2 New SlikStik Products!

[SlikStik-Christian]

We have 2 new SlikStik products to mention, our new O-Grip spinner top and the new SlikStik spinner PCB.



Our new spinner top which is now available and can be seen by clicking here http://www.slikstik.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=7, we incorporated a new design using polypropylene outer o-rings which give it a unique feel and grip.

The new spinner PCB will be available next week. All Tornado spinners purchased after Dec 1 will be shipped with our new interface. It supports USB or PS2 operation, support for 3 buttons and has a switchable axis via jumper.

All additional technical info will be available when it is released.

Enjoy...

[papaschtroumpf]

pricing?

[Sasquatch!]

pricing?

According to the link Christian posted, it's $19.95 for the knob.  I don't see anything about the PCB though.

[SlikStik-Christian]

pricing?

Pricing on the board in not available yet, it will be next week when it becomes available on our website.

[jerryjanis]

Is there a way to connect 2 of the optic boards so that together they act as a single mouse?  (One optic board without the jumper is mouse 1 X, the other optic board with the jumper is mouse 1 Y).

[SlikStik-Christian]

Is there a way to connect 2 of the optic boards so that together they act as a single mouse?  (One optic board without the jumper is mouse 1 X, the other optic board with the jumper is mouse 1 Y).

Jerry,

   It is not possible. Why would you want to hook them up in that fashion? All you would need to do is use 2 separate USB ports to achieve having 2 spinners on different axis

[jerryjanis]

For the most part, you wouldn't need to.  I'm just thinking along the lines of Sprint 8, I guess  .  It would be more convenient to use 4 usb ports than 8.  Also, if I wanted to use your optic board for something other than a spinner/steering wheel (such as a trackball or the 720 spinner joystick), then your board wouldn't work very well.

Just curious.

[Brax]

For the most part, you wouldn't need to.  I'm just thinking along the lines of Sprint 8, I guess  .  It would be more convenient to use 4 usb ports than 8.  Also, if I wanted to use your optic board for something other than a spinner/steering wheel (such as a trackball or the 720 spinner joystick), then your board wouldn't work very well.

Just curious.

How do you figure you're going to get the equivelent of 8 mice working on your computer simutainously?

[jerryjanis]

How do you figure you're going to get the equivelent of 8 mice working on your computer simutainously?

I made a harness by hacking 4 usb mice that will take 4 trackballs or 8 spinners.  Heck, I'm pretty sure that USB would support 8 mice without any problems.  USB is great - it will support up to 128 devices or some such crazy number.

[eightbit]

Does your harness work? What OS supports 4 mice?

[jerryjanis]

Does your harness work? What OS supports 4 mice?

Yeah, sure it does.  It works for games like Atari Football (4 trackballs) using Mame under Windows 9x (Mame Analog+), Windows XP (Mame Analog+ XP), and Linux (X-Mame with XInput).

I sorta cheated, 'cause I had my hand in getting 4 mice to work properly in the WinXP and Linux versions of Mame, which partly explains why I brought it up in the first place.

The main exception is Windows 2000.  Also, I'm running Advance Mame under Linux which I think is supposed to work with 4 mice, but I'm having trouble getting it to work with one.  Man - for such a complicated piece of software there's an amazingly slim amount of documentation.

Last I checked, Sprint 8 wasn't actually programmed to handle 8 mouse axes, only 4 of them, but surely that could be fixed.

'Course I zapped my power supply once while making the harness.  And I've never used it for fun, only in the laboratory so far.

[eightbit]

I gotta build one of these.


What does 8p sprint use for the gas? Is the pedal wired to a button or axis?

[jerryjanis]

What does 8p sprint use for the gas? Is the pedal wired to a button or axis?

Buttons, according to Mame.  That makes it easy.  

[SirPoonga]

Ask uRebel, but I think what Brak means is how are you going to get 8 mice working when Windows has a limit on how many mice it will recognize?  I think the limit is either 4 or 8.  uRebel would know.  Dang DirectInput

[shmokes]

I'm excited to hear some feedback from anyone who gives one of these things a spin (pun intended....sorry).  They look pretty cool.  I am currently leaning toward a tornado spinner (those Oscar encoder wheels won't fit under my control panel so that decision was easy), with a DOT spinner knob.  These knobs look like they might be pretty nice, though.

[u_rebelscum]

Ask uRebel, but I think what Brak means is how are you going to get 8 mice working when Windows has a limit on how many mice it will recognize?  I think the limit is either 4 or 8.  uRebel would know.  Dang DirectInput

Analog+'s mouse limit is set to 8, but it can be increased.  Not sure how well it would work, though.  IIRC, windows doesn't have a set "limit" on number of mice.

FWIW, I tested as many as 7 mice used at once playing 4player atari football, using only one axis from each mouse (two mice per player to get X & Y axes).  Seemed to work okay on my 1 gig athlon & winME & USB 1.1 (three different ports out of computer, one to a 4 port hub, one to optipac with 2 trackballs, and the third port just one mouse).  I'd be worried more about USB 1.1 bandwidth than anything else.  If you have USB 2.0, then I'd start looking at driver quality.

So eight slikstik spinner PCBs plugged at once should be okay.  (No guarantees )


BTW, I set Analog+ limit to 8 back when mame could only do 4 players.  Are there reasons to increase this now that mame can do 8 players?

[paigeoliver]

By the way, the Sprint 8 gas pedal isn't SUPPOSED to be a button. I have Sprint One and Sprint 2 sitting in my apartment right now and both of them have analog gas pedals and I doubt Sprint 8 was any different.

Hey, if I get a few more Sprints then I will have a Sprint 8, I am already up to a three!