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720 Degrees Joystick Question
Spacedueler:
OK. so I spent a bit of time investigating how the 720's centering disc works in mame. I used two arcade spinners, one on mouse X, the other on mouse Y. With separate control of the X and Y inputs I was able to control the "skater" and observe how he reacted to many different move combinations. I set the Driver Configuration in 720 Degrees to "REAL". I'm using mame 0.144, Win XP.
In 720 Degrees - the game does not "care" which direction the centering disc (Y axis) is spinning as it passes through the optic sensors (12 o'clock position). When the slots in the centering disc pass through the optic sensors and produce "pulses," the skater will move:
-At game start, during the first rotation of the joystick, at the moment of the first pulse on the Y axis, the skater jumps to 12 o'clock, calibrating with the joystick.
-At any pulse after the first calibration, if the skater is between 12 and 3 o'clock (after 12, before 3), the skater will move slightly counterclockwise (it didn't matter if I moved the Y spinner clockwise or counterclockwise- either way the skater moved slightly counterclockwise)
-At any pulse after the first calibration, if the skater is between 3 and 12 o'clock (after 3, before 12), the skater will move slightly clockwise (it didn't matter if I moved the Y spinner clockwise or counterclockwise- either way the skater moved slightly clockwise).
I then did one more test. With my homebuilt 720 joystick connected and my spinner (on the X axis) I purposely put the skater out of calibration: during game play I rotate the spinner to move the skater 180 degrees, putting him half a rotation behind the joystick. Then I rotated the joystick back and forth from 10 to 2 o'clock several times (10 to 20 times). Slowly the skater came back toward 12 o'clock as I moved back and for, and eventually was recalibrated with the joystick handle.
After all that testing I enjoyed playing for another hour - my 720 joystick works great!
Silas (son of Silas):
Thanks for posting your progress and findings on this. I may have a crack at doing this myself.
I recall seeing that there was a company out there (I don't recall the name off hand) who where re-manufacturing these controllers, but this looks like a perfectly acceptable and cheaper solution.
Gray_Area:
Since you designed the stick shaft to be a separate entity, I would definitely make the knob turnable. Even in the original design, it wasn't turnable, and I hated it.
In all, though, kudos for fabbing a workable, and not shabby-looking piece of kit.
Spacedueler:
--- Quote from: Gray_Area on January 16, 2012, 03:59:49 pm ---Since you designed the stick shaft to be a separate entity, I would definitely make the knob turnable. Even in the original design, it wasn't turnable, and I hated it.
In all, though, kudos for fabbing a workable, and not shabby-looking piece of kit.
--- End quote ---
The actually does spin in mine. There are bearings pressed into the round piece of wood that the shaft is connected to. Odd you say the original wasn't turnable - I just played and original and it did turn, and as Paul posted above, "you never have to loosen your grip."
I have more photos of the build process, but I'm actually going to make a new one with some changes so I'm holding off posting a step-by-step...
Gray_Area:
I remember it not turning. Maybe they altered the design after a short time, because of reports of it not being cool enough. Maybe the angle of the stick meant the knob spinning didn't matter. I dunno, now.