
• work fine on the 3.3V supply even with ATmega8-16 that didn't work on the 3.3V supply so far
• work on AVRs with only 2kb of flash memory, like the cheap and popular ATtiny2313 or the 8 pin ATtiny25

02.03.2007

Weekend! After some good old Friday night partying tonight. I should finally have enough time tomorrow to finish a new Chiip version. My plan is:

• have the new version finished by Saturday evening
• send it out to a few people that have offered to test new versions afterwards
• if no important errors are reported, release the complete source code on Sunday

27.02.2007

An important message To the people who plan on running their ATmega8-16 on the 5V supply: Please remember that

• you have to take a different series resistor for the LED because of the higher voltage! 130 ohm are a safe value for 3.3V - for 5V 270 ohm should be safe.
• the clock and output lines will output 5V levels too, 1.6V more than the DVD controller expects. I don't know if that's a problem - I did that by accident some weeks ago and it worked, but it could just as well brick your Wii! If you want to go safe you should use diodes on both the clock(C) and the output(O) line to reduce the voltage. Thanks to all the people who pointed out this possible danger!

I still think switching to the 5V supply is no good idea. Most ATmega8-16 will work fine even at 3.3V, and it seems that even the remaining ones will usually work if the clock frequency is reduced, which can be done by one single command.

Today I got two mails from people who said their Chiip runs backups fine, but the Wii won't run original discs anymore. I tested what they said, and... Well, it's embarrassing but it seems true. I was so busy with getting backups to work that I forgot about testing original discs...

Of course that bug will be fixed in a few days, but for the moment you'll have to live with that problem (or add a switch that temporarily disables Chiip, like two people have done). It doesn't seem to be with all original discs though, one said his Zelda works but Wii Sports for instance doesn't. Oh, I just see I received a mail from someone who has another temporary workaround for this problem: By setting the low fuse byte to 0xE1 Chiip will take about 30 seconds until it has finished patching. If you insert an original disc within that time it will run he says.

And there are two game backups that usually won't work with the current version of Chiip: Call Of Duty 3 and Rayman Raving Rabbids. This is because the current version of Chiip is based on Cyclowiz v1, which has exactly the same problems with these two games.

I got some more feedback today from people who have already built the Chiip. I'm glad to report that most people say it works. One person said that switching to beta2 solved problems, so you may want to test that version if your Chiip doesn't work and you've only tried beta1 yet.

By the way, writing eMails now works fine and fast again. I could even reduce the number of yet unanswered mails, but there are still a lot I haven't answered.

I asked for a free and good C compiler for PICs yesterday; in the meanwhile I got three recommendations, and all three guys recommended PICC-Lite from HI-TECH[1]. I suppose that means that this is the most popular C compiler for PICs around, but the problem is that this lite version only supports about a dozen different PICs. Maybe someone who knows the PICs can tell me if at least the most common PICs are supported by PICC-Lite or not?

26.02.2007
I got a few mails today from people who have already built their Chiip and gave me some feedback on how it works for them. Thanks for that feedback!
There were four people who said it works, one who said it worked after he did some trick, and two people who said it didn't work. I don't know yet why it works for some but doesn't for others, but at least some people confirmed it works. I will try to run some tests with people who say it doesn't work tomorrow to find out more.

Now a little remark on emails: Please don't be pissed if I haven't answered your mail yet. For some reason it currently takes about 2 minutes for me to send an eMail - EXCLUDING actually writing any text. That sucks so bad that I just answer a few mails every now and then and the list of unanswered mails keeps growing and growing. Additionally, I just have a couple of free hours every day I can spend on this. I really feel sorry, a whole number of people have already sent really cool stuff, suggestions for improvements, offers to help etc. and I haven't even answered most of them yet. :-(

Which brings me to the next point. I know this website sucks, for instance there should be a forum etc. I've already got offers from people willing to host a Chiip forum (Thanks for the offer!), but I didn't want to decide yet. I currently think the best might be if this Chiip homepage was split into a couple of Wiki pages somewhere, so everyone could easily contribute information etc. As I said earlier a number of people have sent really cool suggestions, and I think it would be great if they could simply add/edit a Wiki page to present everyone their ideas.
If you have any suggestions/better ideas on this subject, please tell me.

I got quite a number of mails today on alternative 5V points for the ATmega8-16. Someone sent me this picture (Thanks!) that shows where you should be able to find a 5V supply:

WARNING: READ News-27.02.2007 about the +5V Problem !

One last thing for now: Is there a free, good C compiler for PICs, possibly running under both Windows and Linux? (Something like AVR-GCC for PICs)

25.02.2007
OMG. I awoke today, checked my inbox and was shocked by dozens of mails concerning Chiip.
Which reminds me: If you send me a mail, please be patient, an answer may currently take some time. I don't have that much time and there is some really urgent stuff do be done at the moment.

After I finally finished answering at least a few mails, two people told me via IRC that they already built it and it doesn't work with their Wii.
I have no clue yet if that's a real problem. Maybe they simply did something wrong, but I fear there's another problem. Damn, I guess that's what happens if don't test on different consoles and simply believe things work just because they work on your own Wii.
I really need some feedback now from people who already built it!

Anyway, I will use the emergency break now and say:
If you haven't started building things, better wait until I know if there is a real problem. Otherwise there's a good chance you'll build something that doesn't work just yet. You can already order the components if you want - that won't be lost money, you will definitely be able to build a working modchip using these components very soon.

If you have already built the chip: If it doesn't work and you're sure it's not your fault: sorry for the inconvenience. Your help is the best way to get this fixed soon though, as I don't have any other Wii's to test. Here's what you can do:

• There is an updated firmware version on this page. Try and see if it's different with that version. It's just minor changes though and even I don't believe they make much difference, but it's still worth a try.
• Try running the chip at a lower frequency. To do this, set the LOW fuse byte to values 0xE3, 0xE2, or 0xE1. Everything will take twice, four or eight times the time then, so if at 8Mhz the LED starts blinking after about 3 seconds, it will take up to 24 seconds at the lowest frequency. Is the high fuse byte set to 0xD9 by the way? It should be and it most probably is.
• Send me a mail (see bottom of the page) and give me some feedback! Nobody has told me via eMail yet if they were successful building Chiip or not. So if you've already build one, tell me which ATmega8 you use, if the chip works in your Wii or not, which chipset you have (DMS, D2A or D2B), and if it doesn't work, if the LED stays off/on or if it blinks. If it blinks, tell me the blinkcode: It should blink four times, each blink being short or long. So send me something like: Blinkcode short short long short. If you have any other hints, ideas etc. tell me.
• Send me a general mail that you're willing to help fixing the problem and I will probably find a way for you to do so ;-)

Next point: I wrote yesterday that you should take the ATmega8-16. If you haven't ordered/bought the ATmega8-16 yet, better take the ATmega8L instead. The ATmega8-16 is guaranteed to work with 4.5-5.5 Volt, but the Wii only provides 3.3V. Most ATmega8-16 including mine seem to work fine at that voltage though (at least when using lower clock speeds), but if you haven't ordered yet better take the ATmega8L which is guaranteed to work at 3.3V.

Well, after all that bad news, time for some good news that will answer two frequently asked questions too:

• A D2B compatible version should be available very soon, I think within a week
• A version using PICs should also be available soon. I did the code with the possibility of easily porting it to other architectures in mind, and porting it should be quite easy.
  In fact There will probably be four versions soon that share the same codebase: Two micro controller-based versions for AVR and PIC, and two PC-based versions for Linux and Windows that use the dvdtool cable. That way coders working on Chiip could be able to develop for Chiip using their PC, and when they're finished it should automatically work with the chip-based versions too.

How you can help

Some help would really be useful.

• If you think you can help testing the chip: Drop me a line
• If you're familiar with German law: Can you tell me if it's illegal in germany to do what I'm doing (releasing modchip firmware/code?) I think I remember there is some stupid new law that prohibits developing/using/owning "Hackertools", and I wonder if they can possibly judge me for what I'm doing because of that law. I'd sleep better if I knew it's okay what I'm doing.
• If you want to provide a nicer Chiip logo - submit your idea. The best suggestion will be chosen
• If you know a cheap shop to order the components in your country, tell me. Many people would like would appreciate it.
• If you think you can help in any other way, drop me a mail too.