Linux 3.1 Kernel Gains A Wiimote HID Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 3.1 Kernel Gains A Wiimote HID Driver

For those with a Wiimote controller for Nintendo's Wii console, it's long been possible to use this Bluetooth-based motion controller with Linux when installing external packages. Just pulled into the Linux 3.1 kernel, however, is a Wiimote HID driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=OTcwMQ

[elanthis]

Sweet.

The xbox driver still needs a lot of work too, btw. Its LED player number is assigned in a totally brain-dead way (each device connect just does number++%4, so as you plug-in/unplug a device it cycles numbers, and you can easily get all four devices to have the same assignment with a little shuffling) and the device that controls the LED (which would allow an individual app, or a system daemon, to work around the braindead kernel driver) is an entirely separate device from the input device and there's no sane way to correlate the two together. I started writing a proper utility library around the xbox controller interface with support for seat assignments and realized the driver just can't do what it needs to. It'd be sweet to have that properly working, and the Wii input working, and then a Kinect driver that's all ready for client use (including the database of gestures that the input can be processed with, which makes the Microsoft SDK actually useful; just the raw input is not helpful at all).

[RealNC]

Yeeeyyy! Now imagine all those games we can play with... Er, no, wait...

[rohcQaH]

Yeeeyyy! Now imagine all those games we can play with... Er, no, wait...

http://www.dolphin-emulator.com/ ?

Of course you could do that before, simply using userspace drivers. Not sure why an in-kernel driver is needed.

Heck, I've been using my wiimote as a regular remote for ages, mapping buttons to keyboard keys to control mplayer. It's also fun using it with neverball for a minute.

[deanjo]

Yeeeyyy! Now imagine all those games we can play with... Er, no, wait...

Lol, I was thinking the same thing when I read it.

[runrun]

So, urrrr.... How do I actually pair a wiimote with this new HID driver?

[V!NCENT]

I made an OpenGL game with it for school (headtracking).

It's dead simple actually. You need a Bluetooth stack to connect. After that you can write an extremely simple HID interface for it (100 lines of source code max).

Alternatively you can use a Linux library for it (C sourcecode available) and in your code it's a matter of syncing the library thread with your own program thread(s).

It returns integers and floats at a rate of 100Hz. Dead simple.

That sencor bar is actualy two arrays of IR LEDs. You can order a wireless sencor bar on AA's, mod the official sencor bar to go with USB power or make one yourself.