I made GameCube Joy-Cons

hello I'm shank and I made GameCube Joe Atkins it all started on October 20th 2016 when Nintendo announced their new Nintendo switch console after seeing the consoles controller modularity alternative controllers like the Gamecube were the first thing that came to mind Nintendo is no stranger to fragmenting their controller schemes it was just too obvious and mock-ups and renders began appearing all over the Internet I knew I could do it but I opted not to surely Nintendo or another monitor would do it first however after two years the release of Super Smash Brothers ultimate and the reissue of official GameCube controllers I knew I had to the theory behind this project is simple take a set of real joy Collins tear them down to bare components put them in a GameCube controller and wire buttons and sticks to the joy Kong's board in reality getting it all to work wasn't so easy it required several months of planning and hard work it also required a significant redesign of the GameCube controllers internals with custom 3d printed components for this video I'm going to go through the whole process of how I made them and the challenges I faced but if you don't care and just want to see the complete GameCube joy cons in action you can skip ahead to the end of the video time to get planning as an avid Super Smash Brothers player and GameCube controller snob authentic GameCube controller feel is extremely important to me this is why I opted to use a real first party wavebird shell as a base the wavebird is Nintendo's official Wireless GameCube controller it feels exactly like a GameCube controller but it has a larger central body to accommodate the batteries fortunately the center body is exactly the same height as the switch the thicker body also gives me somewhere to put the mainboard batteries Rumble motors and other parts the joy cons need lucky for me a good friend and talented modern named Matt morta had several leftover waivered shells from some of her projects she was kind enough to provide them to me for free so I didn't even need to sacrifice any working weight Birds for this project the first step to cutting away bird in half is well cutting it in half I used tape to line up a straight line around the entire controller after shading with a pencil and removing the tape I'm left with a clearly visible line where the graphite ends however to get the cleanest cut I don't actually want to cut on this line first I cut outside the line with a dremel and slowly work my way towards it finally I close in on the line by sanding it on a flat surface this gives a very clean straight cut after cutting it in half and gutting the battery compartment I'm left with a massive hole on two faces of the controller I scan the controller and trace the faces and CAD to match the organic geometry of the controller I also needed a way to properly mount the rails securely mounting the rails is extremely important as the entire weight of the switch rests on these rails the structure needed to have room for the internals of the droidcon and also not inhibit the ability to disassemble the controller my brother came up with the idea of using horizontal beams for additional support around the screw posts after many many weeks and several iterative test prints I finally tuned the design to my satisfaction it snaps right into the void left behind and a screw mounts for both the joique on board and its rails close enough to where I didn't need to redesign the ribbon cables many keen observers will know that the joy cons have a few more buttons than the GameCube controllers do the lack of a second Z button just wasn't going to cut it for me I needed it hand-carved but I'm not satisfied with my own hand carving abilities I wanted it done right so I've reached out to baseline an incredible GameCube controller monitor with a huge portfolio of amazing controller mods this ape with a knife is fantastic at carving GameCube controllers so I boxed up the left amputee and shipped it off to him to carve my second ziba and the results were fantastic if you're looking to have GameCube controller mod work done I can't recommend him enough speaking of extra buttons compared to the GameCubes lonely Start button the joy cones have a + - home and screenshot button to account for compatibility is key so adding all of these buttons was a must to maintain the aesthetic of the original controller I opted to add two gamecube start buttons to eat site after careful measurement I designed a 3d printed mount for the two buttons on each side after gluing the front half in place and drawing proper holes the other half can be screwed into place creating a sturdy assembly that can easily be disassembled for repair GameCube sticks don't have the clicky buttons underneath the sticks that all modern controllers do and unfortunately modern sticks are taller and cannot be used as drop-in replacements on the original pc be fitting clicky sticks required a significant redesign and a 3d printed piece to hold the stick down at a further distance by opting to use we you stick boxes which are the same as switch pro stick boxes after adding GameCube stick camps which fit perfectly onto them with no further modification I feel exactly like gamecube controller sticks mounting the sticks deeper also required a redesign of the mounting mechanism for the left shoulder button I had to design and 3d print a new mounting piece for the shoulder actuators as well as cut down the old piece holding it in place the entire assembly is sturdy can be completely disassembled and most importantly it still feels looks and behaves exactly like an original GameCube controller shoulder button after all this the new longer stick was able to fit right in integrating the clicky sticks was a giant design hurdle but it was worth it to keep compatibility speaking of gamecube shoulder buttons this is the first point where I had to make a decision for compatibility reasons the shoulder buttons on the GameCube controllers are both analog and digital they have an analogue slider on the inside to detect how far you press it with a clicky button at the end for a digital press on the other hand the shoulder buttons on the switch are digital only with no support for analog input the shoulder buttons on the switch are either pressed or not pressed with no in-between this left me with two choices the first option was to keep full trigger distance but nothing would happen until the trigger was fully pulled the other option is to plug the shoulder buttons to shorten the trigger pull distance I gave both options a try but decided to plug the shoulder buttons with these 3d printed plugs I found online the dead space if the unplugged shoulder buttons just didn't feel right now that most of the structure was done is time to pretty it up gray is nice but what I really wanted was that iconic GameCube indigo my aesthetic for my projects is normally pretty vanilla so my painting skills are lacking mad morta on the other hand is an incredible monitor who specializes in making everything look amazing she has rightfully earned the title painting Queen in our community for her casements many of which she showcases on her YouTube channel she made the world's smallest functioning GameCube controller that made the world's smallest functioning GameCube just so it wouldn't be so lonely lucky for me mad morta only lives a few hours away so I purchased her recommended supplies packed up my tools and drove down to her donkey farm in the middle of nowhere to hang out for a weekend and get some painting lessons from the best the most important part of painting is the prep and my project needed some work in order to smooth out the 3d printed components and blend them into the body and more to recommended a process using bondo spot putty I applied the putty let it dry then sanded it off after that applying a layer of primer lets me see what else needs work then I applied more putty let it dry sanded it off sprayed more primer added more putty let it dry sanded it off and so on and so on this was by far the most tedious part but it was worth it to get the desired smooth finish now that the bodywork is done it's time to paint with matte Mortiz guidance and recommended brand of paint i applied an even coat with all the time I put into bodywork I was pretty nervous for this part I had more to continue to correct my technique offer tips point out places I missed and give advice the entire time there were so many times I would have screwed up had she not caught me the paint came out great and I really have her to thank for she went above and beyond helping me this project and even resin cast me some color match shoulder buttons matte Vorta is an extremely talented modern and if you like these kinds of mods i highly recommend check out her channel I also want to give a shout out to her eBay store where she sells a huge variety of custom resin casts joy con replacement buttons she's really creative with all her buttons but my personal favorite are her GameCube themed ones they only take a few minutes to install and serve as a great first project to dip your toes into modding I'll leave a link to her eBay store in the description below unfortunately at this point it was time to pack up and head home the body work took so long that I wasn't able to start painting until the last day this meant I was on my own to apply clear coat without her supervision thankfully I was able to use what I learned from my trip to apply a decent clear coat without screwing it up finally it's time for my bread and butter the electronics I've rewired plenty of controllers for portables like the portable we use in my other videos so in theory it should be the same in reality well Joey guns are whack on normal controllers connecting the buttons data line to ground presses the button joy Kahn's have multiple grounds and different buttons must be connected to the right ground to work some buttons even need to be pulled high instead of connected to ground to work I was able to find documentation online by DQ Nukem that had many of the soldering points his work saved me quite a bit of time but his documentation was mostly software side so it didn't have everything I needed it took several days of soldering and troubleshooting under a microscope but I was finally able to figure out how it all worked it required some fairly difficult soldering points including tiny resistor pads and fine pitch ribbon cable connector pins unfortunately this project is not one I would recommend for beginners I don't remember how many times I had to close test reopen and troubleshoot this project the Gamecube toy cons are now closed and fully functional but the project isn't done yet these joy cones have everything real joy cons do including wireless functionality to take this project above and beyond I wanted to make my own centerpiece for the best experience when using them wirelessly I took some measurements of the joy con rails and the GameCube joy cons themselves to mock-up and 3d print a centerpiece once again I repeated the process of sanding priming painting and clear coating to match the look of the GameCube joy counts they snap right in and match the geometry of the original control when inserted they are the exact same width as an original GameCube controller and they look just like a wave bird kind of funny how this project has gone full circle finally after months of work the Gamecube joy cons are done [Music] they use real GameCube controller parts so they feel exactly like a GameCube controller with real joy Conn hardware inside they have complete functionality and compatibility they have every extra button needed including the stupid left and stupid right shoulder buttons that nobody likes I included all the bells and whistles standard for first party joy Kahn's including HD Rumble gyro and amiibo support my GameCube joy Kahn's can charge through the rail work wirelessly and feel just like a wave bird with a custom center grip playing Super Smash Brothers ultimate on these is a huge step up from regular toy cons although I've been mostly using these to play Smash Bros they work with any switch game I can explore the world in breath of the wild possess inanimate objects in Super Mario Odyssey replay classic Super Nintendo and original Nintendo games and attempt to play Super Smash Brothers online they used the same full-size stick assemblies as the Wii U and switch pro controllers the only time the sticks drift is when I'm playing Mario Kart 8 deluxe this project was so much work but I'm really happy with how it came out I'll have a link to the thread with the CAD files I used to make this but do keep in mind this project is really difficult and not a good first electronics or modding project at all all the projects on my channel are expensive and time-consuming so unfortunately I can only put out a few videos a year liking subbing and bail notifications do help but to be honest one of my favorite parts of my videos is actually the comment section the encouragement I've gotten in the comments section has really helped keep me motivated to make more projects and videos I've read every comment so far and reply to as many as I can reading them all has been extremely time-consuming but it's worth it to me and I plan to continue to do so as long as I can I also post work-in-progress stuff to my discord server Twitter and Instagram if you want to see what projects I'm working on and I'd also like to give a shout out to my patrons nolde Jenny Noah buzzy C and vid playset you guys Rock thank you for all the love and support on this channel and my project so far see you all next project

Channel: Shank Mods

Views: 11,369,867

Keywords: Nintendo, Switch, GameCube, JoyCon

Id: Sb0-I8FkUWU

Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/essentially_infamous]

There’s such a market for customizable joycons

[u/[deleted]]

Custom notches and these would sell themselves.

[u/Super_Saiyan_Weegee]

this reminds me of that long ass keyboard gamecube controller

[u/[deleted]]

God it would be nice to have a pair of these bad boys

[u/0y1on]

Where can I buy this

[u/[deleted]]

Imagine playing single Joycon with that.

Or really any controller with a D-pad on the left Joycon, for that matter.

[u/TyrionJoestar]

Insanity

[u/Racoon_Master01]

That would feel so uncomfortable but it's a sick design