[jgramlich]

http://hackawii.com/category/wiimote-hack/

http://www.gearlog.com/2007/12/incre...ack_create.php

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...imote-science/



Those three links are about Nintendo Wii-mote hacking. I'm trying to think of how I can use stuff like this in my shop. If one considers the fact that these things are nothing more than a very cheap little package of sensors and not just a video game controller.

So one thing I'm thinking of trying out is automatic material sensing on my plasma table. For instance:

I've put a plate of steel on my table. I first have to align the plate and then I have to align my torch with the plate. It would be wonderful if I could use something like a wiimote to see the plate on the table and automatically tell me exactly (in table coordinates) where the bottom left corner of the plate is. I could then use those coordinates (don't ask me how yet, I'm working on that) to align my torch to the plate. Currently I'm manually jogging it, checking it, jogging it, checking it, etc. ad nauseam.

If I could load up a plate and have a system that would automatically program the coordinates of the corners of my plate and automatically adjust my skew...that would be way cool.

If anyone else has any cool ideas for how we can hack wiimotes (or anything like one...my buddy's new google phone has got a freaking bubble level program in it that uses the internal sensors to detect where the phone is, where it's pointing, etc)...there are tons of these little devices hitting the market that are just asking to be hacked...

[jgramlich]

I'm going to toss some even more geeky stuff out here. My burn table manufacturer doesn't produce custom APIs to allow me to write my own code against their software so...

Anyone out there writing their own CNC controller code from scratch? I'm not looking for the end-all-be-all rocket science stuff, but I wouldn't mind running a script that tells my robot to move to a specific location, for instance.