Author Topic: yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.  (Read 665 times)

Offline spitfiremkv

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« on: February 23, 2005, 05:59:52 PM »
I have always been flying with a joystick. It's obviously the most realistic control for WW2 sims like AH and Il2.
However, I also fly FS2002 quite a lot, with an emphasis on getting an experience as real and as educational as possible.I fly mostly GA airplanes, therefore a yoke and rudder pedals would be the realistic control system.
I have seen quite a few older CH yoke/pedal combos on Ebay for reasonable prices. However, these connect to a gameport, with a Y cable to accomadate both pedals and yoke. I don't have a gameport on my computer. I do have a joystick-USB adapter I purchased from Radio Shack, but I'd like to know if  it can accomodate a yoke/pedals combination.
I'd also like to keep my joystcik connected for games that are played better with a joystick. I don't know if windows XP can accomodate 2 game controllers at the same time.
anyone knows?

Offline GuyNoir

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2005, 07:52:13 PM »
Not sure if this'll help, but I have a usb Saitek stick and gameport Simped pedals.  The pedals are connected through a gameport-to-usb converter like you have, and the entire setup works great.

Offline RedTop

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Offline StarOfAfrica2

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2005, 09:02:17 PM »
As a long time user of CH analog (gameport) products, or "legacy" devices as they are now called, allow me to enlighten you.

A "gameport to USB" adapter comes in varieties.  The MS Sidewinder sticks used one example, a simple adapter that had a female gameport plug on one end and a USB 1.1 plug on the other end.  The reason is, when the Sidewinders came out, computers were transitioning from gameport to USB and MS wanted the stick to be useable with either type of system.  However, this adapter was only useable because the stick was already a digital stick and USB ready.  For a true Analog stick or device to work, it has to be polled.  Digital (USB) sticks dont use polling, they talk directly to the OS.  They do make adapters (more like "converters") that you can plug an Analog stick or other device into that will do the polling for the stick, and convert the information into digital format and send the information to the computer via the USB plug.  I have no idea how well they work, I've never owned one.  I just bought a SoundBlaster card that had a gameport on it.

Oh and that isnt a "Y" adapter on your pedal cable.  The stick (or yoke) only plugs into one of the connections, the other one is pretty much useless.  It was designed for "high speed" gamecards that had two plugins on them (called "readdressable" cards) so you could add the toe brake function on the rudder pedals.  The USB pedals have this function, the analog ones only have it if you have one of those cards.  Considering that they only ever made readdressable gamecards in ISA format, and no modern computer has an ISA slot, its a moot point.

Considering a cheap soundcard is probably less than one of the hard to find analog/digital converters to plug your analog joystick into a USB spot, that would be my choice.  Wait.  It WAS my choice.  :)  

Best of luck!

Oh, and Windows XP can easily handle more than one controller.  It dont likee the analog so much, but they work if you download the analog drivers from CH's website.  Otherwise, XP wont recognize them.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2005, 09:05:23 PM by StarOfAfrica2 »

Offline ChickenHawk

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2005, 11:19:08 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by StarOfAfrica2

Oh, and Windows XP can easily handle more than one controller.  It dont likee the analog so much, but they work if you download the analog drivers from CH's website.  Otherwise, XP wont recognize them.


You actually got your analog CH pedals to work on XP?  I installed the CH drivers but XP still won't see my pedals.  Did you have to do anything out of the ordinary?

Also, on CH's web site it specifically says the analog pedals will not work with USB controllers and when I talked with their tech support they verified this.  Assuming your stick is USB, how did you get around the problem?

My poor pedals have been sitting in a box for a couple years now, completely useless.
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Offline StarOfAfrica2

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2005, 11:43:03 AM »
I dont have a USB stick, my stuff is all analog.  And the trick is, XP (or any other version of Windows for that matter) will not recognize the pedals without a stick hooked up to them.  

So the cheapo way to make your pedals work with a USB stick?  Go buy a cheap analog joystick, plug it in to your pedals, plug the pedals into the gameport, and in the Windows Game Devices control panel, you select the analog stick and click the box for rudder pedals.  Calibrate everything, then when you get into AH, you set your USB stick for the joystick controls, and just select the pedals for the Z axis (rudders).  So you have 2 joysticks attatched to your computer, but you only use one.  The one connected to your pedals is just there to get them to function.

Offline ChickenHawk

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2005, 12:25:11 PM »
Brilliant!  I don't know why I didn't try that before.  I've got an old stick just sitting in a box that should do the trick.  Thanks for the tip.
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Offline Callisto

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2005, 01:45:28 PM »
Interesting info..

Can this be done with Pro throttle?

I have CH products stick and pedals, it'd be great if i could get gameport pro throttle working together with my USB stuff.

Offline StarOfAfrica2

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2005, 05:12:48 PM »
I honestly dont know on the Throttle.  I know the pedal thing works because I've tried it.  I've never had the Pro Throttle.  It depends if it can be recognized without a stick attatched to it.

Offline spitfiremkv

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2005, 06:19:54 PM »
so if I want to use an older model CH I will have to  buy a special adapter...
Which previous CHyokes and pedal models are digital (does that equate they are win XP ready)?

Offline RedTop

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2005, 06:32:37 PM »
Spit..I posted that link to Ebay...its for USB pedals.
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Offline spitfiremkv

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #11 on: February 24, 2005, 07:30:42 PM »
red, i was hoping to save some money by buying an older yoke/pedals combo from ebay .A brand new combo is 249 dollars at PC aviator.

Offline StarOfAfrica2

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2005, 08:33:07 PM »
If it says any of the following:  "Analog, Gameport, Legacy", you either need an adapter or you need to buy a cheap soundcard that has a gameport on it in order to use them since your computer has no gameport (many new ones dont).

If it says:  "Digital, USB", you dont need to do anything but plug it in to your USB port.  Although for serious gaming (especially with multiple devices) I recommend buying a powered USB hub.  Some computers have a hard time with the load of several devices running off the USB at once.

Offline RightF00T

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2005, 12:24:22 PM »
I ordered a soundcard.  I found one off ebay for .99 cents.  A total of 13 dollars with fast shipping.  Seems like the cheapest and easiest route to me.

Offline eagl

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yoke rudder pedals gameport questions.
« Reply #14 on: February 26, 2005, 12:59:54 PM »
I was able to get my analog ch pedals to co-exist with my saitek usb stick/throttle by just hooking up the rudders with a generic analog racing wheel.  winxp sees both the analog wheel/pedals and usb stick without any goofy configuration at all.
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