If you thought [Johnny Lee] was done making us all buy Wiimotes, you were wrong. Now he's back showing off a simple, but incredibly effective VR head tracker. He swapped out the LED's on a pair of LED light safety glasses with a set of IR LEDs and used his PC/Wiimote combo to do the work. The demo is just fantastic. As usual, you can download the software from his project page.
Wiimote head tracking desktop VR display
If you thought [Johnny Lee] was done making us all buy Wiimotes, you were wrong. Now he's back showing off a simple, but incredibly effective VR head tracker. He swapped out the LED's on a pair of LED light safety glasses with a set of IR LEDs and used his PC/Wiimote combo to do the work. The demo is just fantastic. As usual, you can download the software from his project page.
Wiimote projector whiteboard
[Johnny Lee]'s back again with his Wiimote interactive whiteboard. Commercial versions of these things are expensive and heavy. His technique doesn't even need a projector, just a computer, a Wiimote and a simple IR emitting pen. The pen is just a stylus with an infrared LED in the tip. Hit the video after the break, and you can grab the software from his site here.
Wiimote IR finger tracking
Just in case you needed another way to pretend that you're in Minority Report, [Johnny Lee] sent in this video showing how to track your hands using the Wiimote's IR camera,an infrared LED array and a bit of reflective tape to improve the gain.
Wiimote firefighting robot
Chad brings us yet another use for the Wiimote: firefighting robot. The Wiimote acts as a communications gateway via bluetooth to a host PC. The IR sensor is used to detect the fire, and the commands from the host are passed along via the Wiimote expansion port. The robot is pretty basic, but the use of the Wiimote to relay bluetooth comms via I2C is a fantastic hack.
Wiimote on your XBox 360
[UberNoober147] and [Carey] both sent in this round about hack. The Wiimote is interfaced with a PC. The PC outputs to a micro-controller circuit that outputs PlayStation 2 control signals. That's connected to a XFPS - a PS2 to XBox 360 controller converter. It's definitely round about, but it works.
Wiimote car accelerometer
This one's pretty simple, but anyone who's ever spent time tweaking an engine will appreciate it. [Kevin]'s been using a wiimote to measure the acceleration of his car. He put together a script to dump the accelerometer output to a CSV file, then graphed it with Excel. He notes that the accelerometer output isn't that precise, but it's good enough to give you feedback on your mods.
NES Lightgun wiimote mod
[F00 f00] sent in his friends lightgun wiimote mod. The IR sensor is carefully de-soldered and relocated to the barrel and the trigger is wired into the fire button. There's a video of game play, but you can hit it over at acidmods.
Powerglove Wiimote
How, oh how did I miss this one? (original) A japanese hacker merged a powerglove with a wiimote. Need I say more? Seriously, who didn't want a powerglove when they came out? video of the thing in action is after the break.
Quick extra:
It turns out that the Wii Nunchuck is a great source for parts. It's got a 3-axis accelerometer, joystick and buttons for a mere $20 [chad]'s wrote a full how-to on turning a wii controller into a bluetooth transmitter and an interface for the wii nunchuck for the Arduino.
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DIY Wireless NES controllers for Wii/Gamecube
[Mark] sent in his wireless classic nintendo controller project. He built a wireless NES and SNES controller to use with his Wii via the Gamecube port. He used off the shelf TX/RX hardware and used some PIC controllers to glue everything together. iPod batteries keep em powered and keep the weight down. He provides all the schematics and a walk through on constructing the SNES controller. The circuits are pretty simple, so it's definitely repeatable. This is almost enough to get me to buy a Wii.
-- video after the break.
Continue reading DIY Wireless NES controllers for Wii/Gamecube
Wii Laptop How-To (Part 3)
The final part of Ben Heckendorn's Wii Laptop How-To is up. Somehow, Ben managed to get access to a laser cutter and a CNC machine (in friggin Iowa) and used em to create the new case for the Wii Laptop. Add dash of soldering, a few simple circuits and some clever case construction. Voila.
Wii Laptop How-To (Part 2)
Part 2 of Ben Heck's Wii laptop How-To is up. The first half is all about the little touches, wiring switches, extending connectors, etc. The second half delves into designing the actual unit. Some of the comment's on Engadget seem to want a full bore step by step build, but fail to realize that he's really giving them the gold. Very few designers give away their intermediate design steps - But I am reminded of some of the Star Wars movie extras...
WiiBot - armed and pointy
[Brian] sent in his Wiimote hacking project - he and his cohort used it to control an industrial sized robot arm. Then they armed it. Keep in mind that the sword is full size. [Aaron] ended up writing a basic pattern recognition program to get it to perform they way they wanted. Response time is a bit laggy, but not bad for a one-off project. I need my own industrial robot.
