Extra occasional-use controllers: storage & Windows device ID assignments

[jasonbar]

Howdy-

I'm wrapping up some cleanup/robustness/user-friendliness of my handful of "extra" controllers: Star Wars Yoke w/ USB interface, 2nd trackball, steering wheel/pedals, & Sega Saturn Virtual On twin sticks. Each of these is used very rarely, for only a handful of games & needs to be stored out of the way most of the time.

The question is: how & where to store these items so that they are safe, out of the way, but easy to set up when needed? What do you folks with modular panels & clampy specialized controllers do for storage?



My questions are twofold:

1 - Physical location to store the controllers.

I would very much like to store them inside my cabinet. It's a Simpsons cabinet, so there's plenty of volume inside. I plan on making some internal hooks/bracketry to hold each of my 4 controllers when not in use. The downside is that, when I want to use one, I need to pull my cabinet away from the wall, open the coin door, get the back door key, open the back door, get the controller out, attach it, & then close up the doors. This is a bit tedious, but, given their infrequent use, tolerable.

The coin door isn't big enough to get the items in & out, & I can't really hinge the kick panel to make it 1 giant door isn't feasible without major major disassembly & rework of my cab.

My other ideas were to construct bracketry to go on top of the cabinet or to hang these controllers on the sides of the cabinet, but I shot down those ideas as impractical, ugly, sideart-blocking, & not clean (both artistically & in terms of dust accrual).



2 - Windows/MAME mouse/controller ID assignment.

My cabinet has 6 "mice" (main trackball, spinner, push-pull spinner, gun 1, gun 2, & sometimes 2nd trackball), & it has what I think are considered 2 joysticks (Logitech analog stick mounted permanently, & sometimes Star Wars yoke w/ RAM Controls interface PCB).

When I got rid of my ACT Labs guns (didn't work anymore after adding smoked glass) & then swapped them to EMS TopGun IIs (worked but needed to be way too far away) & then swapped them to Aimtraks (work OK if there's little/no stray light), my mouse assignments got fudged up, so I'm a bit wary.

The question is how to handle device IDs: always keep these extra items plugged in, even when not in use, to prevent Windows from re-assigning IDs & messing up my MAME settings? Never do a hot USB unplug/plug? Ideally, it would be nice to not have these items plugged in when not in use, but I dread having to go through all my games that use a "mouse" & re-assigning their controls if I goof them up.



Thanks,
-Jason

PS--I'm using Windows XP & 99% of my games are running on MAME 115u2.

[Paul Olson]

I had to dedicate an entire closet to the extra controllers.

I haven't tried it yet (although I paid for it almost a year ago), but xpadder is supposed to help with the device IDs. I think you can write scripts to have each one of the controllers be viewed the same every time mame is opened.

I realize this isn't enough info to justify replying to a 6 month old thread, but since it was never replied to...

I will try to post back here if I ever get xpadder figured out.

[jasonbar]

I do plan on revisiting this thread...after I finish a project...which then will let me finish another...which will then maybe let me be ready to tackle this. Project #1 in this row of dominoes is rather a bit behind schedule... :]

Related posts & utilities:
ControllerRemap: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108767.0/all.html
Xpadder: http://xpadder.com/
JoyToKey: http://xpadder.com/

Thanks for the input.
-Jason