Hi Jeremiah, thanks for your note.  Yes, we are replacing the IR controller with a much better controller that uses radio frequency remotes.  Should be up in the store by March.

Jeremiah Shue Do you have the Raspi sending IR commands?

Jeremiah Shue It might be possible to take the 4-button remote and wire its four buttons to your microcontroller.  This would "trigger" the controls.

Stearns You're not losing any features.  You've gained a ton of features over the original kit.  Just because there are fewer buttons doesn't mean there are fewer features.  We wouldn't put out a v2 kit that had fewer features.

Here's a breakdown of the remote features in the old kit (infrared remote):

1.  Main Power On/Off (Power Button)

2.  Docking bay lights/mandible lights on/off (Button "A")

3. Main engines on/off (Button "B")

4.  Laser cannon on/off (Button "C")

5.  Engine Flyby Sound (Circle Button)

6.  Volume up/down (up/down arrows)

7.  Play one of three random sounds (left/right arrows)

So that's seven features with 9 buttons.

Now, for the new kit with the RF remote, you have:

1.  Short Press, "A" button: toggles between six lighting states/effects for the mandibles, landing lights, and docking bay lights, including two docking bay light effects that were not available in the v1 kit.

2.  Long Press, "A" button: Main power on/off

3.  Short Press, "B" button: Main engines on/off

4.  Long Press, "B" button: engine flyby sound

5.  Short Press, "C" button: firing of the laser cannon.  In the old kit, this was just an "on/off" setting.  You could not control when the laser actually fires.  With the new kit, you can fire the laser remotely whenever you want by pressing "C".

6.  Long Press, "C" button: turn random laser firing on/off

7.  Short Press, "D" button: play one of five random sounds.  The sound management system in the new kit is vastly improved over the v1 kit, so not only can you load 2 more custom sounds, you can tell the system which sounds you want to include in the random assortment.  This gives a ton more flexibility.

8.  Long Press, "D" button: this last one is reserved for a future add-on kit that will "open" new doors.  That's all I'm going to say for now. :-)

So there you have it: less than 50% of the buttons, more than 2x the number of features.  And most of the features themselves are improved over the v1 kit.

I hope this helps clarify. Any questions or lingering doubts, let us know.  Meanwhile, enjoy your upgraded Falcon!

Stearns You are correct, that's really the only thing you lose. If you'd like an add-on cannon, send us an e-mail at support(at)brickstuff.com and I can send you a PayPal invoice. Price is $35.99.