Trying To Use A 2007 Samsung UMPC As Wii U Gamepad
A tech enthusiast attempted to repurpose a 2007 Samsung ultra-mobile PC to function as a Nintendo Wii U Gamepad. The project ultimately failed due to the aging hardware's inability to handle modern video decoding requirements.
Why it matters
This project illustrates the limitations of legacy hardware when attempting to interface with modern, reverse-engineered communication protocols.
As unique the Nintendo Wii U Gamepad may appear to be, at its core it’s pretty much just a tablet with game controls stuck on it. Now that the communication between the Wii U and the Gamepad have been fully reverse-engineered and poured into easy to use software, this opens the possibility of using other tablets with suitable controls on them for Wii U Gamepad purposes, like the Windows-capable Samsung tablet that [Bringus Studios] decided to experiment on.
Originally designed to run Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, the Samsung Q1 series of ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC) was first released in 2007, featuring a 900 MHz Celeron M CPU. Amusingly [Bingus] mixes up mAh and mWh when comparing battery capacities, as the Li-ion battery pack for this UMPC is an 11.1V one, whereas a smartphone battery is 3.7V nominal.
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