Do you have old Wii Remotes lying around your house? Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t throw them away years ago. Thanks to modern software, those Wii Remotes can live a new life on your desk in several fun and unique ways.
WithWiinUPro, you can make your Wii Remote act like a mouse (or keyboard) within Windows. While it won’t scroll around your screen like a mouse (without some extra fiddling, and even then it’s hit or miss), you’ll be able to easily make the buttons do anything you want.
With WiinUPro, you may pair any number of controllers (official controllers only), emulate both keyboard and mouse input, and even have force feedback via XInput. This is a great party trick and can even turn your Wii Remote into a macro keypad.
The macro functionality is actually pretty great here. You’ll be able to use WiinUPro to program each button on the Wii Remote (which you can pair multiple Wii Remotes at one time) to any key or key combination on your computer.
So, if you want to use the A button on the Wii Remote to open Spotify, you can. You’re also able to program the left and right buttons to seek and rewind media, with up and down controlling volume. The possibilities are endless here.
4Retro Controller for Emulated Wii Games
Within theDolphin emulatoron your computer, you’re able to use the Wii Remote as it was originally intended: to play Wii games. I did this for a bit, and it actually worked quite well. Since Wii Remotes simply pair over Bluetooth, connecting them to my PC was easy.
Dolphin offers native support for Wii Remotes, and all you need is two infrared LEDs to mimic the sensor bar. That could be two candles or evena USB-powered sensor bar.
This is really the best way to use a Wii Remote on your computer, as it uses the remote for its intended purpose and works great without any additional setup.
3Use a Wii Remote to Trigger Smart Home Actions Through Home Assistant
It’s a bit more complicated to set up, but you can actually use a Wii Remote to control Home Assistant. For the uninitiated, Home Assistant is a free open-source smart home solution thatruns on almost anything. You can even buypurpose-built hardware to get Home Assistant runningoffline in your house in no time.
Controlling Home Assistant with a Wii Remote requires a few extra pieces of software to accomplish. For starters, you’ll need AutoHotkey so the Wii Remote button presses can send a webhook request to a MQTT server. If that sounds foreign to you, don’t worry, it was to me at first too.
To start with, you’ll need to install some form of aMQTT integrationin Home Assistant. This will be the receiver for the system. Then, use AutoHotkey to send webhook requests to that MQTT broker.
In Home Assistant, set up the MQTT broker to do whatever you want it to do. As a request comes in, use the MQTT broker to trigger functions, smart devices, or whatever else you’re wanting it to do. This could even be full scenes.
Imagine walking into your office, hitting the A button on a Wii Remote, and having your lights turn on, music start playing, and the news read to you. This is all possible with a simple old Wii Remote and some tinkering with free software.
Home Assistant Green
Home Assistant Green is a pre-built hub directly from the Home Assistant team. It’s a plug-and-play solution that comes with everything you need to set up Home Assistant in your home without needing to install the software yourself.
2Use the Buttons to Control Slideshows on Your PC
Since the Wii Remote is essentially a Bluetooth keyboard, you can use it to control slideshows on your computer.
Once paired to your PC, start by trying out the keys to see what works and what doesn’t. You could use software like WiinUPro from above to reprogram the Wii Remote buttons if necessary, but it might also work right out of the box for you.
My suggestion here would be to use the Wii Remote’s left and right buttons to go forward or backward in the slideshow. Or, you could program A to go forward and B to go backward so the buttons are on the top and bottom of the controller, respectively.
1Control Raspberry Pi Projects With Buttons or Motion
There’s no shortage ofRaspberry Pi weekend projectsto do, but did you know that your Wii Remote could join in on the fun?
Using software likeCWiiD, you’re able to capture the input mappings of a Wii Remote and use them in various ways. CWiiD is actually pretty full-featured as far as input mappers go.
It supports using the Wii’s sensors in various ways. For starters, you can set it up so you can point the remote at the screen and use it as a mouse. Presumably, you’ll need a sensor bar for this to function properly. A and B can be programmed to left and right click, too.
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
With the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, you can create all kinds of fun projects, and upgrade gadgets around your home. Alternatively, install a full desktop OS and use it like a regular computer.
There’s also options for tilting the Wii Remote to move the cursor around, which can be useful for those without a sensor bar.
I think this would be a great way to interface with a smart mirror or other projects where traditional peripherals wouldn’t be ideal. Using an on-screen keyboard, you could point the Wii Remote to type, select icons, and more.
CWiiD definitely requires a bit of hand-holding, and you’ll be using the terminal a lot during the initial configuration, so I really only recommend this for those who are familiar with Linux. However, using a Wii Remote to control a Raspberry Pi sounds like a fun weekend project.
If you haven’t tried it yet, Dolphin really is the best way to use your old Wii Remotes that are lying around the house. It’s easy to use, requires little to no setup, and lets you play your favorite Wii games once again (without having to dig that console out of your attic).
I had a great time using Dolphinto fire up some old games that I used to love. I even plan to put Dolphin on my HTPC build whenever I get around to doing that, so I can enjoy those same great titles in the living room just like I did as a kid.
