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Author Topic: Wiiscan - version 0.9 - with 100% automatic connection  (Read 16960 times)

Offline Carsten Frigaard

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on: March 26, 2009, 07:40:51 AM
I have updated wiiscan (CLI version) and wiiscantray (GUI version) to version 0.9.

Briefly, the wiiscan is "yet-another-connection" utility to make the bluetooth connection of a wiimote with the PC (running Windows and windows bluetooth stack) a little easier....

New/highlight features are

  • Fully automatic connection to a wiimote (only with hardware support, see below).
  • Semi-automatic connection to wiimotes, by just pressing "1-2" or the sync button.
  • Nice, simple GUI based on a tray icon.
  • Integrates into existing whiteboard software solution, full support for Johnny Lee's whiteboard software.
  • Automatic restart of whiteboard software..

Download the new source at:

http://mergeit.dk/uploads/media/wiiscan-0.9-release-2.0.zip

Hardware support for fully automatic wiimote connections currently includes three different modes

  • USB hub powercontrol: needs a USB hub that can powerdown/up (like ICH9) and then you need to make an USB 5-to-3 volt power cable
  • Custom build USB board based on a USBm 471 device.
  • Custom build USB board based on a Delcom device.

If you need this hardware support, you can make it from our spec

http://mergeit.dk/uploads/media/wiihardware.pdf

or contact me if you want to buy a larger batch. Currently we fit the hardware inside the wiimote as seen here



and a detailed view of the electronic, here



This hardware together with a PC and a OH projector forms a complete solution for, say school teacher: a simple-to-use system. You can read more about our "integrated teaching bag" at (in danish)

http://mergeit.dk/open-it/projekter/egne/ilt.html

and our general download page for wiimote stuff is found at (in english)

http://mergeit.dk/open-it/projekter/egne/wii.html

Enjoy
Carsten Frigaard, Mergeit ApS, Kongsvang Allé 37, DK-8000 Ĺrhus C,
www.mergeit.dk
« Last Edit: March 26, 2009, 07:42:53 AM by Carsten Frigaard »


Offline krid

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Reply #1 on: March 28, 2009, 05:45:47 PM
Dear Carsten,
Your Wiiscan with the powering and on/off feature  as described in the  pdf
is by far the best solution I have seen for primary schools.
You provide excellent solutions for classroom useage of the Wii.
For Dutch primary schools (video projector most times mounted from the ceiling)
we would choose powering the Wii with a long power cable ( longer than 5 meters) and the electronics in a small enclosure near the PC to keep the USB cable short.

We will try your solution  and compare it with the one we are thinking of, that is
using an Arduino.

Anyhow, Mergeit has done education a great favour.
Many thanks,
Dirk Schouten
Public primary school Rosa Boekdrukker
http://rosaboekdrukker.net


Offline benpaddlejones

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Reply #2 on: March 28, 2009, 09:40:35 PM
Carsten Frigaard
Great work, you may not be aware but Krid (above) was one of the pioneers of hardwiring the Wiimote to Sync & Charge, so its a bit of an honour that he compliments your work!

Would you mind if I added it to the wiki http://www.boonjin.com/smoothboard under Wiimote modifications.

benpaddlejones :)


See my full profile and links on my Google Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/benpaddlejones

Offline Carsten Frigaard

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Reply #3 on: March 30, 2009, 04:13:56 AM
Hi benpaddlejones,

Please go ahead and add the stuff to the wiki at wiki "http://www.boonjin.com/smoothboard"...

Enjoy
.carsten


Offline benpaddlejones

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Reply #4 on: March 30, 2009, 07:36:48 AM
Carsten
Could you give me some more details on what the mod is and how it works with your application.

benpaddlejones :)


See my full profile and links on my Google Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/benpaddlejones

Offline Carsten Frigaard

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Reply #5 on: March 31, 2009, 03:08:07 AM
Hi benpaddlejones,

Well, I think you can get a good idea of how it works by looking through the documentation found in the zip file, look under Doc/*

But briefly, the package works like just "another" wiimote connection utility. It  continuously scans for wiimotes, and try to connect if any (known) motes is found.

Secondly it integrates with existing Whiteboard solutions software modules, so that these can automatically be started if a connection is established.

Third, it continuously monitor the health of the connection, restarting a connection attempt if the signal is lost.

Finally, the hardware serves to automatically power the wiimote up and down, so that a connection can be made fully automatic. The hardware is however not needed for "a handheld" solution, just press "sync" or "1-2" to make the connection. But the hardware makes it much easier to use!!

Hope this answered some of  you questions...

Enjoy
.carsten


Offline Carsten Frigaard

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Reply #6 on: March 31, 2009, 03:53:12 AM
...and the hardware does the following:
 
   1) powers the wiimote using the PC USB +5V voltage (cuts it to around +2.8V internally).
   2) cycles the power, that is turning it off and on in a sequence aimed to make the wiimote automatically connect.

The powering mode is controlled by the wiiscan software, and can be turned on and off by using the settings found in the inifile: three modes are currently supported:

   a) no hardware mode: press "1-2" youself!
   b) USB hub control: turn on and off the USB hub to control power (a troublesome solution).
   c) dedicated hardware (chip) solution: use a USB IO chip to do the power cycling - easy and robust, but more expensive.

 I currently support Delcom and USBm USB IO devices in the c) mode.

Enjoy
.carsten



Offline dlnsk

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Reply #7 on: May 03, 2010, 06:55:14 AM
Is there anyone knows the source code and documentation for the above?
These references are outdated.


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