Hackszine.com: SIXAXIS hacks

SIXAXIS hacks

Hackszine reader IraqiGeek writes:

I made an application that uses libusb-Win32 and PPJoy to map the Sony Sixaxis into a windows joystick with the accelerometers working and mapped.
Unfortunately, the gyro on my sixaxis seems to be faulty. So, while the code is already there to read the gyro data, it can't be used for anything.

The installation process is not exactly the shortest, but I've made a step-by-step how-to describing it.

I did a little digging and there are a couple of other noteworthy SIXAXIS hacks. In addition to IraqiGeek's driver, there is another Windows SIXAXIS driver that people are using with some success. I also was able to find a third Windows driver which contains full source, in case you want to do something more interesting than play games.

Speaking of more interesting, there also exists an open source library for Linux. If you check out the above video, you can see that a gumstix embedded computer is using the SIXAXIS input to control a number of servos.

The six R/C servos are connected to a Gumstix board with built-in Bluetooth module. Inertial measurements from the SIXAXIS are received directly through a PF_BLUETOOTH socket (not through the joystick API, due to HID descriptor issues). Heuristics explicitly discriminate between two types of motion (rotation or translation).

The author was even able to use this setup to control a small helicopter. Pretty cool stuff, I must say.

Anyone know if the SIXAXIS sensor data can be easily polled with an Arduino? Maybe this could be a be a cheap option for a 6DOF IMU.

Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux - Link
SixAxis source driver for Windows - Link
Use your SIXAXIS on Windows (ps3sixaxis_en.exe)- Link
WinSIXAXIS (IraqiGeek's libusb/PPJoy driver) - Link

Posted by Jason Striegel | Feb 21, 2008 07:28 PM
Electronics, Gaming, Linux, Windows | Permalink | Comments (1)