USB joystick interface

[orpheus]

Compliments of the season to you all.
Have scoured the net for months to no avail, all i am looking for is gameport to usb adapter/converter circuit so i can build one. The Tandy/Radioshack one is not avaialable here in Australia they say. The EPIC, Go-Flight systems are magic but too expensive.Short of pulling a working USB joystick apart I have reached the end of the road. Anyone out there with ideas or info?
Rex

[rcbarend]

Rex,

Using the electronics of a USB joystick is not such a bad idea; in fact, they usually perform better than a convertor and are not much more expensive.

The standards convertors, like Tandy/Radioshack/Sitecom only gives you a 32-step resolution over the full range (some others have 64 steps).
Most joystick electronics have a 150-200 step resolution.

So, just open up your USB joystick, measure the potmeter values (usually around 100 Kohm linear) and just by potmeters with a simular value.
Rob

[burningdesire]

Just a quick note: I thought that you can't use the electronics from a joystick for you're own home-grown device. Something about the computer not recognising the device? I'm not sure about this, I think I read it somewhere.
Oh well, have fun everyone!!

Dave

[rcbarend]

Dave,

Obviously you have to install the original joystick driver for it ! So precondition is, that the original USB joystick runs on your PC; but that seemed so trivial to me that I didn't mention that :-)

Or were you suggesting that your PC can see difference between the original joystick and the one in which you've replaced the internal pots with external ones ??
THAT would be a clever PC :-)

Cheers, Rob