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USB "Gamepad" encoder questions

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Trimoor:
Some things to consider:
Why not use PS/2 for your interface?  No, PS/2 is not just for keyboards.  It's a nice low-latency port that can be configured as a game devide with the proper drivers.

You could take a USB keyboard encoder, and rewrite the program to use the game controller protocol.  This would be almost exactly what you wanted.  With a couple of extra parts, it could even support analog.

You could write new drivers for a standard keyboard encoder, and have the system see it as a game device.

I see your reasons for wanting this.  I have a flight sim that refuses to use anything but a joystick device, even though it would work fine with a digital stick.

tetsujin:

--- Quote from: Lilwolf on January 29, 2005, 06:24:30 pm ---you still should really look at a keyboard encoder.  Everything you have said is SCREAMING keyboard encoder.

sure... if someone came up with a good usb joystick encoder that would be great... but nobody has yet (Dave??  How many connections can that chip of yours handle?  Consider creating one?)...  But you would find more problems with them. 

The speed issues your talking about is bunk though.  The ps2 is fast enough for anything your tlaking about it.   only about 1000 examples are here that are successful.

--- End quote ---

Perhaps I can put this very plainly.  Please, no one take offense.

It will be a cold day in hell before I attach a keyboard encoder to my controls.

It's just the way I feel.  It's not like I think any less of people who use keyboard encoders, I simply have my own preferences.  I really don't feel like any of my needs are crying out for a keyboard encoder to save the day, either.  Really, I think keyboard encoders have their limits, too.

And I never said the AT Keyboard interface wasn't fast enough.  Quite the opposite.  All the numbers I've tossed about indicate to me that the AT Keyboard interface will have a best-case latency USB can't match, at least when there's more than one device on the USB bus.  And an average-case and even worst-case performance (assuming the keyboard encoders are designed well - which I assume they are) that's more than adequate for any game.  Speed of keyboard encoders was never a concern for me, though.  The question of speed has always been whether USB gamepads would perform adequately - and based on the reckoning I've done and the feedback I've gotten, I'm satisfied that they will be.

As for Dave's USB Joystick encoder, the reason it doesn't support a lot of inputs is because it uses the 16c745, a 28-pin USB PIC with 22 inputs.  The 40-pin devices support 33-34 inputs total - still not up to the level of some keyboard encoders but it's easy enough to use two...  At this point I've committed to making my own USB joystick encoders, probably with the PIC18F4550.  The exact configuration, however, I've not yet determined.

Tiger-Heli:
Ah, never played it.  There's a lot I haven't played, but because I'm not familiar with a game definitely does not mean I'm not interested in playing it!  Thanks for the tip.  I guess my 4-player panel will have 4 buttons per player, unless I determine that there's a great need for more...

Trimoor: I don't really have any interest in writing (or using) a driver to make a keyboard look like a joystick.  I feel like that's going backwards.

NoOne=NBA=:

--- Quote from: tetsujin on January 30, 2005, 02:03:44 am ---Perhaps I can put this very plainly.  Please, no one take offense.
--- End quote ---

Why would I take offense, you're yelling at somebody else this time?

tetsujin:

--- Quote from: NoOne=NBA= on January 30, 2005, 02:20:32 am ---
--- Quote from: tetsujin on January 30, 2005, 02:03:44 am ---Perhaps I can put this very plainly.  Please, no one take offense.
--- End quote ---

Why would I take offense, you're yelling at somebody else this time?

--- End quote ---

I didn't mean you or anyone else specifically.

It's just that I'm at the polar opposite end of the spectrum from most people on this issue, and sometimes that gets people angry.  Practically everybody uses them, so if I come along with a statement like that some people have a tendency to get defensive.  That's OK, I'm like that sometimes, too.  I don't want anybody to feel that I'm putting their work down.  Different strokes for different folks, you know?

Trimoor:
If you complete this, will you release the source for the PIC?  That would really help those of us who want to build it ourselves.

Let me try this idea again:  Take a USB keyboard encoder and flash the PIC.  It is now a blank USB device with inputs.  Now write code for the PIC so it sends the inputs through USB using the game controller protocol.  It is no longer a keyboard controller, but a game device.  It's only purpose was a cheap piece of assembled hardware.

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