Wii U Gamepad Pinouts

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Guinan
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 12:48 pm
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Wii U Gamepad Pinouts

Post by Guinan » Fri May 12, 2017 8:27 pm

Hi everyone out there working on a Wii U RetroPad build. I have been reading awesome threads about this particular build. Banjokazooie's thread and build are both awesome. I am also thankful for ZarkWizard's work. There are a few things that I think would be good to continue outside of Banjokazooie's thread just for the sake of putting it all together in one place. I'm working on working on this build and am wanting to use as much of the original equipment as possible because I just don't want to reinvent the wheel. To that end, I'm posting the pinouts we know for the many reel and tape ribbon cables that we currently know and will hope that the others will follow.

First up, is the pinouts for the controllers:
IMG_0452.PNG
IMG_0452.PNG (22.42 KiB) Viewed 5432 times
Then there is the known pinouts for the 18 pin connector:
GC18PPinOut.png
This has been updated for the LEDs and the proper Pin 1 location.
GC18PPinOut.png (679.25 KiB) Viewed 5360 times
Does anyone know if these connectors are the same?
https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32767579664.html

This leaves the little 8 pin guy that we don't know much about:
IMG_0902.jpg
IMG_0902.jpg (415.74 KiB) Viewed 5432 times
This 8 pin guy is believed to carry the charging LED signals. I believe it also carries the sync button signal but I would think it would also go through the 18 pin cable. If I knew how to figure out the pinouts I would. I'm betting it requires a multimeter which I don't have. I'll research it and see if I can figure out some of them. I mean, if I want to use them, I'll kind of have to, right? Anyway, I'm hoping that there are other people in the community that wants to get all of the pinouts in a single place.

Guinan
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2017 12:48 pm
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: Wii U Gamepad Pinouts

Post by Guinan » Wed May 24, 2017 9:36 pm

I've began working on the pinout mapping. I've found the amber and red LEDs. I've had the blue going at one point but I still can't find that particular pin. I think that the blue pin only lights up when there's enough power? IDK why I can't get that to work. I had to update the image from the previous one because it didn't use the proper PIN 1 location. The red LED was indeed on pin 7 counting from the 18th pin but it's actually pin 12 with the amber LED the pin below it. The blue LED pin is there somewhere!

On the same board, there is another blue LED. It's polarity is switched from the other three. I can get it to work using pins 1 to 3 but only if I switch the positive and negative probes. I don't know what that's about.

As far as the power board:
There are two charging pads. The one on the right is the positive and the one on the left is the negative.

The pins of the expansion port are the pins on the 8 pin flex ribbon plus three. The reset button falls to that as well. I've tested it and will get that pinout soon. Then, I'll put the two boards together and find where the 8 pin flex cable goes through the 18 pin cable.

Sorry for the double post.

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