It’s time to dig out the Game Boy classic. Dust it off, pop in some fresh batteries and use it the way the 1989 handheld was supposed to be used — to pilot a drone.
With a few simple modifications, Gautier Hattenberger of the French Civil Aviation University (ENAC), managed to breathe new life into his classic handheld by using it to pilot an ARDrone2 from Parrot. After finding an old Game Boy at his parents’ house, Hattenberger immediately thought: “can I fly a drone with this?”
Turns out, he could.
Using a GameLink — an accessory originally created to facilitate two-player play on the Game Boy — an Arduino microcontroller and an FTDI semiconductor, Hatternberger went two work creating the code to translate signals into something the drone could interpret.
The results? A modern drone piloted by a classic bit of technology.
He even released the source code on GitHub, in case you’re interested in making your own.
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