NAME

       pyrocket - PyGTK control of Striker II and Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launchers

SYNOPSIS

       pyrocket

DESCRIPTION

       pyrocket is used to operate USB foam dart launchers. It supports many models, and for
       some, has considerably more functionality than the drivers provided by the manufacturer.
       One may find it useful as a starting point for controlling other USB devices, or just for
       waging cubicle warfare.

       pyrocket automatically detects the launcher(s) and a joystick. For a webcam-enabled
       device, a video window is provided.

HARDWARE SUPPORT

       pyrocket has been thoroughly tested on these devices:

       • The Yellow/Red USB Circus Cannon sold by Dream Cheeky.

       • The "original" Green/Black USB Missile Launcher sold by Dream Cheeky.

       • The "webcam" Blue/Black USB MSN Missile Launcher sold by Dream Cheeky.

       • The Striker II USB Laser Guided Missile Launcher sold by Ninja Gizmos

       All hardware features are supported on these devices, including the Striker II laser
       control and sensors for position extrema on the Dream Cheeky models.

BUGS

       Spontaneous movement on startup
         With a joystick connected, the launcher spontaneously starts moving on startup.  It does
         this every time the program is run after plugging in the joystick, until any one of the
         joystick buttons (including D-pad) is pressed (this can be done at any time after
         connecting).  This is probably a bug in PyGame.

         Workaround: Press any button on the joystick after connecting it to USB.

       Stuck limit switch
         The "right" limit-switch has been observed to stick in the "on" position.  It remains so
         even after unplugging/replugging the launcher device.  This may be a mechanical issue.

         Workaround: Enable the "Override" feature, then move to the right-most extreme and back
         again.

       Video doesn't work
         At the time of this writing, the USB webcam packaged with the Dream Cheeky MSN Missile
         Launcher does not work.  The vendor/product ID as shown with `lsusb' is reported as
         0ac8:307b (Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. USB 1.1 WebCam).  This is a problem with the
         kernel driver.  Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

         Workaround: Use a different webcam, possibly attached with rubber bands.  Be creative.

       My gray rocket launcher doesn't work
         The predecessor to the Striker II launcher has the same VID/PID, but uses different USB
         commands.  There is a program out there called "pymissile" that supposedly supports this
         launcher.  The original Striker launcher accepts batteries and lacks a laser.

AUTHORS

       pyrocket was written by Karl Ostmo <kostmo@gmail.com>.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

       Reverse engineering of the USB control messages for each rocket launcher was accomplished
       with SnoopyPro: http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbsnoop/

COPYRIGHT

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
       the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
       version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

       On Debian GNU/Linux systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be
       found in `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL'.

                                            2010-05-26                                PYROCKET(6)