pedals in Mame

[fogman]

I've been using the pedals from my Sidewinder wheel for accelerating while using the spinner for steering in games that need 360 deg. steering wheels.  Does anyone know if I can connect the wires coming out of the pedal to a mouse Y axis so that I don't need the wheel hooked up to use the pedals?  It is connected with a standard phone jack, so I think a hack would be possible.

Anyone have any oideas on this?

[SirPoonga]

Pedals aren't controled by mice (optical) input, they are controlled but pots.

[grafixmonkey]

Are all pedals analog?  because some pedals I have from owning a music keyboard are digital and have nice 1/4" plugs, so they're extremely easy to attach to an ipac...   long as the pedal input is digital...

If the pedals use pots you could hack an analog pc joystick.  Long as the axis you'd hack it to is accessible to Mame.  I haven't played with analog controls in mame yet so I don't know what the limitations are.

[fogman]

The pedals are analog, that's why I thought they could be hooked up to the oscarcontrols mouse connector.  I guess I don't understand the difference...not sure what exactly a pots is (or pots are?)

Anyway, thanks for the replys...anyone have any other ideas???

[Howard_Casto]

Doesn't hav anything to do with analog vs digital, it's mice vs non-mice.  Mice are handled quite differently in mame than any other device.  They can't be redefined for the most part and can only be used on virtual inputs labeled in mame as a dial, optical rotary stick, trackball or lightgun.  As a pedal is, well a pedal, this is impossible currently.  

[Homebrew]

pots = potentiometers.  They vary electrical resistance.  turning the pot one way decreases voltage output, while turning it the other way increases voltage output.  They're commonly used in fan speed controllers.  Maybe not the best explanation, but should give you an idea of what you're dealing with  

-Kevin

[SirPoonga]

pots, how a joystick works.  How analog volume knobs work (older or cheaper stereos).  There is an upper and lower limit to turning.  

Mice use an optical disc to detect motion.  Well ball mice, not optical mice.  a disc with teeth.  It will turn continuously.  I'm sure you've seen oscarcontrols spinners.

Pedal use pots.  So there is an upper and lower limit.  As was told, pots are variable resistors.  They restrict how much electricity flows.  The computer then translates the flow into a number representing the position of the joystick/pedal.

[fogman]

ok, so a cheapjoystick hacked would be ok, say my Dual Strike, of course then I can't use it for my Star Wars yoke.  Hmmm...  Thanks again for the input (no pun intended).  Maybe I'll figure out a way to hack the Sidewinder joystick so that I can use the pedal instead of the throttle or something...

[grafixmonkey]

Using the throttle would work.  You might look into how easy a sidewinder is to hack.

Also, if you look up some materials on how the PC gameport works, sometimes all you have to do to make a joystick axis is connect a potentiometer to three of the pins.  (and maybe do something basic with the rest).  You might be able to do that approach really easily.  I know my brother did that once and got his own joystick-like device working on the gameport.