Hi Ralph. Another interesting project video, something I’ve been thinking of playing around with myself. Almost everyone has a few of these controllers laying around and they provide a rather polished input device. Nunchucks are also easy to come across at thrift stores, for dirt cheap. BTW-no mid-roll ads on this video!!
I've picked up a couple of nunchucks at local thrift storeds for $1/each for a future project. They do seem like a very useful device for tinkering with.
It’s a fantastic solution to joystick projects! Thanks for bringing it to people’s attention. I have a joystick on an hc12 shield with a selector button that lets me choose which of 3 robots to control with the joystick. You can’t beat a 7 channel transmitter for $7 all in!
No ad's mid-toast today. only the position on the pins will be standard, no one is going to use the same colours in the wire! as with anything if you cut the plug off leave a bit so that you can buzz the wires back to the pins, this way you will get it right every time.
I've had one of those nunchuck adapters and a bulk pack of cheap clone nunchuck controllers hanging around for a while (for yet another of my projects that never quite got off the ground!), but I never realised that you could just connect the output wires directly to the Arduino. I might revisit that using RJ45 connectors and plugs wired into the controllers, as I think they are tidier than the Wii connector. Thanks for another clear and informative video.
Pretty entertaining. I like your visuals and special effects, transitions, etc. I HATE those videos that have crass music with no narration expecting everyone to know what the hell is going on. I have both types of ProMinis, the gold reset button version is 5 volts, the red reset button is 3.3 volts. Also agree with your comments about not trusting any wiring and I take all my stuff apart too to figure it out. While I was here for the nunchuk, I did find other parts interesting. Oh yeah, JLCPCB is tops, great work low price.
Good to know. I don't have a project that can use this at the moment but I'll order one, just in case. I'm sure something will come up, and until that I'll just have something more to play around. Thanks for helping me to buy things I don't need :-) (Really)
Cool that the Wii controller is I2C. Seeing the accelerometer output flooded my head with quaternion equations and that made me hungry. I know-strange isn't it. Mathematics has always stimulated my appetite. Cheers to you Mr. Bacon :)
Strange, you say, Cole? Weird, I call it. The fact you know what a quaternion equation even is says it all. I suppose you understand PID too? (let me know if you do).
@@RalphBacon assuming your not referring to pelvic inflammatory disease :) I worked with acceleromaters for control loop feedback and PID to make robotic motion seem more biological. Just for fun and to whet my appetite.
I started with an arduino then moved to a raspberry pi using a nunchuck connected to a wiimote over bluetooth. I found if you have too much going on the Arduino freaks.
A technical term, obviously 😉 More accurately, the Arduino can be overloaded with requests/signals and become unresponsive and sluggish, agreed. But it is a relatively slow processor; the Espressif ESP32 is some 20x faster! The RasPi is not a real replacement as it has an operating system, so you can never be quite sure when it will service your latest (hardware) request, but it is even faster than an ESP32 so can easily handle the load.
@@RalphBaconYou are not wrong in what you say. the raspberry pi seems to work great on my predator setup running 7 servos, 3 sets of lights, and a 100 sound effects with no issues. The key difference being you have to set it to run a script at startup that runs another script. Python and C are very similar now you just have to use different syntax for the respective language to accomplish the same tasks...
Hi Ralph, I know what the project is...Its an addon for Microsoft flight SIM 2020, which dosent get released until next week, that's why you're keeping schtum !...I do hope it's an anti aircraft ground to air missile launcher with active and passive computer phase locked loop simulation coupled with stereo bang sounds !...cheers!
Amazing Andy! It IS an *anti aircraft ground to air missile launcher* . So spooky that you figured that all out from just a joystick! Actually, one viewer has got the answer but I'm not saying who!
I am not suggesting any plagiarism (other than my own) but you are not the first to claim "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" . This video was far more interesting than I expected it to be (though your record should have calmed all of my fears). I can see this device being very useful, when coupled with an OLED display, to create very flexible input/output interfaces. The analogue feature could be used to control the speed of scrolling, the up/down could control up/down scrolling, while the left/right could select the mode of the input. The button feature would serve as selection. The various modes could be for date, time, text inputs etc.The fact that it could be plugged in as necessary means that the arduino (or espressif family, or STM etc. anything with I2C, in fact) could spend most of its time as a black box with a display, say controlling central heating. When one needed to adjust the temperature, time, date or even settings, one only has to plug it in. This interface could serve for many different devices serving many different purposes. I too would not be tempted to use the acceleration metering. Mainly because of a wobbly right index finger. However I can imagine that the more dexterous could use various gestures to control the opening, closing and angle adjustment of vertical blinds. Though this may result in neighbours call the men in white coats. Great video , Ralph. LEDs and a long way beyond would be better name for this channel.
Ralph S Bacon yes I did!! Still working today. That’s why it bothers me I couldn’t get the Bluetooth owon multimeter glasses working. You may have given me a clue with the pro mini inconsistent pinout. May order a new batch of pro minis and start over.
Did you use Joop's design and hardware? Re the BT multimeter glasses, you could first use an UNO in the prototype to prove it all works before using Pro Mini.
Ralph S Bacon I was mistaken. The Joop Brooking Robot used the 2.4G wireless serial transceiver module not Bluetooth... the glasses uses Bluetooth HM-11 your advice is absolutely perfect except it uses a pro micro Thanks Ralph here is the video of the glasses czcams.com/video/lkl6yVauCKg/video.html
That is true, Kent. So it's a pity they didn't spend a bit more time on the PCB and use the left hand edge along with A6 and A7 like the other one I use. Tsk, tsk.
I'm revisiting an old robotics project and considering the nunchuck as one of the control inputs, so what a coincidence you've put a video up about it :P Did you know you can also get the nunchuck sockets from Aliexpress, and in limited quantities from Tindie? :D
@@RalphBacon I got some from Tindie, just gotta wait for them to arrive to me from Atlanta in the US. Last I saw there was three packs of five sockets left, so hurry in case they run out 😍
@@RalphBacon Understandable! I think they're spendy cause they're pretty rare. Might even be cheaper getting a cheap wiimote from eBay and gutting it for parts 🤣
@@RalphBacon After all that, they were never shipped, and I got a refund from Tindie 🤣 Sigh! I may as well buy a cheap Wiimote clone and gut that for the connector 😜
Ah no. Each Nunchuck has the *same* I2C address of 0x52. But there are ways to use the same controller address as I showed in video #148 czcams.com/video/LowMKYcBxNg/video.html
I'm afraid I have zero time for any kind of bespoke support, design or otherwise work, Tim. Your best bet might be the Arduino.cc forum where there are lots of people available to assist: forum.arduino.cc Tip: if you do decide to post your question there, be precise in what you need answered and document what you have tried so far and what has failed. They give short shrift with open-ended answers or where the OP (original poster) has not done his homework!
Thanks for the reply..well I've only just got a joystick to control a servo on a nano every, so I am very! New... Loving your channel thanks again for the sound advise..
Easy to use. Two wires (plus power). Reasonable speed if you set it to 400kHz (but not all devices support that and only have 100kHz). What's not to like?
@@RalphBacon yes I like it too. I think it was invented by Philips and used with older ps2 keyboards and mice. I am asking someone with more knowledge like you since I was in a debate with my colleagues which complained that is not reliable and that it was intended only for short traces linking chipsets on a pcb board. I like also the aspect of addressing and it's just two wires compared with the SPI bus.
Um, are we talking about a Pro *mini* here or a Pro *micro* Mike? The reason I ask is that the Uno, Nano and Pro Mini all use the ATMega328P chip so all have (up to) 7 analog pins (A0-A7) although not all are exposed on all boards. They can also be used as digital pins GPIO14-21, of course, just like any other pin. The Pro Micro uses a different chip, the ATMega32U4 but still has a (smaller) number of analog pins available.
@@RalphBacon i was wrong. it wasn't the ADC it is the AREF pin. the uno and nano have the AREF pin and the pro mini does not. im pretty much a noob when it comes to micro controllers. i do not know if theres a way to use AREF on the pro mini but i used a nano instead to do my components tester.
Ah ha! That makes more sense, Mike! Now, the Pro Mini often has two RST pins (I have no idea why) that you _might_ be able to carefully cut the track underneath and solder the pin directly to the AREF pin on the chip. Yes, I know, not ideal, and a steady soldering hand is required, but I wouldn't let that stop me from using the Pro Mini in a project if I _really needed_ that AREF pin. Sometimes, you might get an NC (not connected) pin on the board instead which makes the soldering less problematic. Incidentally, for others reading this, if you do use the AREF pin for voltage reference, do connect a 100nF cap to it and GND, as per the datasheet recommendation. And heed the warning about connecting multiple voltage sources to the board/chip, it's easy to short circuit it all when the AREF pin is in use. Nice to hear you like the videos! They will keep you busy during the winter for sure.
Thanks for the info! I'll check out modding my pro mini with a reference pin. I made 5 boards on JLCPCB for the nano though. I did use the capacitor between AREF -> GND.
@@RalphBacon Yep, UK English is a weird thing at times but even though it is acceptable English to say 'do do' in that context grammar rules do say to try to avoid it if you can. It can sometimes seem hard to avoid but I usually try to rephrase it to sound better. Like in this case the second 'do' refers to manufacturing something so replacing it with a synonym works: "they do make some adaptors". Easy to do if you have written a script but not easy if you are saying it ad-lib. Though once you have been exposed to common American/Canadian slang (I lived in Canada for a while) it does sound funny, hence my comment! :)
For a good result with those bare joysticks, you would either need a 3D printer, or some mad wood carving skills... The nunchuck already exists, and is cheap. Makes sense. Interesting that it's an I2C device.
Yes, the perennial problem for makers is what to fit the project into without it looking like a prototype from a lab. This nunchuck is cheap and works well.
Connecting the Nunchuck is sooo easy. but takes u 22min to do it...(with 10min of advertising). Next time plz show a task, for what it can be used. THAT would be a real Nunchuck video....
My purpose is to fire _your_ imagination and get you to think "Ah ha! I can use something like that when...". But I'll certainly show you what I'm using it for very soon.
Don't sugar coat it, Daniel, say what you _really_ mean. Or, you could watch it at x1.5 speed to move things along. I do this to other videos all the time.
Hi Ralph. Another interesting project video, something I’ve been thinking of playing around with myself. Almost everyone has a few of these controllers laying around and they provide a rather polished input device. Nunchucks are also easy to come across at thrift stores, for dirt cheap. BTW-no mid-roll ads on this video!!
And now you know how they are wired up you will find a use for one, undoubtedly!
I've picked up a couple of nunchucks at local thrift storeds for $1/each for a future project.
They do seem like a very useful device for tinkering with.
Great point! It would be interesting to see what the wiring was like in the ultracheap ones!
Was thinking the same thing - I'll be looking out for these in grab bags in the future.
Thanks Ralph. I have one of these laying around somewhere waiting for me to play with.
Play around, Jake, something will suddenly come to mind where you can use such a device.
It’s a fantastic solution to joystick projects! Thanks for bringing it to people’s attention. I have a joystick on an hc12 shield with a selector button that lets me choose which of 3 robots to control with the joystick. You can’t beat a 7 channel transmitter for $7 all in!
Thanks for sharing! Sounds good value!
No ad's mid-toast today. only the position on the pins will be standard, no one is going to use the same colours in the wire! as with anything if you cut the plug off leave a bit so that you can buzz the wires back to the pins, this way you will get it right every time.
Good news about the ads. And you are totally correct about the wiring vs plug.
I've had one of those nunchuck adapters and a bulk pack of cheap clone nunchuck controllers hanging around for a while (for yet another of my projects that never quite got off the ground!), but I never realised that you could just connect the output wires directly to the Arduino. I might revisit that using RJ45 connectors and plugs wired into the controllers, as I think they are tidier than the Wii connector. Thanks for another clear and informative video.
Just watch the wiring colours, no two nunchucks seem to be the same! Although the plug wiring always has to be, of course.
I never thought I'd need the nunchuck again. Great video as always my friend.
I'm amazed at the circuitry inside these nunchuck, Steven, I'm sure there are many projects that could make use of them.
@@RalphBacon might make a good remote control for a tank.
Pretty entertaining. I like your visuals and special effects, transitions, etc. I HATE those videos that have crass music with no narration expecting everyone to know what the hell is going on. I have both types of ProMinis, the gold reset button version is 5 volts, the red reset button is 3.3 volts. Also agree with your comments about not trusting any wiring and I take all my stuff apart too to figure it out. While I was here for the nunchuk, I did find other parts interesting. Oh yeah, JLCPCB is tops, great work low price.
Sounds like the visit was worthwhile for you, which is great. I hope my other videos are equally entertaining / edutaining for you 😄
Very informative video SIR
So nice of you!
Good to know. I don't have a project that can use this at the moment but I'll order one, just in case. I'm sure something will come up, and until that I'll just have something more to play around. Thanks for helping me to buy things I don't need :-) (Really)
Bora, you mean "helping me to buy things I don't need YET" because one day you will need to use this. Trust me, I'm a maker!
@@RalphBacon Haha... I'm sure I will find a reason to use it.
Quite a cliffhanger you are leaving here.
Looking interesting, I'll be waiting.
It wasn't meant to be a cliffhanger, just something that takes much longer to build.
Cool that the Wii controller is I2C. Seeing the accelerometer output flooded my head with quaternion equations and that made me hungry. I know-strange isn't it. Mathematics has always stimulated my appetite. Cheers to you Mr. Bacon :)
Strange, you say, Cole? Weird, I call it. The fact you know what a quaternion equation even is says it all. I suppose you understand PID too? (let me know if you do).
@@RalphBacon assuming your not referring to pelvic inflammatory disease :)
I worked with acceleromaters for control loop feedback and PID to make robotic motion seem more biological. Just for fun and to whet my appetite.
You will hate my next project then. I'm hoping you will give me some pointers (not C++ ones).
I started with an arduino then moved to a raspberry pi using a nunchuck connected to a wiimote over bluetooth. I found if you have too much going on the Arduino freaks.
A technical term, obviously 😉
More accurately, the Arduino can be overloaded with requests/signals and become unresponsive and sluggish, agreed. But it is a relatively slow processor; the Espressif ESP32 is some 20x faster!
The RasPi is not a real replacement as it has an operating system, so you can never be quite sure when it will service your latest (hardware) request, but it is even faster than an ESP32 so can easily handle the load.
@@RalphBaconYou are not wrong in what you say. the raspberry pi seems to work great on my predator setup running 7 servos, 3 sets of lights, and a 100 sound effects with no issues. The key difference being you have to set it to run a script at startup that runs another script. Python and C are very similar now you just have to use different syntax for the respective language to accomplish the same tasks...
Hi Ralph, I know what the project is...Its an addon for Microsoft flight SIM 2020, which dosent get released until next week, that's why you're keeping schtum !...I do hope it's an anti aircraft ground to air missile launcher with active and passive computer phase locked loop simulation coupled with stereo bang sounds !...cheers!
Amazing Andy! It IS an *anti aircraft ground to air missile launcher* . So spooky that you figured that all out from just a joystick! Actually, one viewer has got the answer but I'm not saying who!
I am not suggesting any plagiarism (other than my own) but you are not the first to claim "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" . This video was far more interesting than I expected it to be (though your record should have calmed all of my fears). I can see this device being very useful, when coupled with an OLED display, to create very flexible input/output interfaces. The analogue feature could be used to control the speed of scrolling, the up/down could control up/down scrolling, while the left/right could select the mode of the input. The button feature would serve as selection. The various modes could be for date, time, text inputs etc.The fact that it could be plugged in as necessary means that the arduino (or espressif family, or STM etc. anything with I2C, in fact) could spend most of its time as a black box with a display, say controlling central heating. When one needed to adjust the temperature, time, date or even settings, one only has to plug it in. This interface could serve for many different devices serving many different purposes.
I too would not be tempted to use the acceleration metering. Mainly because of a wobbly right index finger. However I can imagine that the more dexterous could use various gestures to control the opening, closing and angle adjustment of vertical blinds. Though this may result in neighbours call the men in white coats. Great video , Ralph. LEDs and a long way beyond would be better name for this channel.
I'm glad it fired your imagination, Michael. Yes, fancy this being I2C, I would never have guessed that.
I used it for a robot controller joop brooking THANKS RALPH
Did you build it, Mark? And get it working? Do tell!
Ralph S Bacon yes I did!! Still working today. That’s why it bothers me I couldn’t get the Bluetooth owon multimeter glasses working. You may have given me a clue with the pro mini inconsistent pinout. May order a new batch of pro minis and start over.
Did you use Joop's design and hardware? Re the BT multimeter glasses, you could first use an UNO in the prototype to prove it all works before using Pro Mini.
Ralph S Bacon I was mistaken. The Joop Brooking Robot used the 2.4G wireless serial transceiver module not Bluetooth... the glasses uses Bluetooth HM-11 your advice is absolutely perfect except it uses a pro micro Thanks Ralph here is the video of the glasses czcams.com/video/lkl6yVauCKg/video.html
I'm shoert and so would a6 and a7 if they lined up with breadboard holes.
That is true, Kent. So it's a pity they didn't spend a bit more time on the PCB and use the left hand edge along with A6 and A7 like the other one I use. Tsk, tsk.
Would be interesting to see how you will use this... So, can we say? "until next time" !
Well, next time or the time after. No biggie but a remote joystick can probably find a home in many projects.
I'm revisiting an old robotics project and considering the nunchuck as one of the control inputs, so what a coincidence you've put a video up about it :P
Did you know you can also get the nunchuck sockets from Aliexpress, and in limited quantities from Tindie? :D
I didn't know that and I will check it out (on Ali) thanks for the heads up.
@@RalphBacon I got some from Tindie, just gotta wait for them to arrive to me from Atlanta in the US. Last I saw there was three packs of five sockets left, so hurry in case they run out 😍
At $20 per pack plus shipping _starting at_ $12 this is too much for me. I'll end up cutting off the plug and wiring it direct (as you saw).
@@RalphBacon Understandable! I think they're spendy cause they're pretty rare. Might even be cheaper getting a cheap wiimote from eBay and gutting it for parts 🤣
@@RalphBacon After all that, they were never shipped, and I got a refund from Tindie 🤣 Sigh!
I may as well buy a cheap Wiimote clone and gut that for the connector 😜
Nice one
Thanks for watching, Yogesh!
brilliant
Wow! thanks!
Not even 7 minutes in and you’re already showing us code. Bitterly disappointed - from the antipodes. Now have wee on order. Nudge nudge wink wink.
Sorry about that, one day you will thank me!
I2c, so this controller has a i2c address? And the second controller another address? Great vid..
Ah no. Each Nunchuck has the *same* I2C address of 0x52. But there are ways to use the same controller address as I showed in video #148 czcams.com/video/LowMKYcBxNg/video.html
Great stuff...
Do you help with projects for cash?..
I need help and it involves the nunchuk.
I'm afraid I have zero time for any kind of bespoke support, design or otherwise work, Tim. Your best bet might be the Arduino.cc forum where there are lots of people available to assist: forum.arduino.cc
Tip: if you do decide to post your question there, be precise in what you need answered and document what you have tried so far and what has failed. They give short shrift with open-ended answers or where the OP (original poster) has not done his homework!
Thanks for the reply..well I've only just got a joystick to control a servo on a nano every, so I am very! New...
Loving your channel thanks again for the sound advise..
Hello Ralph, what's your opinion on the i2c bus?
Easy to use. Two wires (plus power). Reasonable speed if you set it to 400kHz (but not all devices support that and only have 100kHz). What's not to like?
@@RalphBacon yes I like it too. I think it was invented by Philips and used with older ps2 keyboards and mice. I am asking someone with more knowledge like you since I was in a debate with my colleagues which complained that is not reliable and that it was intended only for short traces linking chipsets on a pcb board. I like also the aspect of addressing and it's just two wires compared with the SPI bus.
Indeed, but much slower than SPI, of course!
Uno and nano have an ADC pin. Pro Mini does not. I tried to use a mini for an Ardutester component tester and found out about the ADC being not there.
Um, are we talking about a Pro *mini* here or a Pro *micro* Mike? The reason I ask is that the Uno, Nano and Pro Mini all use the ATMega328P chip so all have (up to) 7 analog pins (A0-A7) although not all are exposed on all boards. They can also be used as digital pins GPIO14-21, of course, just like any other pin.
The Pro Micro uses a different chip, the ATMega32U4 but still has a (smaller) number of analog pins available.
@@RalphBacon i was wrong. it wasn't the ADC it is the AREF pin. the uno and nano have the AREF pin and the pro mini does not. im pretty much a noob when it comes to micro controllers. i do not know if theres a way to use AREF on the pro mini but i used a nano instead to do my components tester.
@@RalphBacon also, i love the videos. im trying to learn or at least tinker with microcontrollers over the winter months.
Ah ha! That makes more sense, Mike!
Now, the Pro Mini often has two RST pins (I have no idea why) that you _might_ be able to carefully cut the track underneath and solder the pin directly to the AREF pin on the chip. Yes, I know, not ideal, and a steady soldering hand is required, but I wouldn't let that stop me from using the Pro Mini in a project if I _really needed_ that AREF pin. Sometimes, you might get an NC (not connected) pin on the board instead which makes the soldering less problematic.
Incidentally, for others reading this, if you do use the AREF pin for voltage reference, do connect a 100nF cap to it and GND, as per the datasheet recommendation. And heed the warning about connecting multiple voltage sources to the board/chip, it's easy to short circuit it all when the AREF pin is in use.
Nice to hear you like the videos! They will keep you busy during the winter for sure.
Thanks for the info! I'll check out modding my pro mini with a reference pin. I made 5 boards on JLCPCB for the nano though. I did use the capacitor between AREF -> GND.
that middle pin is used by the wiimote to detect that the nunchuck has been plugged in
How does it do that? Is that middle pin connected to +ve or something in the Nunchuck so that it becomes "live" and can be detected?
@@RalphBacon no idea, but in the pinout it's labelled as device detect
@13:53 he said do-do! 😆
Sorry, a bit childish I know 😏
That's UK English for you. Yes, they do do some adapters. Not they do-do some... quite a difference, obviously.
@@RalphBacon Yep, UK English is a weird thing at times but even though it is acceptable English to say 'do do' in that context grammar rules do say to try to avoid it if you can. It can sometimes seem hard to avoid but I usually try to rephrase it to sound better. Like in this case the second 'do' refers to manufacturing something so replacing it with a synonym works: "they do make some adaptors". Easy to do if you have written a script but not easy if you are saying it ad-lib.
Though once you have been exposed to common American/Canadian slang (I lived in Canada for a while) it does sound funny, hence my comment! :)
For a good result with those bare joysticks, you would either need a 3D printer, or some mad wood carving skills...
The nunchuck already exists, and is cheap. Makes sense. Interesting that it's an I2C device.
Yes, the perennial problem for makers is what to fit the project into without it looking like a prototype from a lab. This nunchuck is cheap and works well.
Connecting the Nunchuck is sooo easy. but takes u 22min to do it...(with 10min of advertising). Next time plz show a task, for what it can be used. THAT would be a real Nunchuck video....
My purpose is to fire _your_ imagination and get you to think "Ah ha! I can use something like that when...". But I'll certainly show you what I'm using it for very soon.
You started the actual Nunchuck topic as of 14+ min., before that, all waste of time...
When we're discussing things related to the Arduino (or related processors) I don't believe anything is a waste of time!
Stop rambling on and on and get to the point.
Don't sugar coat it, Daniel, say what you _really_ mean. Or, you could watch it at x1.5 speed to move things along. I do this to other videos all the time.