How To Use Wiimotes W/ Linux

[Sprite_tm] has whipped up yet another interesting tutorial – software-based this time. He basically describes how he connected his Wiimotes to an HTPC. A USB Bluetooth receiver, and a little bit of Linux scripting,  was all that was necessary to get the system up and running. To add to the fun, [Sprite_tm] configured a the controllers to work with MAME (an arcade machine emulator), allowing one to play Duck Hunt on a computer in its full glory!

20 thoughts on “How To Use Wiimotes W/ Linux

  1. o hurr, its down.

    Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘reading initial communication packet’, system error: 111 in /var/www/spritesmods/connectdb.php on line 7
    Lost connection to MySQL server at ‘reading initial communication packet’, system error: 111

  2. What a bummer. I used to live with the wonderful thought that each day, I could wake up and find hackaday posting new, exciting hacks. But this is just old, and since when are drivers considered “hacks”? What a bummer.

  3. maybe hackaday needs to include a “locally cache page” option, so people with low network bandwidth aren’t penalised if their site gets overwhelmed with traffic.
    koff MAFF /koff

  4. tulcod – get a grip. Hackaday is about both reviewing hacks and spreading the ability to do them (self propagation in a way). Many people have great ideas but don’t have the ability to put them into action easily, it’s nice that HaD points people to such tutorials to help others get involved. Scoffing at this sort of post is just elitist and unhelpful.

  5. I found this quite interesting and hope to try it soon as i add Bluetooth to my trusty Linux box, I am sure that those of you who complained about this article have posted much more important and inspiring articles but i was unable to search for them using your nics :-)

  6. @GCL
    Even though this article has been posted elsewhere, it still brings it to the attention of people like me who don’t check every blog. It does stink that it is down right now, though.

  7. @Nate
    True. And the displayed error message tells me that his site must have suffered from an amazing amount of hits since the whole thing went live.

    That is a very easy error to reproduce with regards to dynamic websites driven by PHP and MySQL.

  8. Ahrg, it’s fixed. I’m sortta slowly migrating my site to a new server, but I seem to have forgot to restart the mysql server :X Everything should be OK now.

    The things I do that I haven’t seen anyone else do is making the WiiMotes absolute input devices. That, plus I’ve made a patch to make 2 WiiMotes act as 2 Mame-lightguns, which I haven’t seen anyone else do either.

  9. We shouldn’t discourage folks from posting items of interest to hacker community. Less experienced hackers may be inspired by a repost of old information. Everyone reinvents the wheel a time or two. Hackaday is just as valuable now as it ever was. That being said, I’ve been using a wiimote with my htpc (myhtbuntu) for a couple years now.

  10. Drivers are considered hacks because you are using something that was designed for something else for another purpose (what an awkward sentence). What do you expect form the Wii.. there are mod chips… stick a flashlight on it and you have a light saber. I think we are all waiting for homebrew which is why there is no news.

  11. @Nate:
    Its been just about two years since the article in LJ was read by me, and nearly a year since this was seen. I therefore decided to see for myself if I could get my Slackware Linux box to work with a WiiMote, and a BlueTooth device. Well it works.

  12. WiildOs 1.3.2 is out,
    WiildOs is an educational live and installable GNU/Linux distro build
    from the Ardesia stuff and thinking for teaching purposes. It includes
    the software that enable you to use a wiimote whiteboard.

    WiildOs includes lubuntu-desktop, python-whiteboard, ardesia, sankore,
    spotlighter, curtain, florence-ramble, wmgui, wiican, easystroke,
    whyteboard, vmg, shutter, gimp, tuxpaint, tuxmath, tuxtype, dia,
    scribus, audacity, stellarium, xournal, gcompris, geogebra, wxmaxima,
    openoffice.org, jokosher, musescore, solfege, stellarium, dasher,
    eviacam and more!

    More info on http://code.google.com/p/ardesia/wiki/WiildOs

    Build a wiildOs4win wubi like installer that allow to install wiildOs
    inside windows without partitioning the hard disk.
    http://ardesia.googlecode.com/svn/wiki/wiildOs/wiildOs4win.exe

    Changelog
    – new kernel 2.6.35; this add the support to some new devices including
    the toshiba bluettoth
    – thunderbird in now the default mailer instead of sylpheed
    – firefox is the default browser instead of chromium
    – removed xscreensaver for performance issue
    – remove all the gnome office suite; we use openoffice suite
    – fix the wiican program; now you can you use the wiimote as controller
    usinf the infrared camera or the accelerometers in a visual user
    friendly way

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