Shinewave - Reactive Gamecube Controller LED mod

[@CrusticusGameing]

You know 20XX is here when even the controller starts shining. but seriously this is a rad as heck mod, props.

[@FrojoMemes]

now you can win tournaments just by holding your controller in your opponents face

[@yaleksander42]

I know this is an old video but I just wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH, this is exactly what I was looking for for a long time (you actually have more stuff on your controller then I even wanted to add to my own, so it'll be even better now). Removing the rumble to fit the micro controller was really smart, I personally disable rumble whenever I can as well. Thank you!!!

[@zxdevoutxz]

Successfully put this mod together. It’s pimp!

[@lukasmercer9681]

shooting a laser should make it flash red

[@Seri0196]

lukas mercer It's possible! This mod has full read access to your inputs so I could definitely make it happen.

[@lukasmercer9681]

yeah i just figured that lasers are red so might as well

[@BigJoker]

Garrett Greenwood How hard is it to reprogram the microcontroller? Have you thought about modding in a connector to the outside so you wouldn't have to open it up every time you make programming adjustments? (assuming you actually plan on ever changing the programming)

[@Seri0196]

FierceDeityXeroX Currently, you have to open up the controller and remove the microcontroller from its socket in order to reprogram it. I have ambitious plans for improving this, though!

[@amberdot]

Garrett Greenwood Interested in having someone send you a japanese all-clear controller to mod and send back after making a video? I will pay

[@notamage131]

If you made a step by step guide on how you programmed the microcontroller this mod would be much more accessible to the average person. I promise there's hundreds of people that want to try this mod but will be intimidated by the microcontroller. The soldering here is very simple, the wiring is very simple, the config files are very complicated (but you have provided great source code documentation to play around for the less inclined) but certainly the actual set up of the microcontroller will be the biggest hurdle for anyone wanting to give this mod a shot. 10/10 really impressed!

[@Seri0196]

Ctrl13 I agree. I'm working on making a tutorial for exactly that, but I wanted to get the majority of the content out soon.

[@notamage131]

Garrett Greenwood That's so great to hear! I'm very big into repairing Gamecube controllers and I just love taking them apart. I used to have interest in this type of engineering but instead focused on programming because I found it more accessible. Years later I now find myself wanting to get out a soldering iron and work on projects like this myself so thank you for enabling me to skip some of the baby steps and have a chance to get something useful and cool working soon!

[@Seri0196]

Ctrl13 I just finished the programming guide! Read it here: electricexploits.net/programming-the-waveshine-prototype-part1/

[@notamage131]

Garrett Greenwood Thanks so much for the notice! The guide looks great!

[@yellow_id]

- Yo, I'd love to see a falcon pattern such as when you knee, it has a lightning flash or when you use neutral b, it flashes orange and red. Cool stuff like that if it's possible

[@SoullessSHOES]

Damn, this was very well done. I'd definitely buy one of these.

[@Synthwave596]

at 0:21 i heard this as "sniffs glue" and FUCKING DIED holy shit that was so funny

[@roshi1738]

For howmuch would you sell one for? I'm looking for one exactly like that (orange and the led things)

[@d.j.aguirre9588]

I'm thinking of doing this (with a different board I'll program myself), but one thing I didn't see mentioned is that each of these LEDs can draw up to 60mA. 5 of them then can draw up to 300mA, and that's not even including other controllers or rumble. USB ports, if I were to use this on an adapter, are only supposed to go up to 500mA of supplied power. Any thoughts?

[@ShadyGaming]

Are you selling? CAUSE I'M BUYING!

[@SamCityLPs]

+Shady Gaming Same lol I want one soooooo badly

[@bonzaismash9007]

I'm still dying to have this.

[@XX-ep5xt]

If I don't want it to respond to button presses and just have it always be rainbow?

[@Seri0196]

You'll still need to go through the same hardware mod, but the software will need to be modified a little bit. If you want to do this, let me know once you have the work done and I'll help you with the software.

[@XX-ep5xt]

Garrett Greenwood well my main question is where do I get the leds I need for this project.

[@Seri0196]

+Pat Solom Read my post here, where I explain the mod and how to make it! electricexploits.net/shinewave/

[@XX-ep5xt]

+Garrett Greenwood TBH I don't know when I'll do this but would this be tournament legal?

[@Seri0196]

+Pat Solom No rush. As far as it being tournament legal, it is completely up to the discretion of the TO. Many tournament's have the written policy "no controller mods", but don't mind at all if people remove springs, swap out custom shells, or install LEDs. In fact, this mod should be even less questionable than traditional LED mods because you can easily turn them off if your opponent/TO asks.

[@SniderSSBM]

is it possible to use this kinda microcontroller for making a converter from gc - n64 controller and vise versa?

[@Seri0196]

+sindrecool1 Yeah! In fact, somebody has already done it on an Arduino, a class of microcontrollers very similar to the one I used. You can read all about their project here: github.com/brownan/Gamecube-N64-Controller

[@blue2k528]

Imagine the multishine strobe controller...

[@Cod4pwners]

is there a way to upload the firmware to the attiny85 using an arduino board? without any additional adapters, just the pins

[@Seri0196]

+Cod4pwners Yes! You'll want to burn the ArduinoISP sketch to your Arduino so it'll act like a chip programmer, then use it to program the ATtiny85. 1. Follow these instructions to burn the ArduinoISP program: www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP 2. Rather than the wiring on that page, use the wiring diagram here(for the ATtiny): www.ernstc.dk/arduino/attiny85.html 3. Follow through the rest of my guide, but change all of the '-c usbtiny' parameters to '-c avrisp'. electricexploits.net/programming-the-waveshine-prototype-part1/ Good luck!

[@Cod4pwners]

thanks, will be trying this in a few weeks

[@Cod4pwners]

+Garrett Greenwood I've seen how to use arduino as an ISP and uploaded de "blink" example to it, the thing is, can the arduino read the .hex file (your code) you uploaded and burn it to the attiny85?

[@Seri0196]

+Cod4pwners Yes, it's very possible! The Arduino IDE relies on an underlying program called 'avrdude' in order to program the chips. Since this project doesn't rely on any Arduino code, I program the chips by skipping Arduino and calling 'avrdude' directly. I wrote up a guide on how to use 'avrdude' to program Shinewave right here: electricexploits.net/programming-the-waveshine-prototype-part1/ Once you have the blink example working, you'll be able to follow along with my guide. Just replace '-c usbtiny' with '-c arduino' in all of the 'avrdude' commands. Let me know if you have any questions!

[@mynamedoesntmatter6518]

Can you make ones for other characters like Marth? Or even Fox?

[@Seri0196]

Yeah! I can program the microcontroller to do pretty much any animation I want, in response to any input

[@mynamedoesntmatter6518]

Garrett Greenwood That's awesome, I wish I knew how to do that.

[@iPinoyBaller]

Still waiting for the tutorial. Very excited!

[@Seri0196]

I'm sorry to say that I probably won't release a video tutorial on how to make this mod. The product in this video is just the first prototype of my Shinewave mod, and it has improved so much since then. I've been working on adding a ton of other cool features, including making the mod even easier to install. When that finally comes out, I'll be selling both pre-assembled controllers and kits, and I'll also record videos on how to make the mods. I recommend that you follow my blog(electricexploits.net) or my Twitter(@Serisium) for more updates! I'm kicking off a Kickstarter campaign soon so I can start scaling up production.

[@iPinoyBaller]

oh sweet! looking forward to it then

[@OtakuNoCat]

Garrett Greenwood any updates?

[@SamCityLPs]

Is there a way I can buy this pre-built? I really want one of these....

[@Seri0196]

+NotoriousSavage Stay tuned! I'm working on improving the software and starting up a Kickstarter.

[@SamCityLPs]

+Garrett Greenwood Kk. This is perfect b/c I also main Falco (Project M & Melee) :D

[@Domukari]

+Garrett Greenwood Please do. I've been wanting a reactive controller just like this!

[@ItsAnchobie]

So I'm planning on doing this mod myself. Is there a way I can keep the rumble? I like the weight of the controller with the rumble.

[@Seri0196]

No guarantees, since the space you're working with is really tight. You could probably fit it in inside on of the controller handles, though.

[@srctsho]

Do you have an idea of when you might begin selling these? I'd really like to buy one!

[@Seri0196]

+srctsho I can't give a timeline yet, but I am planning on putting up a Kickstarter soon! Read about it here: electricexploits.net/the-future-of-shinewave-and-upcoming-kickstarter/

[@Maidood]

Um how much for me to send in my controller and I purchase the parts so you can do this for me? seriously though. this is way out of my league to handle. best I got was putting in LED with the rumble...

[@Seri0196]

At the moment, I'm not taking commissions for preforming this mod. However, keep an eye on my store at shinewave.net/ When I do start offering my LED mod, it'll be through that site.

[@benkarp5489]

When does the selling begin! I can't wait to get my hands on one of these!

[@Seri0196]

+Ben Karp I'm busy adding a lot of cool features before I start selling! I'm hoping to get it out by the end of the year.

[@viggokan]

+Garrett Greenwood is it out yet?

[@viggokan]

+Garrett Greenwood is it out yet?

[@Seri0196]

Sorry about the delay, but that initial timeframe was a bit optimistic :'[ I'm still making a lot of progress with improving the design and manufacturing clear backs, but I'm not comfortable getting these out until I'm absolutely sure that it's good. You can follow along with my progress on my blog here: electricexploits.net/

[@viggokan]

Garrett Greenwood Oh okay. No worries man. Really appreciate you're doing this by the way, and good luck. :P

[@adisspahic8299]

wave dash and wave shine should have their own colours too

[@gaugea]

Adis Spahic i dont think thatd be possible with the way that he’s modded it, but maybe

[@Rocketeer]

ffs cats l or r can have colors.

[@symbiotee4]

I had one of those when I was 4 it was fully transparent and third party it fully lights up red

[@GittymanKC]

This is amazing, great job, you could make tons of money off of this.

[@bonzaismash9007]

Seriously though, would you consider selling one of these? How much?

[@JnL_SSBM]

Rumble motor MUST be removed? :(

[@Seri0196]

+ＪｎＬ You might be able to fit the microcontroller somewhere else, like inside one of the handles, but I haven't tried it. I take the rumble out of all of my controllers anyway, so it was just the most convenient place to put it.

[@PreStalnic]

Oh, this is awesome! Quick question: Do you think something like this can be done to a Switch Pro Controller or is there not enough room inside to fit any extra LED lights into the controller?

[@Seri0196]

There's definitely room to fit LEDs, but none of the software I wrote here would apply. The microcontroller in this project is programmed to listen to a Gamecube controller signal, and wouldn't work with a Switch Pro controller.

[@unownintendo]

What kind of micro controller did you use and what did your use to program it?

[@Lion-EXE]

What kinds of LED's do you use? I'm currently using 2 red 5mm LEDs on mine, but they don't shine as bright as yours. Also, are there any resistors hooked up to your LEDs?

[@Seri0196]

+ライオン I'm using Neopixel WS2812 addressable RGB LEDs. These LEDs run directly at 5V and have their own controller, so no extra resistors are needed. To see how I wired it and get links to the products I used, read my write-up at electricexploits.net/shinewave/

[@Lion-EXE]

Garrett Greenwood Okay, thanks a lot. I really like the way you set this up. I'm gonna try this out and replace my current crappy LEDs lol.

[@Seri0196]

+Doopliss' P Thanks for the heads-up! The website is back up now

[@Seri0196]

+Doopliss' P I've never worked with the Trinket a clone before, so I can't say for sure if it'll work. If it does, it'll be a bit more work. Roughly, you'll have to do these things: 1. Build the kit and make sure it works. 2. Check if the USB pins on the trinket match the USB pins used in the tinyAVR programmer 3. Download the tinyAVR Programmer firmware. If the pins don't match, you'll need to modify the source and recompile. 4. Burn the resulting tinyAVR firmware .hex. At this point, the device should register as a tinyISP device in two modes: Either as a bootloader, where it programs its own firmware, or as a programmer, where it programs a different chip. 5. Burn the Shinewave .hex using the programming guide on my blog.

[@Seri0196]

+Doopliss' P Ah, I think I might have misunderstood what you're considering. Consider this: There are two ways to upload code to an AVR processor * Through a ISP link. This requires a dedicated ISP programmer, such as the official AVR ISP programmer. Because the official hardware is expensive and the protocol is open source, people have created their own alternatives, such as the tinyISP that I recommended. * Through a bootloader. These require a preprogrammed chip with a bootloader already installed. The bootloader lives in its own section of the chip, with the rest left for the user program. On every startup, the bootloader is run first and checks if there is a USB connection. If so, it waits for a new user program and writes it to the user program section of itself. If not, it jumps straight to the user program. That being said, my original guide uses the first method to burn my program directly to the chip using a third party ISP programmer that makes it really convenient to program ATTinys. Similarly, you could use any other ISP programmer and get the same results. My first recommendation(previous comment) would turn the Trinket into an ISP programmer which you could then use to program a second, clean chip. The other method, which just occurred to me, would involve installing my program on top of a bootloader. I haven't tested this method, but it should work. This would involve building a trinket clone and using the built in bootloader to load my program. This would actually be easier, but you wouldn't have a separate programmer to use for other projects. Let me know if you have any questions!

[@schmoopDJ]

tutorial anytime soon? you should sell kits so people can install it themselves. and is there a way to do this mod and still keep the rumble?

[@Seri0196]

+schmoop I'm actually working on a better version of the mod at the moment, and I have a ton of plans to sell kits and make tutorials for that! For that reason, I'm not planning on making a video tutorial for this. If you click over to my blog post(link in the description), I describe the project and how to program the microcontroller. Hopefully that will help! If not, I'd recommend waiting it out until my Kickstarter goes live, since I'll be selling assembled modded controllers as well as DIY kits. There's actually enough room in the handles of the controller to fit the mod, so there's no need to remove the rumble if you prefer.

[@schmoopDJ]

alright cool thanks!

[@littleteafox]

this is beyond cool. i've been researching how to best repaint GC controllers and now i want to mod them with LEDs too. i'm in love with the smash scene; my bf plays at a high competitive level and i really want to make him a cool controller for his birthday next month. if i can install LEDs and have them light up one color, without animation, i'll be happy (for whatever reason i didn't think you could get more complex with it!!) - although button responsive lights are so ideal. i'm not very tech savvy, so i'm going to immerse myself in your blog now. wish me luck!! thanks for the cool video. if anyone has any other resources i can learn from, please let me know!

[@Seri0196]

+littleteafox Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! To be honest, I'm the only person who does LED mods this way and it's a bit complicated for something like a solid color. You'll also have to write a bit of code to get it to do anything besides my Falco animations. My more recent posts are probably a bit complicated for someone who is new with soldering, but my first post(the one linked in this video) is a great starting point. Also, take a look at this great post from Melee It On Me for a more manual approach to installing LEDs: www.meleeitonme.com/modding-your-controller-with-leds/

[@littleteafox]

Garrett Greenwood thanks! I actually stumbled across that post and it's also incredibly helpful. i'll start out with simple stuff - maybe one day I can make something more complicated like this! but for now i'll just enjoy your video and learn along the way. thanks again!!

[@Seri0196]

+littleteafox Good luck!

[@lescookies2575]

I think i'm going to make this :D I love you

[@Seri0196]

Thanks a ton! Good luck on your own mod, I hope it goes well.

[@beatmachinegreen]

Does this mod work for smash 4 or just gamecube??

[@ItouchTeeKaPro]

Jonathan Green doesn't mather i think

[@sheepyboy1614]

The rocket league music in the background lol

[@Cosmic-Bear.]

Would've been cool to see how it flashes during a fight.

[@CYellowan]

So here is my little controller modding story. Just sharing cause it is bad, funny, and overall shows that following the guide down to the product matters. So i got a purple and transparent controller, and i got 3 controllers overall. My oldest controller started to act up however, no consistent Bair moves for my Yoshi, damn important to get that fixed. At the same time, i did research into modding so i could get RGB working from your guide. Eventually i got it working, but i am an idiot and somehow fried something on my test controller's PCB. Why? 1 strand of copper cable went from the 5V to a different rail, so god damn that ruined 1 controller. I however knew that the ruined controller was a 90-95% perfect shield drop controller + Bair working damn well just the same. But all that is now wrecked, so i decided to shape up my oldest PCB. Removing the old servo-mechanical thingy for my left stick didn't work however, since the older ones are soldered onto the PCB with 6 signal ports and 4 heavy ones just for it to stick. While new ones? They are screwed in place. So i am turning more and more crazy cause i now got 3 controllers in pieces and nobody is really working or is the best. And while i at last got rid of the dumb old controller mechanic, 5/6 solder points works but the LAST one got ripped. off. DAM it am going mad now. Originally i even went with hard solid thick copper wire, so i wasted weeks and weeks on that alone. With good wire, stuff went far faster, but i still hit on crippling problems as i told. FINALLY when i think i found a solution, i hit on even more problems. So at this point i am going to probably just say bye bye to the oldest PCB, and use it as spare-parts. While i take the other newest one and use that as the main controller. With a working proper RGB mod on. If the left stick mechanic is garbage, then i'll just swap it since it is modern and demand only a little soldering + screws. The C-stick was awful on it also i think, but i can change that one actually so i should be safe there too. The rest is down to if i need to mod the controller or not so i don't get any annoying snap-back issues. THAT is the true issue here all along to be frank, most of the controllers were fine and the one that got fried is completely fine PRIOR to my voltage mistake. If i can get it to work though, i am in the money. If not, well i still learned a looot from all of this. And i am confident that i eventually will sit down with a controller that will let me abuse Yoshi's max potential as should be done anyways. Great tutorial by the way, i just wish the software was easier to grab and apply. And that there was a default profile for all characters now when we get and already have multiple smash games out there. I don't need a custom profile, or a custom tool all that much to make a custom color profile. What i'd love instead would be something neat and basic VS what most characters will do in the game. That way Smash Ultimate players will have 1 color scheme for all of their characters, despite games. My 2 cents anyways. Also, i find your web-site or whoever runs it to be kind of lacking at giving out links and stuff of the sort. Not because it doesn't work, but finding the custom button site was kinda difficult. I dunno if it matters or not, but being able to easier reach important stuff would be pretty damn nice considering custom yellow-metallic buttons is damn nice and is something i'd love to order. OR ordering a custom and better controller chip for the sake of setting up an RGB system? Just sayi'n, a few but some might wanna buy that. OR just have it in stock, OR have a stock at all lol :D That's that for now, cheers and rock on dude.

[@mohammedalharbi5718]

Does it have any input lag ?

[@Seri0196]

TUNDER ZZ No. The mod just listens in transparently to the data line, so everything behaves normally.

[@hamzalakhani8805]

have you started selling these yet?

[@Seri0196]

+Hamza Lakhani Not yet, although I may start selling kits soon. As soon as I prove that I can injection mold clear backs(since there's not a large enough supply of official backs), I'm going to go live with a Kickstarter, so keep an eye out! I'm posting updates on my blog, including a big one later this week. electricexploits.net/

[@hamzalakhani8805]

+Garrett Greenwood ok, thanks for the quick reply and keep up the great work!

[@Seri0196]

Thanks!

[@malonee]

Hey! You're still active! Would there be any way I could send you my controller and pay you to do this for me? I'm basically stupid and wouldn't want to do it myself and ruin it.

[@kazumamon]

Ive bought everything now but compiling the avr could get hard without linux :/

[@Seri0196]

Ah, sorry about that. My programming environment is all in the Linux command line, so it's pretty hard to replicate in Windows. To be honest, others have had more luck with installing Ubuntu on a VM.

[@SianaGearz]

*scratchhead* hard? It just took me... well definitely less than an hour to install avr-gcc in Cygwin, following avr-libc manual intended for Linux, and 95% of that time, i was just consuming KZbin, not working hard or anything. I just dropped prefix out of everything because installing to /usr/local is just about the right thing to do, it's already set up with paths and stuff. Just make sure you first install GMP, MPFR and MPC through the Cygwin installer, including development libraries, and of course you'll need gcc to compile your gcc. ;) And if you're compiling a bootloader, like micronucleus, avrdude, etc, you'll need libusb, also from the Cygwin installer, and you might need to fix up sections in the code of your loaders where it tries to include lusb0_usb.h on Windows instead of usb.h on Unix, and you'll need to change it so it behaves like on Unix. Easy enough. Oh of course i compiled gcc on all cores, so it wouldn't take an eternity, with make -j6 for me because i have 6. I chose latest release of GCC 4.9 that came out just recently, because some useful feature for AVR was introduced in GCC 4.8 (i forget which), and in my experience, minor platforms (like ANYTHING except x86 and ARM) often acquire headscratching bugs when new version rolls over, but 4.9 has been around for a couple of years, so they likely got any and all regressions out of it. Avr-libc also built well with -j6. Binutils probably would too, but i forgot to do it. Of course there are different ways, but i think a few minutes worth of actual effort and some waiting is a good compromise for me to have that little bit of fake Unix reasonably well integrated into my Windows workflow rather than mucking about with a native port which should take a while to figure out, to see what they actually did there and where things went. Plus my stuff is going to be 6 years more fresher. I think the idea behind WinAVR isn't that far off, it's also Makefile based and appears to be a MinGW port of the same toolchain, so you shouldn't have too much of an issue with that for software that was actually written under Linux. I'm just more of a Cygwin person than a MinGW person, because i find it easy to port any Linux tool to Cygwin. Ubuntu in a VM could get wonky with Micronucleus in particular, because you need to get USB redirection right, and there might be latencies when devices are switched over from one operating system to another. And you know, you have a limited time window there on the hardware! But i haven't tried really. So nothing from me on that.

[@Seri0196]

Siana Gearz Congrats on getting it working then! To be honest, I hadn’t yet tried to get it set up on Windows, and I judged it as difficult for someone who had never programmed before. I’ll keep your installation notes in mind!

[@SianaGearz]

Garrett Greenwood Well i'm obviously not somebody who never programmed before, i maintained a port of GCC for an exotic platform for a while too, maybe a decade ago or so. But i didn't need to get contemplative to get this installation pulled off, i had trickier setups regarding much more trivial things on better supported systems than Cygwin. This was butter smooth. If you want to cater to people who never programmed, you would probably need to provide Arduino support, and it is my understanding that the toolchain from that has been broken out into a command line tool under the name of Ino, so that shouldn't be too much of a stretch. To my taste, Arduino adds a couple extra levels of indirection that i'm wary of, and the compile times are horrendous, so there's that.

[@Seri0196]

At the moment, my installation notes aren't meant for someone who has never programmed before. I have plans to target non-programmers without necessarily dropping into Arduino-land. You're right, Arduino is an entire toolchain/environment built on top of avr-gcc and avrdude. The Arduino library is automatically imported during compilation and is a source of a lot of indirection and slowness. In order to keep up with the Gamecube's polling rate, I need to interact with the hardware at a much lower level than Arduino makes easy.

[@xbluedreamx]

want

[@OwenTheLucky]

Thanks!

[@Seri0196]

Owen The Lucky No problem!

[@tubespot8082]

amazing

[@Stratilex]

The way he holds the controller looks so awkward

[@Seri0196]

Stratilex I had to hold the controller a little oddly to show off the lights. I don’t normally hold it like that!

[@Exerilith]

looks too bright and annoying

[@steam_vortex2608]

That's the most terrible controller for playing with friends I could envision; couldn't your friends just watch your controller to see exactly what you're doing? I imagine you'd be projecting every one of your attacks; looks nice though.

[@Seri0196]

In practice, my opponent wouldn't ever gain information by watching my controller. They just watch the screen and get the same information by watching my character, just like when playing against anyone else.