Control Glove as Game Controller

Hi there. Sorry for bit of a delay, but I'm unable to buy new Bluetooth module for dummy and there are few other problems with it. So sadly, I am forced to postpone this project for some time.

But don't worry I'm still working on Control Glove, because I feel that it has some potential. Since I have nothing to control in real world, I've been thinking what different can I control. When I lack creativity (most of the time), I'm playing some classic PC games from my childhood. I've been playing Re-Volt once again and it suddenly hit me, I can create sort of a game controller. Well that's easy to say, but harder to do. For some time I was totally lost. But then I found out that I can trick it. It basically works the way that Control Glove sends data from accelerometer to PC via Bluetooth. That data goes to a Application written in Processing. Processing is great, because you can export application directly for Windows/MAC/Linux. I have used a little trick, when you turn you hand to the left, processing will send (VK_left) via java Robot when you turn hand to the right Robot will send (VK_right). I found this to be the easiest method. Of course is not the best solution. Right now I'm planning to add few buttons to the glove to make proper controller out of it.

 

Control Glove

Hi there. First of all I would like to thank all viewers because recently I hit 40.000 views on videos on my youtube channel and also 10.000 views on this blog. So few weeks ago I showed you beta of dummy, well I haven't been working on it so much since, I just made a PCB, but I've been working on this glove.

You might ask why glove ? Well because I always wanted to make one and I couldn't think of a better way of how to control Dummy. Even this glove is still in sort of beta state. It uses Atmega8 with the bootloader that has BOD (Brown-out detection) level set to 2.7V so this board can easily operate at 3.3 volts. I chose this option because of the fact that I wanted to implement battery to glove and that meant, that battery has to be small and light. I chose a battery BL-5B from an old Nokia. If you have one of these phones just laying around use that batteries, they have lot of power and 3.7 volts is all that you need. Board also have headers for FTDI or Bluetooth module, which operates at 3.3volts. Accelerometer that is for now the only sensor on this glove, operates also at 3.3volts which gave me the opportunity to use that Nokia battery and 3.3v regulator. Remember that when you are using different than 5V power source you have to put power on AREF pin and in the setup of the code declare that you are using EXTERNAL analog reference. In the future I would like to add few more sensors (probably flex). So I hope you like it and once again thanks for your support.

 

Dummy Pre-Alpha

Few weeks ago I started working on a robotic hand, it's still in pre-alpha phase, because of the claws that are not yet operational, but I wanted to show you my progress.

Well, you may wonder why to call it Dummy ? Its name comes from the Iron Man movie, where Tony Stark has a robotic helper but it's not working well so it completely fits to my arm. I'm still working on a way how to send data from controller (which I would like to implement to a glove) to hand itself. I wrote some code for sending data in a packet form, because I would like to make the whole arm wireless. Problem is that I have to send positions of all 4 servos (now it sends just position for two of them). This project is definitely more complex than I've expected, so it's going to take me more time to finish it, and that's the reason why there will be more smaller updates.

AR.Drone

Hi there. First of all, I would like to apologize for almost 2 months of inactivity. I had lot of other things, but I was working on a new project. Unfortunately it's not finished yet.

 

Awesome thing is that I get an AR.Drone for my birthday, to be honest quadrocopter had been in my mind for quiet some time. I'm really excited about working/playing with it. I also found a processing and arduino libraries for it. I'm considering to buy a wi-fi xbee radio to control this drone with arduino. And about that project I mentioned above, I hope that it will be finished soon.

Observer 1.4 [update]

Hi there. I am presenting you version 1.4. 

The mayor change is that I’ve added third wheel to the back. I’m still experimenting with that but as you can see in the video observer can now drive over various obstacles without any problems. Also I moved Bluetooth module under the PCB to use the space that was there. Right now I’m drawing new PCB for observer, so that means next update will be version 2.0. I don’t want to spoil it, so I just say there’s going to be multiple sensors and when all will work out well I believe that version 2.0 will be awesome.

Observer 1.3 [update]

Bluetooth module has arrived, so I want to show you pics of another update. 

Reason that version 1.2 is missing is that this version (controller) was build on breadboard. At first I thought that I would put controller in some case, but then I decided to leave it like this. So what’s new? I’ve added analog stick that I’ve desoldered from old gamepad. But there’s still option to control robot via accelerometer. For that purpose I’ve used pushbutton that is part of analog stick. There’s still one breaked-out analog pin on Observer waiting for some sensor. I’ve been trying to add there LM335, but I’m dealing with analog reference issue. I found out that AAA batteries aren’t very good for such robot and that having separate power sources for servos and for microprocessor would be much better.

Observer 1.1 [update]

It took me more time then I've expected, but here's and update.

I have used second Arduino (Duemilanove) as an controller. For now robot is being controlled via laptop, but I have already ordered second bluetooth module for standalone controller. I thought adding LED's as front lights would be cool also.