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| PSA: Repro Atari 2600 USB joysticks from ThinkGeek/Legacy Engineer don't work... |
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| alfonzotan:
They do work with a powered hub. Still a WTF, given that a double-sized I-Pac4, spinner, trackball and USB light--together!--all work fine without the hub being plugged into AC (yes, I did disconnect them to test the Atari sticks, which still didn't work without AC power). Like SavannahLion said, it's ridiculous for a device this simple to require a powered hub. Should be just like plugging in a bare-bones mouse. Thanks for the replies... |
| MTwitty:
I have 5 Legacy Engineering USB Joysticks, and they all function directly connected to the computer and through a hub (Belkin 7-port, powered and un-powered and an i-Rocks 4-port hub, unpowered). The only thing I've noticed is that MAME/MESS doesn't seem to detect them unless they're plugged in before launching the emulator. But I've only used them on Macs, so it may be a PC issue. (Just checked again, and they still work, powered and un-powered) |
| MonMotha:
A USB device has to specify how much power it takes. It can ask for up to 500mA, which is the maximum a USB port can provide. If you use an unpowered hub, that 500mA has to be shared amongst everything you plug in, including the hub itself. If a device asks for more power than is available, the OS will tell it "no can do - don't power up" and refuse to fully enumerate/connect it. This is all well and good, except that many devices just ask for 500mA, even if they only need a tiny fraction of it. It'll work fine...until you use an unpowered hub. So while it's doubtful that the joystick actually requires a powered hub because it actually needs the power, it may be asking for it, and the computer says "not available, sorry 'bout ya." Unfortunately, there's not a ton you can do about this other than asking the vendor to fix their device. It's generally a simple change (just change one number). If someone cared enough, they could probably even patch the firmware binary, assuming one can rip a copy off of the thing, but this is far from a simple task. |
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