rec.autos.simulators

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

John Hartrid

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by John Hartrid » Sat, 08 Sep 2001 17:49:58

Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
and does anyone have any recommendations for or
against ?

John

Mikkel Gram-Hanse

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Mikkel Gram-Hanse » Sat, 08 Sep 2001 20:27:35

Diego from the Danish GPL Society uses a wierd handheld controller, and he
is damned fast ( -34 on the GPLrank) so it is possible to use those things.
I tried it once at a LAN meeting and never made it out of the pits... takes
some getting used to I guess
.
I'll ask him what the thing is.... brb ;)

Mikkel


Alan Gauto

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Alan Gauto » Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:37:34


> Diego from the Danish GPL Society uses a wierd handheld controller, and he
> is damned fast ( -34 on the GPLrank) so it is possible to use those
things.
> I tried it once at a LAN meeting and never made it out of the pits...
takes
> some getting used to I guess
> .
> I'll ask him what the thing is.... brb ;)



> > Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
> > other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
> > I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
> > available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
> > and does anyone have any recommendations for or
> > against ?

There's a thing called the Ultra Racer which was made by Interact. No
mention of it on their website though.

--
AG

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Never for me the lowered banner, never the last endeavour!
         (Damon Hill - 16th June 1999)

Joakim Lauridse

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Joakim Lauridse » Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:57:28


I guess you can use a spaceorb too. Mainly I think it's designed for fps in
mind, but I have seen it used in driving games too.
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Joakim

Michael G. Lower

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Michael G. Lower » Sat, 08 Sep 2001 22:03:07

John,
    I'm not aware of any commercially-produced device for the PC
(haven't looked for one, though), but I have a link for a homemade one:

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

    The site's in German, but there are plenty of pictures.

Michael Lowery


> Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
> other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
> I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
> available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
> and does anyone have any recommendations for or
> against ?

> John

David Fletch

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by David Fletch » Sun, 09 Sep 2001 22:37:37


> John,
>     I'm not aware of any commercially-produced device for the PC
> (haven't looked for one, though), but I have a link for a homemade one:

> http://www.racesimcentral.net/

>     The site's in German, but there are plenty of pictures.

> Michael Lowery


> > Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
> > other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
> > I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
> > available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
> > and does anyone have any recommendations for or
> > against ?

> > John

John-

I've switched to a wheel now, but I previously used two different
controllers; one is the Interact Hammerhead FX (force feedback), the
other is an Interact Axispad (non-force feedback). Both are very
similar to the Playstation Dual Shock; in fact the Axispad is almost
identical. Both work very well for racing games; not as good as a
wheel, of course, but very usable.

Dave

Bruce Benett

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Bruce Benett » Wed, 12 Sep 2001 04:09:56




> > Diego from the Danish GPL Society uses a wierd handheld controller, and he
> > is damned fast ( -34 on the GPLrank) so it is possible to use those
> things.
> > I tried it once at a LAN meeting and never made it out of the pits...
> takes
> > some getting used to I guess
> > .
> > I'll ask him what the thing is.... brb ;)



> > > Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
> > > other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
> > > I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
> > > available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
> > > and does anyone have any recommendations for or
> > > against ?

> There's a thing called the Ultra Racer which was made by Interact. No
> mention of it on their website though.

I have one in a drawer somewhere, not to bad but not near as good as a regular
wheel. Kinda like a arcade controller, small wheel, trigger throttle.
Jonny Hodgso

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Jonny Hodgso » Wed, 12 Sep 2001 07:04:24




> > > > Are there any steering controllers available for the PC
> > > > other than the usual wheel/pedal set up or joystick ?
> > > > I am thinking of something like the NegCon or JogCon
> > > > available***the PlayStation.  Are there such things,
> > > > and does anyone have any recommendations for or
> > > > against ?

> > There's a thing called the Ultra Racer which was made by Interact.
No
> > mention of it on their website though.

> I have one in a drawer somewhere, not to bad but not near as good as
a regular
> wheel. Kinda like a arcade controller, small wheel, trigger

throttle.

... or like an American R/C transmitter, then.

I won a GP2 season using the mechanics of a (UK-style) two-stick
transmitter, with new pots wired directly to the joystick connector
and a couple of fire buttons on top.  Worked well except that the pots
didn't like the tiny range of movement used, especially for steering,
and became glitchy very fast.

Jonny

J

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by J » Sat, 15 Sep 2001 12:19:03

Jonny,
I'm more into hardware and not so into electronics.
Do you have a cirquit diagram how to connect the pots to the gameport (or better
serial) pins? I'd love to make my own hand-held controller for racing GPL on my
notebook during business-trips :-)

TIA
JensSchumi

On Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:04:24 +0100, "Jonny Hodgson"


>I won a GP2 season using the mechanics of a (UK-style) two-stick
>transmitter, with new pots wired directly to the joystick connector
>and a couple of fire buttons on top.  Worked well except that the pots
>didn't like the tiny range of movement used, especially for steering,
>and became glitchy very fast.

>Jonny

---------------------------------------------
LWFF Ball Bearing conversion at:
http://jensschumi.tripod.com/

GPLRank: -13
Monsters of GPL: sub 200

Jonny Hodgso

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Jonny Hodgso » Sun, 16 Sep 2001 01:53:54


> Jonny,
> I'm more into hardware and not so into electronics.
> Do you have a cirquit diagram how to connect the pots to the gameport (or better
> serial) pins? I'd love to make my own hand-held controller for racing GPL on my
> notebook during business-trips :-)

Sorry, I don't have a pin diagram to hand any more... <thought hits> <ouch>

No, I haven't after all.  However, it's pretty damn simple: IIRC there's a
common earth, then a return via each pot (they're actually used as
variable resistors - yuck, who specced this?!) and another via each
fire button.

I'd imagine that a web search ought to return something helpful on
pin connections and resistor values; note that you need over-value
resistors if you're not going to use the full 270 degree travel
(and they may need regular rebuilds; Vaseline makes a good
lubricant* for the carbon tracks)

Good luck!
Jonny

*Oi, less of the ***ty laughing over there!

> On Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:04:24 +0100, "Jonny Hodgson"

> >I won a GP2 season using the mechanics of a (UK-style) two-stick
> >transmitter, with new pots wired directly to the joystick connector
> >and a couple of fire buttons on top.  Worked well except that the pots
> >didn't like the tiny range of movement used, especially for steering,
> >and became glitchy very fast.

J

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by J » Sun, 16 Sep 2001 10:50:46

Thx Jonny,

I should be able to find the info in the www.

Cya
Jens

On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:53:54 +0100, "Jonny Hodgson"


>Sorry, I don't have a pin diagram to hand any more... <thought hits> <ouch>

<snip>
---------------------------------------------
LWFF Ball Bearing conversion at:
http://jensschumi.tripod.com/

GPLRank: -13
Monsters of GPL: sub 200

Dave Henri

Hand - held steering controllers for PC ?

by Dave Henri » Sun, 16 Sep 2001 12:23:15

  There is a new handheld controller, I believe for consoles, that uses a
fixed center handle with approximentally the left side of a wheel.  The
wheel handle pivots up and down next to the right hand gamepad piece.  Hard
to describe but think of it as half a gamepad mated to half a wheel.
I saw it in the new edition of Game Informer.
dave henrie

> Thx Jonny,

> I should be able to find the info in the www.

> Cya
> Jens

> On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:53:54 +0100, "Jonny Hodgson"

> >Sorry, I don't have a pin diagram to hand any more... <thought hits>
<ouch>

> <snip>
> ---------------------------------------------
> LWFF Ball Bearing conversion at:
> http://jensschumi.tripod.com/

> GPLRank: -13
> Monsters of GPL: sub 200


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