Wii U Gamepad Capture?

[Markee]

here to show my support. the wii u gamepad absolutely needs a capture mod, especially with katsukity out of commission.

[Da12thKind]

Oh wow! That's a ton of research you've put into this! Your notes and explanations were far better than what I was finding online back then. I kinda gave up on trying to find a solution to the whole Wii U Gamepad capture mod thing back then, but I've recently have been inspired once again because of stuff like the (almost) solder-free HDMI kit for the Gameboy Advance (https://retrogamerepairshop.com/product ... 9770694828).

I had to get a second part time job last summer just so I could pay my bills, so I've had very little time or energy to dedicate to learning PCB design to be able to make my own HDMI kit. That being said, I still have some hope that someone with more time and brains than me will come up with something that works.

[Sunset Archon]

Oh wow! That's a ton of research you've put into this! Your notes and explanations were far better than what I was finding online back then. I kinda gave up on trying to find a solution to the whole Wii U Gamepad capture mod thing back then, but I've recently have been inspired once again because of stuff like the (almost) solder-free HDMI kit for the Gameboy Advance (https://retrogamerepairshop.com/product ... 9770694828).

I had to get a second part time job last summer just so I could pay my bills, so I've had very little time or energy to dedicate to learning PCB design to be able to make my own HDMI kit. That being said, I still have some hope that someone with more time and brains than me will come up with something that works.

Indeed. I've been going over everything and did a little more research over the last few months. I'm gonna try what I've learned on a backup GamePad I bought and I'll let everyone here know how it goes.

Wish me luck.

[Da12thKind]

Heck yeah, dude! Wishing you the best of luck!

[Da12thKind]

(...)

Indeed. I've been going over everything and did a little more research over the last few months. I'm gonna try what I've learned on a backup GamePad I bought and I'll let everyone here know how it goes.

Wish me luck.

Oh hey! Did you happen to get anywhere with your experiments?

[RedsterTheGamer]

Just gonna say that I’d also be very interested in Wii U GamePad capture, once I get a Wii U that is lol

[Da12thKind]

I'm doing a necro-bump in the hopes that anyone else has had any luck with figuring out how to make Wii U Gamepad capture boards. I have since tried doing some of my own research off-and-on again over the years, and I've sadly not come any closer to a solution. I came across some comments here and there that claimed Nintendo used the bottom port on the gamepad for capture card use, but that's highly unlikely, as I'm pretty sure Loopy and some others have already shared that there is no video out wiring that goes there. I wish I knew enough about electronics to try to design a reproduction PCB based on the board I found digging through archives of Katsu and Opti's websites.

It seems as far as advancements in capture technology are concerned, all efforts have been directed into emulation which seem fine, but I doubt would give you proper results if you cared about using motion controls, touch controls, etc.

EDIT: I found the makers of the EZ-USB micro-controller but all their CY7C68013A-56PV(?? - last two digits were unreadable in the image, so I just looked at all 4 variants) are discontinued! Noooo! If anyone knows of a place that might sell the boards that are circulating in the used markets, please let me know!

EDIT 2: As with all of my previous tech woes of things being discontinued, China-based sellers on eBay have been my heroes! The XILINX Spartan 3A XC3S50A chip and the board it all sits on have yet to be found tho... I'll keep y'all posted!
Link: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=CY ... m570.l1313

EDIT 3: Just like the CY7(...) part, the FPGA chip (Spartan 3A XC(...)) has also been discontinued, but I found one last supplier of them! It does look like they designed their own PCB (which I guess is a "no duh" for many but hush), and then there's still three odd parts above and below the USB port that I have yet to ID...
Link: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/det ... 0C/1956974

[PSPMan3000]

Thank you for continuing to update this. I've been curious for a couple of years, but I didn't realize the situation was so dire.

[Da12thKind]

As a quick update, just to keep everyone in the loop, I decided to go ahead and email Optimize asking if they still had any old design documents regarding that Wii U capture board. Best case scenario is that they share the PCB design document and we can make our own boards. Worse case scenario is they tell me to fuck off

[Da12thKind]

Update: They said no to sharing the information (either bc they don’t have the docs anymore or because they don’t want to share proprietary information)