Don't use new GC controllers for a portable.

[MMumble]

Don't use the new Gamecube controllers for a portable. I actually lost a controller doing this (It still works fine but I had to bust the plastic because the screws were broken)

They melted some sort of plastic on the pins so that you cant re-pin the inputs (WHICH IS RIDICULOUS)

Original Controller:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ylfuafa5749h2/20170119_202828.jpg?dl=0

Newer Controller (Mine was a Gamestop Controller):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/woz6cmzyjv83ont/20170119_203147.jpg?dl=0

Just a good thing to keep in mind when building a portable, believe me you don't want to learn this like I did.

 

[ttsgeb]

That's called a chip on board, or a glob top. Instead of manufacturing an entire chip and soldering it to the board, they just wire the die to the board directly and drop some epoxy on top of it to protect it.
You can still wire it up, you'll just need to scrape traces on the board and solder to them instead. This is a pretty common thing to deal with when building portables out of things like a NES on a chip (NOAC) or an Atari on a chip.

 

[Blargaman91]

Those are 3rd party controllers. Just use 1st party controllers and it'll work fine.

 

[MMumble]

Huh, thanks. Learn something new everyday when it comes to portables.

 

[Aurelio]

Use GC+, it's a project I made specifically for portables: https://github.com/Aurelio92/GCPlus

 

[ttsgeb]

Or you could do that, I guess.
I still like my method of "Work harder for no good reason" more, though.

 

[MMumble]

So, I tried the old fashioned soldering trick where you trim the controller and solder them back via wire (don't mess up and use strand wire like I did, use core), solder, and a iron. I broke two controllers lol. They're pretty much dead but I might be able to reuse the button inputs that I trimmed, if I were to buy a newer smash controller, would the controller have a chip?

 

[Blargaman91]

Yes, the Smash controllers are identical to old GC controllers.

 

[MMumble]

Yes, the Smash controllers are identical to old GC controllers.

Thanks