Wii Remote Interface

Do you guys know that with a bluetooth dongle you can use a Wii Remote with any linux OS to control it.

Might be fun to include something like this for the Raspberry Pi

As the RPi is designed mainly to get kids interested in programing and developing on a computer letting them use a familiar controller to control there RPi might be fun for them.

Here are a few links to wii remote for linux

http://www.photofiltre-lx.org/.....ects/xwii/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wiiuse/

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/wiic.....linux.html

http://libwiimote.sourceforge.net/

http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimote/Library

Anyone want to have fun trying to get something up and running on the RPi?

Raspberry-Wii

There is also build in wii-mote driver in kernel
starting from version 3.1 too.

the beagleboard wiki shows how to set up the wiimote there, so that means we shouldn't have issues with it on our pi's.

So what would we have to do to get this to work?

it would probably just take a shell script we initialize at startup that will start the driver and programs.

we might even be able to write a simple script to download the main script and configure the system at the same time. that'd make it easy for everyone.

Quote from portets on November 5, 2011, 21:43
it would probably just take a shell script we initialize at startup that will start the driver and programs.

we might even be able to write a simple script to download the main script and configure the system at the same time. that'd make it easy for everyone.

Sounds great, I was thinking of controling mine with a wireless keyboard ( from the sofa) but the cheap ones do seem to be of poor quality and a Wii controller does seems such an elegant solution.

Yay, other people want Wii remote interfaces! Maybe we can collaborate to make something great. Most people play around with the idea of Wii remotes for a time, then get bored since they didn't build anything meaningful it.

I'm planning to make a "ten-foot interface" front end for mplayer (or some other media player like XMBC or GeeXbox) with the Wii Remote central to the design.

Its more like the Nintendo Wii home screen than a normal file manager. Along side local hard drive based video files, I'm going to place video links to my local BBC iPlayer clone. (By pulling the XML data from my country's on demand video services, I can display them along side my local content on my hard drive. I've played around with this before. Also I'll be caching the data and updating it regularly in the background, so it doesn't take an eternity every time you want to watch there video)

I want to use HDMI-CEC (the communications protocol in HDMI) which allows specific buttons on compatible TV remotes to be used with a HDMI device to have another way to interact with my R-Pi. (If you have a Bravia TV, the buttons labeled "Bravia Sync" on your remote control CAN BE USED WITH RASPBERRY PI !!)

I'm also planning on buying a cheap ($2-$3) Wii remote sensor bar, which I make USB powered by cutting up, so I don't need a Wii to power the sensor bar. Battery powered sensor bars have on/off switches, which mean I have to get up everytime I want to use a Wii Remote. A Wii "sensor bar" is just a few cheap infrared LEDs only drawing power from Wii, the Wii Remote has the expensive hardware: an infrared camera that sends the data back via bluetooth.

My dream setup will be to press the Wii Remotes power on button and have the Raspberry Pi send a HDMI-CEC signal to SWITCH THE TV INPUT TO THE R-Pi! Just like a Playstation 3 does when it turns on!

Hopefully, if GeeXboX or XMBC does get ported they'll implement these features. I'm not holding my breath, so I'll just do it and maybe they can copy.

Quote from Andius on November 6, 2011, 00:08
Sounds great, I was thinking of controling mine with a wireless keyboard ( from the sofa) but the cheap ones do seem to be of poor quality and a Wii controller does seems such an elegant solution.

me too. all of the nice wireless keyboards are really expensive and the cheap ones seem questionable.

another thing i was wondering about is an on-screen keyboard for use with the wiimote, so we don't have to have a wiimote and keyboard.

Quote from sge on November 6, 2011, 01:37
Yay, other people want Wii remote interfaces! Maybe we can collaborate to make something great. Most people play around with the idea of Wii remotes for a time, then get bored since they didn't build anything meaningful it.

i was thinking the same exact thing! this is the perfect opportunity to actually control a computer with one.

I'm planning to make a "ten-foot interface" front end for mplayer (or some other media player like XMBC or GeeXbox) with the Wii Remote central to the design.

again! but i'd like this to be accessible via a desktop shortcut, not booted into. and i'd like to optimize the normal lxde interface for tv usage. as with the midori web browser.

especially since i don't have an hdtv. just a very big old crt television.

edit-[double-post]

If you needed a new remote Play are doing a sale on Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Wii Remote (for £8.99) Power is supplied by a rechargeable battery and is charged via a supplied charge cable (It is a USB cable).

Got the deal from http://www.hotukdeals.com
Link to the item http://www.play.com/Games/Wii/.....duct.html?

A link to the deal on Hotukdeals.com http://www.hotukdeals.com/deal.....om-1054684

Edit Added Hotukdeals.com link

[abishur]

ha ha, what a fun thing! Too bad it doesn't come with the motionplus pack built in :(

The Wii's Opera Browser and Kylo (http://kylo.tv/) have great interfaces for Wii remotes. Unfortunately Kylo is Windows-only and the Wii's Opera Browser is obviously only for Wii.

We should make a browser extension ourselves to bring these features to either the Firefox, Google Chrome or Midori web browsers.

No home theatre PC has ever had a good web browser. The Wii is too weak (non-HD) and others have poor input devices and aren't well designed.

We can change this.

Julian Silden Langlo said:

Raspberry-Wii

RaspbeWii surely?

Why tie up a USB port just for a bit of power? Isn't there a way to wire the sensor bar into the GPIO leads since that provides power?

Wii remote to Pi as a learning remote wired to a Infrared LED.

Change channels, volume etc on any TV using a RaspBeMote!

It would be called, raspberemote

Good time to bump this thread.

Anybody received their R-Pi yet?

Just found this post. And once I get my powered usb hub and also a wii sensor cheap I plan on trying this out asap. Anyone have a good way to hook the bar up to the raspberry pi?

Julian Silden Langlo said:


Raspberry-Wii


RaspbeWii surely?

no...Raspberry pii

Good time to bump this thread.

Anybody received their R-Pi yet?

Yup - and I have a homemade infrared pen and set of four wiimotes, one of which is going to be pressed into service if I can get some time in front of the 'big telly' and download bluez to drive my bluetooth dongle and and and ... the wiimoteproject on linux look more complicated than on windows (ouch sorry, smack!!!)

it is an irony that the original wiimote price of £30 is about the same as Pi in the UK once VAT and delivery is included

Just found this post. And once I get my powered usb hub and also a wii sensor cheap I plan on trying this out asap. Anyone have a good way to hook the bar up to the raspberry pi?

the bar only needs powering it has no interface of any kind, it has a pair of IR leds at either end of it
So you could just buy some infrared leds - which I did
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonV-20g7Xk
Its wiimote whiteboard I want to get going if I can

Just found this post. And once I get my powered usb hub and also a wii sensor cheap I plan on trying this out asap. Anyone have a good way to hook the bar up to the raspberry pi?

Any old infrared LEDs work as a sensor bar. Though a I nicer setup would be to buy $2-3 wii sensor bar (from eBay or someplace.)

You can modify it to be powered by USB according to these instructions
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8154120839

I've bought a sensor bar, but haven't got around to modding it yet.

The Wii's Opera Browser and Kylo (http://kylo.tv/) have great interfaces for Wii remotes. Unfortunately Kylo is Windows-only and the Wii's Opera Browser is obviously only for Wii.

We should make a browser extension ourselves to bring these features to either the Firefox, Google Chrome or Midori web browsers.

No home theatre PC has ever had a good web browser. The Wii is too weak (non-HD) and others have poor input devices and aren't well designed.

We can change this.

Opera runs on Linux. It's binary only, so no idea if there's an ARM port or not, but I've used it on my Kubuntu box, Windows PC and my Android/Nokia smartphones. The desktop versions support voice-control and loads of other stuff that I've not really bothered setting up - so getting wiimotes to work with it is probably just a matter of navigating through Opera's terrible configuration files.

(It should be an edit button somewhere)

Well... I've just noticed that the fellas behind raspbmc are already working on it

http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php?tid=270

DD

[Gratefulness and happiness dance before mutis]

Yup, I really look forward using any of my wiimotes as a rasbmc remote control...