[thieves like us]

WODE Jukebox

Ushering in a new era of back-up loading, the WODE (Wii Optical Drive Emulator) Jukebox is without a doubt a revolutionary device. By emulating the Wii's optical drive itself, the WODE Jukebox circumvents many issues that all of the existing mod-chips have encountered while offering the user a simple, straight forward and easy to use interface.

The WODE consists of a replacement vertical base with a backlit LCD panel (which displays up to 8 lines of 20 character text strings). Using the small joystick, you can move through the 5 top level options and access the selected one (denoted by [ ] brackets) by pressing right:


'Favorites' is a list of 8 titles that you can bookmark by accessing the Favorites option, selecting one of the 8 slots and then navigating to a particular title
(If you disconnect the device where the titles stored in the 'Favorites' menu was located, the name changes to -Not Found-)



'Select Game' shows you at a glance the number of devices connected/the number of titles found across all of the connected devices.
Pressing right from this option displays all of the available partitions across the attached devices and pressing right a 2nd time, accesses the selected partition and displays a list of the titles stored on that partition (beginning with the first 8).
Moving the joystick up/down will scroll through the list and pressing 'right' will mount the currently selected title, and display it in the Wii's Disc Channel.


'Flat Wode' mode will allow you to use back-up media, however with the current firmware version, you are limited to playing titles that are from the same region as your Wii console. Additionally, unlike the images loaded into the disc channel, there is no way to block the updates located on the physical media. Pressing the Wii's Eject button 2x will exit out of this mode and return you back to the main options level.


'Settings' is the configuration section that allows you to change 4 aspects of how WODE handles various settings of your Wii.
The 'Region' option (default setting YES), will attempt to force the titles loaded through the Disc Channel to match your selected setting (currently limited to the following 3: JAP (Japan), US (United States), and KOR (Korea).
The 'Updates' option toggles between allowing YES or disabling NO the firumware updates found on Wii game discs from running.
Turning the 'Autoboot' option to ON will automatically launch the title mounted to the Disc Channel (saving you 2 steps of having to point and access the Disc Channel and then run the currently loaded title with the Wii remote.
Setting 'Reload' option to YES will attempt to load the last played title to the Disc Channel on the Wii's next power up.

Finally, select 'Save' and pressing right on the joystick will save the currently defined options. A pop up message indicating that the setting have been successfully updated will display.


'About' will display the current Boot, WODE, FPGA and hardware version information.



Installation:
Anyone who has installed a mod chip into their Wii system will find that WODE installs straight forward and pretty effortlessly. For those of you that haven't will probably find disassembling the system the hardest part of the project.

note: Many people will find it much easier to remove the long flexible cable from the base (after removing the 2 phillips screws to open it up) and attach it to the interface board first. After re-assembling your Wii system, you can run it back through the slot in the top of the base and re-connect it to the board containing the LCD display.

here is the interface board shown will all of the connections completed between the wii's motherboard and optical drive

The Flat WODE interface board intercepts and passes the information between the SD and USB devices, the DVD drive, base and the Wii's motherboard.
Using the connectors on the interface board (which are clearly identified), disconnect both the power and data lines from the Wii leading to the optical drive and plug them into the connectors marked 'Wii Power' and 'Wii' on the interface board. Then, using the supplied loose wire cable and small flexible cable, make the connections from the 'DVD Power' and 'DVD' connectors to the matching connectors on the optical drive. Finally, connect the long flexible cable leading out from the base to the connector labeled 'Slave'.

Using the 2 pieces of supplied insulation mylar, insulate both sides of the interface board prior to positioning it between the lower RF shield and the optical drive. The longer slave cable should be positioned so that it leads right out the hole where the system memory's battery plugs in. There is enough of a gap to allow the cable to feed out, back through the holes in the base and plug into the connector on the board containing the LCD display.

the inset images show placement of the "slave" flexible data line running out of the wii from underneath the optical drive

Once you've got everything together, simply copy the supplied WODE firmware .bin file found >>here<< onto the root directory of a SD memory card and insert it into the slot located on the right side of the base prior to turning on your Wii. The WODE Jukebox will automatically find this file and load the firmware (this process takes a little less than a minute to complete).


Testing using WODE in "Jukebox" mode
the device candidates:
- sandisk 2GB SD card
- transcend 8GB class 6 SDHC card
- microcenter 16GB usb thumbdrive
- western digital 250GB passport drive (formatted NTFS)
- western digital 320GB passport drive (formatted WBFS, currently being used with neo gamma and usb loader, usb loader gx)
- toshiba 2.5" 40GB sata laptop drive in a external usb enclosure


My Set-up:
NTSC Wii running 4.0U firmware w/ the homebrew channel and bootmii previously installed
the system is connected using component video cables


GAMECUBE testing:
I copied the following iso's (ripped direct from the retail discs) to an NTFS formatted usb thumbdrive and was able to load and play them without any issues or hiccups. compressed .gcm files ran without issue as well.
pikmin 2 (jp)*
super smash bros. melee (jp)*
mario golf: toadstool tour (us)
mario kart: double dash!! (us)
the legend of zelda: the wind waker (us)

the legend of zelda: the wind waker (us) [compressed]

note: In order to get the japanese GC titles to load, you simply need to change the default region setting from "OFF" to the region that your system is (in my case "US") from the OPTIONS screen and save the configuration to the WODE.

And just like the Wii running a retail GC disc, you will need to eject and shut off/restart your system to get back to Wii mode.

I had no issues whatsoever with either of the SD cards or thumb drive (formatting them both NTSC and WBFS [using WBFS manager 3.0.1]. all of these devices quickly appeared in the WODE's display screen and I was able to select and mount images to the disc channel for play including new super mario bros. wii with a "clean" iso created directly from the retail original, using an accompanying .bca file.

The usb hdd's were a bit of a different story. The self built enclosure using a 2.5" laptop drive worked seemlessly (it was my neighbor's drive which has been formatted WBFS and contains 33 titles ranging from the original Wii Sports and Wii Play to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, New Super Mario Bros. Wii (patched for neo gamma use), Williams Pinball Hall of Fame, Raving Rabbids, etc. It does take a bit longer for the Jukebox to identify the hdd, but once found, selecting the partition and the titles contained on, were just as quick as the SD and USB flash drives.

My two Western Digital Passport hdd's were a bit of a different story. Apparently, they both require all of the 500mA voltage that the Wii has to offer through it's usb ports and the slight amount of power that the WODE is drawing for the backlit lcd display is just enough to prevent them from completely powering up when connected directly to the WODE's usb port. This situation was quickly remedied using a powered usb hub (thank you RockBand!) and everything worked just as smoothly as the self built enclosure.

edit: 30.dec.2009: I also took the iso for new super mario bros. wii and using the wii backup manager (v0.3.2), converted the .iso to split .wbfs files. the result was that the game loaded the same as the original .iso file.




Testing using "Flat Wode" mode
the back-up candidates:
a stack of titles burned on taiyo yuden "water shield" media which have been previously tested as working with other mod-chip solutions (wii key, D2pro, wasabi zero and wasabi dx)

Most of the titles worked without a hitch, however seeing as my system is still sitting at 4.0U, a few of the back-ups still wanted to perform the "system update" contained on the discs (which I did not let occur). The setting which successfully allowed my mount and run Japanese GC titles do not appear to work correctly [yet].

note: this is an apparent bug in the v1.1 firmware which should be rectified soon by the WODE team.

edit: 30.dec.2009: both blocking updates on disc and running out of region disc games have been corrected with the 30.dec.2009 v1.5 firmware update.


Conclusion:
Other than initially not being able to run a few of the new titles which contained updates or out of region Wii back-up discs, the WODE has "put up" everything that its developers have claimed that it would do, which is saying a lot especially considering the its release is so very close to Nintendo's big system selling title, New Super Mario Bros. that caused many other mod-chip and softmodded Wii owners grief.

The only downside (in many people's eyes) is the price point. Yes, it may be twice the cost (or more) compared to the other current offerings out there, but the WODE is much more than just your conventional mod-chip with its unique "transparent" approach via the use of Nintendo's own Disc Channel and the ability to play unpatched/hacked iso's.

Only time will tell if Team WODE has struck gold or if its customers will have to play the waiting game for patches once Nintendo's ups the ante in this game of "cat & mouse", however from where I'm standing their product looks solid, runs seemless and offers much more than their competitors.


Pros:
- transparently and seamlessly emulates the optical drive
- bright, visible and easy to understand and use interface
- runs "clean" images without the need for iso patching
- unlike usb loaders, the titles are run from the disc channel, thus avoiding the potential of alerting nintendo that your system is "modified"
- play time can be tracked for titles played through WODE (unlike usb loaders)
- all nintendo deployed system updates (via media or wi-fi) can be installed without worry or having to re-patch/re-install cios's, keeping your system up to date
- because system ios's are not modified, there is nothing to prevent nintendo from repairing the system (without charge), should it fail during the warranty period*

* provided that you are smart enough to remove the WODE interface board prior to shipping your system to nintendo for service


Cons:

- some hard drives may require external power or a powered USB hub.
- there no way to rip iso's directly from the wii hardware to sd and/or usb devices*
- some current usb loader users won't like the fact that they have to get up from their couches to mount/un-mount game images
- price (2x+ the cost of many other mod-chip solutions currently available)

* forthcoming firmware update will resolve this issue


note: the following issues (previously listed as "cons" were corrected in the 30.dec.2009 v1.5 firmware release
- updates on wii back-up discs currently cannot be blocked
- out of region wii back-up discs will not load (even if your system has not been updated to the 4.2 firmware)