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[cacildo]

For those of us that are still waiting for a Switch....

I play A LOT on my wiiU, mostly on off tv mode. I totally understand the people that say "i didnt even plugged my Nintendo Switch dock because i play on portable mode most time" because really, i kinda like it better to play on a portable screen than on my huge tv. Maybe because im getting old and looking at a closer screen feels easier that look from afar to a big screen

Anyway, the problem is: the wiiu has terrible range, as we all know. I wish i could play with my gamepad anywhere in my apartment without having to move stuff around

ive been reading about the idea of changing your Wiiu internal antenna so you can extend the range of your gamepad

it seems you can just open your wiiU and a) cut the old antennas and solder up a new router-like plug to the wire

(this one)

or b) just open the wiiu until you have access to the motherboard, where you can plug one (or two) of these cables straight to the bluetooth card or something

Then just connect two 5GHZ antennas to these new plugs

And you are good to go

Except...

Nobody can confirm that this mod actually extend the gamepad range

Answers go from vague to straight denial.
"I got a little more range"
"I got no extra range at all but i like how the antennas look"
"I got nothing"

So it seems like too much work for no reward. But it got me thinking...

Has anyone ever tried putting bigger antennas on the gamepad itself?

Ive searched about the gamepad antennas. It seems this is what they look like

They seem to have the same plug as the wiiu internal antennas. I think the same process of replacing antennas on WiiU could be made on the gamepad itself. I just dont know if this could possibly extend the gamepad range

a few observations:
1) No, i cant change my wiiu position so i can get more range
2) No, i cant destroy the walls from my apartment so i can get more range
3) Yes, i have a second power brick for the wiiu itself if i want to take it somewhere else and use just the gamepad. But it sucks to move the whole wiiu + the extra power brick + the gamepad around the house

 

[MilkLizard]

Sounds a little risky to me. What if you destroy your console in the process? WiiU ain't cheap and I imagine replacing it is rather difficult now that the switch is out.

 

[dhonk]

I want to see you try this tbh lol

 

[PantsuJo]

You damage the gamepad/tablet = you lost your console
(or, more specifically, you need to buy a refurbished gamepad for, like, 110€).

Enjoy the "beauty" of the WiiU hardware/software project.

Keep this in mind and good luck trying this mod.

 

[luoapp]

Use aluminum foil to form a reflector at the back of the console (line the inside of your console stand ). I find it can extend the range a little bit, 1 ~ 2 meters, in my case. But since it's minimal effort, that's pretty much free gain.

 

[SURGEdude]

Losing my gamepad is my biggest fear. I really hope modders nail a way of nullifying the need for it. I've got nothing against the pad, but I need my Wii U to live on for many years as my GC/Wii/Wii U games machine thanks to Nintendon't.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

Still confuses me as to why they didn't just put a wifi module into the gamepad ala PS4 > Vita remote play, for extended range use.

 

[gingerbeardman]

Changing the aerial won't do anything. You'd also have to change the power of the signal being sent from the Wii U.

I learnt this trying to do it with a wifi router.

 

[Refreshment.01]

Still confuses me as to why they didn't just put a wifi module into the gamepad ala PS4 > Vita remote play, for extended range use.

If i remember correctly from the tear downs and analysis some months after the Wii U launch, all the hardware necessary to do that is already inside the Gamepad. So there wasn't any hardware barriers preventing Nintendo to allow remote play for the Wii U save of course Nintendo super high standards for responsiveness for a quality experience. These days it might not seem much but back in 2011 (E3 debut) having a lag free 60 fps wireless stream was a big deal.

i remember suggesting many times in various threads regarding wanted features for the Wii U that Nintendo should have allowed a mode to play anywhere inside the house for games where the lag is not as critical, like 30 fps ones for example.

i don't really know what to say to the original poster, it's the first time i even heard about something like these. Maybe leave a message to SpawnWave since he has lot's of experience taking apart consoles and he seems accesible.

 

[pestul]

I kind of wonder if it would be more beneficial to attempt boosting the signal from the console side as opposed to the gamepad. Since there are not many success stories out there, I'm guessing it's a rather hopeless venture.

 

[Mr.Deadshot]

Changing the aerial won't do anything. You'd also have to change the power of the signal being sent from the Wii U.

I learnt this trying to do it with a wifi router.

Sounds right.

@OP: I feel your problem . I play Zelda in portable mode only because it looks way better on the smaller screen. But you have to accept that it's a stationary portable device Just play on your couch or bed. Don't move stuff around. It's not worth the hassle.

 

[Diablohead]

a change of antenna will maybe help with the quality of the connection but not the range itself, you might see a small boost but it's not going to suddenly work 3 rooms away. I wonder if there is a way to relay the signal using a booster somewhere in the middle.

 

[Bowl0l]

Or wait for a miracle that some manufacturers decided to sell an accessory to attach Joycons to our smartphones and bundle it with a software to emulate the gamepad software.

 

[molnizzle]

Still confuses me as to why they didn't just put a wifi module into the gamepad ala PS4 > Vita remote play, for extended range use.

Because the input delay between the GamePad and the Wii U is about 400,000x faster than the delay between PS4 and Vita.

Magical tech.

 

[cacildo]

Changing the aerial won't do anything. You'd also have to change the power of the signal being sent from the Wii U.

I learnt this trying to do it with a wifi router.

can you say more about this?

 

[SURGEdude]

Changing the aerial won't do anything. You'd also have to change the power of the signal being sent from the Wii U.

I learnt this trying to do it with a wifi router.

Is there a special reason for that? Because it goes against the general understanding of most radio communication. Usually both transmitter and receiver play a major role in signal reception. Perhaps it's something to do with the method of transmission used?

 

[tsundoku]

Just buy the gamepad 5ghz chip off of ebay and change it out

fixes the constant dropping when you walk more then 1 ft away and let me use my wii u in other rooms of the house again no problem.

 

[SURGEdude]

Just buy the gamepad 5ghz chip off of ebay and change it out

fixes the constant dropping when you walk more then 1 ft away and let me use my wii u in other rooms of the house again no problem.

Aren't you talking about modding the Wii U itself to add antenna to the device as above? That requires a fairly indepth disassembly and soldering effort with what even the main tutorial calls a "marginal improvement".

The gamepad itself is already 5GHz. Or are you talking about a defective unit replacement?

 

[tsundoku]

Aren't you talking about modding the Wii U itself to add antenna to the device as above? That requires a fairly indepth disassembly and soldering effort with what even the main tutorial calls a "marginal improvement".

The gamepad itself is already 5GHz. Or are you talking about a defective unit replacement?

every wii u gamepad comes defective off the shelf
they use the series 1 of a little 5ghz wifi chip that degrades super fast
you can buy the series 2 which are more durable somehow off of some ebay lot of thousands and it gives you like ten+ feet of range when you put it in the gamepad

e: im not at home right now so I cant get imgs of it but i still have my 1.0 chip and i only put like four screws back into my gamepad so i can take a picture of what you have to change out. it works like a charm

the exact same problem that beset the giant bomb folks that they audibly constantly complained about during their mario maker streams but never made any strides to fix. though with that crew you can never tell what is black magic or a confusing outright lie, like their refusal to rma their switch or psvr systems or how dan constantly claimed his mario maker's nsmb tileset was somehow "broken" and would "crash the console"

 

[SURGEdude]

every wii u gamepad comes defective off the shelf
they use the series 1 of a little 5ghz wifi chip that degrades super fast
you can buy the series 2 which are more durable somehow off of some ebay lot of thousands and it gives you like ten+ feet of range when you put it in the gamepad

e: im not at home right now so I cant get imgs of it but i still have my 1.0 chip and i only put like four screws back into my gamepad so i can take a picture of what you have to change out. it works like a charm

the exact same problem that beset the giant bomb folks that they audibly constantly complained about during their mario maker streams but never made any strides to fix. though with that crew you can never tell what is black magic or a confusing outright lie, like their refusal to rma their switch or psvr systems or how dan constantly claimed his mario maker's nsmb tileset was somehow "broken" and would "crash the console"

I might have to grab one of these while I still can. What causes the series 1 chips to degrade over time? It can't be overheating from what I can tell.

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

Because the input delay between the GamePad and the Wii U is about 400,000x faster than the delay between PS4 and Vita.

Magical tech.

I don't doubt that, but when Sony patched the Vita to allow high frame rate play, I was able to play Resogun without skipping a beat, and that game is about as twitch sensitive as they come. The Vita doesn't even support 5 GHz spectrum lol. Point asking if the trade-off was worth it, and if it already did have the hardware included, why not utilize?

Nintendo had the leg up in data transfer research, they could have done it brilliantly I imagine.

 

[tsundoku]

I might have to grab one of these while I still can. What causes the series 1 chips to degrade over time? It can't be overheating from what I can tell.

theyre just crappy as far as i can tell. maybe the series two chips will degrade over time too but its an issue of a brand new chip vs the one that was in my launch wii u gamepad

 

[SURGEdude]

I don't doubt that, but when Sony patched the Vita to allow high frame rate play, I was able to play Resogun without skipping a beat, and that game is about as twitch sensitive as they come. The Vita doesn't even support 5 GHz spectrum lol. Point asking if the trade-off was worth it, and if it already did have the hardware included, why not utilize?

Nintendo had the leg up in data transfer research, they could have done it brilliantly I imagine.

I think Sony has done a great job on it, but even a full bandwidth low latency local (wired)connection to PSTV/PC adds quite a bit of lag. It's still within acceptable limits for most people on most games, but it's stacked on stuff like controller response. The compounding of latency does add up to a feeling of disconnection for many people.

 

[Milly Osworth]

The best mod is to buy a Switch, it has range all over the planet!

 

[ChronotriggerJM]

The best mod is to buy a Switch, it has range all over the planet!

Definitely lol. The switch is what the Wii U was destined to be.

 

[cacildo]

every wii u gamepad comes defective off the shelf
they use the series 1 of a little 5ghz wifi chip that degrades super fast
you can buy the series 2 which are more durable somehow off of some ebay lot of thousands and it gives you like ten+ feet of range when you put it in the gamepad

e: im not at home right now so I cant get imgs of it but i still have my 1.0 chip and i only put like four screws back into my gamepad so i can take a picture of what you have to change out. it works like a charm

the exact same problem that beset the giant bomb folks that they audibly constantly complained about during their mario maker streams but never made any strides to fix. though with that crew you can never tell what is black magic or a confusing outright lie, like their refusal to rma their switch or psvr systems or how dan constantly claimed his mario maker's nsmb tileset was somehow "broken" and would "crash the console"

Well, that is GREAT info

I saw some people talking about buying a new 5ghz wifi chip, but i thought this was just a way to solve a "no connection at all" problem

During the weekend ive opened my wiiu and changed the antennas. I got the following

1) No difference on gamepad range AT ALL. Nothing. I took a picture of the farthest i could take the Gamepad before it loses conection before and after the mod. And both are exactly the same

2) Since i wasnt sure which one was the Gamepad chip (there are two chips with antennas - one for the gamepad and one for wifi - i think) ive tested my new antennas on both of em. That made me well versed on opening and closing a WiiU> So now im in for any other mod i decide to made. In fact i kept my WiiU open (and working) if i decide for more changes


Now i need a favor

Can you point me for the exact name of this "5ghz series 2 chip"?

The thing is, since i live in brasil i dont think they are exactly easy to find


I have a guy here on local ebay (which isnt called ebay) selling something called "IC2878D-MICA2"

Is that the one?

The best mod is to buy a Switch, it has range all over the planet!

I know. And i will. The Switch is really a fantastic idea, it is what the Wiiu should have been

Unfortunally i still have a LOT of games on my wiiu. I didnt even finished all 3d World courses. And the job involves waiting a lot in front of a computer, so..