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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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