This happened a couple of weeks ago, but I only found out about it recently. Nuke released the full kit-n-kaboodle of USBGecko as open-source at http://code.google.com/p/usbgecko/ — this includes not only the source code for the latest WiiRd and GeckoOS under GPL, but the full schematics and VHDL files for the USBGecko itself under the BSD license. Bravo!
complete USBGecko source, schematics released
August 19th, 2009 by · 12 Comments
Tags: Wii
12 responses so far ↓
1 SquidMan // Aug 19, 2009 at 12:16 am
Hah, you just found out bushing?
I thought someone would’ve informed you 🙁
Also, first again?
2 tech3475 // Aug 19, 2009 at 1:36 am
Nice find, this may mean cheaper versions now so hopefully this will mean it will be more mass produced/widely available or even improved.
3 Tex© // Aug 19, 2009 at 10:05 am
first awesome second what program would be used in viewing the USB Gecko Schematics?
4 dhewg // Aug 19, 2009 at 11:27 am
@tech3475: This isn’t even closely related to mass production, and for that the official price tag was just fine. This product is the most used and useful one on our team in terms of Wii homebrew development. Anyway, if you do care you can just build your own adapter now.
Nice move, nuke!
5 Cthulhu32 // Aug 19, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Yeah I saw this right before I ordered my USBGecko. I sort of wish they’d get their site back up, but I’m very glad they BSD licensed the entire thing! How long till an Arduino Gecko I wonder?
6 |works // Aug 20, 2009 at 12:01 am
@Tex©: You can download the Altium Designer Viewer from http://altium.com/community/downloads/downloads_home.cfm. It will also open the PCB artwork. There isn’t a lot going on in the schematic, though; it’s just an Altera CPLD, generic flash memory, and an FTDI USB to parallel converter. The real magic is happening inside the CPLD, which is a an array of logic gates and blocks that can be programmed to act like a custom built semiconductor.
7 Tex© // Aug 20, 2009 at 8:29 pm
hay works thanks 🙂
8 qq // Feb 23, 2010 at 4:05 am
Has anyone tried to actually use the provided vhdl code? I’ve loaded it on my fpga board (with a few adjustments), but it simply didn’t work. From reading the vhdl code I understand that it doesn’t implement several of the commands used on the wii side (like 0x9000 – usbgecko detection), and it seems to contain some strange bugs which I haven’t yet figured out exactly (if you’re interested, check what happens when the usbmode flag is set).
Sorry to hijack your blog comments, but it looks like all the official usbgecko support channels have mysteriously disappeared.
9 yvonne.maginley // Feb 28, 2010 at 11:51 pm
I get:
Your client does not have permission to get URL /p/usbgecko/ from this server.
when opening the google code page
Is there anywhere a copy?
10 zoomx // Mar 16, 2010 at 10:09 am
http://www.usbgecko.com seems closed and http://code.google.com/p/usbgecko/ is inaccessible (503 Forbidden). What is going on?
11 Tex© // Jul 28, 2010 at 10:25 am
ya ….. *puts hand beside mouth* pst I think it was nintendo.
12 philly1996 // Aug 10, 2010 at 9:43 am
http://wiibrew.org/wiki/USB_Gecko
Complete USBGecko Source and Schematics
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