Today we opened up a Brand new Wii and found a newer d2c drive
I first noticed the ribbon cable was silver instead of white, flipped over the drive and seen some new things.
Attached is a closeup of the serial port which now looks to be fully grounded out.
and here is a link to a 2mb full board picture
http://metroidzmodz.com/temp/Nd2cF.JPG
From what I hear D2C2 compatible chips still work. I'll post back in a few with my results.
EDIT: Yes D2Pro9 works like a charm.