Wii Wifi on boot-up - Wiihacks

Piglet · 05-29-2008, 01:21 PM

As you can see, I'm a total n00b so sorry if I'm asking the wrong question or in the wrong place.

I'm keen to know if the Wii, on bootup, with no disc in the drive, is listening to WiFi or to the GBA cable connection? I am wondering if you could make a GBA/DS gamepak that dumps and executes Wii code. I know the Wii can send to the DS/GBA but if it works the other way than that would be just perfect. 1 gamepak could go DS->Wii->GBA or the other way.
Basically, I am thinking of doing a homebrew puzzle game that will allow just one gamepak or disc run all the machines in the room (I assume Wii->Wii via Blootooth will allow boot?)

Thanks in advance, and please be gentle with me, I'm a noob.

Cheers,
Sean

Edit: I note that all Wiis have a unique identifier. I wonder if this is used to generate the encryption key? I mean, computers are notoriously bad at producing TRUE random numbers. I use the mersanne twister and then a pseudo-random number to cycle through it so it starts somewhere else in the stream. It's useful because if you want to write a demo mode, you can ensure that the 'random' data will be the same each time.

Back to the quiz. If Nintendo DO allow the Wifi to upload code, then it will have been made as secure as possible or else people would be using it to bypass the security and write homebrew (and 11Mbit/Sec would be acceptable).

If anyone already has a Wii out of it's casing AND has a logic probe, could they please test that wifi chip is active. I would be sooooo grateful. I'm getting hold of the official SDK and whoever gets me the answer is getting a copy in the post. Deal? Deal...

I even realize that the DS could send copies to Java devices such as cell-phones, PDAs and so forth. I'm not likely to use it for this project since we are aiming to get Nintendo to publish. Can anyone list all the Nintendo created characters (Mario,Wario,Link,Yoshi and so on, I want to suggest a character to tie in to the game).

Piglet · 05-30-2008, 11:29 AM

I have been informed that the Wifi only runs at 2MBit/Second which is not the end of the world, and that it supports several encryption standards (not built into the Wifi chip, but in software before data reaches the chip).
The Wifi chip is on a daughter board and has shielding around it. It appears that the daugherboard connector is10-pin, single edge thing.

Daughterboard with all the shielding

Daughterboard with shielding removed.

The Broadcom BCM4318E is the baseband chip (the one the Wii communicates with). Right now, I'm trying to get the pin-outs on it...

Piglet · 05-30-2008, 12:04 PM

The BCM4318E is the third generation of Broadcom's single-chip wireless LAN client solutions, which combine a high-performance 2.4 GHz radio, 802.11a/g baseband processor, medium access controller (MAC) and other radio components onto a single silicon die. This high level of chip integration reduces the size, cost and power consumption of a wireless LAN module, facilitating more opportunities to integrate the popular 54g technology into networking equipment, PCs, peripherals and consumer electronic devices.

The BCM4318E also features Broadcom's new BroadRange™ technology, a standards-compliant hardware enhancement that extends the range of 54g®-based wireless devices. It uses advanced signal processing techniques to provide the industry's best receive sensitivity and optimize transmit power control, enabling Wi-Fi users to maintain high-speed wireless connections at up to 50% further from an access point.

All sounds great, but no datasheets on the site. Tsk...