Joystick to USB Converter Info (Part 1)

I received a RockFire Joystick-to-USB converter yesterday. In the case you missed (and give a hoot) my earlier posting on the reason this was of interest, i'll restate it here. I have a MS FF Wheel for racing sims and a Thrustmaster FLCS/TQS/RCS for flight sims. Switching between the two involves shutting down, crawling around on my floor and swapping KB, Mouse, and Joystick cables. A standard joyswitch won't work as it doesn't support the digital MS FF Wheel. The PDPI L4 (which is in my closet and is for sale BTW) has two ports, but IT doesn't support the digital equipment either. Now if I could have my MS Wheel plugged into my SB Live! game port AND have my TM gear working through my USB port all would be well in computerland. Thats exactly what I have now. The installation is tough <G>. Plug your stick into the adapter, choose one of 4 available modes (1-TM FCS System,2- CH Flightstick Pro, 3- 2/3/4 Axis stick(my choice), I *think* 4 is for a gamepad) plug the other end into the USB port (at this point my system started emitting sounds like a key was being held down for about 20 seconds, then the sound stopped), it asks for a driver, you insert the disk that comes with it.. You then calibrate the stick, throttle, and rudders. The calibration made me wonder if it was going to work as it was acting squirrely... until I realized I had the CTFJ Joystick centering utility running. Killed CTFJ and it calibrated normally. Was rock solid with no jittering and I ran Warbirds and IAF for a quick test and the controllers worked great. I haven't had a chance to try it with some of my other equipment, such as the MS Wheel or the CH FF Stick/Pro Throttle/Pro Pedals (hence the Part 1 reference), but will post on different results as I get them. All in all a good experience so far..... G. Patricks

Thanks for the Info, cuz I may do this when I finish (?) my Celery project and go to W98. Keep us posted! :-) --Dave

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> I received a RockFire Joystick-to-USB converter yesterday. In the case > you missed (and give a hoot) my earlier posting on the reason this was > of interest, i'll restate it here. I have a MS FF Wheel for racing > sims and a Thrustmaster FLCS/TQS/RCS for flight sims. Switching > between the two involves shutting down, crawling around on my floor > and swapping KB, Mouse, and Joystick cables. A standard joyswitch > won't work as it doesn't support the digital MS FF Wheel. The PDPI L4 > (which is in my closet and is for sale BTW) has two ports, but IT > doesn't support the digital equipment either. Now if I could have my > MS Wheel plugged into my SB Live! game port AND have my TM gear > working through my USB port all would be well in computerland. > Thats exactly what I have now. The installation is tough <G>. Plug > your stick into the adapter, choose one of 4 available modes (1-TM FCS > System,2- CH Flightstick Pro, 3- 2/3/4 Axis stick(my choice), I > *think* 4 is for a gamepad) plug the other end into the USB port (at > this point my system started emitting sounds like a key was being held > down for about 20 seconds, then the sound stopped), it asks for a > driver, you insert the disk that comes with it.. You then calibrate > the stick, throttle, and rudders. The calibration made me wonder if > it was going to work as it was acting squirrely... until I realized I > had the CTFJ Joystick centering utility running. Killed CTFJ and it > calibrated normally. Was rock solid with no jittering and I ran > Warbirds and IAF for a quick test and the controllers worked great. > I haven't had a chance to try it with some of my other equipment, such > as the MS Wheel or the CH FF Stick/Pro Throttle/Pro Pedals (hence the > Part 1 reference), but will post on different results as I get them. > All in all a good experience so far..... > G. Patricks

-- Dave Schwabe The Aussie Toad -- Grand Prix Legends & Brabham site http://users.wi.net/~schwabe

snip Thnx for the info G.P, I was really keen to get 1 of these ,so I could use my old digital edge pedals with my new Microsoft forcefeedback wheel. I thought this would be only way to go, but I finally managed to make myself a splitter cable that worked with the help of a little program. Took a while figuring out the correct wiring.why don't they give us detailed pin out diagrams like they used to? Its also annoying that there are so few racers/sims out there that actually allow 1 person to use 2 joysticks. So for many I am forced to use the weak Microsoft pedals. But keep us posted on how its working,im very interested to know if it copes with digital forcefeedback sticks? -- Vince Fisher

snip Doug - To answer the performance increase question, no. I wasn't looking for an increase in framerate as I currently run a P2 450 at 504mz, 256megs, with 2 12meg V2s in SLI. I simply needed a solution to the Joyswitching problem while using an Analog Thrustmaster FLCS/TQS/RCS and a Microsoft digital Force Feedback wheel. A standard joyswitch won't support the FF Wheel, so I needed a 2nd input for the TM gear. The USB adapter provides it and does it quite well. Its rock steady and shows NO signs of jittering. G. Patricks