controller

268 Articles

Bringing Bluetooth To The Zune

September 27, 2025 by 10 Comments

The Zune might have joined the portable media player game too late to ever really be competition for the iPod, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t pick up some devoted fans along the way. Some of them are still breathing new life into the device, such as [The Director of Legal Evil Emeritus] at the Louisville Hackerspace, with this project that gives it Bluetooth capability.

As far as media players go, there’s still some solid reasons to rock a Zune. Compared to other devices of the era, it offers a better DAC, an FM tuner, and no iTunes reliance. The goal of this project was to bring a bit of modern functionality without having to do any modification of the Zune itself. As the player supported docks with IR remotes, this build involves using an ESP32 to listen to the Bluetooth signal coming from the speakers, interpret any button presses, and forward them along to the Zune’s dock.

There is a dedicated scene for these old music players, but this build is unique for not needing to crack open the case and splice in a Bluetooth module. Even then, those typically don’t have the ability to interact with things like this speaker with its integrated control buttons.

We don’t often seen Zune hacks come our way — the last time Microsoft’s player graced these pages was in 2010, when the Open Zune Development Kit was released.

Thanks to [JAC_101] for the tip!

An Open-Source Wii U Gamepad

May 19, 2025 by 8 Comments

Although Nintendo is mostly famous for making great games, they also have an infamous reputation for being highly litigious not only for reasonable qualms like outright piracy of their games, but additionally for more gray areas like homebrew development on their platforms or posting gameplay videos online. With that sort of reputation it’s not surprising that they don’t release open-source drivers for their platforms, especially those like the Wii U with unique controllers that are difficult to emulate. This Wii U gamepad emulator seeks to bridge that gap.

The major issue with the Wii U compared to other Nintendo platforms like the SNES or GameCube is that the controller looks like a standalone console and behaves similarly as well, with its own built-in screen. Buying replacement controllers for this unusual device isn’t straightforward either; outside of Japan Nintendo did not offer an easy path for consumers to buy controllers. This software suite, called Vanilla, aims to allow other non-Nintendo hardware to bridge this gap, bringing in support for things like the Steam Deck, the Nintendo Switch, various Linux devices, or Android smartphones which all have the touch screens required for Wii U controllers. The only other hardware requirement is that the device must support 802.11n 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

Although the Wii U was somewhat of a flop commercially, it seems to be experiencing a bit of a resurgence among collectors, retro gaming enthusiasts, and homebrew gaming developers as well. Many games were incredibly well made and are still experiencing continued life on the Switch, and plenty of gamers are looking for the original experience on the Wii U instead. If you’ve somehow found yourself in the opposite position of owning of a Wii U controller but not the console, though, you can still get all the Wii U functionality back with this console modification.

Thanks to [Kat] for the tip!

DIY Drones Deliver The Goods With Printed Release

January 22, 2025 by 17 Comments

It seems like the widespread use of delivery drones by companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart has been perpetually just out of reach. Of course robotics is a tricky field, and producing a fleet of these machines reliable enough to be cost effective has proven to be quite a challenge. But on an individual level, turning any drone into one that can deliver a package is not only doable but is something [Iloke-Alusala] demonstrates with their latest project.

The project aims to be able to turn any drone into a delivery drone, in this case using a FPV drone as the platform. Two hitch-like parts are 3D printed, one which adds an attachment point to the drone and another which attaches to the package, allowing the drone to easily pick up the package and then drop it off quickly. The real key to this build is the control mechanism. [Iloke-Alusala] used an ESP32 to tap into the communications between the receiver and the flight controller. When the ESP32 detects a specific signal has been sent to the flight controller, it can activate the mechanism on the 3D printed hitch to either grab on to a package or release it at a certain point.

While this is a long way from a fully autonomous fleet of delivery drones, it goes a long way into showing that individuals can use existing drones to transport useful amounts of material and also sets up a way for an ESP32 to decode and use a common protocol used in drones, making it easy to expand their capabilities in other ways as well. After all, if we have search and rescue drones we could also have drones that deliver help to those stranded.

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2024 Tiny Games Contest: Realistic Steering Wheel Joystick In Miniature

August 30, 2024 by 4 Comments

For racing games, flight simulators, and a few other simulation-style games, a simple controller just won’t do. You want something that looks and feels closer to the real thing. The major downsides to these more elaborate input methods is that they take up a large amount of space, requiring extra time for setup, and can be quite expensive as well. To solve both of these problems [Rahel zahir Ali] created a miniature steering wheel controller for some of his favorite games.

While there are some commercial offerings of small steering wheels integrated into an otherwise standard video game controller and a few 3D printed homebrew options, nothing really felt like a true substitute. The main design goal with this controller was to maintain the 900-degree rotation of a standard car steering wheel in a smaller size. It uses a 600P/R rotary encoder attached to a knob inside of a printed case, with two spring-loaded levers to act as a throttle and brake, as well as a standard joystick to adjust camera angle and four additional buttons. Everything is wired together with an Arduino Leonardo that sends the inputs along to the computer.

Now he’s ready to play some of his favorite games and includes some gameplay footage using this controller in the video linked below. If you’re racing vehicles other than cars and trucks, though, you might want a different type of controller for your games instead.

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MIDI Controller In A Cubic Inch

July 27, 2024 by 3 Comments

MIDI as a standard has opened up a huge world to any musician willing to use a computer to generate or enhance their playing and recording. Since the 80s, it has it has revolutionized the way music is produced and performed, allowing for seamless integration of digital instruments, automation of complex sequences, and unprecedented control over everything from production to editing. It has also resulted in a number of musical instruments that probably wouldn’t be possible without electronic help, like this MIDI instrument which might be the world’s smallest.

Fitting into a cubic inch of space, the tiny instrument’s volume is mostly taken up by the MIDI connector itself which was perhaps an acceptable size by 1980s standards but seems rather bulky today. A two-layer PCB split into three sections sandwiches the connector in place and boasts an ATtiny85 microcontroller and all the associated electronics needed to implement MIDI. Small threaded screws hold the platform together and provide each layer with a common ground. Four small pushbuttons at the top of the device act as the instrument’s keys.

The project’s creator (and Hackaday alum!) [Jeremy Cook] has it set up to play notes from a piano right now, but has also made the source code available so that any musical action can be programmed onto these buttons. Flexibility is perhaps MIDI’s greatest strength and why the standard has lasted for decades now, as it makes it fairly straightforward to build more comprehensive, easy-to-learn musical instruments or even musical instruments out of retro video game systems.

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TuneShroom Is An Artistic Mushroom-Themed MIDI Controller

February 25, 2024 by 1 Comment

Most MIDI controllers are modelled after traditional instruments, like pianos, flutes, or guitars. [Oliver Child] went in a different direction for the TuneShroom, instead modelling his DIY controller after the terrifying, unclassifiable living organism we call the mushroom.

The project was a fun way for [Oliver] to try creating a project with an artistic PCB design, and it worked out well in that regard. He penned a circuit board in the shape of a toadstool, with conductive pads serving as capacitive touch points to activate various notes.

The design is based around the Sparkfun Pro Micro, but it’s not programmed in Arduino. [Oliver] wanted to make full use of the ATmega32U4 microcontroller and have freedom to use the pins at will, so instead the project was programmed with a patched version of LUFA to handle the USB side of things. MIDI data is naturally piped out over this interface to an attached computer.

Files are on Github for the curious. Alternatively, contemplate turning an entire saxophone into a MIDI controller in your spare time. Video after the break.

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Swapping Nunchucks For A Steering Wheel

January 30, 2024 by 4 Comments

Rather than chasing pure performance and high quality graphics like other gaming companies, Nintendo has made a name for themselves over the last few decades by favoring not only artistic design and gameplay, but the physical design of the game systems. Of course the hybrid handheld Switch console is among these, but it also includes things like the novel design of the Nintendo 64 controller and, of course, the Wii nunchuck controllers. They’re not always met with resounding approval, though. Some of us tend to prefer more traditional gamepad design, and will go to extreme lengths to get it like this D-pad for playing Mario Kart Wii.

Rather than simply building a compatible controller for the Wii, or even using a GameCube controller, this controller setup takes a more roundabout approach. A Wiimote is placed in a holster built from Lego, and the game is set up to recognize it as if it were being used in its steering wheel mode. The Lego holster has a servo attached which can tilt the Wiimote from side to side, mimicking a player holding it to play the game, with another set of servos set up to press the various buttons. To control the controller, a homebrew D-pad built on perfboard with an Arduino at its core is used to send commands to the servos, allowing for a more standard controller layout to be used for the classic kart racing game than the steering wheel Wiimote allows.

While it’s quite obvious that there are simpler, easier solutions that avoid the sometimes awkward nature of using Wiimotes, we certainly appreciate the Rube Goldberg-like approach to setting up your gaming experience exactly the way you like. Whether that’s setting up an antique CRT effect for the authentic retro gaming experience or building a complete racing simulator from scratch, the gaming experience is ripe for personalization and unique builds like this one.

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