DIY Wireless NES controllers for Wii/Gamecube

Posted Feb 20th 2007 11:47AM by Will O'Brien
Filed under: home entertainment hacks, wii hacks

[Mark] sent in his wireless classic nintendo controller project. He built a wireless NES and SNES controller to use with his Wii via the Gamecube port. He used off the shelf TX/RX hardware and used some PIC controllers to glue everything together. iPod batteries keep em powered and keep the weight down. He provides all the schematics and a walk through on constructing the SNES controller. The circuits are pretty simple, so it's definitely repeatable. This is almost enough to get me to buy a Wii.

-- video after the break.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. Nice, and even timely for me. I am looking at wireless controllers and USB adapters so I can get 4 controllers hooked up to a MythTV system I've built. There are tons of PS2 wireless controllers and even PS2-USB adapters. I figure I could one built up for under CAD$30, possibly much cheaper if I can find deals.

Posted at 6:54AM on Feb 21st 2007 by akmixdown

2. Nice little project there, however, not sure about the Li-Ion charging scheme thats in place. As shown it will almost certainly damage the battery and in worst case could cause it to fail spectacularly (i.e. fire/explosion).

You can buy single cell charger chips from companies like maxim that would be a lot more robust, and include safety options like internal overcharge timers and support proper sensed dv/di, trickle and top-off type charging. Might be worth a look. (EE that deals with li-Ion & Li-Poly designs)

Posted at 8:42AM on Feb 21st 2007 by Rangerbob

3. Very nice. Though I wish that Nintendo or a third party is going to develop a proper Wii-specific set of wireless NES/SNES controllers eventually.

Posted at 12:23PM on Feb 21st 2007 by TJ

4. Could we just make something like this to use on my original NES?

Posted at 8:15AM on Feb 26th 2007 by CD_Vision

5. #2 (I've always wanted to call some one that) The ipod battery apparently has regulating circuitry built in

Posted at 10:54PM on Feb 27th 2007 by ziggit

6. #5, the battery will only contain the "protection" circuitry, which *should* prevent anything catastrophic from happening. I personally would not count on it to withstand sustained usage in this fashion. It is only supposed to be there in case anything goes wrong further up. I have also seen cheap Li-Ion packs omit even the basic safety package (typically just a thermal poly-fuse).

Posted at 10:43AM on Feb 28th 2007 by Rangerbob

7. If you could build me one of those bad boys I can supply you with the largest ipod batteries available free of charge! cyanideg2@hotmail.com

Posted at 2:39PM on Apr 10th 2007 by ben

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