Main > Main Forum

USB Gamepad Question

Pages: (1/3) > >>

Dmod:

OK,  I've read all the posts and know that USB gamepads can register in a random fashion and the only way to guarantee a certain order is to plug them in one by one and wait to register but I'm still left with some odd behavior that I can't figure out.

(1)  Regardless of the order I plug in my two ultrastiks and logitech steering wheel, and location within the USB hub, the wheel is always recognized as wheel 1 and my ultrasticks always come up in MAME as joystick 2 and joystick 3 (and in the correct order for Player 1 and Player 2).  If I close MAME, disconnect the wheel, and restart MAME, the joysticks are now assigned as joystick 1 and joystick 2.

(2)  With the wheel plugged in, even though, MAME assigns the ultrastiks to joystick 2 and joystick 3, MaLa assigns them to joystick 1 and joystick 2.  For MaLa, the order at startup is important as the wheel will sometimes come up as joystick 1.

(3)  It seems like unplugging and replugging everything doesn't alter the order in which controls get recognized.  It seems like instead I have to go the device manager, delete all the human interface control information and then replug in order to change the order.

Does anyone understand why or how MAME and MaLa interpret and address usb controls and can explain this behavior?  Is there a reference somewhere that I could read to better understand this?



SavannahLion:

I fought with this too. I have a Bluetooth controller that's recognized as a USB controller and persists in the USB stack despite restarts and reassignment. Only way to get rid of it is to remove it from the HID list. In my case, it's believed the controller has such a low permanet ID # that it always gets assigned as controller 1 regardless of what else is connected. I haven't seen any solid documentation on this though. I guess I'll have to try out my USB sniffer to know for sure.

I've been reading the USB documentation for another project but I still don't understand how or why the Microsoft USB stack does what it does. :(

Green Giant:

I am pretty sure this is an issue with XP.  Have you tried booting up windows, then plugging them in in order.  Once windows sees them, it assigns the id.  You can unplug them and move them around but windows should keep the assignment.  Assuming this is gonna be permanent, you should let windows pick the setup and setup your controls based on that.  If you don't remove anything they should stay stable as that.

AlexKidd:

I don't believe it's a windows issue. Logitech USB devices just seem to steal the first placement. I have some logitech USB gamepads that do the exact same thing. Really annoying. Back in the day it used to be that some games would only work if a joystick/gamepad was the first USB device. I think logitech has their devices grab the first spots so they work more easily in that situation. Really really annoying though. I've tried a bunch of different things and nothing seems to make them give up the spots. Independent of how they are plugged in or when or in what order they always take the first spot. So greedy.

SavannahLion:

I think Randy knows what's up better than we do. Randys controllers are the only USB devices I've seen that allow the buyer to choose the ID number. Do the toys supercede other USB devices, like the Logitechs, when dealing with Window assignments?

Pages: (1/3) > >>

Go to full version