Although you can’t play with Wiimote controlled 15 ton grapples in the living room. This hack isn’t anything like the Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot controlled with a Wiimote or the Wiimote operated Lawnmower. This one has gone king-size. This thing is a beast of a robotic monster and rigging it with a Wiimote making this one of the heavy duty Wiimote hacks we’ve seen.

The Wiimote + the Python programmed control is even more awe inspiring because each grapple arm can spin at a top speed of 72kms/hour or 12 revolutions per minute. Each arm needs to avoid collision with the other. And with each having a reach of 16 meters it’s recommended to stay as far back as possible.

For more achievable DIY Wiimote hacks check out the Top 30 Wiimote Hacks of the Web.

See also: Top 30 Wiimote Hacks of the Web

Anyone who’s interested in virtual reality will find German Timo Fleisch quite fascinating. He’s the one who originally came up with a way to combine Nintendo Wii remotes and IR LED’s, in order to create virtual reality environments. Even though Fleisch is the master-mind behind this technique, with the right equipment and know-how, anybody can setup their very own virtual reality world.

Here are the basics:

• First, the user holds an object in front of a monitor. He has a Wii remote set up above the monitor facing the table on which it stands.
• The object that is being held is equipped with some IR LED’s so that the remote can identify it and determine its location.
• The second remote is pointed towards the user who is also equipped with IR LED’s. Just the same as the object, this allows the system to determine the user’s location.
• From there, the computer uses all of this information to display an interactive image based on the object in relation to the user.

“The core of this VR setup is using the Nintendo Wiimote Controller as a tracking camera. As one might already know the Wiimote is equipped with an infra-red camera that is able to recognize up to four infra-red lights. The main idea now is to build a device with four infra-red LEDs that can be recognized by the Wiimote. I call this device infrared beacon. Using the values of the 4 LEDs as recognized by the Wiimote I use an algorithm to reconstruct the original position and orientation of the IR LED beacon. Getting all 3 axis translations and all 3 axis rotation angles of the device is called 6 degree of freedom tracking or short 6DOF tracking.”

For a visual explanation and a better idea of how to get started, take a look at his Wiimote Desktop Virtual Reality video:

• Pick up LEDs, servo motors and project supplies in our DIY store.
• Don’t miss our famous Top 40 Arduino Projects of the Web

30. Easily Connect a Wiimote to your PC
29. Firefighting Robot
28. Control a Modular Synth
27. Make Custom DJ Beats
26. Wiitar: A Wiimote Based Guitar
25. How to Graphically Visualize Wiimote Data
24. Airsoft Gun Remote Control
23. Control Your House with a Wiimote
22. Use the WiiMote as a mouse (method 2)
21. Old School Powerglove

20. Use a Wiimote to control your Keynote presentation
19. Graphic Visual Interaction with eMotion
18. The Self Balancing SegWii
17. Wiimote Rapid Fire Gaming Mod
16. Theremin DIY Music
    
15. Level, Protractor and Measurement tool
14. Auto Aiming USB Missile Launcher
13. How to Play Counter Strike, CoD, any PC Game with a WiiMote
12. Wiimote Virtual Air Drums
11. Control an RC car (another method)

10. Interfacing Google Earth with a Wiimote
9. Industrial Robotic Arm Control
   
8. Wiimote controlled Hexapod Robots
7. Finger Tracking and Image Sorting
6. Control a Canoe, Servo Motors with the Wiimote Joystick
5. Arduino and NunChuck = Real Time DIY Pan & Tilt Camera
4. Head-tracking with the Wiimote
3. Create your own Multitouch Whiteboard Display
2. Wiimote Controlled Lawn Mower
1. Foldable Display Tracking using the Wiimote

That’s the best of the best.  You can subscribe to HacknMod for future posts.  Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments.

You can actually control this robotic lawn mower by using the Wiimote’s accelerometer. Its creator says the concept could also be implemented on a range of different devices – you could actually take your grandmother for a walk by simply tilting the Wiimote, although she might not be very happy about it (brilliant concept though).

It can also be used on ‘automatic’ mode – walk the device to set a perimeter then let the GPS attached mow the lawn automatically without any effort on your part.� Good thing too since it moves so slow.

Here are some other cool projects that use the Wiimote:

• Fantastic Real Time Pan and Tilt Camera
• Foldable Display Tracking Using Wiimote
• Auto-aiming USB Missle Launcher

If you’ve ever tried to ride a unicycle, most people would agree it’s pretty much impossible. However, with the Enicycle, a motorized unicycle, it’s dirt simple and you can learn in less than 15 minutes. The video above walks you through how it was designed as well as the balancing and steering mechanisms. It has built in gyroscopes and accelerometers (learn how to use a wiimote as a cheap accelerometer) along with microcontrollers and a 100W motor.

Our other balance/segway projects:

• Incredible Balancing, Climbing and Jumping Robots
• Make a Mini Segway with the Arduino

“The mini gyroscopes measure the vertical angle of the bike at a rate of 100 times a second, then feed the data to the processor, which drives the motor and in turn keeps you balance. Sounds complicated? Well, all you have to know is that you just lean forward to go and steer with your feet. Easy. To see just how easy, check out the video” – Featured on Gadget Show.

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This tutorial will walk you through how you how to connect your wiimote to your PC to play games like Counter Strike, Call of Duty, and more.  We’ve covered a brief tutorial in the past about how to connect a wiimote to your PC which you can also reference during the setup process.

What You will Need:

• Wiimote (way cheaper on eBay)
• Sensor bar (optional)
• Wireless Bluetooth Adapter (We sell quality adapters at low prices in our store)
• BlueSoleil and Glovepie (free)

How to Connect your Wiimote to your PC:

1. Plug in your bluetooth adapter.  (Buy one in our store)
2. Download BlueSoleil, install and run it.
3. Hold 1 and 2 buttons on wiimote
4. Click the center button on BlueSoleil to search for devices.
5. Once the wiimote is found it will show up as “Nintendo” followed by multiple letters…
6. Click “Search Services”
7. Click “connect bluetooth human interface device

Make sure when you do this you try to keep the lights on the wiimote flashing once it is successfully connected (the lights will eventually turn off by themselves).  Your wiimote is now connected to your computer! BlueSoleil should now look like this:

If you don’t have a Wii console, you can buy a few infrared LED’s and tape them on your desk facing the area where you will be using the wiimote. Bascially,  you have to try your best to simulate a wii sensor bar or else the wiimote might not pick up the infrared LEDs.

For those with a Wii console, simply plug in your wii into any outlet and set the sensor bar anywhere infront of your monitor. Â  (We only need the wii to power the sensor bar).  The sensor bar just uses 2 infrared LEDs which the wiimote detects.  Don’t turn your wii console on until you need the infrared lights. Then the next step is to download and install GlovePie.  Here is a Wiimote script for Counter Strike and you can find many other scripts as well.

Next steps:

1. Open the Script on GlovePie
2. Run the Script from the download above
3. Make sure that the X and Y axis are working when you tilt the wiimote.
4. Turn on your wii console
5. Start  Counter Strike
6. Go to console and Type in “Sensitivity 0.1″
7. You can change the sensitivity to whatever you feel is comfortable for yourself but make sure it is close to 0.1 or else it will be hard to control.

Counter Strike Controls:

• B =  shoot
• A =  Secondary “silencer, etc.”
• Home = Buy Menu
• Flick Up = Jump
• Minus = Reload
• 1 = Weapon Switch
• C = Crouch
• Z = Uncrouch

Tip: Make sure you are a good distance from the sensor bar or else you’ll have little room to aim the wiimote.

Check out some similar wii hacks:

• See our vast collection of Wii and Wiimote hacks
• How to: Cheap Accelerometer with the Wii Nunchuck
• Airsoft Gun Controlled via WiiMote

Although the title of this post may sound a bit advanced or intimidating, fear not grasshopper, data visualization is actually quite simple. Using an outstanding program called Processing, we can read data through our computer’s serial port and then display it visually.

We’ll use a wiimote in this tutorial since they’re so many sensors to choose from and you can easily connect it to your pc and read data from it. If you’d like to graph another type of sensor, you’ll use the same methods but probably build your circuit differently. Learn about all sorts of sensors.

Processing is the program I use – It’s pretty easy to learn, uses the same interface as Arduino, and can render 2D and 3D visualizations with small amounts of code. Before you jump in head first, I suggest you check out their examples to familiarize yourself with the code.

1. The Code

Once your sensors are successfully transmitting to your serial port (learn how to send serial data), we can use that data to create a graph, thus creating a whole new perspective on our data. To get you started, we’ll first just graph one variable coming in from the serial port. The results should look basically like the image above.

2. Graphing Mulitple Sensors and Inputs

Similar to the single variable graph above, we now graph multiple values at the same time. It’s a bit more complicated since we have separate the variables. To learn more information about multivariable serial communication with arduino, check out the arduino site.

For non-arduino data visualization, check out some of these fantastic examples.

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Also! Our DIY projects store has dirt cheap LEDs, servo motors, lasers, DIY tools, batteries, and more for your DIY projects.

40. Make a Simple Wall Avoiding Robot
39. Basic LED Cube – Learn to Make LED Cubes
38. How To Smell Pollutants
37. XBee Wireless Accelerometer
36. Breathalyzer Microphone
35. Control Servo Motors with the Wii Mote Joystick
34. Lo-fi Arduino Guitar Pedal
33. Positional Memory with a Servo
32. Miniature Pocket Piano
31. Dirt Simple POV LED Display see also Wireless POV

30. How to Build a Self Balancing Segway-like Robot
29. Website Visitor Blinker – Christmas Bell
28. Turn Signal Biking Jacket
27. DIY Musical Keytar
26. Tweet-a-Watt Wireless Electricity Monitor
25. RC Car Controlled Via the Web
24. DIY Gaming with a 3D Controller
23. Sanguino – Arduino with extra I/O pins
22. Rocker Scale Measures how Hard You Rock
21. Hack a NES Controller into a Security Keypad

20. Interfacing with Maya and 3d Studio Max
19. Web Based Servo Control
18. How To Make A Daft Punk Helmet – (see also DIY Daft Punk Suits)
17. Automatic Head Tracking with Arduino
16. Pong with the Arduino
15. Interactive gaming controller
14. Marble Labrynth controlled using the WiiFit
13. Connect the the web: Ethernet Shield
12. Physical Gmail LED Notifiers – RSS Notifier
11. Robot that Reads and Speaks RSS Feeds

10. Botanicalls Twittering Plants
9. Wiimote Controlled Espresso Machine
8. How to: High Speed Photography using the Arduino
7. Controlling an RC Car with iPhone and Wii – Another version
6. Etch-a-Sketch Clock
5. Open source Game Boy
4. Electronics Filled, Arduino Powered Room
3. How-To: Make an RGB combination door lock
2. Make a UAV Spyplane Using the Arduino
1. Fantastic Arduino Laser Harp

Did we miss something? Know of more fantastic Arduino projects? Send us your projects or let us know in the comments. Get more hacks and mods via RSS.

Outstanding WiiMote Projects:

• Wii Drum Set using the Wiimote and WiiFit
• Foldable Display Tracking using the Wiimote
• Head Tracking for the Wii

• Another iPhone controlled RC car
• All of our Wii and Wiimote projects
• Internet controlled RC car