What

USB Missile Launcher NZ can be used to control a USB Missile Launcher. As shipped the included software is only for Windows, now Mac users can control the Launcher.

Why

Myself and Glenn Anderson purchased a USB Rocket Launcher each. We already knew that it did not come with Mac OS drivers or software and took the opportunity to fill the gap. Glenn wrote the Mac OS X driver after getting things to work under OS 9. He also wrote a keyboard based program to move the turret and fire.

I've taken Glenn's code and built and Cocoa / Objective-C program with Graphical User Interface. Ideas for look and feel have come from around the globe, see references below. The source code has been included with this distribution.

Version 1.7.0 build 149 - 13 July 2009 - Download

- Preparation for 10.6 compatibility

- Fixed some potential memory leaks within the AppleScript section of code

- Fixed more memory leaks in the USB connection handling code

- Combined kext USB drivers into one file and altered for 10.6 compatibility, made associated program code changes to match

- Minimum OS Mac OS 10.5

- Fixed a redraw problem with the background graphic display after a button was pushed

- Kext updated with missile launcher vendorID and ProductID from Chic technology (seen in France June 2009)

Version 1.6.0 build 146 - 19 June 2009 - Download

- Added network messaging support. This provides the base ability for "remote control", i.e. so that an iPhone (client) application can control this software (server) for the ultimate in launcher control. A unfortunate side effect of this is that the minimum OS level required to run the launcher software is 10.5 (sorry).

- Found and fixed a memory leak that was caused everytime the launcher was unlocked/locked

Version 1.5.0 build 145 - 17 March 2009 - Download not available

- Added support for the DreamCheeky InfraRed Missile Launcher (though has to update preferences of Vendor ID (2689) and Product ID (65281) manually and ensure that the launcher type is DreamRocketII.

1. -Fixed various spellings in the readme file (thank you Lee).
   

Version 1.4.11 build 143 - 7 May 2008 - Download

This version requires Mac OS 10.4 and will run on Mac OS 1.5.

- Distribution created by automated build

- Changed application identifier from "com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ" to "com.david.USBMissileLauncherNZ" - this resolves issues with PackageMaker 3.0 - preferences are also reset as a result of this. Users could also delete the file "~/Library/Preferences/com.david.USB Missile Launcher NZ" if they want to.

- Enhanced deployment package so that System Extensions (Kext) files don't always need to be installed, and thus don't need to reboot

- Code Cleanup in USBMissileControl, DeviceNotification procedure

- Found and fixed an issue with menu controls for the launcher - specifically move up/right

- Fix an issue in German localisation language translation file

- Major internal engineering change with main window and NSResponder

- Modified driver code to handle USB device connection issues better and in a more friendly way to avoid application crashes

- Video window can now be closed and re-opened

- Main application window cannot be closed

- Fixed a bug in MissileControl for handling multiple launchers - only impacted there was DreamRocketII style launcher connected

- Launch controls drawer now has background picture (yea, big deal - I know).

Version 1.3.5 - Download

The USB Missile Launcher NZ v1.3.5 release adds support for the DreamCheeky Missile Launcher while maintaining backward compatibility with Mac OS 10.3.9 (and quite possibly 10.2.8).

Donations

If you like this software and would like to support my efforts, please consider a donation. US$10.00  Click on the link to my store at my home page http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/dgwilson or http://dgwilson.wordpress.com or go straight to the store by clicking on the following link https://order.kagi.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?storeID=6FASD

I had a some fun in the development and now I'd like to get some more Missile Launchers to make sure that multiple of them work. They are expensive to buy and ship to New Zealand, donations would help to offset the expenses. There are more launchers on the market now and I am unable to offer support for these unless I can get my hands on them to test.

LINKS

VersionTracker

MacUpdate