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Hall Effect?
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etumor:
Going through KLOV, I have run across the control type "Hall Effect" for a couple of games.  Specifically, I, Robot and Road Runner are both listed as using this kind of control.  It appears to be a joystick.

Can anybody explain what this was?

-Jeff
Hoagie_one:
i believe its a positional joystick, where it knows the position of the sitck.
ErikRuud:
The joysticks in those games were basically analog sticks.  They used a "Hall Effect" device instead of Potentiometers. (Pots).

A "Hall Effect" is an electronic chip that measures the strength of a magnetic field.  "Hall Effect" joysticks have a mgnet on the end of the shaft and "Hall Effect" sensors mounted where you normally find switches.

As you move the stick around the sensors were used to read the position of the magnet.
RayB:
yeah, an over-engineered analog stick. :-D

Kremmit:
Working Hall Effect sticks are hard to come by, and I dunno if anybody has ever come up with a way to interface 'em with MAME.  (anyone?)

An analog stick is an OK replacement, but most analog sticks don't usually have anywhere near the stiffness needed to "feel" right.  A 49 way stick is a better replacement.  49 way sticks can still be bought from Happs, or pulled from Sinistar, Bubbles, Arch Rivals, Blitz, or Guantlet 2 machines.   (any others?)

To use a 49 way with MAME, you could use one of these: http://dave.bit2000.com/sjc.html, or you could use Analog MAME + http://www.urebelscum.speedhost.com/index.html.

To use a 49 way in place of a Hall stick on an actual I, Robot or Road Runner PCB, try:  http://www.arcadecollecting.com/info/49way_to_Hall.gif.  (this is not MY schematic, don't ask me anything about it, I have never tried it)
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