Power switch for wiiu gamepad, make battery live longer

[k7ra]

I notice similar thing (like with psp (while it's easy to fix it), wiiu need a little mod?) that if I not use WiiU gamepad it's still discharge too fast while it's disabled.
Guess it's always check when WiiU would try enable it.
I even use bigger battery for it and it's still eat it...
So, I try disconnect it from it and to my surprise I was right.
After a long time battery still charged. (In most causes when I enable it's was empty before)
But it's really annoying to always to do it, disconnecting it from devise. (My gamepad in silicone cover and always to take out of it is a bad thing for it)
Does anybody done mod with button on back-cover to just move button or something like that to connect\disconnect battery?
I try search similar thing on aliexpress and other sites, but with no results so far.
Similar like these on my photo edits (xD) :

 

[neverendsDull]

It is on standby, either to be ready to reconnect to the console( but why? it still needs to boot when you press the power button), either the TV remote app is still running, you can press TV button while pad is off and see.
Maybe Nintendo thinks we need this big one for the TV remote function anytime anywhere...

Maybe we can just disable this function, but not without modifying the DRC firmware...

 

[CyberPal69]

I wonder if we could insert a switch between the battery plug and the Wii U receptacle? You would have to cut or remove the battery compartment cover, but you should be able to 3D print the plastic necessary. One end would be a plug that goes into the Wii U and the other end would be a receptacle that the battery cord plugs into. You would then need to run a little wire to a on/off switch that you could mount to the back of the tablet controller.

 

[GoodFellas]

This is great, I don't have to always charge the pad anymore

 

[k7ra]

I wonder if we could insert a switch between the battery plug and the Wii U receptacle? You would have to cut or remove the battery compartment cover, but you should be able to 3D print the plastic necessary. One end would be a plug that goes into the Wii U and the other end would be a receptacle that the battery cord plugs into. You would then need to run a little wire to a on/off switch that you could mount to the back of the tablet controller.

Yeah, idea was like that. Back cover to be 3d printed, there a problem to find plug with button like that

This is great, I don't have to always charge the pad anymore

You would need, but speed of battery discharging would decrease. So your battery would live longer. It's a bad thing for her health to keep it empty.

 

[GoodFellas]

Yeah, idea was like that. Back cover to be 3d printed, there a problem to find plug with button like that

You would need, but speed of battery discharging would decrease. So your battery would live longer. It's a bad thing for her health to keep it empty.

Of course, this is the most important

 

[Sowden]

I feel like I need to bring this up whenever I see it. I bought this Gamepad Battery Replacement mod two years ago. It replaces your back Gamepad plate, and you can use a e-cigarette battery for it. The battery range spans on for miles, it smokes any official or replacement ones. Since I've had it, I'm only now having to replace my battery. It has USB-C charging, it's a no cut mod, and to your point, it has a switch so you can turn the power on and off. It really is fantastic. This might be what your looking for, so I'll just leave this here.

 

[k7ra]

I feel like I need to bring this up whenever I see it. I bought this Gamepad Battery Replacement mod two years ago. It replaces your back Gamepad plate, and you can use a e-cigarette battery for it. The battery range spans on for miles, it smokes any official or replacement ones. Since I've had it, I'm only now having to replace my battery. It has USB-C charging, it's a no cut mod, and to your point, it has a switch so you can turn the power on and off. It really is fantastic. This might be what your looking for, so I'll just leave this here.

Yeah, something similar.
Good thing that somebody created this thing, sadly this site not support my country

 

[Hayato213]

Doesn't matter if you have an on/off switch if the battery doesn't go through proper cycle of charge and discharge, if the battery died very often then it won't hold charge.

 

[CautiousObjector]

Yeah, something similar.
Good thing that somebody created this thing, sadly this site not support my country

On the store page, there's a link to Thingiverse, where you can download and 3d print the plastic parts of the battery pack, if you have acces to a 3d printer. Of course, you'd need to buy the elctronic components yourself as well.
Love your idea about the power switch, seems like such a design flaw to have the battery drain in a week when not in use.
I might take on the challenge of designing a 3d printable part based on your idea. I'll get back to y'all in that case!

 

[Sowden]

I might take on the challenge of designing a 3d printable part based on your idea. I'll get back to y'all in that case!

I'll be watching this thread if you do. Because I recently discovered that the board he used doesn't take PD though the USB-C port. So if you find a way to improve upon this, I would be very interested!

 

[k7ra]

On the store page, there's a link to Thingiverse, where you can download and 3d print the plastic parts of the battery pack, if you have acces to a 3d printer. Of course, you'd need to buy the elctronic components yourself as well.
Love your idea about the power switch, seems like such a design flaw to have the battery drain in a week when not in use.
I might take on the challenge of designing a 3d printable part based on your idea. I'll get back to y'all in that case!

That would be great, 3d printed back cover not so hard to find and modify. (Even with my low knowledge in 3d modeling)
But what electronic components and what they called is another thing (My knowledge in electronic components very bad...)

 

[wiitendo84]

I just got a 6600 battery from a company off of Amazon called Pickle power.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08BHH77QV?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image
It lasts about 7-8 hours on a single charge playing on it. It does take 7-8 hours to charge and you do have to put a bit of force into the battery connector but I love it.
Edit: The Wii u gamepad battery is only 1600 for the original pads. I think they bumped it up to around 2600-3000 in the later models.

 

[AdRoz78]

i just use padcon plugin. keycombo turns off gamepad or disables screen only, for example when playing nsmbu.

 

[k7ra]

i just use padcon plugin. keycombo turns off gamepad or disables screen only, for example when playing nsmbu.

The problem not to disable screen, but decease use of battery. So while your wiiu gamepad off for few weeks it would discharge longer. Because:
It is generally recommended to store batteries at a charge level of around 40% to 50%. This will help to extend the battery's lifespan and prevent it from deteriorating due to overcharging or complete discharge.

 

[AdRoz78]

The problem not to disable screen, but decease use of battery. So while your wiiu gamepad off for few weeks it would discharge longer. Because:
It is generally recommended to store batteries at a charge level of around 40% to 50%. This will help to extend the battery's lifespan and prevent it from deteriorating due to overcharging or complete discharge.

yeah, I just play SMM a lot so I don't really need such solution, but I do see how it could be handy. keep it up

 

[marchrius]

Doesn't matter if you have an on/off switch if the battery doesn't go through proper cycle of charge and discharge, if the battery died very often then it won't hold charge.

If the battery is toast, ok well, of course you're right. But as OP said the gamepad burns through batteries like crazy even when not in use. In my case:

gaming (from full charge): 3-4 hours depending on brightness
when not in use (from full charge): 3 or 4 weeks
when battery is physically disconnected: lasts indefinitely, after one year it was still at the same level

I have multiple Wii Us and I did this for every single one of them except the one I use as my main:

_ discharge battery to around 50% (anything between 30-70 is fine. Li-ion batteries hate being fully or near fully charged/discharged)
_ unscrew battery lid
_ disconnect battery (you can leave it inside, just unplug the cable)
_ screw back battery lid or keep it detached so you save time when you have to reconnect battery

If you do this your battery will stay at its current state of degradation for another 10 years. If you don't, it'll get useless sooner rather than later (bought several Wii Us second handed and about a third of them had a dead or almost dead battery because they kept it at 0% for months or years. If you keep it at 100% it's better than 0% since it's not true 100% anyway but still far from ideal. Best is 50%).

Yes I know it's a pain and batteries are cheap anyway but I hate wasting perfectly good batteries because of bad design choices from Nintendo (Switch has similar problems as well...).