The Launcher Library

This is the homepage for the Launcher library, a library for controlling USB-connected missile launchers (no, not weapons – toys).

Rationale

I got a Dream Cheeky missile launcher from my previous work. Unfortunately, the software is buggy under Windows XP (but seems to work under Windows 2000). Also, it does not work under my preferred OS – Linux.

There have been a couple of attempts at interfacing this thing, most notably this and this. However, the first one is not for Linux, and the second one is really poorly written. It uses libusb instead of the HID layer, which results in big problems when the kernel loads the HID driver, thus locking the device.

Accomplishments

For now, there is a C library which can communicate with the launcher The Right Way©, through the hiddev in Linux. It can enumerate the devices and do everything you would like to do with the launcher, including a higher-level library where you specify direction rather than motor on/off.

As the Dream Cheeky device only has limit switches, the higher-level library is dependent on calibration of its timings and the speed of the computer.

Finally, there are two programs:

lconsole

A console based controlling application.

lcontrol

A wxWidgets based controlling application.

Downloads

Distributed under the Revised BSD License.

Installation

The package is based on GNU Autotools and should work well. You will need wxWidgets 2.6.0 or better.

1. Download the package.
2. tar xzf launcher-x.tar.gz
3. ./configure && make && make install

Documentation

There are test programs in src/tests that explain most basic stuff. The header in src/include/launcher.h is somewhat documented.

Supported Devices

As of version 1.0, the library supports

• Dream Cheeky Missile Launcher

Roadmap

See TODO in the distribution archive.