An interactive whiteboard for under £50 using a Wiimote Part 2

A week on from my first post, I have made some progress working in my spare time.

Chris Hall bought the Wiimote from Argos

The Bluetooth USB adaptor from CPC/Farnell also arrived on Wednesday.

My first task was to get the wiimote paired with the bluetooth adaptor

1. Installing the bluetooth sofware:

So far so good no problems with this, just insert the CD and install

2. Getting the bluetooth software to find the Wiimote

Wiimote found by bluetooth

This was also quite straightforward

3. Pairing the Wiimote with the bluetooth software

Bluetooth pairing

This caused a few headaches. There is no security code so you just click 'skip' and it should move to the next step.

However, the key to getting past this stage is to hold down keys 1 and 2 on the Wiimote continuously while clicking the 'skip' key.

This is not immediately apparent as once you have pressed keys 1 and 2 on the Wiimote the 4 blue LEDS remain lit for quite a while, so you think that it is communicating as it should.

4. Wiimote is paired

Wiimote paired

5. The next step is to get the interactive whiteboard software running. Having downloaded it from Johhny Chung's website (see first post) you need to read the 'Read me first'. Here it tells you that you need Microsoft (dot)Net 2.0.

You then need to make sure that the software is loaded from the archive root

Wiimote whiteboard software

6. Click on the Whiteboard exe file and you should get the calibration box. There are some help boxes if you have done something wrong.

7. Click on the calibration button and you get the calibration page

OK...so I have not make the IR pens yet, job for this weekend

BUT...I did bring in an old TV remote control just to check that something happened and hey presto it worked. I could not do anything because the TV remote outputs an IR code so the calibration does not work properly, but the test was good enough for me to move forward.

Can't wait for the next gripping installment eh?