[ExI] wii controllers

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
...


>...google on wii hacks.  Lots of interesting sites.

Did it, agree, thanks.

>...(By the way, what's a Wii? You hipsters always have all the latest
gadgets)  ;)  BillK

Har.  I detect a hint of good-natured derision at my non-hiptitude.  {8^D  

When the Wii showed up, my son was just learning to walk, and his toys were
rattles and stuffed bears.  So I didn't pay much attention to the Wii.
Granted I have no excuse for the fact that the Wii was in my home for months
before I realized an obvious application: they would be great for toys for
homebrew control system engineers.

That being said, I have a variation on a theme which I think is a
contribution.  The Wii hack sites talk about ways to hack the software and
do this and that, but what I have in mind wouldn't be hacking anything.  I
would set up my own inverted pendulum or my own rate table made from an old
phonograph turntable and a car ignition tuner strobe (remember those?  I
still have mine) then I would observe the output as a function of measured
input.  

I don't need to hack anyone else's intellectual property or mess with their
software, only the perfectly legitimate (from the point of view of one who
groks the notion of intellectual property) measurement of input and output
of a black box.  Then I derive a state machine, again every bit as
legitimate as modifying your own car engine, then I can reverse engineer and
see how to create applications without knowing or caring how the someone
else's software works.  All I need to know is what it does, then I can use
it to create my own homebrew apps with it.

If there is legitimately public domain software available in a Wii
controller, I would use that of course, but if not, I can derive an I/O
table on my own and still feel good about myself.

spike