USB spinner and trackball keep changing IDs

[squirrellydw]

I have two USB spinners (turbo twist2) and an electric ice trackball, is there away to assign ID's to them?  When I turn off the computer and start it back up they connect differently, the IDs change so I have to reconfigure the controls in the games.  My U360s don't have this problem.

Any idea?

[SavannahLion]

Automagically? Not that I'm aware of.

Manually? There's supposed to be a way to do it in the controller configuration in Windows, but it works like ass for me.

For all the advantages USB brings to the table, users not being able to have better control over specific ID's for specific devices is a pet peeve of mine.

I have a very dim understanding on how the USB ID's are assigned in Windows, but from what I gather, using a USB hub might net you better control. I wouldn't bank on it though. I have a hard enough time finding a properly designed 2.0 HUB.

[ahofle]

Did you remember to assign different IDs to your 2 spinners when you checked out of GGG's website?  It says right there when you add it to the cart to select a different ID for the 2nd device.

[fjl]

Wait, you have two USB spinners? Aren't you supposed to connect the second spinner to the first interface board instead of connecting each spinner seperately?

[squirrellydw]

Yes I did select different IDs for the spinners when I checked out but they still change on boot up along with the trackball.

Wait, you have two USB spinners? Aren't you supposed to connect the second spinner to the first interface board instead of connecting each spinner separately?

you can do that but I choose not to, there was a reason I just don't remember .

[AlexKidd]

The ID that windows gives to USB devices has no affect on how they are ordered in mame. One thing to try though is to connect your devices through a powered USB hub or if your motherboard supports it, set it so that it keeps powering the USB devices even when the computer is off. By having your USB devices not have to start up as the computer applies power to them on boot can sometimes give you a more consistent enumeration when windows gets around to asking what devices are connected. No guarantees though, just something to try.

[Kaytrim]

If you purchased these directly form Randy they should be seen as different devices.  I'd shoot him a PM for help.

Kaytrim

[SavannahLion]

One thing to try though is to connect your devices through a powered USB hub....

That depends on the hub.

I've been consistently running into the ID issue and the powered hubs solution is basically trial and error. I think I bought/returned six different hubs before I found one that didn't have so many problems associated with it. It's still not perfect though. I'm not certain but I strongly suspect it has a lot to do with whatever chipset the hub is using. It's not like a lot of manufacturers want to put a lot of R&D into hubs.

This transpired about four or five years ago so maybe hub designs have improved since?

[Kremmit]

Try plugging one spinner in to the back panel USB connectors on the PC, and one into the front panel connectors.  In a lot of PCs, these are connected to separate on-board USB controllers, which can keep Windows from getting confused.

But I was under the impression that ordering devices with different ID's should solve this problem; I've never heard of anybody with different ID's experiencing this.  Have you double-checked the Device ID's in the Windows Control Panel?

[squirrellydw]

I will double check them tomorrow night.  Maybe I am wrong and they aren't changing but I could swear that I configured some of these games before.

[SavannahLion]

Oh wait. Now I'm confused.

You have two spinners and one trackball? I was thinking you have one spinner and one trackball.

Are the spinners ID's swapping around or are the spinner ID's swapping with the trackball?? 

OK, forget it, leave me out of this discussion.

[squirrellydw]

I believe they are swapping with the trackball.  I am going to confirm this tonight.

[unclet]

I had the same problem with my driving cabinet which use 6 Dual Strike USB controllers.   I just always keep the USB Hub powered on and this seems to work for me.

I wish someone made a USB Hub which would power the USB connections from Left to Right  everytime, with a configurable "stall" time between each new USB was initialized (if needed).   I guess a lot of people outside of the arcade arena probably could care less about what order USB hardware comes up at all.   Come to think of it, it is possible a lot of people in the arcade arena probably could care less as well   

[FunWithFire]

I was having issues with my first build similar to this. I had been using a USB mouse when setting up my cab and whatnot, and after I disconnected the mouse the trackball was assigned a different ID number, so all of my trackball games had to be re-setup. Were you possibly doing something similar?

[whammoed]

This is one of the reasons I went with AdvanceMame on Linux.  It is designed to order usb devices first by their name then by their system order.  I have never had my usb devices swap.  Sad to see it is no longer being developed.  I would think the MAME developers could do something similar under WindowsXP?  Maybe?

[squirrellydw]

OK I went and reset everything tonight and turned it off and back on and it's OK.  Lets see what happens over the next few days.