Got the Nintendo PowerGlove working!

Getting about 22 packets/sec (one every 45ms). Gonna have to look at the timing diagrams to see if that's the upper limit on how fast this thing can go, or just a limitation of the (20 year-old) micro-controller. May redo the "decryption" interface on Arduino - that way more people could have a chance to play with this...

Hehe, that's kind of awesome. Keep us posted! PG finally comes into its own

I love the Power Glove. It's so bad.

I get a kick out of that quote every-time you use it! ...We need a point system Cyber, so I can give you a Gold Star :D

~B

@ IanFromAfrica

I was thinking about your data transmission you mentioned above. I am assuming it is that slow because it uses sound for positioning, so there will always be a lot more latency that you want for a VR app.

You could use an IMU, try the GY-80, it is cheap and works really well, and it is documented several places on the net with plenty of IMU examples with Arduino, and I have been working on one that will Work with Teensy 3.1, as well as other ARM or 32 bit CPU on board.

If I was you though, I would go with the Arduino Micro(It the small Version of the Leonardo), which will emulate a Keyboard/Mouse/Joystick all at the same time! After you get your IMU running and placed properly(Just make sure the IMU is pointing the correct direction based on the little map on the IMU board itself), in the Glove(and hooked up all your buttons and such), you will probably want more than just rotation tracking for it.

Using a Modded PSeye Camera(real cheap...like $10 on Amazon!...or less even sometimes)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Wg7li8_qM), and a few some IR LED's, and some open source software getting 'Positional' information is easy. Go here for the software(http://www.tuio.org/), this program is called TUIO, "TUIO is an open framework that defines a common protocol and API for tangible multitouch surfaces". Because this software teaches the Camera to look for blobs of light, based on things like size and brightness right from the TUIO UI, you can translate that position directly into thing like Mouse Movements, or key-presses in what ever language you want.

TUIO outputs all its data by default on UDP, on what ever port you want. So when I was first using it, I made a simple C# app that listened on the UDP port of my choice, and translated that into key-presses or mouse movement depending on my needs. Then later I realized that my choice on game engines(Unreal 4), using UDP transmissions(of course), and I can directly input ALL that information(just the IR positioning anyway), directly to Unreal. The rotation comes over USB. I kept the rotation set as mouse/joystick depending on the game/app.

So lots of stuff to play with if you are interested(also sorry if this is old news to you ;) Wanted to make sure it was here for others that want to learn a bit about this sort of thing). I have lots of old game hardware that has been programmed with Micro-controllers, and I have a lot of experience in these areas, if you need or would like any help please PM me, or posting here is OK too.

~B :ugeek:

PS: Also I am making a wearable, that is essentially a "Power Glove", of sorts...just differnt :)

@lmaceleighton

That's a lot of useful info, thank you! :)

You're right in that if I was going to start developing some Arduino based glove, I'd be better off using something else altogether! At the moment I'm just going to take the PowerGlove as far as the "Menelli Box" allows, and see what that is - there were always other limiting factors when I was playing with it last time around so I've never actually properly seen what the PG is capable of (it's definitely more than everyone gives it credit for!)...