Hack the WM+ to Talk to Arduino

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2011/02/17 @ 12:00 pm
Category Arduino

Our new Arduino projects contributor, Riley Porter, has posted another cool project to our Make: Arduino page. In the project, he shows you how to hook up a Wii MotionPlus motion capture device to your Arduino to easily get 3-axis gyroscopic data onto the Arduino platform. You can use this set-up to control up to three servos, create a cheap inertia measurement unit (IMU) for a quad copter, and many other motion-control applications.

Thanks to the fine folks at element14 for sponsorship of the Make: Arduino page and this project.

Hack the WM+ to Talk to Arduino

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BY Gareth Branwyn

Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture, including the first book about the web (Mosaic Quick Tour) and the Absolute Beginner's Guide to Building Robots. He is currently working on a best-of collection of his writing, called Borg Like Me.

In the Maker Shed

5 Responses to Hack the WM+ to Talk to Arduino

Will on February 17th, 2011 at 10:22 pm said:

Forgive me as I probably am missing something but how does one gain any benefit using the WM+ over a ‘traditional’ 3-axis accelerometer?

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- riley porter on February 18th, 2011 at 3:34 am said:
  
  wm+ is not an accelerometer. The wm+ incorporates a tuning fork gyroscope setup. The nunchuck uses accelerometer for motion control. So they are both very different.
  
  Reply ↓
Miles' Arduino on February 18th, 2011 at 2:26 am said:

The wm+ is a rather nice 3 axis gyro coupled with a 14 bit ADC and pollable with an I2C bus. The main benefit is cost, meaning that nintendo can sell these for probably half the cost any person could even buy the individual components for, not to mention shipping and construction. Its also nice to be able to buy one off the counter of your local walmart.

Gyro vs accelerometer depends on what you want to use it for.

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Miles' Arduino on February 18th, 2011 at 2:26 am said:

The wm+ is a rather nice 3 axis gyro coupled with a 14 bit ADC and pollable with an I2C bus. The main benefit is cost, meaning that nintendo can sell these for probably half the cost any person could even buy the individual components for, not to mention shipping and construction. Its also nice to be able to buy one off the counter of your local walmart.

Gyro vs accelerometer depends on what you want to use it for.

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Anonymous on December 3rd, 2011 at 4:57 pm said:

It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks acompanhantes loiras| acompanhantes

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