Help with starting a Wii U gamepad OLED mod project

[SamwiseTheGreat64]

Hello everybody! I've got a project that I want to do, but I'm not sure where to start. I think it's a little too advanced for me with my current skillset, but I want to do it anyway, improving my skillset as I go.

Project:
Replace a Wii U gamepad's LCD screen with an OLED screen while retaining all Wii U functionality/compatibility.
Basically, I want to do with my Wii U gamepad what Taki Udon gave the Nintendo Switch Lite consoles with the SUPER5 OLED mod. However, I can't seem to find anybody who's done this before. If somebody knows about an already built solution for an OLED replacement for a Wii U gamepad screen, let me know. Otherwise, I'd like to figure it out.

Here are some things I could use some help figuring out how to do:

• Sourcing an OLED panel - I have no idea where to go to learn about how to get one. I'm sure it needs to have the exact same resolution and frequency as well as physical size compared to the original LCD panel so it can use the original shell & touchscreen digitizer, but I don't know where to go or who to ask about that.
• Designing custom hardware - I'm positive that I'll need to know how to design things like custom ribbon cables and circuit boards of some kind, but I don't know how to start learning these skills.
• Ordering custom hardware - I know there are companies that print or manufacture custom circuit boards and ribbon cables if given designs, but I don't know how that production pipeline works or what companies to reach out to.
• Talking to smart people! - I really don't know who to talk to about this, so I thought I'd ask what you all think. If there's another place or person I should reach out to, I'm all ears.

These are some skills I have in case that's helpful.

• I'm comfortable with soldering things like SMD capacitors, but I'm not an expert by any means.
• I do an amount of programming in C, C++, and Python.
• I can make 3D models (in case I need to 3D print something).

I'm open to any and all suggestions!

Edit: I'm also realizing I'm not sure if this is the right spot to put this thread. Let me know if I should put it somewhere else.

 

[Tuner357]

You should look into swapping the regular switch screen into the wii u. They are both 6.2". Might be easier to figure out how to drive that screen since is fairly easy to get, and it usually has the digitizer with it

 

[Shank]

While not impossible, this is going to be a challenging project.

Its important to note that "Taki Udon" isn't exactly the one designing/engineering/making these products. From the looks of it, his company is really a daughter brand that is under a very, very large china-based company. His role seems to be as more of a consultant and marketing face for this larger companies products in the west. The products are likely designed by some very experienced and knowledgeable engineers employed by the larger company in China. The details are murky, as he is is not very transparent on the business relationship side, usually preferring to loosely imply "I made this".

I say this to help you understand that the prerequisite skill level for a project like this is pretty insane. It's not something some guy with a youtube channel (speaking as some guy with a youtube channel) can just figure out in a few weeks, as it has been implied. The engineering behind the products is really impressive; far beyond what I could personally make.

If you are serious about taking on this project, I think the first thing you will need to do is to start studying up on how digital video works. You will need to use an FPGA to accept the video signal running to the Wii U's LCD, and convert it to the proper timings and format of your desired screen. However, you are almost certainly not going to find an OLED panel of the same size (6.2") AND resolution (854x480) as the Wii U gamepad. So you will need to find one that is of a comparable size, and higher resolution, which will require you to scale the video.

This would be your next challenge on the FPGA: scaling the video. 480p to 720p would look bad, as would 480p to 1080p, as they are non-integer scaling. You could scale to 960p within a 1080p window, but then you would have a smaller image with black bars on every side. Additionally, its likely the screens this size you encounter will be 1080x1920 rather portrait displays rather than 1920x1080 displays, so you will need to buffer and rotate the image. This is, again, another challenge, and introduces some downsides.

So while something like this is possible, its going to be a monumental undertaking, and you will need to study up on some prerequisites to get there.

If your primary objective is to reduce the black level and increase the saturation, a tinkerer alternative could be experimenting with using 2 Wii U gamepad screens to create a dual layer LCD. You need an extremely bright backlight that sucks a lot of power, but you can get some serious oled-like results with them. While OLED would be a better fit for this if it was an option, you can get some incredible results from dual layer LCDs. Sony has even switched over from OLED to Dual Layer LCDs for their current BVM grading monitors.

 

[tankie3k]

I might be the least experienced person to try to help but circuit board design is fairly intuitive and far easier that you might think. Software like easyeda are free and provide really nice UI elements. However I would recommend designing some simple boards before trying to dive in. I have two old stock Wii Us and would love to see a project like this.

 

[SamwiseTheGreat64]

While not impossible, this is going to be a challenging project.

Its important to note that "Taki Udon" isn't exactly the one designing/engineering/making these products. From the looks of it, his company is really a daughter brand that is under a very, very large china-based company. His role seems to be as more of a consultant and marketing face for this larger companies products in the west. The products are likely designed by some very experienced and knowledgeable engineers employed by the larger company in China. The details are murky, as he is is not very transparent on the business relationship side, usually preferring to loosely imply "I made this".

I say this to help you understand that the prerequisite skill level for a project like this is pretty insane. It's not something some guy with a youtube channel (speaking as some guy with a youtube channel) can just figure out in a few weeks, as it has been implied. The engineering behind the products is really impressive; far beyond what I could personally make.

If you are serious about taking on this project, I think the first thing you will need to do is to start studying up on how digital video works. You will need to use an FPGA to accept the video signal running to the Wii U's LCD, and convert it to the proper timings and format of your desired screen. However, you are almost certainly not going to find an OLED panel of the same size (6.2") AND resolution (854x480) as the Wii U gamepad. So you will need to find one that is of a comparable size, and higher resolution, which will require you to scale the video.

This would be your next challenge on the FPGA: scaling the video. 480p to 720p would look bad, as would 480p to 1080p, as they are non-integer scaling. You could scale to 960p within a 1080p window, but then you would have a smaller image with black bars on every side. Additionally, its likely the screens this size you encounter will be 1080x1920 rather portrait displays rather than 1920x1080 displays, so you will need to buffer and rotate the image. This is, again, another challenge, and introduces some downsides.

So while something like this is possible, its going to be a monumental undertaking, and you will need to study up on some prerequisites to get there.

If your primary objective is to reduce the black level and increase the saturation, a tinkerer alternative could be experimenting with using 2 Wii U gamepad screens to create a dual layer LCD. You need an extremely bright backlight that sucks a lot of power, but you can get some serious oled-like results with them. While OLED would be a better fit for this if it was an option, you can get some incredible results from dual layer LCDs. Sony has even switched over from OLED to Dual Layer LCDs for their current BVM grading monitors.

Thanks Shank! I really appreciate the detailed reply.

Honestly, that's very helpful to hear about Taki Udon. He really did make it seem like it was a simple process to get an OLED on a Switch Lite and I think I may have misinterpreted that. One of the things I've been wanting to know is how crazy I am for even entertaining the idea of this project and you're the one that finally told me, so I really do appreciate that.

Now about the project, I had no idea what an FPGA was until this message. So after some Google searching, I'm now learning how far outside my skill level this is as a college student. However, it honestly sounds like a lot of fun to learn how to design one. I am under no illusion that I could do this project in a few weeks, but I'm wondering if maybe I could do it in over a few years as a side project.

Yeah, I didn't know if dreaming of finding a 6.2" 854x480 OLED panel was realistic or not. Now I know it's not. But if I'm theorizing a little, scaled up 3x it would be 2562x1440 which is only 2 more pixels horizontally than a typical 16:9 2K resolution. That could be a fairly nice integer scale where I'd only have to drop two vertical columns to a 2-pixel width. But yeah, after learning about things like the OSSC and RetroTINK, there's no way this is a simple task. ...but it may be possible...

Regardless, now I know that if I do try it, it would absolutely be a monumental undertaking.

About that dual layer LCD idea though, that's pretty incredible stuff. I've never heard of a dual layer LCD before, so that was a really entertaining video to watch. Honestly, that would probably solve my issue if I could just do that, not to mention it would definitely be a whole lot cheaper since Wii U gamepad screen replacements are so cheap. I think I'll try that first and see if I can figure out how to safely overdrive the LEDs with a bigger battery and if I can figure out how to duplicate the video stream to a second LCD panel. That'll be a fun tinkering project which I think is a LOT more suited for my skillset. It'll also help me actually get started on a project to learn more about these things.

In the end, now I think I finally have a direction of where to start studying and learning. I'll start with the dual-layer LCD approach and then see if I can learn about designing an FPGA if it doesn't work out or if I want more.

Thanks again, I really appreciate your experience and input.

 

[SamwiseTheGreat64]

You should look into swapping the regular switch screen into the wii u. They are both 6.2". Might be easier to figure out how to drive that screen since is fairly easy to get, and it usually has the digitizer with it

Ya know, that's a pretty good idea. It probably wouldn't solve the problem of getting a higher quality screen, but it should be a fairly economical way for me to figure out if I can get an FPGA working to drive a scale to another type of screen. Thanks for the idea!

 

[SamwiseTheGreat64]

I might be the least experienced person to try to help but circuit board design is fairly intuitive and far easier that you might think. Software like easyeda are free and provide really nice UI elements. However I would recommend designing some simple boards before trying to dive in. I have two old stock Wii Us and would love to see a project like this.

This is exactly what I need to hear. I mean I mostly just want this for myself which is motivational enough, but hearing if other people want this is also very motivating. I will absolutely be sharing everything if I get something working.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into EasyEDA. Huge fan of free software right here.

 

[fdraghi]

"PCB design is easy, just download some software" is the same as "programming is easy, man, just download visual studio and start typing!"

Hopefuly you understand the analogy and look at Shank's response more closely. Designing a pcb is not just tracing lines here and there, printing a board, soldering some components and there you go, a video transcoder. Can't really add much more to Shank's response. Hopefuly your goal fuels you to dig deep and learn electronics engineering at a deeper level... Even if your goal doesn't materialize, you'll 100% come out of this with a huge knowledge that you will be able to apply to other projects in the future. Good luck!

 

[tankie3k]

I think you probably know more than me in most aspects of this, but I learned easyeda (a free web based designer) in a month. I think it's fine to say this project may be extremely difficult but PCB design is as easy as watching a few tutorials and knowing how a schematic works. It all just takes baby steps.

Edit: anything after design itself is where it gets more complicated.

 

[fdraghi]

No, I do not have pcb design experience. All I can tell you is that EasyEDA, Photoshop, Visual Studio, Premiere, Blender, Autocad, etc are tools and learning to use a tool doesn't mean you know what to do with it. These types of projects go far, faaaaar beyond "how do I layout some unknown list of components into a board". I am by all means encouraging OP into learning the fundamentals and giving it a go, but I'm also saying the journey will be long and far from "easy as learning a software".

 

[Shank]

Making a basic PCB is quite trivial, no doubt. But PCB design is an art and a science, with a near infinite skill skill ceiling. From high speed signaling with impedance matching requirements, to power supply layouts, to EMI considerations. A lot of skill goes into the more advanced stuff.

PCB design is the least of concern here though. The real magic is in the FPGA. You would want to get that working on an FPGA dev board before even considering a custom PCB, not counting simple boards to help interface with the fpga.

As for resolutions, I think 1440p would be a good option, assuming you can find a good panel. You would need a pretty decently powerful FPGA to scale to and power it. (Nitpick: 1440p is 2.5k, not 2k. 1080p is 2k. Monitor marketing divisions are dumb)

Come to think about it, I wonder if this is something that could be done using the PixelFX retro gem PCB with custom timings. @YveltalGriffin has been able to drive LCDs directly using custom timings. I wonder if the output could be made to drive an OLED display, or if it differs from LCD too much. My knowledge in this sector isn't too deep.

That's also assuming the PixelFX board front end is capable of accepting video from the Wii U gamepad. It is not open source, so you are at the mercy of the customizability that their software offers. But it's an extremely powerful and versatile platform.

 

[SamwiseTheGreat64]

Making a basic PCB is quite trivial, no doubt. But PCB design is an art and a science, with a near infinite skill skill ceiling. From high speed signaling with impedance matching requirements, to power supply layouts, to EMI considerations. A lot of skill goes into the more advanced stuff.

PCB design is the least of concern here though. The real magic is in the FPGA. You would want to get that working on an FPGA dev board before even considering a custom PCB, not counting simple boards to help interface with the fpga.

As for resolutions, I think 1440p would be a good option, assuming you can find a good panel. You would need a pretty decently powerful FPGA to scale to and power it. (Nitpick: 1440p is 2.5k, not 2k. 1080p is 2k. Monitor marketing divisions are dumb)

Come to think about it, I wonder if this is something that could be done using the PixelFX retro gem PCB with custom timings. @YveltalGriffin has been able to drive LCDs directly using custom timings. I wonder if the output could be made to drive an OLED display, or if it differs from LCD too much. My knowledge in this sector isn't too deep.

That's also assuming the PixelFX board front end is capable of accepting video from the Wii U gamepad. It is not open source, so you are at the mercy of the customizability that their software offers. But it's an extremely powerful and versatile platform.

Yeah, the FPGA does seem like the main concern. So I think I really just need to get something working with an FPGA so I can learn about the process and then I can probably worry about the PCB details later if I'm even remotely successful with an FPGA scaling prototype of some kind. But it's good to hear from others that making a basic PCB shouldn't be too difficult.

I looked up the PixelFX Retro Gem board since I haven't heard of it before and that actually looks quite interesting. It looks like the "Shiny" version even supports up to 1440p, so that seems promising. I also like how small it is because it'll need to fit inside of the gamepad somewhere. I'll look into it.