Hardware Others wiimote always has low battery now

[jesusballer]

hi, 1 year ago, my ex gf gave me a black wii with a motionplus controller as a gift, everything went fine until i started to see weird behaviour from the wiimote like everytime i changed the batteries, i could either:

1. play normally and once i checked the menu the 1 bar battery icon would turn into a fully charged battery icon
2. it would show the low battery icon and then die instantly or after i take the batteries out and put them back in

now i have been trying with new duracell, energizer, etc. batteries that i bought from the store and now only the 2nd scenario happens, for example: few weeks ago, i was playing with my wiimote fully charged and my food arrived so i paused the game, took the batteries out to prevent the wiimote from consuming the batteries charge and went to eat, after 30 mins or so, i came back and put the batteries back into the wiimote to find out that they now have zero charge so i bought a triwing screwdiver to see the inside of the controller to find out what was wrong with it i couldnt find anything infested with corrosion or something broken inside of the wiimote, just a normal board without any scratches or anything at all, i do think that this has to do with the something related to where the batteries need to place but im no expert so i dont know much about that

please help i dont wanna buy a new wiimote when this one was working just 2 weeks ago, i was thinking i could buy rechargable batteries and a charger but im not so sure (i also couldnt find anything on yt or google related to this issue thats why im asking here) i can also post pics of the wiimote if needed

 

[JuanMena]

It could be possible that the controller is failing at delivering power.
I'm totally unaware if there's a special chip that rehulates voltage, or if it's just a matter of cold solder joints or even rust in the battery terminal.

If you can, disassemble the WiiMote and look at the contacts or search for rust/oxide or even desoldered parts.

I don't think your controller is completely lost.

 

[jesusballer]

It could be possible that the controller is failing at delivering power.
I'm totally unaware if there's a special chip that rehulates voltage, or if it's just a matter of cold solder joints or even rust in the battery terminal.

If you can, disassemble the WiiMote and look at the contacts or search for rust/oxide or even desoldered parts.

I don't think your controller is completely lost.

i see, i have tried to disassemble it and i found nothing else than just dust that i cleaned up already, i was looking for oxide or rust but ive found nothing the only thing i have not tried is to remove the springs where the batteries are placed but i got no idea what to do now as i dont wanna risk damaging something
thanks for being so quick to help too

 

[JuanMena]

i see, i have tried to disassemble it and i found nothing else than just dust that i cleaned up already, i was looking for oxide or rust but ive found nothing the only thing i have not tried is to remove the springs where the batteries are placed but i got no idea what to do now as i dont wanna risk damaging something
thanks for being so quick to help too

Mmm... photos?
PS: Try to get clear pictures, not unfocused or blurry.

 

[jesusballer]

Mmm... photos?
PS: Try to get clear pictures, not unfocused or blurry.

wish i could take them less blurry

 

[JuanMena]

wish i could take them less blurry
View attachment 321879View attachment 321880View attachment 321881View attachment 321882

I'm comparing some other controller's pcb and some things are getting me confused.
Might be the model though...
Does your controller had "Y" screws and the Nintendo logo on it?

 

[JuanMena]

For instance, take a look at this shot from where the A button should be:

It has more fuses near that black chip, whilst yours doesn't.
Again, it might be a different model... but I'm starting to think that it might be possible that your remote might be fake third party.

 

[jesusballer]

For instance, take a look at this shot from where the A button should be:

It has more fuses near that black chip, whilst yours doesn't.
Again, it might be a different model... but I'm starting to think that it might be possible that your remote might be fake third party.

mmm yeah it could be a different model i doubt mine is fake but i will still check someway to tell them apart i didnt realize that it had more fuses on that part maybe you could find more clues

 

[JuanMena]

mmm yeah it could be a different model i doubt mine is fake but i will still check someway to tell them apart i didnt realize that it had more fuses on that part maybe you could find more clues

I've tried to look, but again, might be a different model and I might be wrong... unfortunately I don't have a WiiMotion Plus to compare your's on mine.

But yeah, when something electronic fails at receiving power, it usually means a problem on a fuse, a capacitor, a regulator/chip, or rust/oxide.

For the last one, use alcohol to clean the pcb.
For the first ones, you need a multimeter to check where the mote is failing to deliver voltage (2 AA batteries equals 3v) somewhere on your mote, the voltage must go lower than that. But again, you need a multimeter to test every component near the battery terminals.

 

[jesusballer]

I've tried to look, but again, might be a different model and I might be wrong... unfortunately I don't have a WiiMotion Plus to compare your's on mine.

But yeah, when something electronic fails at receiving power, it usually means a problem on a fuse, a capacitor, a regulator/chip, or rust/oxide.

For the last one, use alcohol to clean the pcb.
For the first ones, you need a multimeter to check where the mote is failing to deliver voltage (2 AA batteries equals 3v) somewhere on your mote, the voltage must go lower than that. But again, you need a multimeter to test every component near the battery terminals.

yeah i did clean the board with isopropyl alcohol but nothing seemed to change i will probably use a multimeter tomorrow to check the voltage, would rechargable batteries work with it if it doesnt recieve enough power from alcanine batteries or would it remain the same? i dont know if its genuine or not cuz mine has a wii motion plus logo in the bottom of the wiimote i also got the serial number and all that

 

[jesusballer]

anything i could do now though that maybe will make a change? i dont have a multimeter near me for now i can try to clean the wiimote again but i dont know if that will do anything
mine looks exactly like this one it had that exact same silicon sleeve but my dog ripped it into pieces

 

[JuanMena]

yeah i did clean the board with isopropyl alcohol but nothing seemed to change i will probably use a multimeter tomorrow to check the voltage, would rechargable batteries work with it if it doesnt recieve enough power from alcanine batteries or would it remain the same? i dont know if its genuine or not cuz mine has a wii motion plus logo in the bottom of the wiimote i also got the serial number and all that

Absolutely not.
Your Wiimote has 4 parts to feed, the rumble motor, the bluetooth, infrared and speaker.
It must have some kind of rectifier/chip that splits the AA voltage into 4. You need the schematics to check what requires what voltage.
Using different batteries won't help because again, the voltage gets split.

anything i could do now though that maybe will make a change?

Well... yes and no...
You could take out the speaker and see if the voltage gets normal... or desolder the small motor to see if that's sucking up the energy from the batteries... other than that... I don't think there's something you can do.

i dont have a multimeter near me for now i can try to clean the wiimote again but i dont know if that will do anything

No... not really, that wouldn't help. The mote is free of corrosion.

 

[jesusballer]

Absolutely not.
Your Wiimote has 4 parts to feed, the rumble motor, the bluetooth, infrared and speaker.
It must have some kind of rectifier/chip that splits the AA voltage into 4. You need the schematics to check what requires what voltage.
Using different batteries won't help because again, the voltage gets split.


Well... yes and no...
You could take out the speaker and see if the voltage gets normal... or desolder the small motor to see if that's sucking up the energy from the batteries... other than that... I don't think there's something you can do.


No... not really, that wouldn't help. The mote is free of corrosion.

so my best bet is to use a multimeter to see what part is not recieving enough power or no power at all? i dont know if i can do soldering right now as i dont have other tools apart from the triwing screwdiver so i guess ill have to wait till tomorrow, maybe i can take out the speaker but how do i do that? other than that theres not much i can do right now then

 

[JuanMena]

so my best bet is to use a multimeter to see what part is not recieving enough power or no power at all? i dont know if i can do soldering so i guess ill have to wait till tomorrow, maybe i can take out the speaker but how do i do that? other than that theres not much i can do right now then

The speaker is the only part besides plastic that's not soldered on a Wii Mote. So, yeah, just take it out.

Unfortunately yes, you do need a multimeter to repair anything electronic.

Another solution is to replace your mote for another one.

 

[jesusballer]

The speaker is the only part besides plastic that's not soldered on a Wii Mote. So, yeah, just take it out.

Unfortunately yes, you do need a multimeter to repair anything electronic.

Another solution is to replace your mote for another one.

alright thanks for the help i will take out the speaker and see if anything changes i will post updates tomorrow

 

[JuanMena]

What if your battery terminals are just not making enough contact with the batteries?
Try stretching the >> thingies (the negative poles) forwards to make them reach further the batteries.

It could be another possibility that totally slipped my mind yesterday.

Also: Have you checked your batteries to see if there's rust on their poles?