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| Switch GP-Wiz49 modes using your computer! |
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| Toonces:
--- Quote from: Flinkly on April 06, 2005, 12:10:18 pm ---um, just a question, but i notice your running into a few problems trying to get the right info from controls.dat or ini or whatever it is. why not make a simple gui program like the resolution tool that makes it's own mode.ini or something for the batch files to read from? then the comp wouldn't have to search the files for the right info, and have to wade through it all everytime, it could just look it up in a list with the correct code. the benifit of doing it like this is that it would give the user a really simple way of adjusting what modes you want. also, couldn't you include all the modes if yo used the db25 connector without the relay board? so is there a chance of two batch file versions? and i notices that you talked about possibly frying the gp49 or the comp if you didn't use the relay board, is that still a forseeable problem? cause my comp and the gp49 probably cost more than the relay board... thanks for all the help with these things, and for taking it upon yourself to solve the communities problem, but don't think its over yet... ;) --- End quote --- The problems with controls.ini aren't really problems. As it is, it's still not difficult to select the right mode. The changes I am talking about in the other thread are more about consistency with how you treat controller info. The difference in parsing the file is not even measurable unless you go waaaay down on the time scale. Certainly nothing perceptable. As far as making it easy on the user to adjust mode settings, that all depends on the FE authors. They are the ones actually implementing the parsing and how their FE's support the GP-Wiz49. I didn't write a program other than the batch files to control an existing DOS application simply because I don't program :) There are lots of great ideas like the one you have and it would be nice to see someone step up and write a program specifically for the GP-Wiz49. There are lots of things that could be done besides just switching modes. If you look at my first attempt at a diagram, there are 2 registers that go unused. Some of those are inputs that could provide feedback back to the computer and let you get relly fancy. All of the windows gui programs I found for controling the parallel port would let you set and clear bits on the port and see the status registers, etc but none of them worked with sending a command line option like the DOS program does. In short, it's a beggining. It's only designed to overcome the one annoyance with the GP-Wiz49 of it not accepting mode change commands over USB and get the job done. With RandyT's new version of the firmware for the GP-Wiz49 it is possible to switch all 8 modes either with or without the relay board. It's actually possible right now if you use the Shazaaam! adapters he sells or a couple of switching diodes for each of the lines. You would need 1 adapter or 2 diodes per line. It's not difficult to do, just a little more involved in the installation. Randy has posted the diagram in the GP-Wiz49 announcement thread. I will most likely release a new version of the batch files which supports the new firmware and/or using the existing firmware with diodes to switch all 8 modes. If I knew then what I know now... I wouldn't have used the relay board. Not that it isn't nice to isolate the PC from the GP-Wiz49 but in reality, we are talking about logic level devices and people have been hooking them up to parallel ports for years. With the vast number of motherboards and configurations out there, I cannot say that every setup is going to be safe. There could be motherboards out there that have 25 pin serial ports that look exactly like the parallel port only using the male type connector on the computer. Someone could mistake that for a parallel port and buy the wrong DB25 connector or hack a cable they have lying around and plug it in. The serial port uses +12V vs. +5 for parallel and TTL logic chips. +12V is usually fatal for TTL logic level chips. It's unlikely but possible. I pretty much learned everything I know about parallel port interfacing in the last couple of days. I have read more than I care to and am ready to build a robot now :) Serioulsy, Robotics guys have been using the parallel port for a long long time. Toonces |
| Toonces:
Well, according to Randy's new post http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,32747.msg303058.html#msg303058 it looks like you won't have to hook up to the parallel port under Windows much longer :) Very Good News and leaves the parallel port for running other tasks like LCDs, etc. I still plan on updating the batch files to support selection of all 8 modes in case anyone can use it. Using the batch files as a model, someone could get software switching under a non-windows OS working. That is providing they can't do the switching using USB. Toonces |
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