NES Controller TV Remote
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, but it would make me one step closer to that darned Captain-N.
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.
Good going!
So good, that I think there’s actually a licensed product put out by Nintendo for people with a similar hankering to relive the old school. It’s a Famicom version, though.
NINTENDO FAMICOM CONTROLLER TV REMOTE CONTROL
I might just save my $23 + S/H to try out your DIY version.
Comment by nickelpin — November 25, 2005 @
im gonna build ont too but ill use a different remote its super small and you can see that here http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofaold/2010.html
hopefully that will work well. do the batteries not fin in your controller because of the size they are or because of the amout of space you had left over after using those big guts? neway ill find out soon enough
thanx for the DIY
Comment by notslim1 — November 28, 2005 @
wow, that remote is perfect! great find.
and I used the small battery because the AAA’s wouldn’t fit after all the guts were in. They would however fit by themselves - maybe you can make it work.
Be sure to send me a link to your final product. Good Luck!
Comment by Administrator — November 28, 2005 @
looks great. I’m new to doingmods, and this will be the first my first mod,i found a universal remote that will should fit with out cut the pc board. http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/yhst-2031987573235_1874_1271151 thats what im going to use. You can get them off of ebay for under 10 bux, and i have 2 nes004 pads from my console in the late 80’s, they look almost brand new.ill try and post pics of the way i end up doing it. any sugestions, or help would be awsome! remember im a noob to mods
Comment by repo — December 12, 2005 @
awesome man. Welcome to the wonderful world of modding. Destroying perfectly good electronics for your own projects is always a fun time.
That remote looks like it would work pretty well. After you crack it open be sure to take some pics - I would like to see that layout of the circuitry inside. If you have any specific questions, be sure to let us know here, or send me an email: leadingzero@gmail.com
Good luck man!
Comment by leadingzero — December 12, 2005 @
hey, great mod man. im also new to the modding scene, and this is one of my first few projects i want to work on. but, there ones thing in the way, and that is that i dont know anything about soldering or PIC circuitry. do you know of any websites to help me get started? also, how did you know which wires to solder to the D-Pad, A & B buttons, to the remotes board it self? do you just remove the wires from the remotes button (like channel up for example) and solder the D-pad UP button to where the remote control’s channel up button was? I probably confused you, but what Im trying to say is, do you just switch buttons/wires? Thanks.
Comment by chino the ox — December 15, 2005 @
First of all, I don’t know any good soldering sites but i’m sure if you google alittle you could find some, sorry. Secondly, there isn’t much you need to know about PICs for this project. It’s primarily what I call “circuit hijacking”. If you look on the remote control’s circuit board, you will probably see lots of goldish lines traced all over the board. What you will need to do is figure out where the buttons we want to “hijack” are located among all the goldish lines. Each button should have a pad that corresponds to it on the board. When the remote button is pushed, the two separate parts of the pad are connected and that function is activiated (for example, channel up). What you will have to do is to scratch off parts of the lines on both sides of the pad to expose the orange copper underneath. Then solder two wires to each of those lines. The end of these wires now will need to be soldered to button pads on the NES controller using the same method so that when a NES button is pushed it closes the circuit on the remote and activates the function.
I’m sorry if this doesn’t make any sense. Lately, I have been getting several responses from people asking for more clarification so someday very soon (next week probably) I will write a more descriptive article on my site with some more descriptive pictures as well.
Comment by leadingzero — December 20, 2005 @
I haven’t gotten around to doing this project yet mostly because im lazy and also because i though i had an extra controller that i could use. i was really sure i had it and now i cant seem to find it… oh well im sure ill fall across one soon enough but for now all of the oter things i need are sitting in a bag screaming “USE ME” lol. I’ll totally try to snap off some pics of parts and what not to show how i did.
I like that remote: http://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg.com/I/yhst-2031987573235_1874_1271151
HAPPY HOLIDAYS notslim1@hotmail
Comment by notslim1 — December 20, 2005 @
i found the controller yesterday cleaning up a bit in the basment so i have all the componets and tools i need but i dont have a camera.. there is one onmy phone but it takes shitty pics.. so since there is your projecte listed ill prolly just take a pic of how i fit all that stuff inside the controller.. ill do it today probably. wish me luck. this will be the first electronics DiY i do in a long time.
MCL
notslim1
Comment by notslim1 — December 22, 2005 @
im kinda pissed. i got the controller board cut and i had to shave off about a milimeter off each end of the remote being careful not to hit the resistors and a tiny bit from the sides of the bottom half of the nes controller to just to fit the remote inside but not before i desoldered the IR LED from the board and reattached it with some wires so that it would reach the hole where the wire went into the back of the controller. that was the easy part. after i placed the tv remote inside the controller i put the buttons and other misc. peices back inside the controller to see how it would all fit and the found that the A and B buttons were sitting over a chip that was on the remote (i wish i had a cam to show what i was talking about) so now instead of A & B for the volume im forced to use for volume and up and down for the channels start for power and select for mute and the A & B will be rendered usless.. oh well. so now i was ready to start soldering leads to the boards but my knowledge of electronics is a bit fuzzy and also i was using plumbers solder with a gun instead of a electronic solder with a pen which proved to be difficult because the plumbers solder doesn’t stick to the board and the leads are so fine that the gun was just way too big to work with. My project is now on hiatus until further notice or until i can get a pen and the right solder.
im fairly confident that ill get it complete after i get the right parts… HAPPY HOLIDAYS & MUCH LOVE TO ALL THE JUGGALOS!! ill keep you posted as my project slowly turns to a reality Thanx again for the awsome DiY idea.
MCL
notslim1
Comment by notslim1 — December 23, 2005 @
that sounds awesome man. I def want to see it when its through. I don’t know anything about plumber’s solder, but I’m actually in the process of writing another article explaining this process alittle more. It should be up by next week.
keep up the good work man
Comment by leadingzero — December 23, 2005 @
thanks zero.
Comment by chino — December 25, 2005 @
mery christmas all!!!
Comment by repo — December 27, 2005 @
[…] Several projects on this site involve the modding of consumer electronics for new and inventive purposes. The NES tv remote for example used an old remote control as the base of the whole project. However, the circuitry inside was diverted to the controls of an old NES controller. This process of redirecting the internal circuitry of a component is what I call “circuit hijacking” because essentially, the circuitry is “hijacked” to a new location and purpose. This method is by no means new, nor is it even difficult but in this article I will attempt to described the best ways that circuit hijacking is accomplished so you can begin hijacking your own circuits. Note: This is meant as an introduction to circuit modding. The elements covered in this article describe very basic techniques as this guide was written for the beginner. However, hopefully the tips recorded here will be of value to all. […]
Pingback by zerosign.net » How To: Circuit Hijacking — December 30, 2005 @
We’re /still/ waiting for your pics showing how you modded your TV to look like a giant NES!
Comment by Deadly_Dad — December 31, 2005 @
[…] Source: NES Controller TV Remote […]
Pingback by Binary Expressions » DIY NES Controller as a TV Remote — December 31, 2005 @
i want to try it with a snes controller… wil it work?
Comment by myself — December 31, 2005 @
yes, all you need to figure out is power, and where to hijack the buttons
Comment by repo — January 2, 2006 @
I love this idea! I actually still have a couple wireless NES controllers somewhere around, I wonder if this would be easier? It even has built in LED’s and AAA batteries.
Comment by Jesse — January 3, 2006 @
[…] Here is a quick list of ten mods for the NES controller. There are lots of cool, and even lots of pointless things that can be done. It is amazing to see all of the innovative ideas. 1. NES Remote Control: Here is a NES controller mod that takes a TV remote control, and sticks it inside a nintendo controller. It actually works as a functioning remote. […]
Pingback by DIY Live » DIY Archive » Ten mods for NES controller — January 21, 2006 @
i got a remote off of ebay like i said i would. but the range on it sucks total shit. it u use a more powerfull battry will this make it work better?
Comment by repo — January 28, 2006 @
what kind of reatard would do a thing like that!!!!friggin idiot…GOSH!
Comment by nerd hater — January 31, 2006 @
A NES-Max controller would be cool but a waste of a great controller. Besides the hardware would difficult to fit inside.
Comment by Flea — January 31, 2006 @
[…] Yes they may be alittle over-the-top, but so what? I want my NES paraphernalia attached to every possible item in my personal inventory. Besides, these babies aren’t just for decoration - they’re fully functional. Of course by fully functional I mean that they make beeping noises when you press the buttons… but when you think about it what more could we ask? Not everyone knows how to make somewhat useful items out of old-school NES treasures… link - Gamebrink [via Kotaku] […]
Pingback by zerosign.net » 8-bit Keychains — February 1, 2006 @
[…] This has got to be one of the geekiest sites ever. Some of the stuff he makes is just too cool for school.  The NES remote and the powerglove mouse are by far the coolest reinvention of NES gear ever. Nintendo should hire this guy, refine his ideas and put out classic nostalgic NES perifials for your home. Like I bet you could turn an origonal NES into an external hardrive/dvd burner. […]
Pingback by One Tired EvE Pilot » Blog Archive » A Geek and a Soldering Iron — February 10, 2006 @
[…] Ultra-geek (he won’t mind me calling him that) and hacking madman Zerosign has unleashed his latest creation upon the Internets. You might remember him as the creator of the NES Controller TV Remote. […]
Pingback by Re:Retro - The Classic and Retro Games Blog — February 10, 2006 @
[…] If no one had noticed, yesterday brought a deluge of traffic the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the NES controller remote. At first it was Hackaday. We took a hit, but we were ok. Then came Digg, Make and Engadget all at once. And the site… was…. getting…. s l o w. Then, at about 3:30 yesterday afternoon Zerosign was pronounced dead on the table. Completely lifeless…no pulse, no brainwaves, nothing. However, just over two hours later Zerosign was resurrected - a true miracle! The problem actually had nothing to do with my host’s server or the amount of traffic we were getting. Apparently my server’s ISP simply decided to reset their entire system at the exact moment that the world was looking here - coincidence or international conspiracy? Either way, we’re back and blazing at full speed thanks to the excellent service at Griff’s H.P. Welcome, all new readers and thanks for checking out the self-proclaimed ‘Geekiest Site on the Planet’. […]
Pingback by zerosign.net » … is it over? — February 10, 2006 @
Finally found some good infomation on the subject.
Comment by Riley — February 19, 2006 @
[…] This guy made an alarm clock out of an old NES. Zerosign, where the hell were you on this one big guy? […]
Pingback by NES Alarm Clock — February 19, 2006 @
I did it. I made an NES Remote. haha its awsome. The major difference is that i used the up/down arrows as channel change and the left/right arrows as volume. B-button is mute. A-button is setup. Start-power. I used a small 7 button remote.
Comment by Matt — February 20, 2006 @
Awesome Matt! Got any pictures of it?
Comment by leadingzero — February 20, 2006 @
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Pingback by Kashyyyk » links for 2006-03-03 — March 2, 2006 @
[…] [Zerosign] […]
Pingback by TechEBlog » Coolest NES Mods Ever — March 11, 2006 @
[…] […]
Pingback by Jonathan Lafleur » Gadget modifier — March 17, 2006 @
could you send me the plans how to do one please? I wanna try to do one for a nes dvd player with a dvd remote(not invented by me but by redwolf i think. I am curently working on mine)and maybe later, i’l try to do one connected to my nes by the controler cable.Please send it to dacybah@hotmail.com.
Comment by Cyber Gecko — March 27, 2006 @
well now i dont feel so original about my idea….but im sure its been done already n e ways….an cd/dvd player in an NES shell with an NES remote…im 90% done and there is no comstetic difference from the nintendo….ill post it once i get it finished…it’ll be my first hack YAY!
Comment by marcus — April 4, 2006 @
dang i didnt even read the last comment before mine….what a slap in the face…but hey…at least i did it on my own with no help or plans right?
Comment by marcus — April 4, 2006 @
@marcus - go for it man. Its a great idea whether its already been done or not. Actually, I haven’t even seen another NES remote hack besides mine, and I’ve been looking.
@cyber Gecko - sorry man, but the only plans I have for this remote are listed above in the article. I tried to spell everything out pretty clearly but if you have any specific questions feel free to shoot me an email: leadingzero@gmail.com
Good luck guys and definitely send in some pics when your work is fininshed!
Comment by leadingzero — April 4, 2006 @
so i was putting the nes back together to do finishing touches….everything was working….and im putting it back together….and the board shorts out….the drive is still fine…but where the board shorted…it made it so now the controls dont works (i dont know what it is since i am still learning more about circuit boards at work (im a game tech at this huge arcade in atlanta) but it looks like a very small VERY small voltage regulator but i dont think thats what it is…its right next to the plug for the controls…and it started smoking out of nowhere…
so i think i just wasted a dvd player…hahaha it was a free one n e ways though
not giving up though cuz you know they got those 30 dollar dvd players at wal-mart…the anger of being almost done just made me wanna do it that much more
so i did the controller though…but i used an nes advantage joystick….the controls are kind of funny…each button has a reason…the joystick is the remotes d-pad….select is…select/ok on the remote….start “starts” the cd or movie hahaha i set up the turbo knobs as ff and rw (turbo…ff….get it…) its set up for my tv and the player so player 1 is the tv player 2 is the dvd…um…b is skip “b”ackward hahaha and a is “a”dvance forward….the first button to turn on turbo turns on or off both ff and rw (so i dont hit it on accident cuz i have that tendency) and the other is open close….um…slow is menu….i couldnt come up with a reason for that one….but yea i think i got a little too into the remote
i thought the joystick would be better cuz a. more buttons…b. i tend to lose small remotes…and c. its just looks so big and clunky i cant help but laugh…
but i really like the remote so im pretty bummed about the dvd player
Comment by marcus — April 6, 2006 @
marcus: do you have any pics of the progress you made? It would be cool see!
Comment by leadingzero — May 22, 2006 @
[…] zerosign.net NES Controller TV RemoteEver 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 […]
Pingback by e-Controller Home: The QuickBooks and Peachtree Accounting Services - Controller — May 24, 2006 @
Hey. I’m new to modding and I was wondering: would it be any more difficult if I used a SNES controller over a NES? I wouldn’t think so but your the expert.
Comment by Joey Kuljis — June 18, 2006 @
[…] [Source] […]
Pingback by TechEBlog » Top 10 Strangest NES Mods — June 28, 2006 @
i really want to do this but have no idea what to get, i live in the uk so i may need different items, could you tell me what i need for this project. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Comment by Dave — July 11, 2006 @
[…] Pois é, finalmente chegaram as tão desejadas férias, mas como acontece todos os anos a falta de algo para fazer dá-lhe cabo dos nervos, que tal aproveitar as horas em que o sol está mais forte para se dedicar a um projecto realmente útil, transformar o seu feio comando de TV numa obra de arte retro, aqui deixo o tutorial. […]
Pingback by Astrisko » Comando de TV NES — July 22, 2006 @
Very genial!
:-)
Comment by dam — July 24, 2006 @
[…] Y el link por si quieren Construir un control remoto con un mando de nintendo No hay comentarios so far Leave a comment Suscripción RSS a los comentarios de la entrada. URI para TrackBack. Deje un comentario […]
Pingback by A2 // En linea /// Tecnologia Cultura Y Demases — August 2, 2006 @
[…] [via Zerosign] […]
Pingback by 我不喜欢-Blog » A Look Back: NES Controller TV Remote — August 3, 2006 @
hello sir,
am unable to see the video and also i would like to know the entire working as well as the architecture of the remote.kindly reply
Comment by shobi — November 14, 2006 @
Im new to this modding and i think this would be a good start. First of all when i look at my remote i see goldish lines and greenish lines, so im kinda confused on where to “hijack” the connection. And how do u connect the LED. And…does every circuit board need to be hooked up to the diode? like the nes up down left right buttons need to connect to the remote and the diode? i hope u can answer these question.
HELP!
Comment by james — December 29, 2006 @
and the battery, how does that hook up
Comment by james — December 29, 2006 @
[…] 7. TV Remote Props to this guy. He got his controller to wirelessly work with the TV. All the buttons on the controller work. […]
Pingback by MaxGizmo » Blog Archive » Top 10 NES Controller Creations — January 24, 2007 @
[…] 7. TV Remote Props to this guy. He got his controller to wirelessly work with the TV. All the buttons on the controller work. […]
Pingback by ipod nano » Top 10 NES Controller Creations — January 25, 2007 @
[…] I could restore my NES console back to its rightful place (under my tv) and use it as a DVD player, complete with an NES wireless controller TV remote. […]
Pingback by Fan Blog » Breathe new life into your classic NES console — August 1, 2007 @
[…] I could restore my NES console back to its rightful place (under my tv) and use it as a DVD player, complete with an NES wireless controller TV remote. […]
Pingback by Breathe new life into your classic NES console : Wonderful Thoughts — August 1, 2007 @
[…] Reproductor DVD Mando a distancia Despertador Cinturón (WTF?) Monedero (¿pero estos que fuman?) NES PC Nintendo Mouse (este ya lo pusimos) Lector de Tarjetas Zelda Drive Móvil Reproductor MP3 Altavoces Mando para Ipod PDA Guitarra […]
Pingback by GamesAjare » BRICOPOST CHORRA MULTIPLE — September 5, 2007 @
wow neat, that’s pretty clever:D
Comment by Blakey — October 21, 2007 @
Free Software Downloads…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
Trackback by Free Software Downloads — November 28, 2007 @
Quite a great idea! I was thinking about doing that too, little before I discovered this site! I had in mind something like this:
Up Button: Channel Up
Down Button: Channel Down
Right Button: Volume Up
Left Button: Volume Down
Select Button: Mute
Start Button: Power
B Button: TV Mode (Actually the Input Select Button on the remote set to channel 1)
A Button: Game Mode (Changes from Cable side to the game side of the TV, so I can play games on the same TV)
Again, great idea!
:)
Comment by YoshiFan95 — May 10, 2008 @