Hardware Make the Wii U Portable-ish? (Purely Conjecture)

[Axido]

Looks promising to say the least!
It's really cheap too, and I would try it if I already had the maxplay adapter. Which I don't haha

I still had to think about your idea of soldering parts together. Maybe if you found a power bank with an output of those 15V required to power the Wii U (thus having more outputs than just USB ports) and the corresponding amperage to cover the consumption, I guess you could put a cable together that goes from the power bank output to the power socket of your Wii U directly.

I'd actually like to try that, but I don't know about such power bank, especially since most power banks support 16V rather than 15V and I can't say that I know what this means in practical use.

 

[Biovirulent]

I still had to think about your idea of soldering parts together. Maybe if you found a power bank with an output of those 15V required to power the Wii U (thus having more outputs than just USB ports) and the corresponding amperage to cover the consumption, I guess you could put a cable together that goes from the power bank output to the power socket of your Wii U directly.

I'd actually like to try that, but I don't know about such power bank, especially since most power banks support 16V rather than 15V and I can't say that I know what this means in practical use.

That was my first thought. It's what I did with my Gamecube and Wii, with 12v. Except, the problem is, there is no battery bank that I know of that uses 15V. 15V is a very, very strange voltage. Only thing that comes close is the more common 14.8v.

 

[Axido]

That was my first thought. It's what I did with my Gamecube and Wii, with 12v. Except, the problem is, there is no battery bank that I know of that uses 15V. 15V is a very, very strange voltage. Only thing that comes close is the more common 14.8v.

I also did some research on that matter and found that lower voltage doesn't necessarily mean that the device won't work. It depends on the device itself and if it shuts down automatically if it detects a wrong voltage (can't say if the Wii U will, but I kinda doubt it). On considerably lower voltage it might not work as expected. 14.8v is not much of a difference compared to 15v, though. My guess is that it is worth a try. As long as the polarity is right, it might either work normally or not work at all, but at least not burn to ashes.

 

[Biovirulent]

I also did some research on that matter and found that lower voltage doesn't necessarily mean that the device won't work. It depends on the device itself and if it shuts down automatically if it detects a wrong voltage (can't say if the Wii U will, but I kinda doubt it). On considerably lower voltage it might not work as expected. 14.8v is not much of a difference compared to 15v, though. My guess is that it is worth a try. As long as the polarity is right, it might either work normally or not work at all, but at least not burn to ashes.

It might be possible, but I don't think I'm going to be the person to try it first. I don't have a 14.8V on hand anyhow haha
I'd also need an extra wiiu power cable, so I could cut it and solder the end. Still a lot of money. I don't have the money to blow on silly projects like this.

 

[Biovirulent]

Okay guys. Now that I found out the max play adapter is 12v to 15v, I now know that soldering the end with the cigar plug with a 12v barrel jack instead, should work. The 12v should go through the transformer and keep a constant 15v. I don't know how long a 6000mah 12v would last though. I might need a new bigger capacity battery.

 

[Axido]

Okay guys. Now that I found out the max play adapter is 12v to 15v, I now know that soldering the end with the cigar plug with a 12v barrel jack instead, should work. The 12v should go through the transformer and keep a constant 15v. I don't know how long a 6000mah 12v would last though. I might need a new bigger capacity battery.

That's 72Wh. Considering the power usage of a Wii U this might get you around 2 hours of Splatoon or MK8 gameplay.

 

[Biovirulent]

That's 72Wh. Considering the power usage of a Wii U this might get you around 2 hours of Splatoon or MK8 gameplay.

That sounds promising!

I might actually try this, once I get a maxplay adapter.