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There’s an avid fanbase of the now relatively old Wii-U gamepad controller – notably for its ergonomics and D-pad – and thanks to a new project by Daniel “CNCDan” McKenzie, the things that make that controller great have been renewed with a DIY form factor update.

The XWii gamepad aims to bring gamers the best of both worlds, with the Wii-U gamepad’s button layout in an Xbox One controller’s shape, giving gamers more room to play and allowing for additional modernized features like rumble motors.

There are also hall-effect joysticks and an RGB status indicator – all told, nearly any feature you’d see on a modern console controller – as well as 3D printed shoulder buttons, trigger buttons, and housing (McKenzie provides detailed printing instructions on the XWii’s GitHub page). As with McKenzie’s previous projects, like the Steam Deck-inspired NucDeck, the XWii is fully open-source.

Wires, rather than FFC connectors, connect the PCBs, which McKenzie says makes assembly more “beginner-friendly” – although you will need some “basic soldering experience” to put them together. Creating the PCBs themselves is a bit trickier, and as such McKenzie outsourced them to PCBWay, a third-party service that creates boards from users’ custom designs. (Should you want to do the same for the XWii’s 3D printed parts, try comparing 3D printing service provider offers with Craftcloud by All3DP.)

The results look impressive, with input latency that McKenzie found comparable to an Xbox controller.

For now, the XWii is wired only, but a wireless version is planned for the future, McKenzie says. Those interested in creating a controller of their own will of course want to make use of the aforementioned (and resource-rich) GitHub page, where you’ll find a BOM, assembly instructions, and more. Additionally, be sure to check out McKenzie’s video on the CNCDan YouTube channel for an overview of this project another others.

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License: The text of "CNCDan is Back with the DIY, Open-Source ‘XWii’ Gamepad" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.