Road Blasters CP

[Drexdamack]

Just received my Road Blasters CP yesterday. The thing is in great condition. Much better than I expected. The plastic is in perfect shape and all the wiring is in tact. Only the metal on the base of the wheel, and foot pedal need sanding/re-painting. I have a question about getting it running in a quick way. I am in the long process of building a cabinet. Plenty of time to wait for deals, work out the design. What would you use to get this running. I can get an I-Pac (since I will eventually need one anyway) and make a small controller until I use it for the main cab. Or, I can use a Sidewinder hack. What do you think would be the best?

Secondly, I am wondering if anyone knows a place that sells Atari parts? The only thing missing are 3 of the 4 red caps for the buttons.

Thanks in advance!

D-

[Tiger-Heli]

Secondly, I am wondering if anyone knows a place that sells Atari parts? The only thing missing are 3 of the 4 red caps for the buttons.
Thanks in advance!
D-

Roadblasters yoke is optical, so you need either an opti-pac or www.oscarcontrols.com's USB mouse-based interface.  You'll eventually need a keyboard encoder, but not for the wheel.

Someone is selling repro yoke buttons for Star Wars yokes, don't know if these would work for your yoke or not.

[kspiff]

No, grasshopper.. neither the I-Pac nor a SideWinder are the yin to your RoadBlasting yang..

You'll have to use an Opti-Pac as the RoadBlasters wheel has an optical sensor board and an encoder wheel.  That or you can hack a mouse and just use its X-axis (but then you'd probably have to hack the yoke triggers to your mouse buttons.. undesirable..).

Also, there is a guy who sells repro thumb triggers for Star Wars yokes (same handles) on ebay (and sometimes to inquisitive buyers, AFAIK), I'll try to get his site address and post it here.. BUT.. which triggers are you missing (post a pic if you can)?  The thumb triggers are easily replaced with this kit; the index finger triggers are nearly impossible to find.  The way you describe it, it sounds like you have 4 thumb triggers..

[kspiff]

D'oh.. got a phone call in the middle of typing.. damn, ppl, fix your own DSL

[Drexdamack]

Sweet! Basically, all I need is an Opti-Pac right? Will this run my foot pedal as well? Thanks again for the help!

Edit: Can I also throw a spinner and trackball on the same one in the future?

D-

[Tiger-Heli]

>Sweet! Basically, all I need is an Opti-Pac right?

And a +5V power source if not in USB mode.

> Will this run my foot pedal as well? Thanks again for the help!

Depends, most foot pedals are pot-based and would interface through the gameport or 1-Up's dual strike USB hack.  Or you could just wire it to a button in which case you could use the mouse button inputs on the opti-pac, but lose any mid-throttle settings.

>Edit: Can I also throw a spinner and trackball on the same >one in the future?

Yes, and it will auto-switch between them!

D-

[Drexdamack]

Got an I-PAC2 and Opti-PAC on order once they e-mail me back regarding use of an alternative PS/2 to USB converter. Thank you so much for the info!

Kspiff, any luck on finding that distributor you were talking about? Here is a picture of what it looks like. Ill try to get a digital camera to get a close up of it one day. Also,  I do believe all 4 are the thumb triggers. If it wasnt intended that way, it would sure work good for my use.

Pic: http://drexdamack.freewebspace.com/2006_0_fs.jpg

Thanks!

D-

[kspiff]

The guy who does the trigger refurb packs ($15) runs Classicade (www.classicade.com, I think).  His contact info should be available there.

The trigger refurbs would replace the red thumb button you still have on the right handle.  The ones that concern me are the index finger triggers on the front.  I have no idea where you would get these -- this is why people who refurb these things often end up getting more than one.. for spare parts.  And -- for reference -- the Happ trigger stick triggers don't work for this, either.

As for your pedal assembly, it probably uses potentiometers.  Once again you have a variety of hacking options (Dual Strike [for USB], wire straight to gameport as a 1-axis device, other analog sticks, etc.), but hacking a Dual Strike is probably best if the pots are 5K single turn type -- this way you don't have to buy new pots.  Your pedals could also be a switch type -- in which case you can wire it directly to an I-Pac -- or even optical.  I just doubt it's optical.

Good luck.. had me a Road Blasters panel and ended up getting 1 handle off it and trashing the rest (no sin on my part, it was so rusted together I couldn't disassemble it anyways.. hell, I had to saw the handle off.. don't ask )

[Drexdamack]

Great! Thanks again for the information. Sent him an e-mail to see if these may be compatible. They dont look like it from this diagram I found. http://www.arcadedocs.com/vidmanuals/R/RoadBlastersSteering.pdf Maybe with some jerry-rigging it could work. If not it will have to be something left to the imagination...hehe. Luckily I have a friend who works in plastic molding that might be able to swing a prototype on these..haha. As for the foot pedal, I will probably just hook this up to the I-PAC. Thanks again!! Such a wonderful forum!

D-