About
David G. Wilson is a part-time independant iPhone developer living in Wellington, New Zealand.
My association with all things Apple goes back to the Apple ][+ where I was involved in systems development supporting a local business part time.
I’m a former President of the Wellington Apple Users’ Group and in 1997 was awarded an honorary Life Membership.
Today I work for one of the worlds leading IT manufacturers and service providers and in my spare time (not much) enjoy some iPhone development.
I brought a iPhone 3G as soon as possible when they were released in New Zealand being keen to get my hands on the new device and be able to control a computer with the touch and flick of a finger. Being able to download and begin development with the iPhone software development kit has unleashed possibilities that quite frankly I wish I’d thought of (or I wouldn’t still be looking for that lotto win). In an interesting twist I now carry around two phones every day – one is my non iPhone work provide cell phone, and the other is my iPhone or iEverything device. Why? Well I just can’t bring myself to put my work SIM into my personal iPhone. At that point it ceases to become my phone and I think the fun will go. The iPhone is on pre-pay and I’m only consuming data on it using the various data options available, currently NZ$10 for 100MB and this suits me just fine.
I’ve got several applications that I’m developing and these do tend to be things that interest me. For example one of my first applications took a look at the iPhone location services (GPS). That application has a lot of features, lets you keep track of where you’ve been and then ultimately you can look at where you have travelled overlaid on GoogleEarth. Certain mechanics of this application have bugged me so it’s never been released.
Along with a good friend here in Wellington who assisted with reverse engineering the USB control codes for the USB Missile Launchers I write the Mac software called “USB Missile Launcher NZ”. Trying to figure out how to get this working with the iPhone proved to be relatively easy in the end. The desktop software is still required with the iPhone “Missile Control” connecting to the desktop software over WiFi to remotely (look mum no wires) control the launcher. As of writing the application is still going through the approval process at Apple.
Today I can be found on the web in two places (the later needs a bit of an update):
https://dgwilson.wordpress.com
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/dgwilson/
David's Opinions 
Hi there
I noticed you like USB Missile launcher… and you like digital photography…. Heres a crazy idea I had…. and since you know how to program…..
I mounted an iSight firewire camera onto my USB Missile launcher…. Please, OH PLEASE could you write a program to take advantage of both… PLEASE!!!! with a little crosshair in the middle… OH PLEASE! you owe it to youself!!
Alpha version of software has been released – Early October 2006.
I’ve been contiuing to develop the beta version during the month, adding help, a version check feature, getting the size of the video window right (according to me), and providing a user feedback system. It may not be far off a release.
i have the usb missile launcher an i have down loaded your program
“usb missile launcher nz v1.4b.zip. I am running mac os 10.3.9. the
program wont launch for me. I click on the application icon and nothing happens. please help.
Thank you,
Robert Drucker
The latest version of the Missile Launcher software (version 1.4b) may no longer work under 10.3.9. I can e-mail to people on request the older 1.3.1 version that should work.
I hope you get your USB Rockett Launcher soon,, and you easily get it to work with your software (I think it should work without any modification)
Dear David,
my name is Renato from Napoli, Italy.
I hope this is the right way to contact you.
Please, how can I download USB missile launcher software for mac OSX 10.3.9?
Thank you
Renato…
I have just tried to e-mail you v1.3.1 of the Missile Launcher software. However the e-mail bounced as the supplied address is incorrect. Contact me with your e-mail address and I can mail you back the software.
Note that v1.3.1 does not support the DreamCheeky Rocket Launcher.
you are very kind. Please try this email: rtogna@unina.it.
Thank you again, I’ll inform you if, on Christmas morning, the first launch performed by my little boy will be succesful
Renato
Hi I would also like the older v1.3.1 to run on my older mac. I might be able to host the file for you, with permission of course.
Thanks
Another request for 1.3.1 please! My son’s just been given an old iMac running OSX 10.3.9 and wants to “protect” his bedroom from intruders.
Dave, I am another who is running OSX 10.3.9 would it be possible to e-mail me the 1.3.1 version for my rocket launcher
Kind regards
Ian Stewart
can you make this work with this one that I found http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/8bc4/
hi Dave,
Just amazing and greate blog every i find regarding reviews..
In a very short i want to invite you to join all blogger community and please if you find coll then you can add your blogs on http://www.allblogger.info directory.
Most welcome,
Regards,
Mitul Dadhania
Dear David,
How about the idea to control the device when you’re somewhere else?
Either by making it Applescriptable thereby giving it hooks to the surrounding world – or maybe a remote client even. We’ve built applet for controlling cameras, and this would be quite similar, yes?
How about an applet that also has the camera feed in it?
Surf’s up!
best regards
Alex
Hello, can you contact me about an article I am working on?
[edited so that e-mail address removed – DGW]
looking for the 1.3.1 version of your software to install on 10.3.9. Thanks!
Driver Development Requirement
Hi,
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Write to us and we can provide you drivers based on Custom requirements and specific needs.
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Halston Software
http://www.halstonsoftwares.com
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Tel : 91-22-25006123
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Nice job. I was wondering if you could at point me in the right direction regarding a similar problem I have with (don’t laugh) Elmo Know’s Your Name. My 2 year old got it as a present and before we realized it wasn’t Mac friendly it was out of the box.
I noticed that when I connect it via USB to my iBook it shows up as a tenx nonstandard devic. And when I look in the System Profiler it has the product ID of 0x0202, which is the same as the missile launcher… no?
I wonder if there’s some piece of code from your missile launcher driver that would allow Elmo to show up in the Finder. I just need to be able to tweak some XML files on my red fuzzy friend.
Thanks
🙂 OK, that’s a fury inquiry! 🙂 – haven’t had that one before….
I’m curious to know what the manufacturer ID is for the device out of system profiler… To see if there is a match there….
Really now the remainder of the “debug” or “Reverse engineering” process is to connect the device up to a PC (with the supplied software) and download and install SnoopyPro (c/- sourceforge) to determine what commands (or control sequences) are sent to the device….
Hi,
I need to get my hands on version 1.3.1 or 1.3.3… the software version that works on MAC 10.3.9
how can i get this?
thanks
I just got anUSB Missile Launcher as a gift for my Power PC G4. Your 1.4.8 and 1.4.9 seem to work in all modes EXCEPT for fire or fire3.
I’m guessing I’m overlooking something. any ideas?
thanks
I just got the missile launcher for Christmas.
Software not working right (XP Sp2 laptop).
I have poked around your website but cannot find a Win dowload that I can try.
Do you have the latest and greatest Win XP compatible missile launcher software?
You will need to download the Windows software from http://www.dreamcheeky.com (this assumes you have one of these launchers). Check their download section.
– David
Hi
thanks for doing all the hard yards in decoding the data stream from the Bios station and making that available….saved me alot of time (for a windows program) !
I am also interested in how you got around the problem of the Mc claiming exlcusive access to a HID device….maybe you could help me develop a driver for other HID weather stations for the Mac (for Mac proggram)?
Did you remove the program and USB specs from your download section? I don’t see it now. If so could you email me a copy. Thanks for all the work so far!
Hi, my USB Missile Launcher doesnt seem to work under OSX 1.6.4
The Software does not recognize that it is connected.
In my VMWare with Windows 7 there is no problem.
Any idea?
Hello and Merry Christmas. I recieved the Striker II launcher for Christmas and thank the maker I found your program. I am having three issues though.
1) While running the program, it will randomly fire all three missiles for no reason
2) I cant get the launcher to aim up or down.
3) the controls are inverted and I have looked everywhere and cant figure out why.
Running MacOSX 10.6.5 on a Mac Book Pro 15in Intel
Thanks Mate
Congratulations on getting the launcher!
Let’s address your questions in a random order! 🙂
> 3. controls are inverted.
In the preferences, under general, try selecting “Reverse Arrow keys” – hopefully that will fix it.
> 2. can’t get the launcher to aim up or down
This could be a problem. There is a chance that the launcher is faulty. But to confirm the diagnosis, you need to run the launcher and software under windows with the manufactures supplied software. Sorry, but there isn’t really any better way to prove this. I have had success running the software under Parallels (v6), I don’t know about VMWare.
The other possibility is that the manufacturer has changed the internal control codes and that what I have is no longer valid. I’d recommend starting with testing on Windows first. Sorry.
> 1. randomly fire all three missiles
Shouldn’t really happen. Refer response to 2 above. You can turn on Debug, again in the General preferences. The output goes to the console.log (run the console program in the utilities folder to see the output). At least it will tell you when it’s firing. May not tell you why. The output is very verbose.
Hopefully that will give you something to go on for now.
– David
David G. Wilson https://dgwilson.wordpress.com http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/dgwilson/
Hei David! thx a lot for your nice and comfortable software solution, I’m trying it with my DreamCheeky (Green and Black) Misslile Launcher at the moment. It works fine but won’t fire any missiles
Any clue, what could be the problem there?
thx Philipp
Hi David,
I’m sure you’ve had enough of answering DreamCheeky launcher questions by now… I’ve found one and am trying to get it to work on my Mac. I found your latest updates of the 1.8.1 app for mac os but the link to the .dmg is broken. Is there another place I can find the latest version to download? Any help is appreciated.
Thank you,
Guy
Hi Guy…
Thank you for the message… yes as time goes by the questions and support get more and more difficult. Can you advise please the link to the corrupt dmg?
I’ve gathered up a number of dmg files for various releases and placed in a shared folder on Google Drive… I hope one of these work for you. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X6HRXEJrrwXxKwHpYoJv8HLGrd-5F8vU?usp=sharing
You may find that the firing mechanism doesn’t work or sticks due to age… hopefully you at least get let / right / up / down.
– David
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