Wii U Gamepad zero/gamepi project thread

[evertith]

Just doing some small math, I think it might be possible to fit two of these Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 2500mAh batteries in case, along with a pi 3, all side-by-side-by-side, giving 5000mAh at the same 3.7v.

I thought about maybe stacking them on top of each other, but I took some measurements where if hypothetically you took out the battery holder, that would give you 0.488" of height to work with. The batteries are 0.300" thick, and this is not including the thickness of kite's controller board (and any electrical tape insulation that goes with it ) so that won't work.

However, I measured from the right post that supports the D-pad, all the way across to the post that supports the Y-button, and that gave me about 6.5" with a little room to spare. The batteries are 2" in width, so two batteries would take up 4" in width, and the Pi 3 is 2.3" in width, so all together that leaves you with 0.2" of wiggle room to distribute across the batteries and the Pi 3, not bad.

Great find indeed. Wonder if something like this would work? The whole package (batts and control board) is the size of a credit card. I dropped a credit card in the battery compartment and I think Nintendo used a credit card to size the compartment. It fits with crazy perfection. The batts on that are a bit thick though...

[gnarlynick]

So I found a pretty cheap "for parts" white game pad on eBay and it just arrived today. I swapped out the buttons from it to my black one and I think it looks really sharp now. I also snapped a photo of the main board and it appears to have pads on it that may be able to be tapped into

[spoiler="Wii U"]

1470265488331-1153561234.jpg (5.1 MiB) Viewed 7994 times

14702685085661236351481.jpg (5.45 MiB) Viewed 7994 times

14702685388012044260042.jpg (6.65 MiB) Viewed 7994 times

[/spoiler]

[Racerboy]

Would you recommend buying a used gamepad? The only salvageable parts I could think of would be the charging port, audio potentiometer, and audio jack (along with the black plastic insert around them). I'm also just going to solder another FPC connector board for controls so thats taken care of.

Also do you think that big light grey display holder could be of any use or would it just take up space?

[evertith]

Hey, you guys should take a look at this guy's PSP build. Specifically, his power button circuit with hard start and soft shutdown on the same button, as well as his ingenious way of tapping into the 0.5mm FPC connections.

[othermod]

Hey, you guys should take a look at this guy's PSP build. Specifically, his power button circuit with hard start and soft shutdown on the same button, as well as his ingenious way of tapping into the 0.5mm FPC connections.

You're making me blush

[gnarlynick]

Would you recommend buying a used gamepad? The only salvageable parts I could think of would be the charging port, audio potentiometer, and audio jack (along with the black plastic insert around them). I'm also just going to solder another FPC connector board for controls so thats taken care of.

Also do you think that big light grey display holder could be of any use or would it just take up space?

I don't see much value in buying a used one, mine was a little more expensive than just the shell, generally they're around $50 unless you can find a deal. The only benefit is like you stated, sourcing some original hardware from the board. The volume potentiometer is just a standard slide switch, the plastic part that is interacted with outside the case probably can be bought separately.

The holder around the display seems to only have 2 purposes, hold the display in place and to be a mount for the main board. I don't see much use in migrating it to this build as it'll just take up space that we probably don't already have. Again, that display driver issue needs to be solved first. If not, some major case modifications need to be done to gain more space in there.

[Fleder]

Hey, you guys should take a look at this guy's PSP build. Specifically, his power button circuit with hard start and soft shutdown on the same button, as well as his ingenious way of tapping into the 0.5mm FPC connections.

[mention]Camble[/mention]
This could be helpful for the shutdown circuit.

[Camble]

Thanks @Fleder. Very similar to what I'm working on, but the dual MOSFET chip will make things a whole lot cleaner. I'll look into using these.

[grenade44]

Is there any updates on Screen and Board? I really want to attempt this build but the screen is the only thing holding me back. i odnt really want to put a smaller screen in the shell.

[Fleder]

I am still waiting on the screen to arrive so i can send it to kite to do the actual board and test it.
It is a waiting game...