First, thanks @Venom121212 for giving me a remote to start with! Eventually, the battery in it puffed up. I added in a new battery, but for some reason the board did not seem to provide over discharge protection for the new battery.
I tinkered until the remote was no longer salvageable, but learned enough to make my own.
This is yet another DIY esk8 remote, but using a Raspberry Pi Pico, which I haven’t seen other DIY remotes do.
Some things that set this remote apart:
Simple
No screws
Ergonomic Design
Simple Thumb-wheel Mechanism
Reliable (don’t sue me if you die please)
5 inches tall, 3 inches wide (thickest part), 22mm thick
Cheap (if all parts from AliExpress, would cost roughly $30).
I used an NRF chip with the on-board antenna only because the NRF chips with the ceramic antennas didn’t ship fast enough. The NRF chips gave nice clean signals after wrapping them with a ground wire, but I suspect cleaner wiring to the thumb-wheel would have been sufficient.
Everything is press fitted onto the remote, no glue or tape necessary. Solid core 22/24AWG wires work great for keeping things in place.
I don’t know if anyone wants this, so let me know if I should drop the files and code.
I wouldn’t know if it would be difficult to implement frequency hopping, you would have the frequency depend on some independent factor, like time. However, I don’t know if these NRF chips are quick enough for the job, who knows. Since micro-controllers don’t actually know the time, inconsistencies in time-keeping between two different controllers could cause them to unsync. I wouldn’t know if this is a common or even plausible issue as I’ve never tried something like that.
Is there a benefit to frequency hopping in this case? The NRF chips use the 2.4GHz band, so it isn’t like you can hop too far from the allowable frequency range.
I’ll upload the code and files sometime when I’m back home! Will take a little while.
Right now, there’s an LED light to show that the remote is on and one to show that the remote has paired. However, you only see the light since the shell is white. I may add some holes for when the remote is printed with colors/materials that don’t let light through.
I’ve never had reliability issues with the remote I had prior. I have not been using this new remote for esk8, but the signal quality is strong so I don’t foresee any issues.
This would be especially true if using the ceramic NRF chips which I haven’t tried, but would highly recommend. I may rebuild the remote using them.
If there’s interference from a 3rd source causing the issue, its doubtful it would be on just one specific 2.4GHz frequency and not affect the frequencies near that range.
To me, just seems like fixing a problem I don’t have. Have you had reliability issues with remotes?
The Raspberry Pi Pico and toggle switch can be gotten much cheaper on aliexpress, but I needed quick shipping.
The ceramic NRF chips are the only part here not used in the final build because they arrived late. But I assume they’d work better than the non-ceramic ones I used.
Wiring is the hardest part. NRF wiring is the same for both:
Oh I forgot to mention, the joysticks come with a lot of stuff on them. There’s an extra potentiometer that can be easily removed and the clicky button I sawed off with a dremel tool.
You don’t have to, but it would require tweaking the STL design so that it has enough clearance on the bottom, which would suck.
I couldn’t find any joysticks that didnt have this annoying clicky button thing sticking out. Even with a “real” purchased remote, it seemed like the manufacturer had simply cut off the button clicking section.
