Introduction: Making a Professional Looking Remote Control for Your Arduino Project at Home

By vitim.us
About: I like to make stuff

I made a project that used an arduino and a IR remote library to control a couple things.

So in this instructable I'll show you how you can repurpose any remote control to be used your next project.

And you don't need anything fancy to make a good looking remote control. And it will look almost like it was factory built that way.

It just depends on your graphics skills :)

You probably already have everything needed:

  • A4 Paper
  • Transparent Scotch Tape
  • Exacto knife
  • Double sided tape
  • Scanner
  • Printer

Step 1: Choose a Remote Control

This control was from some old CD player. I wanted to repurpose it to other project of mine. But I just needed a few buttons, so I choose a fairly small remote control.

Step 2: Removing Buttons

Originally I it had 6 buttons, but I only needed 3, so I removed the extra buttons.

Just tear it down, and pop of the buttons you don't want, and put it back together again.

Some remote controls have a silicon membrane instead of buttons, in that case just use a scissors and cut around then. Cut around the base and not the top of if it in case you want to reuse that button later, you can just put it back in place, and case should keep it in its place.

Step 3: Remove the Sticker

Remove the original sticker.

Step 4: Scan It

Just used my scanner to scan it at 600dpi and saved it as png.

The quality isn't really important here. We are just using it to make our life easier, because if we don't change the dimensions everything will be at scale.

I choose 600dpi because that is the maximum resolution that my printer is capable of printing on paper. So we will have a 600dpi image to work on top. The scanner could scan in higher resolution but, that means resizing would be required to print it later.

Step 5: Design Your Own Layout on Top

Use any editing program of your preference and build your own design on top of the existing image.

Once you're done, hide the scanned layer.

Step 6: Print It

I printed it on standard A4 paper on high quality setting.

Cover it with transparent scotch tape to make it look better and be more durable. And it feels like touching smooth plastic not paper.

Rub a rag on top of the scotch tape, to make it adhere better. It will also help to make clear cuts on the next step.

Step 7: Cut the Holes

I used scissors to cut it around, and used a sharp blade to cut button holes.

My first attempt it didn't worked well, because my exacto knife tip wasn't sharp enough to cut the paper.

Step 8: Stick It

I used double sided tape sliced in thin pieces.

Step 9: Done!

There you have it! Your own custom designed remote control, for your very own purpose.