Multiple USB Mouse (mice) issue

[acevedor2]

Here is my issue.  I have a spinner and trackball both hooked up to my CP.  The problem is that every time I shut the computer (cabinet) down and restart it, windows assigns a different id to each device.  Meaning that the trackball that was once mouse 2 might now be mouse three when the cabinet is restarted.  This means of course that I have to keep reconfiguring each individual game.

So my question is how do I get around this?

I HAVE read through the wiki and searched the forum posts and found this issue multiple times.  Each time the answer was "it's a windows issue and you have to deal with it."  I was just hoping that maybe recently some smart person on this board (and there are A LOT of you) might have figured out a work around. 

Thanks!

[RandyT]

Are the spinner and trackball both using identical interfaces?  If so, that could be the problem.

You can get around it by using one interface with X and Y for the Trackball and Z for the spinner.  Dissimilar interfaces, or identical interfaces with different USB IDs should help as well.

RandyT

[shorthair]

How come not everyone has this happen to them?  It seems those who buy panels don't encountre this.  I don't think I have.

[Jeff AMN]

A lazy fix would be to use hibernate instead of shut down. Not ideal...but it would work.

I'm using my trackball, a spinner, and even a mouse all via USB with my setup and I'm not having any issues.  As long as I don't unplug the devices, they keep the same ID each time I power up.

[Kremmit]

As Randy suggested above, this happens when all your devices are connected via identical USB interfaces, and to the same USB controller on your motherboard.  For example, you buy two identical USB mice and hack a spinner to the x-axis on the first mouse and a steering wheel to the x-axis on the other mouse.  Then you plug both mice's USB plugs in to the two front-panel USB ports on your computer.  Windows literally can't tell the difference between the two devices, because they're both reporting identical USB ID codes, and both connected to the same USB controller on your mobo.  So, it will randomly and arbitrarily assign one of them as Mouse_1 and the other as Mouse_2 at boot.  Next time you boot, it will again, randomly and arbitrarily decide which mouse to use as Mouse_1, and it may not be the same mouse.

Possible fixes:

• As Randy suggested, hack different devices to different mouse axes.  This won't keep Windows from getting confused, but if the Spinner is always X and the Wheel is always Y, then it won't matter.
• Don't use more than one of the exact same device.  If you're using commercial encoders instead of hacked mice, many vendors can provide you with different USB ID codes when you buy, so that your computer is not confused.
• Attach identical devices to USB ports that are wired to different controllers on the mobo; often the front-panel ports are separate from the ones on the back.  Ports on an add-on PCI card are another good bet.
• Unplug all but one of your identical devices before turning on the computer.  Afterwards, plug the rest in.  Always leave the same one plugged in, always plug in all of the rest, and always in the same order.

Hope that helps.

[acevedor2]

I'll try pluggin one of them into the front usb and see what happens.  I have a Happ Trackball and Tornado Spinner.  Not sure what the id's are.  I just bought them and plugged them in as the directions instructed.  Right now they are both plugged into the back of my computer to the motherboard header.  I will try and plug them in differently and see if that helps.  Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Jeff AMN]

I'll try pluggin one of them into the front usb and see what happens.  I have a Happ Trackball and Tornado Spinner.  Not sure what the id's are.  I just bought them and plugged them in as the directions instructed.  Right now they are both plugged into the back of my computer to the motherboard header.  I will try and plug them in differently and see if that helps.  Thanks for all the suggestions!

Hmmm, that's what I'm doing and I'm not having issues. What version of windows are you using?

[RandyT]

I'll try pluggin one of them into the front usb and see what happens.  I have a Happ Trackball and Tornado Spinner.  Not sure what the id's are.  I just bought them and plugged them in as the directions instructed.  Right now they are both plugged into the back of my computer to the motherboard header.  I will try and plug them in differently and see if that helps. 

Just to elaborate a little on what Kremmit and I wrote, the two interfaces can look completely different, yet use the exact same stock mouse controller chip on their respective circuit boards.  The code inside the chip is what dictates the USB ID, so you can even have conflicts between 2 devices from different vendors if they both use the same stock chips.

RandyT

[acevedor2]

Thanks for all the help guys.  I plugged one into the front usb header and one into the back of the mobo and all is well now.  It remembers and I don't have to reonfigure!!   

[shatter]

I have a TurboTwist2 spinner and ElectricICE trackball from Randy and didn't think about getting different USB IDs assigned to the devices but I found it easy enough for my control panel to do exactly as Randy suggested. I assigned the trackball to the x and y axis and the spinner to the z access. In my custom controller config I set the spinner controls as MOUSE2_Z and MOUSE3_Z and the same for the trackball (replace Z with appropriate Xs and Ys). The result being, no matter which mouse_id my computer decides to assign to the spinner or trackball, they always work perfectly on my games.

[RandyT]

I have a TurboTwist2 spinner and ElectricICE trackball from Randy and didn't think about getting different USB IDs assigned to the devices but I found it easy enough for my control panel to do exactly as Randy suggested. I assigned the trackball to the x and y axis and the spinner to the z access. In my custom controller config I set the spinner controls as MOUSE2_Z and MOUSE3_Z and the same for the trackball (replace Z with appropriate Xs and Ys). The result being, no matter which mouse_id my computer decides to assign to the spinner or trackball, they always work perfectly on my games.

It sounds like you have things set up to be as trouble-free as possible, but I just wanted to state that the you don't need to worry about USB ID's between the TT2 and the EI Trackball.  They both have unique ID's so you shouldn't see any type of contention there.  If you ordered 2 TT2's or 2 EI Trackballs, then you would need to make sure 2 distinct ID's were ordered for the identical controls.

RandyT

[Wade007]

This thread is way old, but I thought I'd post a very likely solution to the original issue here in case anyone else wanders by.

ControllerRemap Utility:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,108767.0.html