Now that Pokemon Go has become a worldwide phenomena, perhaps nostalgia has led you to dig up your old Game Boy, pop in a few AAs, and play. But here's something else to do with the classic handheld system. As the Paparazzi UAV blog has recently proved, it can be used to pilot drones.

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Using tech developed by Gautier Hattenberger of the French Civil Aviation University (ENAC), the GameBoy is seen here controlling a ARDrone2 from Parrot. Hattenberger works on the Paparazzi Project, an open-source autopilot system intended for inexpensive autonomous aircraft. The Game Boy isn't directly related to this work—Hattenberger just found an old one at his parents' house and, according to his blog, "the first thing that came to my mind was: can I fly a drone with this?"

Hattenberger soon figured out the answer was "yes," with a few simple modifications. Using a GameLink, a Nintendo accessory originally created to allow for head-to-head competition and cooperative play, Hattenberger connected it to an Arduino microcontroller and an FTDI semiconductor. From there, Hattenberger says, "a small program on the ground station converts this into actual commands for the drone." It's that easy! He's released the entire source code on Github so people use their own Game Boys to start flying.

Source: Slash Gear via Paparazzi UAV

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