Joystick port glitches: who will come to the rescue?

I first encounterd problems with my Joystick port after building a AMD 800 SlotA system (about 1 year ago) I used a Diamond MX400 soundcard game port. When trying to calibrate my wheel (TSW2) the calibration needle was bouncing all over the screen like a crack smoking jumping bean.. This is in Windows/Controllers Even after disabling "Poll with interrupts" the problem still persisted. I then discovered the PDPL4 gameport card that is digital and is not affected my these analog frequencies that affect the Standard Gameport. But then I ran into another problem , my motherboard Abit KA7100 wasn't compatiable with my GeForce2 card,, the machine would not POST with this card but worked great with a V3, the GeForce worked great in the older Celeron 400a system, so I couldn't run N4/GPL in all its glory..but I digress. So I recently built a SocketA based AMD 900Mhz system, with the downturn in prices I couldn't resist (can you say 60 bucks for a 900Mhz CPU?) I can !! Using a Asus board this time (A7V-E) and I sent the Abit board RMA to be repaired Used the same case and power supply (HIC 300GR) and used a PCI based SB 16 soundcard. My joystick port glitch problem seemed to lesson but in GPL and NASCAR4 when racing I"d noticed that after a few laps the precission my my wheel slowly went away.. after about 5 laps steering became almost impossible..especially on straights, if I went back and recalibrated it was finally for another 5 laps or so.. I could no longer use the PDPL4 because the new mobo (like most new mobos, didn't support ISA) I got a RockFire USB joystick port adapter this finally resolved the glitches in the wheel but whats odd is when I calibrate the wheel in N4 or GPL the max values for steering are only 0 to 90, where it should be 0 to 255. But whats more interesting is I don't noticed any difference in my steering while racing... Hmmmmmm,, actually turning faster laps now.. Perhaps the values are incorrect and are actually more then just 90, but my question is why hasn't this problem been addressed by a PCI based joystick card. Are the big companies not aware of this problem? Am I the only person with this problem? Also the only piece of hardware that is the same from the Abit based system and the Asus based system is the power supply, perhaps it is the culprit in all of this..... When I calibrate in N4/GPL with the rockfire device the calibration needle is rock solid when using the gameport on the soundcard the needle jumps around a bit... And I recently install new POTs in my TSW so I think they are fine..

> I got a RockFire USB joystick port adapter > this finally resolved the glitches in the wheel but whats odd is when > I calibrate the wheel in N4 or GPL the max values for steering are > only 0 to 90, where it should be 0 to 255. I have looked into that problem a bit and it seems like the Rockfire adapter is designed for pots with higher values, around 250 kohm. I don't know the exact maximum pot value, since I haven't tested it. At the max pot value you will get the highest possible readout (255) in games and also the highest possible resolution. The Rockfire adapter has only about 100 separaste positions to report within the 0-255 range. This gives that at that if you use a 100k pot, there is only about 30-40 positions reported from the adapter to the games. There is two possible solutions for this problem. You can replace your pots to bigger ones, or modify the Rockfire adapter to report higher values at lower potentiometer resistance to give you the full range. The later method involves replacing a capasitor for each axis. I haven't documented the operation, but I can look into my adapter and tell more you about the capasitors to replace. The problem with the Rockire adapter are due to the calibration method used for it. It is the operative system/games that gets calibrated to the adapter and not the adapter to the potentiometers. > > Perhaps the values are incorrect and are actually more then just 90, > but my question is why hasn't this problem been addressed by a PCI > based joystick card. Are the big companies not aware of this problem? > Am I the only person with this problem? I guess not, and it is strange that it isn't more talked about.

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> > > When I calibrate in N4/GPL with the rockfire device the calibration > needle is rock solid when using the gameport on the soundcard the > needle jumps around a bit... > > And I recently install new POTs in my TSW so I think they are fine.. >

-- Mauritz Lindqvist Lindqvist Sweden Spamguard: Remove .ajabaja in e-mail

There's another solution: edit the registry. I had to do this with the original 100kOhm pots that came with the early ECCI wheels. It's easy enuf to find the right branch of the Registry tree, but the values are in hex, so counter-intuitive to edit (unless you think in hex). I've forgotten how to do it, but you might still find a site with instructions for the PDPI game card. It's gotta be easier than changing the h/w.... If you absolutely, positively cannot find it, get back to me; I *might* be able to unearth the info...but then I'd have to kill you. --Steve Smith "Mauritz Lindqvist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:XRuU7.4861$[email hidden]...

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> > > I got a RockFire USB joystick port adapter > > this finally resolved the glitches in the wheel but whats odd is when > > I calibrate the wheel in N4 or GPL the max values for steering are > > only 0 to 90, where it should be 0 to 255. > > I have looked into that problem a bit and it seems like the Rockfire

adapter

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> is designed for pots with higher values, around 250 kohm. I don't know the > exact maximum pot value, since I haven't tested it. > > At the max pot value you will get the highest possible readout (255) in > games and also the highest possible resolution. The Rockfire adapter has > only about 100 separaste positions to report within the 0-255 range. This > gives that at that if you use a 100k pot, there is only about 30-40 > positions reported from the adapter to the games. > > There is two possible solutions for this problem. You can replace your

pots > to bigger ones, or modify the Rockfire adapter to report higher values at > lower potentiometer resistance to give you the full range. The latermethod > involves replacing a capasitor for each axis. I haven't documented the > operation, but I can look into my adapter and tell more you about the > capasitors to replace. > > The problem with the Rockire adapter are due to the calibration methodused > for it. It is the operative system/games that gets calibrated to theadapter

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> and not the adapter to the potentiometers. > > > > > Perhaps the values are incorrect and are actually more then just 90, > > but my question is why hasn't this problem been addressed by a PCI > > based joystick card. Are the big companies not aware of this problem? > > Am I the only person with this problem? > > I guess not, and it is strange that it isn't more talked about. > > > > > > > When I calibrate in N4/GPL with the rockfire device the calibration > > needle is rock solid when using the gameport on the soundcard the > > needle jumps around a bit... > > > > And I recently install new POTs in my TSW so I think they are fine.. > > > > -- > > Mauritz Lindqvist Lindqvist > Sweden > > Spamguard: Remove .ajabaja in e-mail > > >

found this on the TSW websites, pretty much says it all http://www.thomas-superwheel.com/prods/usbadp.html snip: Improves stability of calibration, at the cost of slightly lower axis resolution On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 19:27:05 GMT, "Stephen Smith" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>There's another solution: edit the registry. I had to do this with the >original 100kOhm pots that came with the early ECCI wheels. It's easy enuf >to find the right branch of the Registry tree, but the values are in hex, so >counter-intuitive to edit (unless you think in hex). I've forgotten how to >do it, but you might still find a site with instructions for the PDPI game >card. It's gotta be easier than changing the h/w.... > >

No need to kill me, I think I know some of the regedit stuff already. :-) I guess you used the ECCI wheel with the PDPI card? There is some registry edits you can do to optimize the range, but those are specific for the PDPI card and has nothing to do with Direct Input itself. There is some general type of regedits for DInput, but I think they can't increase the reported axis resolution for the Rockfire USB adapter. Take a look at the graphs I have put together to see the differance between the regedit method and modifying the hardware. The graphs show both calibrated data and raw data. Raw data is reported directly from the device without any modifications from DInput. The red dots represents every reported position from the axis. http://w1.111.telia.com/~u11103812/Rockfire.jpg The tested axis has a resistor range of 0-35 kOhm. But I would really like to know if there there is any regedit to do, to change the resolution for the USB adapter. -- M Lindqvist "Stephen Smith" <[email hidden]> skrev i meddelandet news:d2MU7.18111$[email hidden]... > There's another solution: edit the registry. I had to do this with the > original 100kOhm pots that came with the early ECCI wheels. It's easy enuf > to find the right branch of the Registry tree, but the values are in hex, so > counter-intuitive to edit (unless you think in hex). I've forgotten how to > do it, but you might still find a site with instructions for the PDPI game > card. It's gotta be easier than changing the h/w.... > > If you absolutely, positively cannot find it, get back to me; I *might* be > able to unearth the info...but then I'd have to kill you. > > --Steve Smith >

Two probs, Rich: 1. USB is slower than an IRS refund. 2. If you can find one, the PDPI is still the best gameport interface ever devised by man. (Not that that was the original issue.) --Steve <Rich#8> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> found this on the TSW websites, pretty much says it all > > http://www.thomas-superwheel.com/prods/usbadp.html > > > snip: > > Improves stability of calibration, at the cost of slightly lower axis > resolution > > > > > > On Fri, 21 Dec 2001 19:27:05 GMT, "Stephen Smith" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >There's another solution: edit the registry. I had to do this with the > >original 100kOhm pots that came with the early ECCI wheels. It's easy

enuf > >to find the right branch of the Registry tree, but the values are in hex,so > >counter-intuitive to edit (unless you think in hex). I've forgotten howto > >do it, but you might still find a site with instructions for the PDPIgame > >card. It's gotta be easier than changing the h/w.... > > > >

Mauritz, Yes, the Reg edits were for the PDPI, but I was under the impression that there were Reg values that accomodated the range of any analog I/O device (that would be converted from 0-40 or 0-250,000 ohms to the traditional digital values of 0-256). I could be terribly wrong. Guess I have no right to take a life, huh? --Steve "Mauritz Lindqvist" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:ib%U7.5122$[email hidden]... > No need to kill me, I think I know some of the regedit stuff already. :-) > > I guess you used the ECCI wheel with the PDPI card? There is some registry > edits you can do to optimize the range, but those are specific for thePDPI > card and has nothing to do with Direct Input itself. There is some general > type of regedits for DInput, but I think they can't increase the reported > axis resolution for the Rockfire USB adapter. > > Take a look at the graphs I have put together to see the differancebetween > the regedit method and modifying the hardware. The graphs show both > calibrated data and raw data. Raw data is reported directly from thedevice

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> without any modifications from DInput. The red dots represents every > reported position from the axis. > > http://w1.111.telia.com/~u11103812/Rockfire.jpg > > The tested axis has a resistor range of 0-35 kOhm. > > But I would really like to know if there there is any regedit to do, to > change the resolution for the USB adapter. > > -- > > M Lindqvist > > "Stephen Smith" <[email hidden]> skrev i meddelandet > news:d2MU7.18111$[email hidden]... > > There's another solution: edit the registry. I had to do this with the > > original 100kOhm pots that came with the early ECCI wheels. It's easy > enuf > > to find the right branch of the Registry tree, but the values are in

hex, > so > > counter-intuitive to edit (unless you think in hex). I've forgotten how > to > > do it, but you might still find a site with instructions for the PDPIgame > > card. It's gotta be easier than changing the h/w.... > > > > If you absolutely, positively cannot find it, get back to me; I *might*be > > able to unearth the info...but then I'd have to kill you. > > > > --Steve Smith > > > >