This Game Boy Advance Acts as a Wireless, Whole-House Remote

The idea

The primary goal of the ultimate couch potato is to never have to leave their ideal sitting location in the pursuit of doing a simple task such as switching on/off a light, activating the heater, or turning on the TV. Inspired by this decades-old problem, YouTuber 3DSage had an idea to create the ultimate universal remote control using a handheld gaming console from the early 2000s.

Gathering the components

For this project, 3DSage settled on using the 20 year-old Game Boy Advance (GBA) SP console due to its decently sized color screen and ability to run custom programs. Because the GBA lacks any wireless connectivity, 3DSage would attach a light sensor to the top of the screen and read a series of pulses to determine which action should be performed. Once encoded, this information would be sent via an infrared LED emitter to an accompanying receiver board that could, in turn, decode the data and perform the action.

Creating circuits

Both the emitting and receiving circuits were designed with an ATtiny85 at their center because of its small physical size and low power draw. The receiver boards contain a single power switch, an IR receiver LED, a visible LED for indicating a command has been successfully decoded, and a header for attaching a servo motor. After cutting the traces and the PCB with a CNC mill, 3DSage soldered the components before attaching a 3.7V rechargeable coin cell battery.

Game Boy modifications

In order to convert human inputs on the GBA into physical actions on the receiver board, 3DSage programmed a custom Game Boy ROM that essentially functions like a video game menu screen. There are three icons that correspond to the heater, the TV, and a lamp, and every single one has an associated pattern that gets triggered whenever the user selects it. Once pressed, the pixels in the upper right corner of the GBA's screen flash in the specified pattern and get picked up by the photoresistor before being sent out over IR light to the awaiting receiver.

Wireless control

Due to the unique nature of each household item being controlled, it took several iterations to design and 3D print an enclosure that would work correctly. For instance, the heater has a delicate pushrod, which converts the servo motor's rotational movement into a linear one that can push the physical button. Using this system, nearly anything can be wirelessly controlled with just a screen and a simple battery-powered module. More information about this project can be found here in 3DSage's YouTube video.