hi, is there someone to help me in the game port connection? specialy for the four axes, buttons and hat view. thx in advance
U need sbdy to help install game port, borrow a screwdriver, or what? Or maybe some diagrams? http://pinouts.ru/connector/15_pin_D-SUB_female_connector.shtml
saddan, explain more pls yivan: the sidewinder precision connected on game port does no perform with 4 axes, hat view and some buttons?
Theres a Microchip Tech. family of ICs that makes USB compatibility very easy. 16C745, 16C765, 18F2445 etc... the 16C765 and 16C745 are very good for HID devices (joysticks, keyboards, mices, etc) and the programming is already done for you, (Microchip distrubutes a firmware software HID for free, and the HID drivers are already pre-installed on your Windows by default). With 16C765 you can have 8 analog inputs (ie, X, Y, Throttle, Pedals, Prop. Pitch, Fuel Mix, etc) and some 16 buttons (Fire 1, Fire 2, Fire 3, Fire 4, Eng. Start, Flaps Up/Down, Hat Switches, etc)... The circuit board is very simple, and the 18Fxxxx family is so simple to program that the same cable that does the normal USB connection can be used to program it (IE, build the circuit, connect it and run the microchip free programmer in order to upload the free HID device firmware, voilá, its ready and running). Using it you can build an Joystick port to USB interface and use the aditional features to build some more controls... (Like your HAT) But if your analog joystick uses the MIDI at the Joystick port.... Forget it.
Yeah, but it uses the MIDI port in order to do this, and its not simple to decode it, actually each joystick wich does this have his own protocol, a pain in the ass...
Actually, using these microcontrollers you can have 256 axis x 256 buttons, but this will need more eletronics knowledge from you... (Multiplexing all the signals to the limited set of pins, and writing correct software for the pic to interpret everything...)
ok thx saddan i'm not so in electronics, but the microship sound nice for my plans. edit : exept the price maybe, i will first do w/o hat imho
I am building a heavy duty (machined in steel pieces) flight yoke using the 18Fxxxx microcontroller for the USB interface. It will have Yoke, 3xEngine controls, Pedals and an assortment of buttons around (one in each yoke handler tip, one at the tip of the power control - wep or afterburner, one at each pedal tip - brakes, and some around the yoke center for general porpuse things like flaps up/down, radiator lips up/down, landing gear up/down, etc)... Using 18Fxxxx on virtual serial mode i will try to build a MFD screen using an old CGA monitor i have... Someday i will have my own enclosed cockpit with a car chair and etc.. for under $500
Its sells for under $ 10 unit, depends on your part supplier. I have a friend in USA so i asked him to bring as much 18Fxxx as possible It sells for under $ 5 per unit at Radio Shack stores... I will do this and i will publish schematics and software on a gnu license basis...
I hope you are using a cad proggie. Make it easy for me to manipulate and adjust some things. I have hands as small as a little girls. I have never found a hat joystick I can use without taping wads of crap all over it to support my hand. Even then, my thumb can't reach over to the left to hit whatever buttons are there. No. I am not complaining. Well, I am a little bit. ALL the world's lawn mowers seem to be made for men my size [I am 170cm tall] so I feel bad for big guys who have to bend over little tiny lawn mowers. And a small car doesn't feel so small to me, unless I am in it for more than an hour, then my life long hatred of automobiles gets the better of me and I start screaming "Let me out of this death trap!" [When I am in an automobile for any length of time, I start hearing, repeated, over and over, in a sinister, tiny voice in my head: Arbiet macht Frei nevermind. PLEASE use a cad proggie [I bet you know how, you are not an old fogey, like most of my crowd is, thay all think cad is a Bad Man(yeah, look the word up, 'cad,' not 'CAD'] Bye
This must be some kind of demo/experimentation board, they are generally overpriced... the bare microcontroller setup is much lower cost, around R$ 10 here in brazil (around five US dollars)... Just needs 4 resistors, 1 xtal, 1 capacitor the microcontroller itself, the circuit board and correct USB cable. This is the very basic setup, wich will enumerate correctly when plugged on the computer while window/linux is running. The rest depends on the task at hand, but are generally limited to mommentary push switches and potentiometers... (and you need to edit the default microchip descriptor in order to personalize your equip. - default microchip distributed firmware will enumerate as "Microchip HID Gamepad", not exactely what a flight sim expects.... Microchip USB PIC family This is needed for 16C family, the basic USB functionality Firmware code for USB More code examples USB Application notes A Gamepad gameport to USB adapter Then you need to edit some .asm files in order to build your functionality, joinning it with the previous code (the basic USB services) and you have a working USB dongle. The 18F family is easier in this aspect because they are programable trought the very same USB cable you have during normal use. But don´t be scared, the programming involved is very simple. And look at the prices... The most suitable for a bare joystick is the 16C family... But for 16C you will need a device programmer (There are people who can write a PIC for you for under US$ 50, or even US$ 5 for unit - everything depends on the quantity, the more you need the less you pay for unit...). I have my own built PIC programmer... so... Look at the basic circuitry for 16C745/16C765 Very simple eletronically, huh ? comes from this site : Some kind of USB tutorial, bla bla not very related but...
Wait, i will rewrite the firmware and post it here... Ok, its scaring to see those .asm files, even i am scared of them But i will take the gamepad example and translate it into a generic firmware for a USB box with 8 potentiometer inputs and 16 mommentary switch inputs
Hmm, I wish you worked in my group. Tomorrow I'm going to be in a conference call with several big chip, board and card companies (the big ones), and I haven't done any circuit stuff since 1981 :0 Damn.
http://www.epanorama.net/documents/joystick/pc_special.html http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~vojtech/joystick/specs.txt
very interesting saddan, but i'm afraid i'm to ignorant to use that stuff or a complete step by step (as a food cooking ) could help me, but i think it would be very big task from u i know only solder, and assembling mecanik systems, but computers....
