I thought I make this thread to help out a few people who have this type of issue. Unfortunaly, Nintendo didn't allow a few things with the Pad. One main problem was that the pad has to boot and stay on, even while you're playing with another controller. Yes, the system has a screen off option. But the pad is still active and wasting battery. So when I do want to use it. It ends up dead. The easiest solution is to pull the battery connection. This works great. Intill you want to use the pad, then you have to unscrew and plug it back in.
This is where it becomes a problem. So here's a solution. A harder one. This requires you to know how to solder. And be fine with wires and stuff. I've see a few of these on YouTube. But people would drill a hole into the back of the Gamepad. So if you ever wanted to revert this back to stock, you couldn't. My way, you can.
One thing. This disables the IR TV control for the Gamepad. If you like using that. Then you SOL. Though I could of used the Dock wheel well holes on the bottom. But haven't tested this. What you need is a small on/off switch, wires as thin as you can get, soldering skills and a tri-wing screw driver.
The first thing to do is to lift up all the screw hole covers. I use a hobby knife to do the smallest amount of damage to them. You can use a small screw driver. But I've ruined them before, on my DS Lite. After you get into the pad you need to disconnect a lot of wires and ribbon cables. They're fairly simple. But teadtious. Warning: The blue ribbon cables going to the joysticks have tabs. The other ribbons don't. You need to lift up then out. Or you'll think they're jammed.
After you disconnect all the ribbon cables, you'll need your soldering iron or desoldering gun. I choose to desolder the battery connector. So that I can save all the pins. So if I wanted to revert this mod back, I could. The easier way is to cut the pin. You need to deal with the right side pin that is near the edge of the board. Bend it up so you can attach a wire. The next thing you need to do is to desolder the IR LED from the board. You have to, because the switch will not fit into the IR hole with it in place. Again, you can just cut it out, if you want. It's the grey LED on the bottom. The top is the Wii Sensor Bar LED's. Don't get them mixed up.
Now for the switch. You need to connect two wires. It doens't matter the color. But one goes to the middle pin. And then the other goes on the right or left. This is the side you want the switch to be ON. I chose the right side. So the switch is on away from the headphone jack.
The next bit is to connect one wire to the lifted pin, then to the connection on the board. It doesn't matter what order. You can either connect one wire to the top of the board, or the bottom. I choose bottom. It allows the most room for the top wire and pin.
Resolder the battery connector back to the board. Put on electrical tape, to prevent any metal to metal contact. If you see potentional points. And make sure you have enough wire. You need to route the wire around the battery compartment. The easiest way to messure: The wire has to be long enough so you can put both sides, side by side.
The cool thing is that the IR cover screws are the same size as my switch. So I was able to screw one side of the switch to the post. I used tape to keep the switch from shifting. You also need tape on the switch, to prevent a part of the IR LED from touching it. After that reconnect all the ribbon cables. This will be a bitch. Feed the switch wires near the big white ribbon cable. It has the most space. And fiddle around, till you can close it. Don't force. Also, make sure if you do solder one wire to the bottom. You face the wire to the boards left side. The screen holding plastic goes under the battery port.
If you did your job right. The battery will be disabled, intill you hit the switch. It's a tight area. but nothing stopped anything, with closing the covers. Remember: To charge the pad. You'll need the switch in the ON position. Or it won't do anything.
UPDATE: There's one glitch with cutting the power. This happens without this mod too. It seems the Gamepad can't find the Wii U after a full power cut. You need to turn it on fast, turn it off. Then it will connect to the Wii U. It's probably a delay between power getting to the Bluetooth antenna, then it hanging on the can't find Wii U screen. Just do a quick on and off to bypass the wait.
