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Author Topic: New product: U-HID-G  (Read 5285 times)

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AndyWarne

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    • Ultimarc
New product: U-HID-G
« on: April 01, 2009, 04:22:21 pm »
Aimed more at the pinball enthusiasts:
The U-HID family has a new addition, the U-HID-G.

This has a 3-axis accelerometer on-board. In addition to the normal U-HID nano port with its 8 inputs, configurable as analog, button, key, or encoder, the 3-axis accelerometer sends data which emulates an analog gamepad stick, with X and Y axes, plus an additional Z axis.

The board can also be configured in "nudge" mode, where moving the board in any of the 6 possible directions will send a button or keycode signal. The sensitivity and offset are fully configurable.
This mode can also be adjusted to send continuous button presses depending on the fixed orientation of the board.

Details: http://www.u-hid.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21&Itemid=24

A couple of other updates: we now have a third-party Linux / OSX utility for controlling outputs (LEDs) on the U-HID. Also Linux / OSX utility for downloading maps to the Ultrastik 360. 


billpa

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2009, 05:36:19 pm »
just wanted to drop a line and say thanks for this product Andy. It is creating quite a buzz in the pinball emu community. I can't wait to try it out. Oh, and it is fricking small!

BobA

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2009, 10:02:23 pm »
Looks great Andy.  Just what is needed for the upcomming pinball cabs.
 :applaud: :applaud:

drventure

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2009, 10:32:42 pm »
Dang, Wish I'd known about this 2 months ago before I spend all that time trying to get a wiimote to be usable for that sort of thing :(

Ah well, better late than never. Excellent stuff! I'm looking forward to playing with one


ivwshane

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2009, 11:07:29 pm »
Sweet!!!

I just might have to build a virtual pinball machine now!

arzoo

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2009, 08:41:38 am »
 :cheers:
Robots will kill you.



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bleargh

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2009, 01:59:11 am »
Andy, do tell about the Linux utility for the U360s... I'm (finally) getting around to finishing off my CP here and have a pair of those that I'm rigging up to a Linux box.  I'd started work on a utility here to do this myself but am having troubles getting Linux to calibrate the joysticks correctly (so although I can read them via USB I haven't yet been able to get the working in MAME).

thatitalian

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #7 on: April 03, 2009, 08:34:40 am »
Awesome! Just what I needed!

AndyWarne

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2009, 09:56:03 am »
having troubles getting Linux to calibrate the joysticks correctly
The calibration should not be adjusted in the OS because the sticks are self-calibrating. The Linux util is only for downloading maps to the sticks. You can check it out by downloading from www.ultimarc.com/download.html.

Andy

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2009, 02:24:56 pm »
One think I love about the Wii is (starting/accelerating) the commoditization of 3 axis accelerometers.  Nice to see them in the BYO market....  :applaud:

Andy, is it easy to calibrate for 1g, 2g, etc with the UConfig?  Or does a 2 g-fore just send a value twice as high as a 1 g-force?  Or does that need to be calculated in the application software?  (I never played with one before, but have been thinking about hacking a wii controller just for the accelerometer.)
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bleargh

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2009, 03:13:08 pm »
having troubles getting Linux to calibrate the joysticks correctly
The calibration should not be adjusted in the OS because the sticks are self-calibrating. The Linux util is only for downloading maps to the sticks. You can check it out by downloading from www.ultimarc.com/download.html.

Hmm... if they're auto-calibrating, then I'm definitely doing something wrong... if I boot the Linux box, plug in the joystick, I see its detected, but if I fire up any MAME ROM (using SDLMame) the joystick is mapped all wonky.  One of the joysticks seems to have an analog map, but the other is missing huge chunks of the analog map.

Andy, can I e-mail you off-thread to discuss further?

AndyWarne

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2009, 01:36:45 pm »


Andy, can I e-mail you off-thread to discuss further?

Certainly can...

Andy

AndyWarne

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2009, 02:11:07 pm »

Andy, is it easy to calibrate for 1g, 2g, etc with the UConfig?  Or does a 2 g-fore just send a value twice as high as a 1 g-force? 

The scale factor and offset are set in the board using the U-Config utility, which has slider controls for these values. These are retained in the board. So there would not normally be anything to do in the app software. calibration for a certain G value might be a bit tricky as you would need some method of measuring this.
Andy

shardian

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #13 on: April 06, 2009, 04:00:19 pm »
Super cool!

z

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #14 on: April 06, 2009, 05:18:55 pm »
Could you use this in the analog sensing mode as the heart of a flight yoke?
Yes, I'm mentally jumping to the Star Wars style yoke, where this would be mounted on the axle that runs between the two hand grips, sensing the degree of rotational twist along with the front to back tilt.  No pots to worry about, just the basic mechanics of the yoke movement itself (along with fire buttons) and a hole in the base for the wiring to run through.  Sorry if I'm not completely understanding the capabilities it has.  If it is just for detecting acceleration (as opposed to acceleration and orientation) I still think it is great, just wondering how much this item was going to be dominating my daydreams for the next few days.
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AndyWarne

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #15 on: April 07, 2009, 11:37:30 am »
A flight yoke would be an interesting application. It would not be as accurate as a pot though. The signal from an accelerometer when used as a position sensor is quite small and so considerable scaling up would ne necessary. It would probably work but no real reason to use it over a pot in this application.

Ummon

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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #16 on: April 08, 2009, 07:32:48 pm »
Especially as it'd be far more expensive to.
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Re: New product: U-HID-G
« Reply #17 on: April 09, 2009, 05:15:15 pm »

Andy, is it easy to calibrate for 1g, 2g, etc with the UConfig?  Or does a 2 g-fore just send a value twice as high as a 1 g-force? 

The scale factor and offset are set in the board using the U-Config utility, which has slider controls for these values. These are retained in the board. So there would not normally be anything to do in the app software. calibration for a certain G value might be a bit tricky as you would need some method of measuring this.

Shucks.  I was hoping it was something easy like the value sent with 0.5g was half the value sent at 1g, which was half of the value with 2g, etc: IOW linear.  (Hoping, not expecting.)

Calibrating for 1g and under isn't hard, as long as you can rotate the board, have a decent plump bob & protractor, and know about sin/cos.  But as you said, calibrating for stuff above 1g is harder.

Not that my current car can corner at over 1g, but I'd want 1g+ for my dream car. ;)
Robin
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