Ever wanted to control your TV with an old school Nintendo controller? No? Well, I have and now I do. A few weeks ago I picked up an old school Nintendo controller from eBay and began thinking of a project for it - then it hit me! Controlling the basic functions of my TV through a NES pad would not only be awesome When I decided to do this project, I initially wanted to use a universal remote that I could use with any TV I will have. However, after I made a trip to BestBuy, bought the smallest remote I could find and took it apart, I saw that the circuitry was much too complicated. Also, it would be rather hard to program a universal remote for each individual TV with only 8 buttons. So, I took the original remote for my own TV and used it for my project. The first step was to remove the innerds of both the NES pad and the TV remote. I then took my dremel tool and began sanding down the inside of the NES to allow space for my remote. Next, I removed the printed circuit board from the remote and began studying it. I looked at where I needed to make my connections in order to bypass the needed controls (channels, volume, etc) to the NES circuitry. Then I began the fun part. Above, you can see my first step of the make. Obviously, the remote as it was was too big to fit in the NES pad. So I had to cut a portion of the circuitry out and rewire the connections to the diode by hand. This included scraping off some of the green solder mask and soldering wires to it to complete the connection. This allowed the remote circuitry to fit in the NES controller and allowed me to bend the diode to the cable/cord hole of the original NES case. I then cut up portions of the original NES pad circuitry to fit with my remote. Here in the picture I scratched off the covers of the leads I needed and labeled which lead would be tied to what. I then began to solder the bypassed connections from the remote to the cut up pieces of the NES pad. Above is a glimpse of this ugly process. Here I have only soldered power connections to the battery and the channel up button - still several more buttons to go. Here is the layout I had to use in order to fit all the components in the case. Pictured is the backside of the remote, the directional pad (for channels up/down) and the diode panel. This process was continued until all the buttons from the TV remote were connected to corresponding NES buttons. Finally, here is all the NES pad buttons soldered to the remote control functions I want them to control. Amazingly, it all fit perfectly. The last thing I needed to do was to attach a battery. The remote used two AAA batteries and those obviously wouldn’t fit in my casing, so I had to make an adjustment. One AAA battery produced 1.6 volts, so somehow I had to provide about 3.2 volts and cram it inside the space left in my case. I looked around and found that a few types of coin sized watch batteries actually produced 3 volts. So, on a limb I bought a cheap watch that contained one of the 3 volt batteries, took it apart and used the battery and the battery casing from the watch and placed them in the NES case. Here you can see that the battery casing just fit within the NES pad. Even more surprising is that when the battery was placed in and conected to my power and ground wires, the remote actually functioned! All I had left to do was reapply the rubber pads for the buttons, stick on the plastic button covers (pictured above) and then replace the other half of the NES pad case. BAM, there you have it a completely functioning NES Pad TV remote control. If you have the time, check out the 20 second video of the remote in action. Now some of you may be saying, “Why, you took a completely perfect remote contol and removed about 80% of its functionality while paying and exorbitant amount of time and money!†Well, my friend, you’d only be half right. All the parts used in this project were very cheap ( about $13.00 total ) and the entire construction took place in one weekend. Not too bad for the coolest TV remote I’ve ever had. Source : http://www.zerosign.net/index.php/2005/08/16/nes-controller-tv-remote/
I've got to say that is a very cool mod !! Shame most of the functions are missing. Maybe he could make a new one using a SNES pad Yakumo
hahaha good one, or maybe just put a pc keyboard in there? anyways, this is a great mod...a snes mod would be cool, too, maybe i'll try something, too
didn't nintendo realease something similar but with the famicom controller? edit: anyways. nice work even thought I'm a little against destroying old stuff to do something not so meaningful (like when ppl put computers in nes consoles)
Wait, _Skitzo_, did you make this or did someone else? Some people here are posting like you made the mod yourself.
Ive done it, got the prints and main story from the source as you note I give credit where things are from Casual I will be posting Snes one when I will start it over the weekend, as well as Jaguar remote
(Insert joke about revolution contoller here) That is cool Skitzo. Could do a rather pointless one with a playdia controller, seeing as it has the IR already! Problem with my set up is I need one remote for TV, another for sky, another for dvd. Panasonic Q and 360 is somewhere as well. When my revo arrives I'll have a couple more! Still keep us posted. Good use for a broken pad!
i think i have a few dead third party n64 and gamecube pads hmmm... anyway awsome mod:thumbsup: coleco and jaguar controllers would be perfect for this as a matter of fact i do have a near dead coleco controller as well:110:
That is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Know what would be cool? A remote inside of a dreamcast controller, with the current channel displayed on the VMU.
