Controllers

[Cavelife]

I want to build some rudder pedals.  Can I use a USB Joystick and a gameport input simultaneously?

[Ghastly]

Sure.  It's limited only by Windows ability to support controllers, as far as I know.

<S>

[Ghosth]

Might want to consider something like this


http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/

You could build just about anything you want with that as a base, and have usb functionality.

Match that up with a good set of pots for your rudder pedals, have room left to build a full 4 quadrant throttle, hat, etc.

[sheperd]

Might want to consider something like this

(Image removed from quote.)
http://www.leobodnar.com/products/BU0836X/

You could build just about anything you want with that as a base, and have usb functionality.

Match that up with a good set of pots for your rudder pedals, have room left to build a full 4 quadrant throttle, hat, etc.

or somthing like this 

[Krusty]

Using multiple inputs is fine. As long as they are their own separate entities.

Example: I have 3 controllers. 1 USB throttle unit (CH), 1 analog gameport stick (MS), 1 analog gameport pedal set (CH).

The only problem is it takes more work to map which controls you want to which device, because in-game they are 3 different things. You have to switch back and forth to the different controllers to remap different switches. It's a minor price to pay.

You can take parts of some sticks and then re-build them so that your inputs go through the original boards, and it shows up as a "wingman" stick in windows, but really is your new custom rudder set. However, please note there are different voltages at work in analog and USB. Analog runs 5v through the inputs and the potentiometer varies that from 0% to 100%, and based on that voltage the system detects your input %. These are most often 100k (100,000) ohm resistance pots. USB systems use different (lower) voltages. They send a signal to the pots (usually 10k ohms if I recall) and it goes back to a circuit on a PCB that formats packets to be sent along a USB bus. You don't want to use the 100k analog pots with a USB board, so if you are building your own be sure to match the pots resistance to what you're doing (analog vs USB).

Also note that I have analog and cannot overclock my system at all. Not even slightly. If I do it screws up my gameport bus somehow. My stick totally spasses out, buttons don't work properly, etc. This isn't an issue for USB. One more reason to go that route.

[Ack-Ack]

Using multiple inputs is fine. As long as they are their own separate entities.

Example: I have 3 controllers. 1 USB throttle unit (CH), 1 analog gameport stick (MS), 1 analog gameport pedal set (CH).

The only problem is it takes more work to map which controls you want to which device, because in-game they are 3 different things. You have to switch back and forth to the different controllers to remap different switches. It's a minor price to pay.

You can take parts of some sticks and then re-build them so that your inputs go through the original boards, and it shows up as a "wingman" stick in windows, but really is your new custom rudder set. However, please note there are different voltages at work in analog and USB. Analog runs 5v through the inputs and the potentiometer varies that from 0% to 100%, and based on that voltage the system detects your input %. These are most often 100k (100,000) ohm resistance pots. USB systems use different (lower) voltages. They send a signal to the pots (usually 10k ohms if I recall) and it goes back to a circuit on a PCB that formats packets to be sent along a USB bus. You don't want to use the 100k analog pots with a USB board, so if you are building your own be sure to match the pots resistance to what you're doing (analog vs USB).

Also note that I have analog and cannot overclock my system at all. Not even slightly. If I do it screws up my gameport bus somehow. My stick totally spasses out, buttons don't work properly, etc. This isn't an issue for USB. One more reason to go that route.

CH sticks use 100k pots, the only exception is a USB CH Jane's Combat Stick I customized while at CH with 75k pots.  Using 100k pots will not negatively affect your USB joystick in any fashion. 


ack-ack

[Krusty]

My understanding is that (from reading DIY pedal building website) if you take the guts from a generic USB stick and try to route your current from 1 wire through the 100k pot and down the other wire back to the PCB, you'll get different results than it expects. It's putting less current down that wire and expecting less resistance.

It's only really an issue when combining parts, I'd think. Frankenstein mods, etc.

[Baumer]

I have built a few different custom controllers and I highly recommend the card Ghosth posted.

I have used a wide variety of resistance values with the card above, just make sure to get a linear taper not an audio taper pot.

I prefer to use the lowest possible resistance value, that gets complete range of motion from the lower limit to max limit on the control card.