I wanted some string lights in my room, but it would be too boring to do normally. I kind of hate IOT with a passion, but that's more because of the privacy implications and pointless networking than anything else. I can get behind a stupid IOT system that doesn't touch the internet. That's why I have begun my own.

In case the title didn't make it obvious, it's controlled by a Nintendo Wii remote. This thing was my whole childhood and It's really fun to keep using a remote for some reason, even for mundane things. It's just a fun thing to have around. Wii remotes are bluetooth based, which makes it possible to connect it to a normal computer and read off of it. In this case, I just have a raspberry pi plugged into my wall that runs a python script which looks for any active Wii remote and connects if it finds one in sync mode. The pi is hooked up to an nRF24 module which pings another module across the room which has a little transistor circuit that switches the power on and off to the lights through the battery pack.

I really wanted to keep the raspberry pi out of it because it feels like overkill, but unfortunately the Wii predates BLE, which is what 99% of microcontrollers (and 100% of the bluetooth-enabled MCs I have) support. The pi was the only thing that fit the bill here. At least it let me use an easy python wrapper for the Wii remote connection daemon (CWiid, which works beautifully) which definitely simplified things.

I am trying to come up with other stuff to control with this thing, which is difficult due to my inclination to ridicule needless networking of household objects. That, and the fact that my dorm room is rather small with not much in it worth controlling or automating.