Turn on the lightbar

There are many requests to have the light bar turn on when you turn the console 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.

If you want the LEDs to be constantly on, you can just connect TP52 to ground. Note though that you will loose the protection of the fuse on that side (shouldn't be a problem).

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 tutorial 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 don't have install pictures of this, so 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.

Update: If you would like to install a switch to turn this mod off, you can install a simple SPST switch on the "C" line.

Happy hacking!

SICKmods

Turn on the lightbar

If you want the LEDs to be constantly on, you can just connect TP52 to ground. Note though that you will loose the protection of the fuse on that side (shouldn't be a problem).

Click for a larger version

Here is a picture by sicknasty413 showing his layout for this mod.

TehFRAG sent us this image of another successful install.Be careful not to block your screw hole though!

TehFRAG sent us this image of another successful install.
Be careful not to block your screw hole though!