U360 and button encoder

[UFO]

Hi All,

I've just read "For example, the Utramarc Ultrastik 360 joystick can act as an encoder for up to 8 buttons."

Does anyone have any examples of this?

I purchased a separate encoder for buttons, but does this mean I don't need it?

Thanks all ...

[ChanceKJ]

Technicaly, no you don't.

You can also output from that same port too. Pretty cool. Check out this link, about halfway down.

http://www.ultimarc.com/ultrastik_inst.html

I don't have an example, but as soon as my latest order from Molex arrives I'm gonna run my 360's into my encoder via the output mode.

[IAmDotorg]

Hi All,

I've just read "For example, the Utramarc Ultrastik 360 joystick can act as an encoder for up to 8 buttons."

Does anyone have any examples of this?

I purchased a separate encoder for buttons, but does this mean I don't need it?

Thanks all ...

It works pretty well. They show up at buttons 1-15 on that particular controller (1-8, and 8 shifts 1-7 for another 7 buttons). I have two of the four in mine wired that way mostly because it was easier to wire. Because USB controllers don't have freakin' stable ids, though, I ended up having to use Xpadder on them to turn the buttons into keystrokes anyway. IMO its WAY easier to use a HID-based encoder. If I had to do it again, I'd just bite the bullet and make extension harnesses so I could run those two sets of buttons off the I-PAC. (And if you don't need analog outputs, I'd run the joysticks that way, too -- but I wanted analog on them.)

[ChanceKJ]

Yeah, it's really a bit of personal preference too. 

For me, i dislike how both the stick and the buttons are on two different devices. Some of my emulators don't like this either. Configuration has been a challenge. Except in MAME. Either I run the buttons into the stick (which I don't want to do after all that painstaking wiriring I did) or I run my 360 into the encoder in the output mode.

[EMDB]

I use my U360 hooked up to an iPAC2 using the additional harness. The gives me the advantage of the U360 mapping but the stick and buttons still trigger keyboard events which seems to be supported better in many emulators (and HyperSpin) AND you don't get the MAME internal mapping for analog sticks messing up the U360 mapping.

[dkersten]

To clarify for anyone confused, the 8 button inputs show up in windows as joystick buttons, not keys.  So if you ONLY use the u360 for your CP, you can use up to 8 buttons, run them into the U360, then plug the U360 into the computer, which will then show up in windows as a joystick and 8 joystick buttons (or rather 15 joystick buttons if you count the shift and 1-7). 

The problem here is that if you unplug your U360 and plug it back in, Windows might assign it to Joy1, Joy2, or whichever port it decides, and now any settings in mame might be wrong.  One way to get around this is if you are using a separate encoder and use those inputs as joystick "switch" outputs.  This makes it look (to the encoder) like any 4/8 way joystick.  The result is keypress outputs for your up, down, left, and right.  You can still program the u360 map for easy diagonals, 4-way only, etc, but the output is just simple digital up, down, left, right outputs, and regardless of what joystick number the PC assigns, you will never have to reprogram mame if you mistakenly unplug that stick.  However, then you need an encoder with enough inputs for both joystick and buttons.

[lamprey]

I use my U360 hooked up to an iPAC2 using the additional harness. The gives me the advantage of the U360 mapping but the stick and buttons still trigger keyboard events which seems to be supported better in many emulators (and HyperSpin) AND you don't get the MAME internal mapping for analog sticks messing up the U360 mapping.

Does that mean that you can only use the U360 as an (up to) 8-Way? Meaning, you cannot use it as a 49-way or analog..?

Just curious, as I think I'm going to replace my 49-way's (with rotary "hack") with U360's when the new rotary ones come out here shortly. But, I think I still want to be able to do 49-way or analog mode for games that supported that. I guess I should check my list as see how much I care about that..

[IAmDotorg]

Does that mean that you can only use the U360 as an (up to) 8-Way? Meaning, you cannot use it as a 49-way or analog..?

In that mode, its only got L/R/U/D outputs, so you can only work 8-way. Analog requires being a controller, and I'd assume 49 way works by mapping discrete locations in the analog output to the inputs in the emulator.

[EMDB]

Does that mean that you can only use the U360 as an (up to) 8-Way? Meaning, you cannot use it as a 49-way or analog..?

Just curious, as I think I'm going to replace my 49-way's (with rotary "hack") with U360's when the new rotary ones come out here shortly. But, I think I still want to be able to do 49-way or analog mode for games that supported that. I guess I should check my list as see how much I care about that..

You can still use the analog mapping to use it as a true analog stick (as it is also connected via USB to download the maps).

[lamprey]

Does that mean that you can only use the U360 as an (up to) 8-Way? Meaning, you cannot use it as a 49-way or analog..?

Just curious, as I think I'm going to replace my 49-way's (with rotary "hack") with U360's when the new rotary ones come out here shortly. But, I think I still want to be able to do 49-way or analog mode for games that supported that. I guess I should check my list as see how much I care about that..

You can still use the analog mapping to use it as a true analog stick (as it is also connected via USB to download the maps).

Smooth, thanks for the info. One more question, about game mapping. If it connected to the iPac and USB, does mean that mame sees two inputs when you configure it: one from the iPac and one from USB (joystick)? Or does the UltraStick software handle where the output goes to so either the iPac or USB gets the output? Just trying to understand how it works.

[IAmDotorg]

That's kinda why I answered the way I did -- the emulator would see both, you end up having to hand edit the files or turn off the controller settings. I have that same problem because I use Xpadder on the analog input, so MAME sees both. Some games handle it okay, but a lot don't seem to. I ended up setting "joystick 0" in mame.ini, and turn it back on per-game for the ones that need to see the analog stick.

[lamprey]

That's kinda why I answered the way I did -- the emulator would see both, you end up having to hand edit the files or turn off the controller settings. I have that same problem because I use Xpadder on the analog input, so MAME sees both. Some games handle it okay, but a lot don't seem to. I ended up setting "joystick 0" in mame.ini, and turn it back on per-game for the ones that need to see the analog stick.

Gotcha. That makes sense. Doesn't sound too bad to setup though. Food for thought for a possible change in my configuration..

Thanks!

 

[EMDB]

That's kinda why I answered the way I did -- the emulator would see both, you end up having to hand edit the files or turn off the controller settings. I have that same problem because I use Xpadder on the analog input, so MAME sees both. Some games handle it okay, but a lot don't seem to. I ended up setting "joystick 0" in mame.ini, and turn it back on per-game for the ones that need to see the analog stick.

That's not correct. In digital (iPAC) mode no joystick is mapped in Windows so MAME only sees the keyboard input. no need to configure anything in any emulator.

[IAmDotorg]

You 100% sure about that? I had two of mine wired up briefly via the iPac Ultimate before I realized I needed Xpadder anyway, and I'm 90% sure I was getting both. I know I was once I switched to Xpadder, but I'm pretty sure I was before that. Maybe its firmware dependent?