The Nintendo Wii Remote might be almost 20 years old, but its shape still makes sense: point, tilt, press a button. Now a maker project wants to give that familiar controller a second life.

OpenMote, featured by Solid State Bytes on October 9, is a replacement electronics board from Hat & Hammer designed to put an ESP32-S3 inside an old Wii Remote shell. The idea is to turn a retired game controller into a programmable remote for smart-home projects, TVs, and robots.

Same controller, new possibilities

The ESP32-S3 is a compact microcontroller with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE capabilities. With custom firmware and the right electronics, a familiar Wii-style controller could become an input device for entirely different machines.

Imagine steering a little robot, triggering a home-automation routine, or controlling a DIY display without designing a handheld enclosure from scratch. Those are possible project directions, not verified finished features for every OpenMote build.

Why this is interesting

Old hardware is often discarded because its original software ecosystem moves on, not because its buttons, case, and ergonomics have stopped being useful. Replacing the electronics can change that equation.

It’s another practical example of the ideas behind open-source software and the maker workflow explained in our 3D-printing guide. Reuse the enclosure, redesign the electronics, and write software for a completely different purpose.

SmartNews takeaway: The cleverest new controller might already be sitting in a drawer. Sometimes the upgrade is not a new gadget—it is a new circuit board.

Editor’s Note: This is an independent maker project, not an official Nintendo product. Confirm compatibility and assembly requirements with the project’s developer before attempting a build.