In what must be the most literal IR blaster on the planet, maker Alex Merchen has packed a toy gun from Star Wars with electronics which allow him to control his TV.

The blaster pistol here is the instantly recognisable DL-44 usually wielded by Han Solo. Merchen picked up a toy version of the gun which was, luckily, mostly hollow on the inside.

He then started with an Arduino Pro that had recorded and can play back the IR signals from the remote for his TV.

While he accomplished this using a guide focused on the Arduino, he changed it to work on a Particle Photon board. The Photon was then placed inside of the gun and fed power by batteries in the grip.

Finally, a new lick of paint to change it from the “safety” orange and white colour scheme, and it was done.

The only downside of the project is the fact that the button to activate it is not attached to the trigger. Merchen states that this is because he didn’t have the right kind of switch available at the time.

There’s now room for someone to come and improve on the project as they can follow the build guide for this blaster on hackster.io.