Wireless Wii Nunchuck *TESTERS WANTED

[BadWolf]

Hi David
First of all, great work!

Im wondering if it's possible to use an attiny85 with 8mhz bootloader instead of a atmega328?
And also, has anyone experimented with extending the antenna on the nunchuck receiver?

 

[Gregory]

I played with this Wiiceiver sketch and it compiles to 14k bytes of the 328's 32K memory. Unfortunately the tiny85 only has 8K.


Antenna have to be a very specific length to work, any old dangly wire won't help and may reduce range.

 

[BadWolf]

Okey thanks !

I'll download the arduino code next week when I receive my my Nunchuck and try it out (really tired of my current "gun"-looking transmitter scaring everyone I pass by..)

 

[verruckt]

I'll take another one, guys.

It's funny... I seemed to get flagged down by curious onlookers every trip out now, versus almost never when I was using my old bulky black "gun" remote control. It seems the little white Nyko nunchuk in your hand is a lot less intimidating to people.

Pm'ing Torque now.

 

[torqueboards]

Got it. Great! Not sure if your first one came with a ferrite ring but place it on your esc wire. All the new ones shipped out will include a ferrite ring.

 

[austindavid]

I played with this Wiiceiver sketch and it compiles to 14k bytes of the 328's 32K memory. Unfortunately the tiny85 only has 8K.

Also the 85 doesn't have hardware SPI / I2C or serial or PWM. I actually got an 85 version working -- technically the first prototype -- but it didn't work on torque's ESC, and the code was painful to debug. Not a lot of fun to write with software i2c, pwm, and serial. I had to use an alternate core just to get serial, and then I started running out of pins trying to use the ESC, i2c nunchuck, and a serial output for debugging. The ESC part is fixable, but I was short a few pins, saving about 1" of MCU space and $1, and adding a LOT of future pain. The ATtiny code is much smaller than the Atmega, but by now I'd probably be hitting limits. It's also easier for most people to flash an ATmega (the wiiceiver is basically just an Uno) and more accessible / hackable.

re: nunchuck. The Nyko base / receiver can be opened. DO IT. Press the back with your thumb and you can separate it, or just pry it open. The thing comes out in two halves, plus little plastic covers for hte buttons, a sheetmetal bit for the two clips on the sides, and the rest is all one attached assembly. IIRC 3/4" heat shrink fits over the little antenna / board. I cover that board and the 5 wires all the way up to the nunchuck adapter.

If you do this you can re-orient that board/antenna 90 degrees, in the same plane as your deck. That faces the antenna in the proper direction and made a HUGE difference for me. Definitely protect those wires, they are fragile. Go ahead, ask how I know

Torqueboards: send out however many rings are needed for verruckt's (or whoevers) existing units, if you've already got a shipment headed out. I overbought enough and they're way cheaper than the shipping cost.

 

[BadWolf]

Cool, cause I found your video with you prototyping the wiiciever on an attiny84 and I was curious why you decided to move on to the 328. But now I know =)

Got my wireless nunchuck this morning, I had found a black "Big Ben"-brand that had a nice design. I really wanted something a black transmitter so it would match the rest of the board. It was super easy to open up the receiver and connected it up to an arduino pro mini-clone. One change I did was to move the cruise control to the bigger Z button, I will be doing some test later today hopefully..

 

[austindavid]

Just a heads up, I'm not sure if you mentioned this before but the board I received (7/13 build) is labeled backwards for the SV1 uno connections. #1 - 5V (at the end of the board) is labeled 6, and #6 Ground (middle of board) is labeled 1.

Yes, I mentioend it before. Giant facepalm, I mislabeled a whole batch of like 20 and didn't figure it out until someone asked. If I do another run of boards I'll probably move that port to the edge and have those labels silkscreened on the PCB.

BigBen: keep us posted. I would welcome a push / patches if you come up with improvements, including a simple way to swap the C/Z buttons (apart from what I suspect was a big search/replace).

 

[Majyk4]

Two Wiiceivers arrived Wednesday . . . 8 days from the US to New Zealand!

Looks great, just waiting for my Nunchuk (Amazon don't ship here??) and Onda wheels now . . . .

Great service, thanks again

Majyk4

 

[Drevious]

Im wondering if it's possible to use an attiny85 with 8mhz bootloader instead of a atmega328?

If you're worried about size then you could use an atmega328 TQFP, they are smaller than an attiny85 DIP.

 

[BadWolf]

Im wondering if it's possible to use an attiny85 with 8mhz bootloader instead of a atmega328?

If you're worried about size then you could use an atmega328 TQFP, they are smaller than an attiny85 DIP.

Yeah thats what I went with in the end, but I have a ton of attinys laying around and saw that austindavid had been using an attiny84 in his prototyping. Therefor the curiosity :wink:

 

[HumptyDumpty]

I'd like 3 please- How do I get in on this?
I can solder/program them if you don't have any prebuilt. (but if you have any prebuilt, I could go that route too..)

/Humpty

 

[torqueboards]

I'd like 3 please- How do I get in on this?
I can solder/program them if you don't have any prebuilt. (but if you have any prebuilt, I could go that route too..)

/Humpty

Hi Humpty,

I'll send you a PM. Up to you - We have either. I think.

 

[keegancdr]

this is literally my first post to this forum, i am a new user and already addicted to everything you guys are doing! If possible, I would love to put in an order for one of the plug and play models. I live in the US so shipping shouldn't be too much of a nightmare. Please PM me with next steps for moving forward! Thank you so much for your hard work in getting this product completed!

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

Hi, I just got my bag of parts,
I will follow the instructions below and look forward for the real test, Thxs again gents!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OMyipDXwUIevf9hT1LSHdhx5EEQ6rP9OY-iQ6avuLok/edit

 

[indestruct]

The nyko works flawlessly when i'm not in the city, but in the city I get dropped connection like no other. I've tried repositioning the receiver... doesn't do much... I finally got thrown from my board today. I think bluetooth isn't reliable enough, I'm gonna try a 2.4ghz wiimote to see if this fixes it...

 

[torqueboards]

The nyko works flawlessly when i'm not in the city, but in the city I get dropped connection like no other. I've tried repositioning the receiver... doesn't do much... I finally got thrown from my board today. I think bluetooth isn't reliable enough, I'm gonna try a 2.4ghz wiimote to see if this fixes it...

Hi Indestruct,

Have you added a Ferrite Ring to your ESC signal wire yet? It seems to remove any noise or interference with the Wii Nunchuck.

I'll actually ship you one tomorrow. You should receive it soon since your close by. Wrap your ESC wire around it similar to this here.

 

[indestruct]

The nyko works flawlessly when i'm not in the city, but in the city I get dropped connection like no other. I've tried repositioning the receiver... doesn't do much... I finally got thrown from my board today. I think bluetooth isn't reliable enough, I'm gonna try a 2.4ghz wiimote to see if this fixes it...

Hi Indestruct,

Have you added a Ferrite Ring to your ESC signal wire yet? It seems to remove any noise or interference with the Wii Nunchuck.

I'll actually ship you one tomorrow. You should receive it soon since your close by. Wrap your ESC wire around it similar to this here.

I haven't tried the ferrite ring yet. Thanks for offering to ship me one! I hope it works. Thanks again for the excellent service!!

 

[austindavid]

This sounds like a bluetooth reception issue, though the ferrite ring is a good idea either way.

Try unpacking the receiver for the nunchuck. The Nyko base separates in the middle, you can press on the back with your thumb or just pry it open. It clamshells open, and you can save the metal plug + wired antenna / PCB. 3/4" heat shrink over that + wires (the wires are pretty fragile) and you can lay that antenna flat against the board. It makes a big difference for reception.

Sorry you got ejected I hope you're OK!

If you lost signal, wiiceiver should have gone idle after 2s, and won't recover until it gets a real signal + neutral on the stick.

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

Hi, I just got my bag of parts,
I will follow the instructions below and look forward for the real test, Thxs again gents!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OMyipDXwUIevf9hT1LSHdhx5EEQ6rP9OY-iQ6avuLok/edit

Finished soldering in about 40min - Loved it - I would just suggest to bring the sentence "leave enought of the JP4 pins over the Nunchucky for soldering" earlier in the guide and/or soldier JP4 upside/down to have the longest pins on the Nunchucky side
(it was too late for me to have the JP4 pins really coming out of the Nunchuky for soldering)

 

[benj]

Hey Torque and Austin - just got my wiiceiver today - very very happy with it

Only 10 days since ordering and it's arrived in the UK. Plug and play install - no messing about. Unplugged old 2.4ghz receiver, plugged in wiiceiver, batteries into nunchuck and off I sailed :lol:

Great work. It's smooth and easy. A ran a few km with it and all good so far with connectivity. I run an alien 120a single esc.

Cheers!

 

[benj]

Hiya, me again! So I just swapped this out onto my Dirtsurfer (7S, same Alien 120 ESC) and everything is still great.

I do however find the stick too quick, and the cruise too slow. I think my Wiiceiver is running 1.0 as it gets to 100% very quick, so maybe 1.1 will fix it.

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:

As another user said above, I also find Z more comfy than C, so I'll probably swap them over when I flash to v1.1.

Just a thought. I'll keep them coming unless you tell me to shut up :lol:

 

[torqueboards]

By all means continue on

Let us know what you come up with.. 1.1 should fix your "stick too quick" issue. I haven't been able to ride much lately but once I can get more rides in I want to tweak it..

Hopefully, maybe. We could possibly make it a bit easier to tweak.

 

[austindavid]

Hi, I just got my bag of parts,
I will follow the instructions below and look forward for the real test, Thxs again gents!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OMyipDXwUIevf9hT1LSHdhx5EEQ6rP9OY-iQ6avuLok/edit

Finished soldering in about 40min - Loved it - I would just suggest to bring the sentence "leave enought of the JP4 pins over the Nunchucky for soldering" earlier in the guide and/or soldier JP4 upside/down to have the longest pins on the Nunchucky side
(it was too late for me to have the JP4 pins really coming out of the Nunchuky for soldering)

You can propose a change and I'll likely accept it I'll make this edit. Thanks! If you have better proposed wording, LMK. I've made about 40-50 of these so it's sorta obvious to me.

 

[made_in_the_alps_legacy]

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...