Wireless Wii Nunchuck *TESTERS WANTED

[torqueboards]

You did both so much work, the smallest input I can give is not much in comparison...
I think all the "JP" should be soldered upside down (I had to rework my ESC plug to get some contact since my JP1 pins were short but as per the pictures of the guide...) - I have been mislead by the second sentence of the "starting up" chapter too...

LOL.. I can't take credit for that. It's all Austin..... I barely know how to flash my own Wiiceiver lolz.

 

[austindavid]

You did both so much work, the smallest input I can give is not much in comparison...
I think all the "JP" should be soldered upside down (I had to rework my ESC plug to get some contact since my JP1 pins were short but as per the pictures of the guide...) - I have been mislead by the second sentence of the "starting up" chapter too...

What do you mean by "soldered upside down" ?

Any contribution is helpful If it confuses you, it might confuse others as well.

 

[austindavid]

What I thought would be great is to add a trim resistor to the PCB so you can adjust the smoothing / throttle response without reflashing the Arduino. Something like this:

Interesting. If phoman's board works out it would be easy to add one of these, and if I do another batch it'll have a similar setup. I was also thinking about adding a few DIP switches to tinker with settings, without requiring a reflash. Like which button is cruise, what does Z do, etc.

Something to consider: you'll twist that thing a bit, find the value you like, and probably never touch it again. It's a great help, but probably of more value "dialing it in". Flashing is irritating (I do it A LOT), but once you find the right setup you leave it.

To some extent I like the sealed-box approach, because it MAKES you flash the thing to change it. Once you've figured out how to do that, you can do anything you want -- lots more than just fine-tuning the throttle response. This was designed to go to hobbyists and tinkerers / hackers, like this crowd. Dropping the trimpot / DIP switches also keeps it cheaper (probably $1-2 extra for the trimpot + switches)

Thanks for the suggestion, it's a good one. I'll keep it in mind. For now, the NEXT hardware release would definitely be easy to support this -- you could just solder it in place, or add it when you make your own (bag o parts / kit). I'll ponder whether I would just throw in the parts (again, extra $1-2 parts cost), or add it as instructions for future reference.

Right now you could drill another hole near JP2, and replace JP2 + 3rd hold with a ~10k trimpot, and wire the middle leg over to to say A2 (I use A1 for logging). If you want it bad enough

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

What do you mean by "soldered upside down" ?

All the the JP connectors come with a spacer that is not centred - I followed the guide and pictures and ended up with the shortest pins on the side where the ESC plugs and where the nunchucky needs to be soldered - next one I solder, I will put the shortest pins through the PCB to have the longest pins on the printed side - it should ease the nunchucky soldering and help the ESC plug to hold :wink:

Just found out I could still do the ESC throttle range adjustment : nice!
Edit: just tried it, it's awesome, the "resume" cruise function was a bit surprising, it's a bit sensitive otherwise to ride my setup without smoothing: I am catching up on benj comments and fully agree about a trimpot adjustable smoothing

But again, congrats, it's brilliant 8)

 

[melodious]

Curious, if you have more than 1 Eskater using the WiiReciever/WiiTransmitter in an area, is the whole group going to be controlled dependant on 1 WiiTransmitter or does each Eskate have it's own designated frequency?

 

[torqueboards]

Curious, if you have more than 1 Eskater using the WiiReciever/WiiTransmitter in an area, is the whole group going to be controlled dependant on 1 WiiTransmitter or does each Eskate have it's own designated frequency?

You would sync each board separately and it would be fine. Sync one at a time. Otherwise, you can control the other boards. Similar to a Wii Nunchuck on the Wii -- you simply just have to sync it. Once it's synced it won't interfere.

 

[austindavid]

torqueboards and I ride together with Kamas. It's not a problem.

 

[JeppeHolt]

I am very interested in getting the plug and play version including a nunchuck. What should I do to get one?

 

[austindavid]

I am very interested in getting the plug and play version including a nunchuck. What should I do to get one?

PM torqueboards; he'll have more soon.

 

[emepror]

thought i had a problem with the wiiceiver, turns out its a problem with the connection to the Nyko, any idea why the throttle on the controller wont work? works properly with a wired nunchuck

 

[torqueboards]

thought i had a problem with the wiiceiver, turns out its a problem with the connection to the Nyko, any idea why the throttle on the controller wont work? works properly with a wired nunchuck

Have you tried a different wireless wii nunchuck? Is the controlled sync'd with the receiver?

 

[emepror]

Nunchuck is synced, it'll show that its receiving input (LED blinks whenever I hit C or Z) the throttle just doesnt work for whatever reason. I'll see about getting my hands on another wireless nunchuck soon.

Update: Seems to be the nunchuck, wasnt working properly when trying to use with a wiimote on the Wii U. Im going to just order a new one.

 

[killisch]

Hi guys.First up, thankyou so much for making this possible, so much better than a dinky rc controller.
I've got my nunchuck working sweet now, although one issue.
I find that unless i'm weaving in and out of traffic or just generally trying to move around alot my nunchuck registers that i'm not doing enough and shuts down..
tends to get hairy when your going flat out and trying to focus more on keeping alive than shaking your arm just to keep the nunchuck going.
my arduino coding skills aren't the best. so whats the best way of either increasing the time till it shuts down, or completely disabling the feature
it's not like the nuchuck is going to get wedged in the flat out position if i fall off anyway.
also how do i go about changing cruise from the c to z button?

cheers
Alex

 

[austindavid]

@killisch: what type of nunchuck are you using? The Memorex and clones (Mad Katz and apaprently most of the chinese ones) all seem to use 8-bit accelerometers, so they're not as sensitive for motion. Kama and Nintendo use 10 bits, which means it's 4x more sensitive to motion. The activity detection is meant to have wiiceiver behave correctly if you drop the nunchuck, or the batteries wear out, or someone's cordless phone screws with your connection. It happens a lot more than I'd like, and it seems to affect some people more than others. In all of these cases the Kama (and probably others) just keeps sending the last reading, which means Wiiceiver thinks you're still holding whatever throttle position. The board will just keep on going, and now that your chuck is dead there isn't a good way to slow down.

In the most recent code: https://github.com/jaustindavid/wiiceiver/tree/master/Wiiceiver, Wiiceiver.ino line 50:

#define WII_ACTIVITY_COUNTER 100 // once per 20ms; 50 per second

that's 100 counts # 50/sec, so 2 secs of "no activity" before it freaks out. I would suggest making that a higher number, like 250 (5 secs). I don't really recommend you try to remove it altogether, but you can make it a crazy high number like 180000 to have it take an hour to time out. "Activity" includes throttle changes, so I would expect that 5 secs would help if 2s isn't enough.


For swapping Cruise from C to Z: I think (and looking at the code for 10 seconds confirms) you only need to make changes in Throttle.h -- just swap all occurrences of "Chuck.Z" (2 places) with "Chuck.C" (7 places) and vice-versa.

 

[killisch]

Thanks so much, all sorted now.
Guess i was being a bit lazy and didn't read through the code properly. cheers for the instructions.
I'm running one of the chinese 2.4ghz nuchucks so your definitely right about the accelerometer. I've just gone and bumped it up to a more manageable time and it should work well. just wait for the sun to come up and i'll test it out.

 

[austindavid]

Thanks so much, all sorted now.
Guess i was being a bit lazy and didn't read through the code properly. cheers for the instructions.
I'm running one of the chinese 2.4ghz nuchucks so your definitely right about the accelerometer. I've just gone and bumped it up to a more manageable time and it should work well. just wait for the sun to come up and i'll test it out.

No worries. I'm glad you got far enough in to be comfortable editing and flashing up a (slightly) modified version. From there you can kinda screw it up however you want, just save an original copy so you can get back to a working unit if needed. Have fun tinkering, and speak up if you find anything useful or cool.

 

[leon112123]

hay im quite new to this whole area of electronics i would be interested in purchasing one of your plug and play wii receivers also im in England how would we go about said transaction this in my email ad leon.dillon@yahoo.co.uk also could i troble u for some advise

im trying to build an electric mountianboard would these work together or have i completly lost the plot ? hoping to build dual motor
Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 6364-213kv Brushless x2
HobbyKing 100A ESC 4A UBEC x2
wii receiver
using 2x 6200 6s 35c lipo with
belt driven at a 1-2.3 ish ratio plz could some one let me know what they think first time doing this sort of thing. smart enuff to know how stupid i am

 

[torqueboards]

Hi Leon,

I do have some available. I'll send you an email.

Looks good for your ESC. You want to use a 150A Car ESC HobbyKing at least as it has brakes. The esc you mention don't have brakes.

I also will have bolt on motor mounts within a few weeks that would fit for your mountain board brakes?

 

[leon112123]

thinking of making my mb deck out of carbon fiber the more i think about this the more time consuming it becomes.
and yer brakes would be an added bonus thanks.

as for parts trying to get them from an English suppler at a decent price would be like getting the wife to say im right
sooo dosnt happen

 

[an7h0ny]

just wondering, has anyone had interference issues with the wiiceiver, if it is mounted to closely to a speed control or in a thick aluminum enclosure? that's where mine will end up, and wondering if that's gonna be a problem. I haven't got the enclosure yet so I don't know how close it will be to the speed control, but im wondering if I should just keep it separate in another small enclosure. any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[austindavid]

The Kama transmitter isn't very powerful, so if you hide it inside a Faraday cage you might have problems. I haven't heard of anyone trying that. Relocating wiiceiver is fairly easy though, you can use a servo extension if needed and move it several feet from the ESC.

I do recommend a ferrite ring on that line to help suppress noise from those brushless cables.

 

[voodoojar]

Putting the Nyko's kids through college.

 

[torqueboards]

Nice stash.

 

[beto_pty]

did you get the email about the nyko's recall alert?


In ther news...
Heard the Nyko stock just trippled in price today..
Nintendo Wii cries itself to sleep tonight...
What an ES piñata would look like...

Just kidding

Good job.

 

[dirtyrhino]

Hi peeps - i'm running the SW from the repository on a Nano i have spare, but the Nyko kama receiver will just NOT power up - there is voltage right to the unit, and the receiver works fine in a std WII controller. A wired nunchuck works perfectly, as does a crappy bluetooth nunchuck my son uses......- any suggestions ?