The Nintendo Wii Remote may be two decades old, but it is still a favorite controller for many because of its unique combination of physical buttons and motion controls that make it intuitive and fun to use. OpenMote takes that familiar form factor and replaces the electronics inside with modern, fully programmable hardware that can control everything from games and smart home devices to custom electronics projects.
OpenMote is a drop-in replacement circuit board designed to fit inside a classic Wii Remote shell without soldering. The board is built around an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module with a dual-core processor running at up to 240 MHz, 16 MB of flash storage, and 8 MB of PSRAM. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 LE are built in, opening up quite a few possibilities beyond playing Wii Sports.
A closer look at the hardware (📷: Hat & Hammer)
There are 12 button contacts on the board, with 11 available for programming and the remaining one used for power. A six-axis IMU provides accelerometer and gyroscope data for motion-based controls, including two interrupt lines that can wake the controller when movement is detected.
That hardware makes OpenMote perfect for use as a Bluetooth HID gamepad, but gaming is only one option. The board has both a 940 nm infrared emitter and a 38 kHz IR receiver, allowing it to learn signals from existing remotes and then reproduce them. It could, for example, replace a TV remote while also using Wi-Fi to trigger Home Assistant scenes from its physical buttons.
And that’s just the beginning — OpenMote hides plenty more hardware inside the old controller shell. A MAX98357A Class-D amplifier provides up to 3.2 W of audio output through a mono speaker, and a PDM MEMS microphone adds audio input. There is also a haptic motor for feedback and four indicator LEDs for displaying status information.
No more AA batteries! (📷: Hat & Hammer)
A Qwiic/STEMMA QT connector exposes an I2C interface for adding external sensors and other hardware. ESP-NOW support also allows OpenMote to communicate directly with other compatible boards without relying on a conventional Wi-Fi network.
Power comes from a 1,200 mAh rechargeable lithium battery connected through a standard JST connector. A USB-C port handles both programming and charging at up to 500 mA.
Since OpenMote uses an ESP32-S3 chip, developers can work with Arduino, ESP-IDF, PlatformIO, or CircuitPython. An OpenMote Arduino library is also planned to simplify access to the buttons, IMU, wireless hardware, and other onboard features.
The project is fully open source, with the schematics, PCB layouts, bill of materials, Arduino library, examples, and documentation scheduled to be released before units ship. Pricing and the release date have not yet been announced, but you can sign up for notifications on Crowd Supply to stay up to date.