Worklog Wii U gamepad redesign

[DartWolf]

Something about me. I have small hands. This makes the bottom corners of the Wii U gamepad simply terrible to work with as they continually dig into my hands.
One mod I am currently planning is a redesign of the wii U gamepad to be more like unto a gamecube for comfort. Currently I am planning on examining the innards of a gamecube and Wii U gamepad controller and 3D printing a new shell. From there I should be able to wire in some new buttons, and perhaps use the stick boxes of a Wii U pro controller. Several Wii U gamepad buttons appear to be on a ribbon so it shouldn't be too terrible to mod them.

It might take me a little while to do all this, but I thought I would begin a worklog.

 

[DartWolf]

Wii U aquired. At this stage I'm taking a good hard look at the components and the casing of the gamepad.

 

[DartWolf]

Got a little bit more time to work on this. It looks like I will need to use a similar stickbox fix as Shank's Gamecube Joycons but with a lot less microsoldering fortunately. I have acquired some very dead but cosmetically good gamecube wavebirds so I think I can use similar 3d printed components for a lot of this. I'll be posting photos when I start dr. Frankensteining the parts together. I want to have my ducks in a row before I begin.

This is going to be a lot of careful by hand work. Unless I plan on a whole case redesign with 3d printing, I will have to figure out the best way to fuse the shells of the gamepad and wavebird halves in a way that will be completely stable and weight bearing. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on the best way to accomplish that in a more professional capacity?

 

[DartWolf]

Progress update. I know it has been forever but have successfully combined the two controllers and now am in the process of painting everything white (to match the Wii U). Bondo, sand, paint, bondo, sand, paint. It is a bit tedius to get the exact finish I want, but worth it. Closes up nicely and because the buttons and sticks of the Wii U are separate from the main board. All I have to do after is integrate the gamecube buttons and lengthen the wires on the Wii U clicky sticks.

from the main board which fits exactly how it used to

 

[DartWolf]

Making good progress. Gamecube buttons and controller halves created. Wii-U gamepad components are back in. Extended the sticks out. But I ran into some trouble with the ribbon wire being too fragile to work with. I was originally just going to solder to the ribbon wire but that didn't quite go as planned. Need to either replace or rework them somehow. Perhaps with small custom ribbons meant for soldering to. Could even be stubs with some solder pads. Just as long as I match what the original wire connections were and the buttons are good.