Wii Remote IR Camera Hack with Arduino Interface

Step 3 I2c Circuit

This part is a little trickier. The i2c chip is a tiny surface mount chip, so you'll need to solder that. First you need the surface mount to DIP board. This will allow us to work with the tiny chip in a prototyping circuit. This chip is the communication device between the 5 volt arduino and the 3.3 volt Wii camera.

The chip:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=LTC4301LCMS8%23PBF-ND

The surface mount to DIP adapter:
http://cimarrontechnology.com/msop-8sot-23-8to8-pindipadapterpn030502.aspx

Here is a great video, which explains, far better than I can, how to solder those darn surface mount chips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NN7UGWYmBY

Comments

[mmalluck]

I'm wondering if a 3.3v to 5v logic converter is necessary. Some folks have had luck with disabling the internal pull-up resistors used in wire library and installing their own pull-up resistors to 3.3v source.

http://www.varesano.net/blog/fabio/how-disable-internal-arduino-atmega-pullups-sda-and-scl-i2c-bus

No converter necessary.