{"id":730874,"date":"2026-06-12T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730874\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T02:08:11","slug":"someone-made-an-esp32-controller-where-the-game-lives-on-the-pad-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/730874\/","title":{"rendered":"Someone made an ESP32 controller where the game lives on the pad itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>                    Summary<\/p>\n<p>                                        This ESP32-S3 handheld has a 2.0&#8243; color display, dual analog sticks, haptics, IR, USB-C, fully programmable.<\/p>\n<p>                                        Acts as a handheld or controller with a real-time video on the screen; great for drones, robots, or external consoles.<\/p>\n<p>                                        Kickstarter early bird $55 (regular $59); crowdfunding risks apply &#8211; don&#8217;t pledge money you can&#8217;t afford to lose.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve seen plenty of retro consoles built using a Raspberry Pi or an ESP32 chip, but they often require an external controller to play. However, what if you could have a handheld console where the screen is on the controller itself? Or, better yet, if you had an ESP32 device that could act as a handheld or a controller? Well, someone has made just that, and you can help fund it right now.<\/p>\n<p>                        The Smart Joystick Controller is more than just a gaming accessory<\/p>\n<p>            You can control a lot of things with it<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"768\" height=\"432\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"esp32-controller-ks anim\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/esp32-controller-ks-anim.gif\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/esp32-controller-ks-anim.gif\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/><br \/>\n        Credit:\u00a0The Open Gadget<\/p>\n<p>As spotted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackster.io\/news\/this-esp32-based-gamepad-handles-play-and-robotics-work-equally-well-0afad15fc9e4\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Hackster.io<\/a>, this cool ESP32 controller comes with a little screen in the middle where you can see what you&#8217;re controlling. The controller itself is reminiscent of PlayStation&#8217;s DualShock accessories, with the advantage that you&#8217;ll likely be able to fix it if something breaks.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, because it&#8217;s based on an ESP32, you don&#8217;t need to use it to game on the little screen. For example, you could wire it up to a console and play your game on a big screen, and perhaps code something up so you get statistics on the controller&#8217;s screen. Or you can take the device out of the gaming world entirely and use it to drive robotics or drones. A little first-person camera feed from a drone on the little screen sounds really handy, personally.<\/p>\n<p>Here are all the features that come with the controller:<\/p>\n<p>                                        ESP32-S3 Dual-Core Processor<\/p>\n<p>                                        2.0&#8243; Color LCD Display<\/p>\n<p>                                        Dual Analog Joysticks with 5-Axis Control<\/p>\n<p>                                        6 Programmable User Buttons<\/p>\n<p>                                        Real-Time Video Display Support<\/p>\n<p>                                        USB Type-C for Programming and Power<\/p>\n<p>                                        RGB Status LED<\/p>\n<p>                                        Built-in Vibration Motor for Haptic Feedback<\/p>\n<p>                                        IR Transmitter for Remote Control Applications<\/p>\n<p>                                        Battery Connector for Portable Operation<\/p>\n<p>                                        Dedicated Power Switch<\/p>\n<p>                                        Reset &amp; Boot Buttons for Development<\/p>\n<p>                                        Wireless Connectivity via ESP32-S3<\/p>\n<p>                                        Fully Programmable and Open for Custom Development<\/p>\n<p>                                        Compatible with Arduino, ESP-IDF, and MicroPython<\/p>\n<p>                                        Compact Handheld Design<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to secure one for yourself, there&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/open-gadgets\/smart-joystick-controller\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter campaign<\/a> aimed to help raise funds to sell the controller. Early bird pledgers can score one for $55, while the going price is $59. Just remember that pledging in a campaign does not guarantee a product, and there&#8217;s always the chance you won&#8217;t get anything at all. Never crowdfund a project with money you&#8217;re afraid of losing.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/built-local-first-ring-doorbell-esp32\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ESP32 S3 CAM Ring Doorbell alternative with wires and camera module\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/esp32-ring-doorbell-1.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/esp32-ring-doorbell-1.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Related<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/built-local-first-ring-doorbell-esp32\/\" title=\"I built my own local-first Ring Doorbell alternative with an ESP32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\tI built my own local-first Ring Doorbell alternative with an ESP32<br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">It works the same way, except without any subscription fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary This ESP32-S3 handheld has a 2.0&#8243; color display, dual analog sticks, haptics, IR, USB-C, fully programmable. Acts&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-730874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}