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OpenMote: Arduino-Compatible Controller for Makers

Transform Your Controller Shell into a Versatile Tool for Home Automation, Gaming, and DIY Projects

gangwa-labsGangwa Labs
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The OpenMote is an Arduino-compatible, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled development board that turns your nostalgic game controller shell into a powerhouse of innovation. Designed to make interacting with projects more exciting and fun OpenMote gives you a new way to control and hack your digital world!

Support the Development Today: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/openmote/openmote-arduino-compatible-controller-for-makers

Old game controllers lying around? Tired of screens taking over? Bring back the glory days of buttons and fun interaction with OpenMote. Designed to be a drop in replacement for your most nostalgic game controller OpenMote empowers you to program and develop a controller for any project you can dream of.

Powered with the popular ESP32-S3 Platform it's armed to the tooth with connectivity solutions and computing. Plus all the old sensors and buttons from your old controllers.

- Bluetooth

- Wifi

- 6 axis IMU

- Haptic Motor

- Speaker

- 12 programmable buttons

- 4 RBG LEDs

- IR LEDs

- Built in battery Charging

- USB-C for Programming and Charging

- Open GPIO to expand to your hearts content

OpenMote brings the joy and excitement back into controlling projects and is a fun way to show off what your working on to your non-technical friends!

OpenMote will be fully open source at launch for your hacking desires and we're excited to see what you can create with OpenMote!

  • 1 × ESP32-S3 WiFi Bluetooth MCU for programming and control

  • Building a Testbed for getting Audio Out

    Gangwa Labs • 07/15/2024 at 23:51 • 0 comments

    One of the more difficult things we've had to deal with was the loss of the DAC on the ESP32-S3 framework. Without an onboard DAC we've had to get creative with driving the speaker on OpenMote. We started out with a MAX98357 a very popular I2S DAC + AMP combo IC that manages all things mono speakers. However this component was proving to be unreliable from our PCBA supplier, they were pricey and stocked in scary short numbers.

    To solve this problem we dove into how to get an analog signal from the ESP without having it be an actual analog signal. This lead to the discovery of PDM and sigma delta modulation. Special shoutout to @atomic14 (Chris Greening) for his illuminating blog post about how to drive a speaker from an esp32-s3 without the need for an external DAC. 

    After doing some research on amp and looking at Espressif's own documentation and guides we found an active amp that uses a TL07x. A few hours later and we've whipped up a testbed for the active amp and a microSD card slot to test all our audio needs. On this testbed we also included a 3.3V LDO to test the difference in volume from the speaker between 3.3v and 5v. Lastly we also included a little notch near the USB-C port to remove the need to clip a little piece of plastic on the old game controllers.

View project log

  • 1
    Preparation

    - Find your old game controllers

    - Take off the battery clip on the back

  • 2
    Disassembly

    - Unscrew the 4 screws holding the case together

    - Pry the top of the shell apart from the bottom of the shell (be careful of the 2 clips on the top of the controller by the power button as they are quite fragile and easy to snap off)

    - Remove the old PCB from the game controller making sure to keep track of all the buttons and the membranes

  • 3
    Assembly

    - Place your OpenMote PCB into the bottom shell, make sure that the reset button slots in nicely to the hole in the bottom of the shell

    - Place the top of the shell with the membranes and buttons onto the bottom and snap it all together

    - Tighten the 4 screws to close up the controller

View all 4 instructions

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