Do the wiimote buttons use a common "ground" among them?

Ive got an idea to make a more comfortable and easy to use gun for the wii. i want to relocate the wiimote buttons to the side of the controller. ive got a button assembly already that i would like to use from another toy.


ive traced the circuit of this new button assembly, and every button shares a common ground. that is to say, each button has a lead. when the button is pressed, that lead connects with the common wire. is this how the wiimote is set up? ive opened the thing up and tried to see. but there is white paint or something on the board so i cant really tell where the circuits are running to. for each button, there are 2 exposed surfaces of conductive material. is one of the pieces of material connected to the material from the other buttons? i dont have a multi meter to check it.

also, the -, home, and + buttons dont have the exposed material. instead, they are sealed with a flexible metal cap. are there solder points on the board i can get to to "relocate" the - and + buttons without having to try to remove the metal caps off these buttons?





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2010 09:27AM by giantpune.

ok, well i just got smart and figured this out for myself. the answer is yes!

here's what i did...
1) make a simple program to run on the wii which says which buttons are being pressed
2) connect my soon-to-be-improved wiimote to the wii and then remove the upper cover
3) start my program
4) using a length of wire, start "pressing" buttons and connecting the exposed traces from different buttons

the -, home, and + buttons have 4 corners exposed. the 2 left corners share the same current and the 2 right corners share the same current. so i can use those to solder to without needing to remove the existing metal caps.

button | trace
u | left = ground
d | right = ground
l | bottom = ground
r | top = ground

1 | left = ground
2 | left = ground

- | right = ground
+ | left = ground

A | right = ground

so, by connecting the left trace from the up button and the left trace of the down button, the wiimote thinks that i have pressed down.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/05/2010 11:00AM by giantpune.