Hardware Wii U Pro Controller Battery Replacement

[Mulsiphix]

I opened up my controller today expecting to find a 3DS (CTR-003) style battery, but instead found a blue plastic encased battery pack with a plug that goes into the controller board itself. To unplug it I need to open the entire controller, not just the battery compartment. I haven't seen any evidence of this blue battery online. This controller came inside an official Nintendo WiiU Deluxe Bundle. Any idea if I can replace this? And if so, with what product? The blue plastic has no writing on it at all.

 

[Hayato213]

Take a picture of your pro controller back cover.

 

[CMDreamer]

Was the Wii U bundle a new one or second hand? (I'd say that considering that Wii U hasn't been sold on stores way long ago, it was a second hand one).

Maybe the battery had to be replaced, and as no new original batteries are available from Nintendo, a OEM replacement had to be used and adapted.

 

[jeffyTheHomebrewer]

Are you sure you have an official pro controller? Y'know, WUP-005?

 

[SScorpio]

Does it look like this? If so you have a knockoff controller.

 

[godreborn]

I still have a genuine black and a white pro controllers, but I did buy a knockoff once, and the tell-tell sign was the dpad. it didn't feel right. also, the box for it is slightly smaller. I don't know if that's true of all knockoffs (probably not), but that's how I knew it was fake.

 

[godreborn]

a good example is the long oval on the controller that says Nintendo. if it's absent, then it's fake. the ones I've seen have the oval, but there's no text.

 

[Mulsiphix]

I thought the controller came with the Deluxe WiiU. But I just pulled out my box for it and see the Pro gamepad was not listed on the side. I must have a knock off. Cannot remember where I purchased this. That sucks . Here is what I am working with.

 

[Hayato213]

Looks like you got knock off.

 

[Dust2dust]

For reference and comparison purposes, here are pics of my genuine Wii U Pro controller. As @godreborn mentioned above, the long oval on the back has the Nintendo logo in it. I also see red power button mark, and the Wii U logo on the front, compared to the pic of the fake above.

 

[CMDreamer]

There's no doubt, you have a knockoff pro controller. Those are very common, and many are well made up to the point to make us think we have an original one, until you search for some absent details, just as already has been pointed out.

 

[Mulsiphix]

Thank you everyone for helping me figure this out 🙏

I never had any issues with it performance wise. Seems a shame to throw away a controller that worked so well for me. Any ideas how I might identify the battery pack to replace it? I've seen videos online of people opening plastic sealed battery packs like this and there isn't anything but grey stuff inside.

 

[nine0nine]

It's unlikely the manufacturers of the controller used their own bespoke battery, so it's probably an off-the-shelf component that may be still in production. Sites like Aliexpress may have them, or one that fits. Take the size measurements and look for 5v rechargeable batteries on ali or ebay, see what comes up.

 

[Mulsiphix]

Good news to report


I opened it up and measured the blue battery pack inside the controller.

Since there was no writing on the original battery I referenced the Nintendo Brand battery pack for the details I should be looking for.

I found a battery of similar size on Amazon. I made sure to double check the connector clip and wiring arrangement matched the blue battery I was replacing. I was unable to find one rated at 1300mAh that had dimensions that would safely fit inside the controller battery cavity. The battery compartment back plate has a curve in it that I feared might not leave enough room to reattach the back plate if I got the taller 1300mAh version. It may have fit just fine but I chose not to risk it. I ended up going with this battery for $11.99. The 1200mAh I purchased fit comfortably inside despite being 1.3mm greater in height than the blue battery.

The lights on it blinked so I tried to sync it immediately. But the WiiU could not see it. I cleared all paired controllers for the system and then tried plugging it in via a USB cord to sync it. Still no luck. I decided to charge it fully to see if that would make a difference. It did not. A little looking on gbatemp and I found someone who had the same issue.

They reported that with Tiramisu and Bloopair active their brand new WiiU Pro Controller would not sync. But after rebooting their WiiU without the SD card present (which contained Tiramisu and Bloopair) the controller synced successfully. I tried that and my controller synced like normal. Yay!!!

So all is well and I didn't have to throw this very well built off-brand controller into the trash. Thank you everyone for your help and guidance. I sincerely appreciate it