Rudder Pedals

[Spatula]

Spatula:
What gameport to usb adapter did you use? And where did ya get it?

Its a 'rockfire' usb adapter. Its small and blue, with a 4-mode switch on the top. I run it in mode 1 - 4 axis, 4 button stick mode. Windows thinks its a 4axis, 4 button stick, but only one axis is 'working' - eg my rudder axis. AH thinks the same and is content as well. Works perfectly.

Cant remember where i got it now - was many moons ago. Think radioshack (or equiv) will sort you out with something.

EDIT: this is my one - http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_details.cfm?sku=ijoy1&cats=106&catid=626

Spat.

[Spatula]

Just saw this on ebay too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CH-Products-Pro-Rudder-Pedals-w-USB-adapter_W0QQitemZ280231270745QQihZ018QQcategoryZ31215QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[68Wooley]

Just out of interest, did anyone else find the 'push left, go left' set up on rudders totally counterintuitive?

Took me long time to get used to that - for some reason I figured pushing the left pedal should have resulted in me yawing right. Almost considered reversing the axis at one point.

[Krusty]

That wouldn't make much sense to me.

That would be like turning the wheel on a car right and expecting it to go left.

left = left, right = right. Same way the stick works. Left rudder with left stick, right rudder with right stick.

[68Wooley]

I think it came from driving: in a car, to turn right, you extend (i.e push) your left arm and bring in your right. I was translating the same movements to the rudder pedals.

[Motherland]

I thought the same thing Wooley. My first attempted take off was a total failure 

[Getback]

I think the same thing Wooley. It may be that we are so into the game that we brace ourselves for a left turn with our right leg.

[HomeBoy]

This is fascinating.  When I first read Wooley's remark I thought "who could think that?"   I've been sitting in cockpits and hanging around airplanes a good part of my life and I guess I just learned at an early age which way the pedals move.  I have to admit after hearing your guys' take on this that it makes a lot of sense.  That's the real value of a community like this.  There are things which you just think are "right" and you never entertain any other perspective.  I am surprised at how narrow my thinking can be.   

[Masherbrum]

Quoted for truth.


I rammed everything I dove on for over 3 months when I got pedals. Any bomber formation had nothing to fear other than ram damage 

[EDIT: I should clarify: The ramming was unintentional!!!]

That's because I was still learning how to coordinate with them. I've been flying a long time with them now, and I won't go back to twisty if I can help it. It's just so much better (specifically not screwing up X and Y while moving Z, or screwing up Z while moving X and Y)

Ditto.   I have CH Pro Pedals and will ram buffs from time to time.   I'm almost out of the woods with them. 

[ODBAL]

Yup, fly with CH non-pro pedals on a USB converter. Just about always had pedals - cant imagine life without em.

On this note, when I bought my new computer so I could play AH, I had an old CH Combat Stick and CH Pedals I had used in AW.  Much to my horror, when I got my computer it had an onboard sound card with no port to plug my stick and pedals into.  I purchased a new stick/throttle (Saitek X52 Pro) which connected via USB.  I did want to sink a lot of money into a new sound card, the cost of a good sound card with the port was roughly the same as the new stick/throttle.  I was told there was no converter that would change the plug on my joystick (I think it's called a midi port?) to USB.  Is this the converter of which you speak Spatula?  And, if so where can I get one?  I'd still love to hook my pedals up and disable the twisty stick feature.

[ODBAL]

Ooops, nevermind Spatula just read your post at the top of this page..... Thanks

[Spatula]

If you take a look at that ebay auction you will see that he has pro pedals and he got the toe-brakes working as well, by connecting as described here:

They use a 15-pin gameport connection, but a USB adapter is included that allows full functionality of the pedals, including the toe brakes. By connecting the Joystick port to the Aux port on the pedal cables, the pedals appear as a 3-axis device through the USB converter!

heres a pic:


you could use another converter for your stick, but you will not get full functionality from it. Another alternative is to use Leo Bodnar's USB conversion chip and wire it up yourself.
http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/joystick/

[68Wooley]

This is fascinating.  When I first read Wooley's remark I thought "who could think that?"   

Here's another way to think about it. Imagine you have a model of your aircraft sitting on top of your stick. When you move the stick, your aircraft adopts the attitude as the model on top of the stick. Push stick forward - both the model and the actual aircraft adopt a nose down attitude, pull back on stick, nose of aircraft and model point up. Same for left and right movements of the stick.

Now imagine you have a model aircraft mounted on the central pivot point of the rudder pedals. By analogy with the stick, to cause the nose of the aircraft to yaw left, you would carry out whatever movement makes the model's nose point left i.e. push the right pedal.

See where I'm coming from?

[HomeBoy]

See where I'm coming from?

Absolutely.  I thought I was making that point clear.  At first, I thought you were crazy (just kidding, not really) and then I realized how you were looking at it.  I only thought you were crazy because airplane rudders since the Wright Flyer have always worked the way they do and I'm so locked into them working that way that I refused to see things any other way.  It's a little bit like the "QWERTY" keyboard that was invented to keep typists from typing too fast and jamming the equipment.  When they tried to present a non-QWERTY, no one wanted it because it "just wasn't right."  Beta-Max - VHS sort of thing I guess.

[Lusche]

.  It's a little bit like the "QWERTY" keyboard that was invented to keep typists from typing too fast and jamming the equipment.  When they tried to present a non-QWERTY, no one wanted it because it "just wasn't right." 

Mine is QWERTZ... 

But back on topic, when I got my pedals I too had to think a few moments about which way to set them up. Never having piloted a real plane I tried both ways, but I quickly came to the conclusion that the "correct" way is also the most intuitive to me.