Basic guide to mod a gamecube controller with a wii classic controller pcb

Some will ask why do this when the wii already has gc controller ports. Well this mod is primarily for use on the Wii U because it lacks gc controller ports.

Now with that out of the way. Lets make one of these:

Out of these:

So once these two pads are acquired, open them up. You’ll need a triwing screw driver.

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There’s some things we will need to do to both pads before we start wiring them up. Lets start with the GC pad first.
Lets remove the rumble motor.

Dremel down flat the plastic that was holding the rumble motor.

Desolder the gc cable.

Dremel off the IC using a cutting wheel.

Using the dremel again, cut lines around the spot where the gc cable was attached at. Also go ahead and clean up the contact pads of the IC by desoldering off the remaining cut off IC pins.

Now lets work on the classic controller pcb.
Desolder off the ZL and ZR switches.

Use the dremel to cut the pcb. Follow the pink line.

Desolder the cable like you did for the gc pad.

Now take that same cable and solder to the gamecube controller where it’s cable used to be. Bridge the pins for the white wire and black wire with solder.

Lets start on some wiring now.
On the bottom of the cut up classic controller are two vias that will be wired up. These will be the only things soldered on the bottom. You’ll need to scrape away the surface with a blade. The labels are for which color of the classic controller cable they will be wired up to. The wiring used throughout this mod is 30 guage wire.

After the bottom side of the pcb is wired up, hot glue the pcb to the gamecube pad. Place it in between the two trigger sliders where the rumble motor holder was dremeled.

Solder a wire from the spot with the black circle to the pin that has the black wire. Solder a wire from the spot with the red circle to the pin that has the red wire.

This is were things get very hard. All these labeled spots need to be wired up to the gamecube pad where the IC was (Vcc and Gnd can be wired to the pins of the red and black wire like in the previous picture).

I’m not going to go through each and every trace and via you’ll need to wire up in the diagram, but I’ll show one.
The circled trace here is for the L trigger. Using the pinout provided you can follow the traces to find suitable spots to wire up at. Using a blade I scraped off the surface of the trace to expose the copper trace. Then tin the exposed trace and a wire with some solder. Then you can solder the wire to the trace and apply a little hot glue on the wire to keep it secure in place. Solder the other end of the wire to the corresponding location on the gc pad where the IC was.

Classic Controller pcb all wired up:

Gamecube side all wired up:

With the hard part all done, place the board back into the gamecube shell. Position the cable through the strain relief stems like so and close up the pad.

Plug into a WiiMote and enjoy!

Nice write up. I figured you wired up your pad where the IC was. This is alot cleaner than my recent SNES pad hack.
I didn’t realize the Classic controller PCB can be chopped down so easily.

wicked! new project for the winter break, even though i dont own a wii

Dremel Count: 5

Sent to the Internet with Smoke Signaltalk. Buy your matches and blanket in the Trading Outlet for $20 shipped. Firewood sold separately.

I wonder if there’s a guide to do this in reverse, ie mod a Wii Classic Controller to run on a Gamecube port. Using one of those cheap aftermarket pcbs would be cool too.
Great guide anyway.

Dear Gummo! I will be glad if you helm me with the following problem. I bought a classic controller but with gamecube jack at the end of the cord. My friend and I just bought an extension controller extension cable wi the usual jack. We tried to cut the cord so to replace the jacks. Is it possible to connect classic controller to wii remote in such a way?

can u please stop blowing my mind all the time

You bought one of those Chinese knock-off controllers. They are gamecube controllers. You can not just replace the jacks as the two systems use different communication protocols.

Ok, quite a lot of years have passed now. WiiU now has a GameCube controller adapter, almost making such a mod obsolete. However, I have come back to this going the opposite direction: trying to get a Classic Controller have a GameCube port. This is primarily for Super Smash Bros: I can only practice with my 3DS, and I want a controller with similar layout that I can simply plug in when I go to tournaments.

I have some simple questions that maybe you can answer, Gummo. I’ll list them below:
[list=1]
[] Can a simple wire splicing be done to attach a new jack to my Classic Controller. If not, why? (I’m assuming this has something to do with the IC, but I’ve seen people do wire splicing to get GameCube controllers to work on computers, so why not here?)
[
] If I were to modify this myself, would I have to cut out the IC part of one of my GameCube controllers and wire it, similar to what you did above?
[*] If I were to avoid the risk of doing this myself and screwing it up (which I normally do) would purchasing an off-brand, Chinese hybrid such as the one found in the link be worth the risk? Note, this product has no reviews, but the guy’s profile is solid: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KZLI9JI/ref=ox_sc_mini_detail?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AZVVQFYSTUA9L
[/list]

That controller on that amazon page is the end result that I want (though a classic pro would be optimal), but from your experience: would it even work?
Thanks for the help. I’ll check out your YouTube page and see the other projects you’ve worked on.
-Clint

1- wire splicing the cords will not work. The controllers have different communication protocols. Communication is handled by the IC not the cable.
I’ve seen nes/snes and n64 wired to serial ports on pc, but not gc.

2- yes, you would have to cut down a gc pcb and wire it into the controller like I did. Pretty difficult.

3- it’s cheap and worth the risk. If you are lucky you might be able to swap out the pcb into a real classic controller. Or swap out the buttons/rubber pads. At the very least the pcb might even be easier to hack up than a regular gc controller pcb and wire into a cc pro.