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Author Topic: PC Flight stick half-hack  (Read 3583 times)

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NoBonus

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PC Flight stick half-hack
« on: May 06, 2004, 02:04:40 pm »
I am trying to half-hack a PC flight stick.  My idea is to keep the circuitry and stick assembly intact, but cut away the case, rewire the hat switch and other buttons to arcade parts and mount it on a control panel.  I should end up with a setup with a digital stick, some buttons, and an analog flight stick with a couple buttons.  Does anyone have any info on doing this to a flight stick?

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2004, 02:06:16 pm »
Oh, and my second thought is to add a spinner and somehow mount the flight stick's throttle control on the console to play DOT.  The throttle control could control the up/down the up/down spinner usually controls.

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2004, 04:29:54 pm »
I

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2004, 04:39:48 pm »
From my perspective, if I could simply remove the intact analog flight stick from it housing and jury rig a mounting for it under my control panel, it should work fine.  Then for the other joystick, I would hack the hat-switch on the flight stick(since the hat-switch is digital).  This way, I would esentially create two separate joysticks from one, one analog flight stick and one digital joystick.

As far as having them control the same joystick, that does sound impossible.  But why couldn't you just configure your flight stick games with the flight stick as the controller and use the other stick the rest of the time?

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2004, 05:57:29 pm »
This guy here did the same thing.  He simply mounted a standard PC flight stick.  In MAME it's treated as an analog joystick so it would work well with games that need an analog stick.  As far as the hat goes, you could either hack those switches and route them to your keyboard encoder (IPAC, KeyWiz, etc.), or you could do this in software (the easier route).  I believe MAME would already recognize those keypresses as a Joystick button, that you could then configure in a <CNTRL>.INI or <ROMNAME>.INI.  The joystick driver might also have a way to route button presses into keyboard presses.  I know my Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital joystick can do that.

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2004, 06:19:02 pm »
Quote

As far as having them control the same joystick, that does sound impossible.  But why couldn't you just configure your flight stick games with the flight stick as the controller and use the other stick the rest of the time?

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Quote

The flightstick that i have is a very old CH FlightStick with a serial connection. I'm not too fond of that...
So thats why i was thinking of hacking an analog until i found out how difficult it is.

But if i have it setup as a 3rd joystick i can tell MAME to use joystick 3 as defult contoller?

But then i'd have to buy a new flightstick as i've already dismantled the CH... heheh

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2004, 06:47:50 pm »
Using a frontend or the "Tab" menu during play, I think you can have MAME use any controller as the default controller.  I have been looking at flight sticks on eBay and since everyone apparently hates them now, you can get a cool one off eBay for cheap (except for the over-priced shipping).  It's unfortunate there aren't local-area eBay services where you can just meet up and swap cash and goods, or even have the goods left in a storage locker.  Who want's to buy an item then pay 5x as much for shipping?  Actually, that gives me a great idea, who wants to make a quick 10 million bucks?
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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2004, 07:48:52 pm »
I mounted a <$15 Saitek ST90 Joystick on a panel in my MODULAR MAME.

I know this is not exactly what you were looking for, but for $15 bucks it might save you a whole lot of cutting and splicing.  it has 3 buttons and a digital throttle.

This particular joystick is great for conversion because it has removable arms and rotates on a ball well above the base and its USB.  These features make it very easy to mount on a wood panel.  Total conversion was a one night project.

The detailed pictures are near the bottom of this page under "Analog Joystick":

 http://www.beersmith.com/mame/panels.htm

Here's the before shot:
« Last Edit: May 06, 2004, 07:51:23 pm by Doc- »

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Re:PC Flight stick half-hack
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2004, 07:49:27 pm »
And the after shot: