Does this kind of cable exist (2 USB Drives device switcher with y-USB connection). If not, could anyone educate me how to make one?

[MikaDubbz]

Ok, kind of hard to explain without a visualization, does a cord like this exist?

You see, the idea is that it's a typical Y-splitter USB cable, but it has connections for 2 USB Drives, and a switch which determines which USB drive is active. This is such a specific cord that I imagine it was never made, but it'd be perfect for an easy setup of alternating 2 USB drives on a Wii U, one for the Wii U proper, one for the vWii. And yes, I'm aware there are already alternative solutions to the problem I'm wanting to address with such a cord here. And they all have there merits, I just like the idea of this best for me, but sadly I don't think it actually exists, if it does, can anyone point me to where I can buy it?

If it doesn't exist like I assume, I do have some soldering experience, an extra usb-y cable and a few extra USB connector cables, I'm pretty sure I could make this a reality, but I'd just like to know from someone with more understanding of such a thing of how exactly I would do that.

Thanks for any help!

 

[V10lator]

Take the Y cable, cut off the HDD site end. Now add a switch and the original end + another one.

It might be enough to switch VCC, so connect the other 3 lanes directly but route VCC through the switch. Search for an on-on switch. Such a switch should have 3 solder points: One input and two outputs. It will route the input to one of the outputs, depending on how you flip the switch.

In case switching VCC isn't enough there are switches which are able to switch multiple lines together. Such a switch should have (at least) 12 solder points: 4 inputs and 8 outputs. You find such switches by searching for terms like "4 pole on-on switch" but they are a bit more expensive. With this you can switch all the lines (VCC, GND and both data lines) at the same time.

As you show USB 3 cables in the picture: These have more than 4 cables inside but as the Wii U is USB 2 you just need to care about 4 of them, rest ist floating anyway.

Last a diagram of a 4 pole on-on switch, so you get a better Idea:

 

[FAST6191]

You might need to/benefit from stepping it up a bit more into the KVM world
amazon link to USB switcher

 

[Carnage]

Ok, kind of hard to explain without a visualization, does a cord like this exist?

View attachment 359076
You see, the idea is that it's a typical Y-splitter USB cable, but it has connections for 2 USB Drives, and a switch which determines which USB drive is active. This is such a specific cord that I imagine it was never made, but it'd be perfect for an easy setup of alternating 2 USB drives on a Wii U, one for the Wii U proper, one for the vWii. And yes, I'm aware there are already alternative solutions to the problem I'm wanting to address with such a cord here. And they all have there merits, I just like the idea of this best for me, but sadly I don't think it actually exists, if it does, can anyone point me to where I can buy it?

If it doesn't exist like I assume, I do have some soldering experience, an extra usb-y cable and a few extra USB connector cables, I'm pretty sure I could make this a reality, but I'd just like to know from someone with more understanding of such a thing of how exactly I would do that.

Thanks for any help!

Every time is see this question, I wonder. Why?
Why go through all that stuff if you can have everything on the WiiU Side, and even play GC or Wii Games on the GamePad (if it support classic controller on Wii)
This is an old video

But now we have Aroma, and still everything run smoothly, so why have 2 hdd?

 

[xoINARIox]

Every time is see this question, I wonder. Why?
Why go through all that stuff if you can have everything on the WiiU Side, and even play GC or Wii Games on the GamePad (if it support classic controller on Wii)
This is an old video

But now we have Aroma, and still everything run smoothly, so why have 2 hdd?

The reasons for this are actually quite simple:

- the title limit of 300 in the wii u menu

- the fact that gamecube injects only run from sd card

- iirc there were also some Wiiware games that just didn't work as VC Inject

 

[V10lator]

the fact that gamecube injects only run from sd card

Injects go to USB or NAND, so how do you want to install them to SD ? Also what does the SD card have to do with the topic?

iirc there were also some Wiiware games that just didn't work as VC Inject

So far I didn't encounter one. Have an example?

 

[xoINARIox]

Injects go to USB or NAND, so how do you want to install them to SD ? Also what does the SD card have to do with the topic?

Sorry .......I meant only the iso ... and not the channel that is installed

 

[V10lator]

Sorry .......I meant only the iso ... and not the channel that is installed

The iso is part of the channel... At least if you do a real inject, not just a forwarder.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

The iso is part of the channel... At least if you do a real inject, not just a forwarder.

They might be referring to using an ISO on the SD-Card via Nintendont as it doesn't require making a channel (unless you do the Wii U Forwarder), and it loads directly from the SD-Card.

Idk why people still do that method though when you can hook your own forwarders into Nintendont and run it like that. But then again, I never really went into injects so I could just be lacking information.

 

[xoINARIox]

They might be referring to using an ISO on the SD-Card via Nintendont as it doesn't require making a channel (unless you do the Wii U Forwarder), and it loads directly from the SD-Card.

Idk why people still do that method though when you can hook your own forwarders into Nintendont and run it like that. But then again, I never really went into injects so I could just be lacking information.

Yes basically I meant exactly that ..... didn't know that there is another way (real inject)

 

[MikaDubbz]

Every time is see this question, I wonder. Why?
Why go through all that stuff if you can have everything on the WiiU Side, and even play GC or Wii Games on the GamePad (if it support classic controller on Wii)
This is an old video

But now we have Aroma, and still everything run smoothly, so why have 2 hdd?

It's like people don't read the full first post or simply don't care and wish to force what they prefer on others, allow me to reiterate myself:

"And yes, I'm aware there are already alternative solutions to the problem I'm wanting to address with such a cord here. And they all have there merits, I just like the idea of this best for me."

That should be all we need to say on the matter. Glad you like your setup for what I wish to address here, I like the setup I currently have and would love to be able to do this. That's all that needs to be said.

By the way I already have Wii and GC games playable on my GamePad from the Wii U menu and the rest of my GameCube isos on my SD card
However, I have a TON of regular Wii games, so injects alone won't do it for all of them, for the games I play less often I store in a USB drive just for the vWii via USBLoader GX. Ok? Cool.

 

[rcpd]

That's all that needs to be said.

How long you been on GBATemp? You oughta know better by now.

Having said that, I think @V10lator has the correct idea. Make it.

 

[MikaDubbz]

You might need to/benefit from stepping it up a bit more into the KVM world
amazon link to USB switcher

Believe it or not, I'm already utilizing a USB switcher on my Wii U, and not only is every port being utilized, what I've found is that at least 1 end of the y-cable must plug directly into the Wii U, while the other can be on the switcher. Meaning a second drive can't plug both ends into the switcher (which does have its own power supply by the way) and properly be read from. Furthermore, the front 2 ports are always utilized by the GameCube controller adapter and I really don't wanna make that look like a mess by putting a switcher in the front as well. So for awhile I've just been switching out drives when necessary by switching the end of the y-cord that plugs directly into the USB hard drive. Works well enough, but a little switcher like this would be ideal for me.

 

[V10lator]

what I've found is that at least 1 end of the y-cable must plug directly into the Wii U, while the other can be on the switcher

Might be a stupid question but did you try to power the switcher itself with the Y cable?

 

[Carnage]

It's like people don't read the full first post or simply don't care and wish to force what they prefer on others, allow me to reiterate myself:

"And yes, I'm aware there are already alternative solutions to the problem I'm wanting to address with such a cord here. And they all have there merits, I just like the idea of this best for me."

That should be all we need to say on the matter. Glad you like your setup for what I wish to address here, I like the setup I currently have and would love to be able to do this. That's all that needs to be said.

By the way I already have Wii and GC games playable on my GamePad from the Wii U menu and the rest of my GameCube isos on my SD card
However, I have a TON of regular Wii games, so injects alone won't do it for all of them, for the games I play less often I store in a USB drive just for the vWii via USBLoader GX. Ok? Cool.

@MikaDubbz I think you misunderstood me. I read your complete post, and my question "Why" is from genuine interest,
I mean. Why go through all that trouble. Is there any specific reason, perhaps I'm missing out on something, that can only be achieve on a dual HDD setup.

 

[Deleted member 571007]

@MikaDubbz I think you misunderstood me. I read your complete post, and my question "Why" is from genuine interest,
I mean. Why go through all that trouble. Is there any specific reason, perhaps I'm missing out on something, that can only be achieve on a dual HDD setup.

Larger storage convenience, faster speeds. Adding the switch allows to change between Drives without having to actually unplug anything.

There's a lot of reasons.

 

[MikaDubbz]

Might be a stupid question but did you try to power the switcher itself with the Y cable?

Yes, 2 USB ends into the power switcher will not work, the drive will act like it's not getting enough power (again even though the Switcher itself is connected to its own power brick), however, one end in the switcher, and the other directly in the Wii U works no problem.

Post automatically merged: Mar 15, 2023

@MikaDubbz I think you misunderstood me. I read your complete post, and my question "Why" is from genuine interest,
I mean. Why go through all that trouble. Is there any specific reason, perhaps I'm missing out on something, that can only be achieve on a dual HDD setup.

Really my reasoning shouldn't matter, but I'll put it simply, my 1TB Wii U drive is nearly full of titles that puts me at the 300 title limit, so yeah I've got a lot of Wii injects on my Wii U menu, but I can't put them all there because of the title limit. So if I want to store all of my other Wii games, I need to either put them on a USB drive or an SD card, my 500GB SD card is full because of all the apps and thats where I store all my additional GameCube games that don't populate the home menu to be launched separately in Nintendont.

As I said, I'm aware of solutions around this, including the dual drive enclosure experimental thing that can have the vWii reading the drives in reverse order, so that the Wii U proper never recognizes the second drive and gives the annoying nag, while the vWii recognizes only the vWii drive. THIS honestly would be the most preferential route, however this is very experimental as it popped up only within the last year and you have to run an app that changes how the vWii reads the drives in order, and that's the part that I'm uneasy about, the creator of the app himself was unsure if it could lead to issues or not himself as I recall. And sadly while we can't partition a single drive to be half Wii U and half vWii; uStealth will help a vWii drive avoid the format nag, but all the same it sadly doesn't allow for content for both sides of the console to exist on the same single drive and then both be read without issue, even if partitioned.

Point of the matter is, as things currently stand, what I've proposed in this topic would be my preferred way to address the issue at this time. But I'm also fine with things for me as they stand, I very rarely even have to boot up USBLoader GX to get to the deeper cut Wii games, so I'm very very rarely swapping drives to begin with, heck even all my Wiiware is stored on my SDcard (And I've got most of those too), so I don't even have to change out for that or GameCube games, just the deeper cut Wii games. Again though, I'm frankly annoyed that i had to even spell any of this out, I really did try to pre-emptively avoid what I should have known would be this inevitable discussion regardless.