totty%flute.cs.uiuc.edu@usc.edu (Brian Totty) (09/23/90)
We have a hacked-up PowerGlove interface to generate some clocking
signals approximately compatible with the Eglowstein Byte article.
After some trouble, we think we might be getting some real data out.
Does anyone have any more detailed specs about clocking requirements,
data packet formats, etc. We are also worried because the centering
systems doesn't seem to work as in the glossy "Adventures of
Glove Master and Little Digit" instruction manual. The sensor
LEDs are either all on or all off. We are not able to get individual
LEDs to turn on/off based on glove motion. Is this a clocking
problem? If we get the clocking scheme working, we are going to
convert the data to RS232 and hook it up to a workstation. Anyone
want to share some wisdom?
--- Bri
P.S. We do not have a Nintendo
/ Brian Totty o o
/__ __ o 1304 W. Springfield Avenue o
/ / / / Urbana, IL 61801 \_/ "We have corn in
/__/ / / totty@cs.uiuc.edu Massachusetts too!"nelson@melodian.cs.uiuc.edu (Taed Nelson) (09/26/90)
Here is a brief update on what we have found out in the past few days:
1. The output signal is simply one bit-per-button, thus allowing
you to press all buttons simultaneously. The order works
out to be A-B-Select-Start-Up-Down-Left-Right, which is
eight bits.
2. It is sensitive to the pulse lengths in an annoying way. We
are currently using 4us for both the reset and clock
pulses.
3. We have problems centering with any clock above 4 kHz, which
seems extremely slow since the processor inside the glove
uses a 10 MHz clock.
4. Someone sent us mail reminding us to turn off the rapid fire
buttons, which helped a lot.
5. Our circuit is pretty straight-forward, and substituted a one-
shot for the icky RC circuit to control the pulse lengths.
6. The lights on the ultra sound don't work correctly. When
centered and with no finger motions, all the lights are off
as they should be, but any action whatsoever turns ALL of
the lights on, which is not how the manual describes it.
There are two lines unused in the interface, and we imagine
that one of these controls them, although it seems silly
to require the Nitendo to control it, unless it essentially
feeds the dataOut signal back through and there is some
interpreting circutry in the ultrasonics.
7. One of the two unused lines must be for the Nitendo to send
stuff to the glove. We say this since the gloveMaster/
littleDigit thing mentions that a few games actually
program the glove when the NES is powered up.
Does anyone have any information on anything else? We especially want
to get the lights working correctly and try to crank up the clock speed.
For anyone else building an iterface, we suggest making it as general
as possible since there's a lot of weird timing going on. We have a
series of counters for use as clock dividers and the one-shot thing made
the controlling of the clock pulses simpler. (BTW, for the one-shot we
used R=5.7k and C=1000pf.)
-- Taed and Briron@vicorp.com (Ron Peterson) (09/26/90)
In article <7992@milton.u.washington.edu> totty%flute.cs.uiuc.edu@usc.edu (Brian Totty) writes: > > We have a hacked-up PowerGlove interface to generate some clocking > signals approximately compatible with the Eglowstein Byte article. > After some trouble, we think we might be getting some real data out. > Does anyone have any more detailed specs about clocking requirements, > data packet formats, etc. We are also worried because the centering > systems doesn't seem to work as in the glossy "Adventures of > Glove Master and Little Digit" instruction manual. The sensor > LEDs are either all on or all off. We are not able to get individual > LEDs to turn on/off based on glove motion. Is this a clocking > problem? If we get the clocking scheme working, we are going to > convert the data to RS232 and hook it up to a workstation. Anyone > want to share some wisdom? > I just recently hooked my PowerGlove up to my Amiga and was able to get all the LED's to light appropriately based on glove motion and finger flexing. All the programs described in the book (which determine how the motions are interpreted) work also (like the training mode that beeps when you go off center.) The Center button works too. The Byte article mentions that the length of the pulse is important (3-8 microseconds I think) so that's one thing you might try varying. I used pulses of about 7 microseconds. The article also says it is important to clock data out of the glove quickly and you can get a rough idea of the speed required from the photo they show of a logic analyzer screen showing the relationship of the clock, reset and data pulses. (Assuming the top pulse length is 4 us, it looks like they are sending out clocks every 20 us or so.) ron@vicorp.COM
kp74615@nokikana.tut.fi (Karri Tapani Palovuori) (09/26/90)
> ...the Eglowstein Byte article.
Sorry, I missed the original reference, which propably included the
issue number. I would be most grateful if someone could post it.
Karrianh01033@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (09/30/90)
> Sorry, I missed the original reference, which propably included the > issue number. I would be most grateful if someone could post it. > -- Karri It was the July issue of BYTE. Andrew Hunt University of Illinois Press (a-hunt2@uiuc.edu)