Ultrastik 360 Raw analog

[NickG]

I bought a few U360's a few weeks ago, and they don't work very well as discrete joysticks for some of my favorite games because the return to center action is not the same as a traditional micro-switch based joystick .  I am trying to think of reasons to keep them in my "all-in-one" control panel; so now I want to hook them up to my Dreamcast and Playstation consoles with true analog throughput.  Does anybody now how to use the raw analog pins for a controller hack?  Is it better just to hack the U360 as well; right on up to sensors?  Does anybody have any information?  Please Help 

[Minwah]

I think this would be very difficult, although as Dreamcast's analog controls are hall effect perhaps this would be possible...but still very difficult I think!

[AndyWarne]

The U360 raw analog pins send 0-5 volts depending on the position, with 2.5 volts at center.
If you don't have an encoder connected to the header you will need to fool the U360 into operating in output mode on the header by connecting 2k2 pull-up resistors on the 4 digital direction pins.
The question is what do the console controllers expect to see. Most of them do use small pot type analog controls but it depends on whether they operate using a true A-D converter (as the U360 does) or some kind of R-C timing circuit. Its also likely that the controller multiplexes its analog controls by turning on and off the voltage on each pot, in which case it would not work at all.
Andy

[NickG]

Thanks considerably, AndyWarne.   

[Aberran]

This is more a question for Andy can you use the raw analog on the U-HID or A-Pac as if it was a POT value?  If so I might have a work around to plot.