Comments on: Pixart/Wiimote sensor library for Arduino

By: Anacleto

Anacleto — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:37:07 +0000

It’s working! It’s WORKING!!!!!! Man this is huge! Thanks a lot to both you and Kako! Many many thanks!

By: Tara Moore

Tara Moore — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:56:06 +0000

I have watched the video and learned something from it. Thanks for sharing.

By: Stephen Hobley

Stephen Hobley — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:01:17 +0000

Adam : Thanks for letting us know – that’s really good information. I have a Cortex ARM dev board that works on a 12Mhz clock and 3.3V native.

I’ll be trying to hookup one of my sensors to that.

By: Adam MacDonald

Adam MacDonald — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:52:09 +0000

Well, I realized I should be using Analog 4 and 5, not digital, for I2C. Changed that, and it works!

So it works without any extra components, just the Pixart and an Arduino Mini 3.3V on an 8Mhz clock.

Thanks for your help!

By: Adam MacDonald

Adam MacDonald — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:37:05 +0000

Hi,

I managed to get an 8Mhz signal by setting the fuse bytes on the Arduino to output the clock signal on a digital pin. Voltmeter shows 1.7V but I don’t have an oscilloscope to double-check the frequency.

After hooking everything up, I am getting the 0,0,0 output described above. No idea if it’s the clock or the I2C lines, and unfortunately I don’t have much else around to test with.

Any other debugging advice you could give? I suppose I could order a bunch of parts and build a 25Mhz clock, but it seems to me it should work like this…

Thanks

By: Stephen Hobley

Stephen Hobley — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:15:56 +0000

Adam:

I would say

1. Not sure, I would try it and see what happens
2. See 1
3. See 2

Personally I would try and get the Pixart sensor working correctly using a known configuration first – just so that you know what a “good” configuration is like.

But do let me know what you discover.

By: Adam MacDonald

Adam MacDonald — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:49:10 +0000

I’m trying to use the Pixart camera in my helicopter project. I have an 8mhz Arduino Mini Pro 3.3v, and some questions:

1. Can I wire the SDA/SCL pins directly to the Arduino without the buffer in between, since they both work at 3.3V?
2. Can the Pixart work with a clock of 8Mhz? How about 4Mhz? Is there a lower bound, and why?
3. Once I write code so the Arduino outputs a high frequency (maybe 8Mhz) PWM signal on a digital pin, can I use this as a clock input?

If the answers are yes, yes, and yes, I won’t need any of the circuitry described in these posts, correct?

Adam

By: shobley

shobley — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:32:59 +0000

I think I need to revisit this project – I get enough email about it that maybe I should make some more movies that show some of the debugging procedures you can use.

I’ll post an update on my blog when I get them done.

By: Joy Holmes

Joy Holmes — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:44:36 +0000

“if you have scoped the input and response to and from the Pixart sensor” – I’m sorry but I don’t know how could I do this. I am a newbie. Would be glad if you can help.

By: shobley

shobley — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:11:37 +0000

I need to update the library to explicitly return “no connection to camera” when this happens.

I have only ever seen this problem when the communication with the Pixart sensor has failed. Either the sensor is bad, or the communication level converter is not doing it’s job correctly.

You did not mention if you have scoped the input and response to and from the Pixart sensor.

It is equally likely that Nintendo has changed the programming on their chips to prevent people from using them – I bought my Wiimotes all at the same time, and so far I’ve not had a problem with the sensors.