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How to: Arduino and Nintendo Nunchuck for pan and tilt camera interface

Posted by Andrea Salvatore on April 12, 2008 at 9:30am
Hi all,this post is an "how to" for an Arduino pan and tilt camera moved by a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck.Here's the video so you can check how it'll be the result. The most important thing is the precision and responsiveness of the system.
Here it is for all that asked me in the past and for those interested in putting something similar in their UAVs.It's an "old" project I've posted the following video on YouTube more than a 5 months ago but never had the time to post schematics and the code online, even if a lot of people asked for it.I use an Arduino Diecimila board to have a Nintendo Wii Nunchuck control a camera mounted on a pan and tilt mechanism with two servos (Hitech HS-422).Nunchuck's accelerometer (an ADXL330) is used to move the camera.As you can see, if the Nunchuck's "Z" button is pressed, the camera position is locked.Here is picture of the pan&tilt mechanics with servos:
bpt01.jpg
First of all I got to thank a few people that before me putted their experiences online. That simple project is based on the code and infos found on the following pages:Read wii nunchuck data into arduinohttp://www.windmeadow.com/node/42Boarduino, Wii Nunchucks, and Servoshttp://todbot.com/blog/2007/10/25/boarduino-wii-nunchuck-servo/Here's a simple schematics on how to connect the servos and Nunchuck to the Arduino. Servo's pins are 6 and 7.
boarduino-nunchuck-servo-450.png
The code is here.You can find more infos about the code in the two links I mentioned before, but feel free to ask.The only section you should customize to adapt to your servos an need is a list of variables:refreshTime (set to 20) - minimum refresh time for servo pulseminPulse (set to 1000) - minimum pulse value for servo 1minPulse2 (set to 500) - minimum pulse value for servo 2dtime (set to10) - delay (in milliseconds) for each looppwbuffsize (set to 10) - how many values has to be buffered and the averaged (that's the same value for both servos)Next post will be regarding the evolution of that interface: changed camera and servos with a smaller and ligher one (this one) and made the connection between the Nunchuck and the camera, wireless.Hope that can be helpful and feel free to ask anything about that.Thank you and ciao,Andrea
Tags: accelerometer, adxl330, arduino, camera, nunchuck, pan, servo, tilt
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Comments

  • Jonathan Robson March 16, 2009 at 3:52am
    Thanks. Strange - I bought my nunchuck from the fake wii shop round the corner here in Shanghai and got a US wire coloured one.
  • Reto March 15, 2009 at 8:53am
    Here's the code: arduino_nunchuck.pde
    https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/3691923499?profile=original
  • Jonathan Robson March 15, 2009 at 4:41am
    Hi

    This is a perfect starting point for a project I'm working on but I'm is shanghai and your ideavirus server is blocked in China so I can't see the code. Would you mind posting it on diydrones ? many thanks.
  • Reto February 27, 2009 at 2:51pm
    Hey Andrea, your Nunchuck hack works like a dream!!! I had to search some wiki to find out how the connector wiring was pinned because my chinese Nunchuck has not the same wire colors as yours. In case some other people get an Ebay Nunchuck from China, that's how it is wired:
    VCC = Brown (I connected at +3.3V)
    GND = White
    Data = Green
    Clock = Blue
    I have one more Black wire to the connector shield.
    Well, this was to tell that it works very nicely after setting up minPulse variables to get the Nunchuck centered as I wanted it.
    I would like to avoid the very tiny servos movements when the Nunchuck is staying almost without moving. Would you have some suggestion for code modification to try maybe to average 3 consecutive pulsewidths, or eventually to discard servo movement if absolute value of new pulsewidth minus old pulsewidth is lower than some threshold?
    I am very new at Arduino and coding is not easy for me. If you or anybody have some suggestion about the best way to make the servos stay still when there is almost no movement on the Nunchuck, that would very useful and I would be very grateful.
  • Andrea Salvatore February 27, 2009 at 5:59am
    Craig,

    you are right. You can use the 3.3V that the Arduino board has. It's between the RESET and the regulat 5V output. I hope this helps.

    Andrea
  • Reto February 27, 2009 at 5:46am
    A I said before, I am eager to play with my Nunchuck and Arduino. I'll use the +3.3V connector of the Arduino to power the device. Since, as I read, the Nunchuck uses the "fast" i2C protocol, the TWI frequency of wire.h arduino library has to be changed to 400kHz for a +5V powered Nunchuck. If the device is powered with the +3.3V supply, the frequency should be set to 100kHz. So I'll change the wire.h TWI_FREQ line to "#define TWI_FREQ 100000L". I think the +3.3V is better suited for the Nunchuck. I read somewhere (forgot to bookmark) the Vcc should be below 4V!
    I'll report back once if it works. In the meantime, if this setting seems strange to someone, please let me know. I also hope the current draw of the Nunchuck is not more than the arduino +3.3V port can deliver.
  • Reto February 27, 2009 at 3:11am
    I just got my brand new chinese Nunchuck today and I am eager to try this out. Before I start, I have a basic question: why connect the Nunchuck to 5V since it is a 3.3V device? Isn't the higher Vcc going to shorten the life span of the Nunchuck? Could I use the 3.3V port of my Duemilanove Arduino board instead for powering the Nunchuck or is there code to modify for this to run? Thanks for helping a newbie!
  • Amoisonic February 13, 2009 at 9:33am
    Can't we modify the code? Instead of using pinout 6 & 7 output 2 single servo pulse for controlling 2 servos,we use pinout 6 or 7 ONLY to send out a series of 8 channel pulse train(channel 7 & 8 for camera pan & tilt controls).then we can hook it up to Futaba remote with trainer connection .We can build our own head tracking camera control for FPV piloting.
  • Michael H August 5, 2008 at 6:40pm
    Can someone answer the above post please? I am having the same problem with vista.

    I get the error message:
    Couldn't determine program size: C:\Users\albert\Desktop\arduino-0011\hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-size: 'C:\Users\alber\AppData\Local\Temp\build3482.tmp\wiinunchuck.hex': No such file

    Thanks
  • iceman246 June 20, 2008 at 5:06am
    hi I am trying to duplicate what you are doing it is very cool. I am new to this and I can't figure out how to get the code to upload to the arduino. It keeps giving me messages like this
    "/Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:266: error: expected unqualified-id before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:266: error: expected `)' before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:266: error: expected `)' before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:267: error: expected unqualified-id before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:267: error: expected `)' before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:267: error: expected `)' before 'int'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: '__put' was not declared in this scope

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: expected primary-expression before 'char'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: expected primary-expression before 'struct'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: '__get' was not declared in this scope

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: expected primary-expression before 'struct'

    /Applications/Arduino/hardware/tools/avr/bin/../lib/gcc/avr/4.0.2/../../../../avr/include/stdio.h:420: error: initializer expression list treated as compound expression

    Couldn't determine program size: hardware/tools/avr/bin/avr-size: '/Users/IanCivgin/Documents/Arduino/sketch_080619a/applet/sketch_080619a.hex': No such file

    avrdude: can't open input file /Users/IanCivgin/Documents/Arduino/sketch_080619a/applet/sketch_080619a.hex: No such file or directory
    avrdude: write to file '/Users/IanCivgin/Documents/Arduino/sketch_080619a/applet/sketch_080619a.hex' failed"

    Help would be greatly appreciated. If there is an error in your code or if you know how to fix it just let me know.

    Thanks
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