Hi. Love your videos. I appreciate I am late to the party on this one, but I just got myself a Droid Depot R2-D2 and wanted to do this mod for the remote so I know when it has been left on. I realised, from looking at your circuit diagram, that there was no need to use the T8 pad as the cathode(-) of the green LED can be soldered to the anode(+) pad for the red LED and maintain the same circuit. So both wires can then just come over the top edge of the board as the red one does in your video, and there is no need to route the black wire across the board trying to avoid the buttons. Works like a charm.👍
Thanks for this! Just did this mod for my daughter's controller so that she doesn't leave her controller on 24/7. I ended up routing the negative lead to T8 via the back of the board and thru the hole in the middle near T8. I did have to snip off the support column that was under the hole, but it works great and doesn't interfere with the buttons at all.
Do you think it is possible that with so many of these droids floating around out in the wild now, that someone will figure out how to use a 3rd party controller with them? I would really like having analog sticks instead of just up, down, left, right controls. It makes the BB-style droids really hard to move around smoothly!
Possibly. There are a couple people that I know of who are working on this. The remote control and droid aren't using Bluetooth to talk to each other beyond initial pairing; instead they're using a protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB). A lot of drones use this same protocol and there is a lot of documentation out there on ESB, so I'm hopeful someone will figure it out soon.
@@Ruthsarian Any reason why they would use ESB over Bluetooth? I imagine ESB, given it's for drones, has a longer range but why would it be used for something that probably won't go beyond 20 feet from you?
Has anyone taken the BB-8 apart? I mean, take the black internal part, apart. So we could see the circuit board and such? I'm brain storming a few ideas, but, I wanna see what it looks like inside. Also, what's the plastic made of? I've seen a few videos of the bb-8 getting easily scratched, why isn't it ABS plastic? That stuff is strong.
This video of me replacing one of the h-bridge chips inside the droid includes a look at the guts of a BB droid: ua-cam.com/video/K0z1to8ak70/v-deo.html I'm not sure what kind of plastic it is, but it is easy to scuff.
What kind of upgrade do you have in mind? The Burbank Makerspace has done an upgrade that replaces the blade internals with a strip of neopixels and a microcontroller. see: ua-cam.com/video/0tyXPJwSe80/v-deo.html is that what you mean? or something else?
The actual LED inside of the hilt that flash and light up the kyber crystal. Since they light up when you do not have the blade in the hilt could be used for a nice effect if they were brighter.
I thought about doing the same thing. Thanks for the tip! I am an avid RC modeler and I am very used to proportional controls. I hate the on-off controls this has. I'm sure it would take a completely new ICB but what do you think could be done with the existing board and buttons? Perhaps pressure sensitive buttons?
There is a Droid Depot app for iOS and Android. It includes a remote control. If you have a droid that needs a controller I would use that. Replicating the remote it's possible, but it would require reverse engineering the commands that the droid depot app uses, pick some new microcontroller device to write new code for, write the code, wire up some switches to that microcontroller, and stuffing it all together in a usable package. While possible, the time and energy involved along with the wide range of skills required to pull it off would make me reach for an old iOS or Android device that's no longer being used as a phone and instead use that as a dedicated remote.
unfortunately, no. the controller uses a special protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) which is likely encrypted. that makes building custom controllers a very difficult prospect.
Nope. :( You would have to desolder the battery contacts from the PCB to remove both the PCB and the battery contacts from the remote. I would suggest leaving the PCB and battery contacts in place and masking them off as much as possible before painting. The inside of the remote isn't going to be visible, nor the inside of the battery compartment, so you could do it that way and it'll still look great. But if you really want to do the whole controller, inside and out, you'll have to desolder the battery contacts.
the top button is for accessories. if the blasters or thrusters are plugged in then they make noise and light up. if you don't have them installed then the button does nothing.
The remote control is using a protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) to control the droids. I don't believe the bluetooth chips in phones are capable of supporting ESB, so an app-based controller probably isn't possible. However I have seen cast members demonstrating droids in Galaxy's Edge using a tablet of some sort (probably an iPad). Based on that I wonder if there may be a way to control them with just bluetooth commands, but I haven't of heard anyone figuring that out.
Hi. Love your videos.
I appreciate I am late to the party on this one, but I just got myself a Droid Depot R2-D2 and wanted to do this mod for the remote so I know when it has been left on. I realised, from looking at your circuit diagram, that there was no need to use the T8 pad as the cathode(-) of the green LED can be soldered to the anode(+) pad for the red LED and maintain the same circuit. So both wires can then just come over the top edge of the board as the red one does in your video, and there is no need to route the black wire across the board trying to avoid the buttons. Works like a charm.👍
Thanks for this! Just did this mod for my daughter's controller so that she doesn't leave her controller on 24/7. I ended up routing the negative lead to T8 via the back of the board and thru the hole in the middle near T8. I did have to snip off the support column that was under the hole, but it works great and doesn't interfere with the buttons at all.
Thank you for posting this. It works great!
Do you think it is possible that with so many of these droids floating around out in the wild now, that someone will figure out how to use a 3rd party controller with them? I would really like having analog sticks instead of just up, down, left, right controls. It makes the BB-style droids really hard to move around smoothly!
Possibly. There are a couple people that I know of who are working on this. The remote control and droid aren't using Bluetooth to talk to each other beyond initial pairing; instead they're using a protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB). A lot of drones use this same protocol and there is a lot of documentation out there on ESB, so I'm hopeful someone will figure it out soon.
@@Ruthsarian Any reason why they would use ESB over Bluetooth? I imagine ESB, given it's for drones, has a longer range but why would it be used for something that probably won't go beyond 20 feet from you?
@@GamingWolfGod no idea. I'm not very familiar with ESB or what kind of benefits it might offer.
Has anyone taken the BB-8 apart? I mean, take the black internal part, apart. So we could see the circuit board and such? I'm brain storming a few ideas, but, I wanna see what it looks like inside.
Also, what's the plastic made of? I've seen a few videos of the bb-8 getting easily scratched, why isn't it ABS plastic? That stuff is strong.
This video of me replacing one of the h-bridge chips inside the droid includes a look at the guts of a BB droid:
ua-cam.com/video/K0z1to8ak70/v-deo.html
I'm not sure what kind of plastic it is, but it is easy to scuff.
Yes light saber led upgrade plz......
Savis lightsaber LED Upgrade please! 🙏
What kind of upgrade do you have in mind? The Burbank Makerspace has done an upgrade that replaces the blade internals with a strip of neopixels and a microcontroller. see: ua-cam.com/video/0tyXPJwSe80/v-deo.html
is that what you mean? or something else?
The actual LED inside of the hilt that flash and light up the kyber crystal. Since they light up when you do not have the blade in the hilt could be used for a nice effect if they were brighter.
I thought about doing the same thing. Thanks for the tip!
I am an avid RC modeler and I am very used to proportional controls. I hate the on-off controls this has. I'm sure it would take a completely new ICB but what do you think could be done with the existing board and buttons? Perhaps pressure sensitive buttons?
Problem it is basically on off radio signal with the bluetooth.
Do you know of anyway to make a replacement controller?
There is a Droid Depot app for iOS and Android. It includes a remote control. If you have a droid that needs a controller I would use that.
Replicating the remote it's possible, but it would require reverse engineering the commands that the droid depot app uses, pick some new microcontroller device to write new code for, write the code, wire up some switches to that microcontroller, and stuffing it all together in a usable package. While possible, the time and energy involved along with the wide range of skills required to pull it off would make me reach for an old iOS or Android device that's no longer being used as a phone and instead use that as a dedicated remote.
@@Ruthsarian yeah the apps kinda so so, i was hoping i could figure a way to make my own
I was wondering. When you had the case opened, I noticed a black wire that seems to just end. Not connected to anything. Is this an antenna?
Yup! That's the antenna.
Hi. Do you have a parts list that’s needed to do this?
A 3mm green LED, a 1k resistor, and a couple lengths of wire.
Has anyone made a better remote? I wanna know if you could make one to control two droids at once.
unfortunately, no. the controller uses a special protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) which is likely encrypted. that makes building custom controllers a very difficult prospect.
hey im trying to custom paint my controller, I can't figure out how to remove the board from the back, is that possible without de-soldering?
Nope. :(
You would have to desolder the battery contacts from the PCB to remove both the PCB and the battery contacts from the remote. I would suggest leaving the PCB and battery contacts in place and masking them off as much as possible before painting. The inside of the remote isn't going to be visible, nor the inside of the battery compartment, so you could do it that way and it'll still look great.
But if you really want to do the whole controller, inside and out, you'll have to desolder the battery contacts.
Why does the top button do nothing
the top button is for accessories. if the blasters or thrusters are plugged in then they make noise and light up. if you don't have them installed then the button does nothing.
Why is there not a phone app that can do this ?
The remote control is using a protocol called Enhanced ShockBurst (ESB) to control the droids. I don't believe the bluetooth chips in phones are capable of supporting ESB, so an app-based controller probably isn't possible.
However I have seen cast members demonstrating droids in Galaxy's Edge using a tablet of some sort (probably an iPad). Based on that I wonder if there may be a way to control them with just bluetooth commands, but I haven't of heard anyone figuring that out.