controlling Vista Media Center with a WiiMote
click to enlarge
I’ve been using Vista for a while now, as my Media Center and well… thoughts have been there also for a while to see if I could hook up a WiiMote as my remote. ^_^ (FYI, I don’t own a Wii, only a WiiMote)
Luckily there are lots of creative minds with similar ideas and who post their projects online. Lately I’ve been experimenting with Darwiin Remote on my PowerBook (more on that can be read (for Dutch readers) in Bright, issue number 17), but that has been the reason I already made a DIY Wii sensorbar.
my DIY Wii sensorbar
click to enlarge
There can be lots and lots of DIY sensorbars found online. I made one using USB as a power source and two leds on each side. There are also resistors on each side and I’ve been experimenting with those (120, 100 and 82 ohm) to see if it makes any change… Anyway, if there’s some interest, I could post a how-to on how to make this specific one, but like I said, there’s already lots of this to be found online.
A couple of days ago I saw a post on the Make:Blog, WiinRemote: Wiimote as a Windows input device, and then I knew I should be possible to use it (at least somehow) in Windows Media Center… So, I took my already made USB-powered sensorbar, a bluetooth dongle and here’s how it went: (2 min 39 sec)
direct link to video (2 min 39 sec)
About getting a bluetooth dongle to work in Vista. I already had such a dongle for a long time and it worked quite flawless on my old iBook (my PowerBook has built-in bluetooth) and it also worked fine on Windows XP SP2, but… not on Vista… Soooo, I’ve been following all the instructions from here and it works, somehow, cause it’s not stable at all, as you can see in the video.
So, verdict for now? This is fun stuff to play with and I’ll keep track on future updates of WiinRemote. I’m not sure how I can fix the bluetooth behaviour in Vista, but maybe this will become a stable setup sometime (wishful thinking ^_^), in the mean time I use my old and trusted Media Center remote.
click to enlarge
links:
MAKE: Blog: WiinRemote: Wiimote as a Windows input device
onakasuita.org – WiinRemote – english site
WiiLi.org Wii Linux – excellent source for information
Getting a bluetooth dongle to work on Vista
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hi, i have been looking forward to your ipod to cf adaptor for some time now, i just had a look on ebay, they are now avaliable!! is this product sold by you?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CF-to-ipod-IDE-Adaptor-work-as-1-8-toshiba-Hard-Drive
No, that’s not mine. That one is actually the first one that seems to do the same. This was to be expected though, coming from Hong Kong and all.
Thanks for pointing me to this, I'll have to see if there's anything I can do about it.
It doesn't look like they did anything for actually mounting it inside an iPod and the connector doesn't look too spiffy either (I use the original drive-connector).
(added later) I discussed this with the guys I'm developing mine with and well... this thing doesn't look like a quality-product to me and I hardly doubt if and how long it would hold inside an iPod. We'll soon know, I bought one of these and have to see if there's anything else I can do. I'm pretty confident mine will be the better product (by far). I know I have been taking a long time in developing mine, but for product-quality it will pay off.
Here’s two shots of mine in action:
iPod adapter 1
iPod adapter 2
well, i am waiting for your version, i am sure it will be better quality and i think the mounting of the whole thing is very important. it’s hard to get an ipod open without damage and it would be such a pain if after resealing it the cf card fell out of the adaptor or the adaptor came loose from the main ipod circuit board. How does your version secure the cf to the adaptor and the adaptor to the ipod? Screws? Foam? Plus I thought it would be a good idea if the adaptors green circuit board ran the whole length of the inside of the ipod, this would prevent the adaptor coming loose from the ipod.
Sorry for commenting so much, but i was thinking along the same lines. if you lengthen the entire adaptor (ie move the cf socket down) so that the bottom of cf card sat on the bottom inside of the ipod. this would solve both the problem of the securing the adaptor to the ipod and the cf to the adaptor. Thanks for listening. ken