I had previously seen how to hack these by using an IR transmitter and LIRC, but this meant externally mounting the hardware and I wanted this to be a more subtle hack.
It took me a while, but I finally got round to working out how to hack it. There were two possible approaches
Tap into the Infra-red signal line and fake the remote control
Completely replace the main circuit board and control the motors and sensors directly.
I opted for the first option as it is less of a hardware headache. Option 2 would require handling 7 motors with 4 h-bridges, along with a number of switches to detect maximum movement as well as “bumps” on feet and fingers, so that’s a project for another day!
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!