Nintendo WaveBird Wireless Controller Receiver Teardown

Teardown

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

User-Contributed Guide

User-Contributed Guide

An awesome member of our community made this guide. It is not managed by iFixit staff.

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Add Note Edit Step 1 — Nintendo WaveBird Wireless Controller Receiver Teardown  ¶ 

  • This is the connector side of the WaveBird receiver.

  • Remove two tri-wing screws, and separate the black and gray halves of the receiver.

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Add Note Edit Step 2  ¶ 

  • Remove four tri-wing screws to remove the connector from the housing.

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Add Note Edit Step 3  ¶ 

  • Insert wisdom here.

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Add Note Edit Step 4 — Controller pinout  ¶ 

  • Red: 3.43V logic supply (pin 1 on cable)

  • Brown: Ground (pin 3 on cable)

  • Green: Data (pin 2 on cable, recessed by 2mm into connector)

  • Violet: Shield (pin 4 on cable)

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Add Note Edit Step 5  ¶ 

  • The PCB has a metal RF shield that protects the radio from interference from the game console; this extends the useful range of the controller.

  • One half of the shield is held on with friction clips; the other half must be desoldered.

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Add Note Edit Step 6  ¶ 

  • The IC is a custom (or relabeled) Nintendo chip marked "WCRX-DOL / T2.7488K1". ("Wireless Controller Receiver - Dolphin"). It is presumably a microcontroller that decodes signals from the radio and sends them to the console.

  • This 4-pin connector goes to the joypad connector on the GameCube.

  • Desolder these four points to remove the shield and expose the radio on the other side.

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Add Note Edit Step 7  ¶ 

  • The bottom side has all the RF circuitry -- the chip is a Nintendo chip marked "WR-DOL / H2102 / CG2710 / 02", presumably the radio.

  • EPCOS X6882 custom bandpass filter

  • Trim-pot for adjustment at the factory -- could be a frequency tweak or gain adjustment.

  • The rotary switch allows the user to choose a frequency to avoid interference with other devices.

  • The antenna is mounted directly on the PCB, inside the device.

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