ultrastick 360 and ps2/usb control interface questions.

[ivwshane]

In another thread a member brought up the fact that usb controllers have a limit to the amount of simultaneous key presses they can detect making them inferior to ps/2 (keyboard) controllers. Rather than thread jacking I'd thought I'd create a new post.

Based off of what I've read on ggg.com it seems their gp-wiz boards don't have that issue (I'm guessing because they are seen as a game pad device and not a keyboard device).

What's everyone's take on this?

I'm also looking at getting the UltraStik 360 for their versatility and another thing that intrigued me was their ability to connect up to 8 buttons to each controller. Based off what I read, it too seemed like the slower response of usb has been overcome.

From their installation faq:

Each button appears as a gamepad button on the PC. Each button is independently de-bounced using a state-method for maximum roll-over response. The 24Mhz CPU and high-speed USB 2.0 interface on the Ultra-Stik 360 ensures top performance.

Does anyone have any info or experience with this type of setup? Is it all just marketing speak or for button mashing are these good choices?

[u_rebelscum]

There are a few assumptions being made.  Not knowing which thread you're reading from, I can't tell what you're being told, exactly, so I'll make some assumptions of my own.

First the statement of USB vs ps/2 is only about the standard keyboard "protocols".  It does not count for gamepads, joysticks, mice, and any non-keyboard type device, and AFAIK never implied anything but keyboards; if if did, it's wrong.

Second if the keyboard doesn't use the standard USB protocol, then again the statement can be incorrect. 

Third, the statement should be that the standard way keyboards communicate over USB has a lower limit on number of simultaneously presses than ps/2.

Fourth there is at least one keyboard device that has a higher limit than the standard USB limit assumed in the statement.

Fifth, usb is way faster than gamepad port (joysticks) or the serial port (mouse).  USB is comparable to ps/2 in refresh rate for mice by default settings, but both can be increased (USB is harder though).


Okay that out of the way, the first two letters in GPwiz stands for gamepad, so yes the GPwiz does not have the key pressed limit of standard USB keyboards.  And as the U360 is also a USB gamepad type device (not keyboard), the limit doesn't apply here either.

Definitions:
debounce: a digital input (key, button, sensor on old ball mice & arcade trackballs) can falsely "bounce" between on and off very quickly due to circuitry, quality of switch/sensor, etc.  A debouncing circuit removes this false signal, at the "cost" of an extra millisecond or so.

24 MHz CPU: how fast the chip in the U360 runs.  Just keep in mind it's not a pentium level CPU, and you're fine.

USB 2.0: faster than USB 1.1, if the "Hi speed" level is used.  The three USB speed levels are "low speed" (1.5 Mbps), "full speed" (12 Mbps), and "hi speed" (480 Mbps).  Most USB gamepads and mice use the slowest 1.5Mbps.  High quality use the "full
peed" 12Mbps; the u360 tests as such on my computer.  AKAIK, only external data storage units use the 480Mbps "Hi speed" that's not in USB 1.1.  I'm not sure what the differences between 1.1 and 2.0 at the low speed and full speed are, but the u360 does test as version 2.0. 


My advise:
Get any of Ultimarc's or GGG's products.  The u360 is great, the GPwiz is great.

[ivwshane]

Sweet, thanks!

There are just so many things you have to think about and the last thing I want to do is waste money on something that wont act/behave the way I want it to.