Future project details may be coming soon!
Wii remote control is with a Raspberry Pi and the cwiid library!
Future project details may be coming soon!
Wii remote control is with a Raspberry Pi and the cwiid library!
This Halloween I made a Baymax costume! For those who don’t know, Baymax is the medical robot in the Disney movie Big Hero 6. I built the costume with 2mm thick trash compactor bags from Walmart, clear tape, cardboard, and a powerful computer fan I found on Ebay (the BFB1012VH). The fan runs continuously, and is powered by a lipo battery in my pocket. The mask has some mesh between the eyes for me to see through.
Wii remote controlled Roomba bot I made for a talent/variety show. The main processor is a Raspberry Pi. It connects to the Wiimote through Bluetooth, and to the Roomba with a serial connection. The servos are standard pulse width modulation. The light bar is several shift registers stringed together.
Code is a bit messy, but here it is. Someday I’ll clean it up. 🙂 Needs pigpio for the servo control and cwiid for Wii remote control. I got the initial wii code working with help from https://www.theraspberrypiguy.com/raspberry-pi-how-to-use-a-wiimote/.
Here is my main code and the separate light bar code that can run simultaneously. Feel free to ask questions!
I recently helped a friend recover files off of his shattered Samsung Galaxy s5. Having been run over by a car, the screen was black and the touchscreen entirely unresponsive. The volume, power, and home button still worked.
Here are some tips for getting data off Android phones like this one. The goal is to get a screen mirror or valid USB connection going.
If your phone simply needs to be unlocked to use USB, try these:
Here are Android Mouse and Keyboard shortcuts from http://paperlined.org
Back | Esc |
Home | Alt+Esc Windows+Esc |
Menu | Context Menu key Ctrl+Esc |
Search | hold Context Menu key Windows+Space |
Quick Launch | Windows key + <letter> |
Volume | multimedia keys |
Additional shortcuts:
PC mouse equivalents to Android keys
screen tap | Left click |
Back | Right click Left side button |
Home | Middle click |
Try using the volume keys (or inline volume control on a pair of Samsung earbuds), if the ringtone volume increases, you’re in! Try plugging in to a computer to get your files.
If your phone needs more permissions to see it as a drive on a computer, and you have no idea where to click onscreen to allow them, keep reading.
The holy grail of shattered screen use is to get TalkBack turned on. This built in Android feature will speak everything onscreen, and allow easy control with a keyboard using arrow keys and enter.
If the phone is new enough, hold down the home button to active Google Assistant (unless disabled, it is on by default). Say “Open Accessibility Settings”. Use keyboard and navigate to Vision->Talkback. Flip TalkBack switch. Press OK on both popup screens, phone should speak something like “TalkBack on”.
Ideally, practice going through these menus on a second working phone to get a feel for keyboard navigation. When selecting an area to click with the arrow keys, the selection does not cycle back to the top when it hits the bottom of the menu, which is great.
With TalkBack on, navigating settings to turn on developer mode and USB debugging is trivial. To turn on developer mode go to settings->about device. You can access settings by navigation, or open Assistant (hold down home) and say “Open Settings”. Hit “build number” area at least 7 times quickly (use enter key). Now developer mode should be on. Navigate to it (right above “about device”) and turn on USB debugging. When you first turn it on, there will be a popup, click OK. USB debugging is now on!
Download a screen mirror application on your computer. I use the Chrome extension called “Vysor”. With Vysor installed and USB debugging turned on, Vysor should recognize the phone being plugged in. One last step is to click the OK button on the authorization prompt on the phone. This will allow Vysor full access so it can screen mirror and control the phone.
Unfortunately, you can’t use a keyboard to click the button as the phone is connected to the computer! You will need to connect a bluetooth keyboard.
First reconnect your OTG cable and regular keyboard to the phone, navigate to settings->bluetooth, turn it on, and connect your bluetooth keyboard. This should be easy if you have TalkBack turned on! Practice on a working phone.
Now plug the phone back into the computer and wait for Vysor to detect it. Using the bluetooth keyboard hit the right arrow a couple times, then hit enter. Vysor should start mirroring the screen. You can now control the phone on your computer through Vysor!
Have fun getting your files back!
Leave a comment if you have any questions or tips.
Just a fun little Arduino project I built a couple months ago. Decorated by some of my friends for a work competition. It uses a simple photosensitive cell for detecting objects, so the code may need to be adjusted for the room lighting.
valentinesBox2017 Arduino code
Check it out on http://robowarner.com/portfolio/wifi-roomba-spy-bot/ !
In short, the roomba project is a success! I can remotely drive the robot around with a computer on the same network. I can even pan/tilt the phone (being used as the camera and internet connection). A much better video and a project page will follow, when I have time.
Currently in the works… A remote control Roomba, with a pan/tilt camera mount and possibly a simple arm to hit handicapped buttons (to enter doors). Project goal: Use websocket protocol to communicate between a computer and Arduino microcontroller, using an Android phone as the USB/WiFi link.
Using javascript on an HTML page, the computer will send out commands depending on keys pressed on keyboard. The Android phone will take these commands and send them through USB On The Go (OTG) to the Arduino, which will finally control the Roomba through its serial port. The Arduino can also connect to pretty much anything else, such as lights, motors, or sensors. The video feed is simply IP Camera app running on the Android phone in the background. Nothing super new here, but a fun challenge for me to get my feet wet in internet connectivity. 🙂 Stay tuned! I hope to be done before April 2016
The National Youth Science Camp is awesome! I was selected as one of the two Louisiana delegates to attend in 2013. Here are a few of the many pictures I took during the month-long camp. Other than a couple days in Washington DC, we spent our time in West Virginia.
See these and more on Google Photos
Or visit the Official NYSC website for the 2013 delegation