[PD] latency spikes on linux when sending wiimote's rumble and LED messages

[Ivica Ico Bukvic]

Greetings all,

Has anyone encountered issues with the wiimote external (pd-extended 0.42 on
8.10 Ubuntu 2.6.29-rc6-rt kernel) when using "rumble" and/or LED commands?
The system appears to be rock solid in terms of audio latency (thanks to the
rt kernel) until I use one (or both) of the aforesaid features. As soon as
rumble and/or LED are enabled, I get xruns practically every other
millisecond reported by Pd (red button on the main Pd window). JACK shows no
xruns. The wiimote has a few other minor bugs (e.g. disabling accelerometer
monitoring does not actually work which is I guess no biggie).

I guess I could try to run wiimote in an non-rt instance of Pd next to the
rt instance processing audio, but before I take that route I was wondering
if I had possibly missed something or if there is a simpler way.

Best wishes,

Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A.
Composition, Music Technology
Director, DISIS Interactive Sound & Intermedia Studio
Assistant Co-Director, CCTAD
CHCI, CS, and Art (by courtesy)
Virginia Tech
Dept. of Music - 0240
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-6139
(540) 231-5034 (fax)
ico at vt.edu
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/bukvic/