Using PSX Controllers under Win2k w/ DirectPad Pro?

Lleutierpe asks: "If you have built your own Playstation controller interface (using the DirectPad Pro interface) and have also upgraded to Windows 2000 for a measure of stability (i.e. you prefer crashes twice a month rather than once a day), you may have noticed that the drivers that supplied you with so much gaming pleasure no longer work. I myslf ran across the problem this weekend, as I gained enough spare parts to put together a dual-processor server (two 333 Mhz. P-IIs with 9 gigs and a Voodoo3) that I intended to use as a gaming server. As it is currently my best working computer, I was rather irritated to discover that not only would it not install my Analog PSX controller, but my computer had the gall to pretend like it was installing my controller. Needless to say, I was incensed. I set about in search of Win2k drivers, or even NT drivers in a pinch, but I found nothing after a full day of searching." So much for the "improved" driver support of Win2k. I remember trying to use Windows 2000 over a year ago, and I still remember having trouble getting drivers for hardware that worked just fine under NT4 or 98. Has this situation improved by now, or are there still drivers, like this one, that Windows 2000 still won't support?

"Seeing as my expertise lies in making things work that intend, but fail, to function rather than making things work that haven't the least dream of cooperating, I decided to put a query to the Slashdot users. Has anyone had any experience with porting Windows 95/98/SE joystick drivers to Windows 2000? I still haven't emailed the authors yet (who emphatically deny the existence of any NT-based drivers) because I would hate to bother people who had already provided me (free of charge) with schematics and drivers unless absolutely necessary. Anyone who could lend a hand in this matter would be profusely thanked. Let me know if I've overlooked anything, obvious or not.

For those of you who haven't run across the DirectPad Pro site yet, you should visit it. They have schematics to build interfaces for almost all consoles except for the Dreamcast, PS2, and the upcoming generation of consoles. The PSX dual-shock controller is excellent for playing games with complicated controls like Mechwarrior, since it has 12 buttons and 3 sets of axes."

Comments

Quote from Whistler Install:

[gehrehmee]

"Increased Compatability: Windows Whistler contains new compatibility code, allowing it to run hundreds of programs that wouldn't work in Windows 2000!"

I'm not kidding here. :)

I was about to... (slightly OT)

[cr0sh]

...post the following question:

"How do you read the PC joystick port for joysticks with more than four buttons?"

I then gave it a little thought, and realized it was possible to go up to 15 buttons by interpreting the buttons as four bits (value of 0 meaning "no buttons pressed") - but what about other sticks and controllers where things become even more complex? I had always wondered "Does force feedback and similar sticks use MIDI?"...

I decided to do a little searching (via Google), and came across the motherlode of sites to answer my question:

Tomi Engdahl's Joystick Interfacing FAQ

It honestly covers it all - and I thought other /. readers might like to know more. I especially liked the writeup regarding how the MS Sidewinder 3D Pro communicates (in digital mode) by clocking the data out to the PC via the buttons, and relying on a trigger via the write to the joystick port (which resets the multivibrators in the interface, but also causes a current flow which can be detected - see this (under the question "Is there any way to get any output from joystick port?" for an explanation) to determine when to start clocking the data. I am already getting ideas on how I could apply a similar scheme for various uses...

I hope this helps anyone who may have been wondering about all of that - it seems like PC joystick interfacing and programming is still a very interesting, yet obscure art...

Side note: In all fairness, Tomi Engdahl's site is arguably one the best sites on the net for all electronics related information - visit the link if you don't believe me...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

pnp for your joystick under w2k

[compwizrd]

you missed a part of your PNP under w2k.

up up down down left right left right b a start.

then type ".seineew era sreenigne epacsten"

your drivers will self-install.

tip: many manufactures, few chipsets

[hyrdra]

Well, personally, I have gotten all of my hardware to work on Windows 2000, some of which didn't even had manufacture drivers for NT, let alone 2000.

Here's a tip: try to identify the underlying chipset of whatever you're trying to install instead of the manufacuture. Out of all the oodles of manufactures producing the same hardware, there are usually only one or two chipsets.

Chances are, one of those manufactures hasn't been lax on driver support. Simply use their driver, their software, whatever. It works great.

For example, my Pinnacle PCTV+ doesn't have WDM drivers, so I can't use many applications which use them. Solution? Use AverMedia drivers! They work just like using the AverMedia card, because both (and most all tuners on the market now) use the Bt84x chipset. I can even get Closed Captioning and Pinnacle wasn't planning on supporting this for another two years! It's that simple. And it works for all sorts of things -- my micromodem uses drivers from another company as well.

This also opens up the possibility of driver tuning, in that you can try multiple drivers to see which one works best with your system. Sometimes manufacture drivers for your card don't work as well as ones from others.

In your case with the Joystick drivers, which are probably highly specilized, the only real thing you're going to be able to do is lobby the company to produce some WDM or at least Windows 2k/NT compatible drivers. This, unfortunatly, can be a frustrating experience.

But for a host of other drivers, simply go to a different manufacture. If you're really desperate, you might take a look at the Windows Driver Development Kit (DDK), espeically WDM drivers. If you have experience with C++, and know the basics of drivers, virtural modes, addressing, etc. than you might be able to write your own driver using the WDM model. I'm sorry to say it, but WDM is the best driver specification I've ever seen and blows Linux out of the water: extensibility, maintainability, and modularization make it a very good and easy to learn package indeed. But this, of course, is only if you are willing to do what the manufacture should have. It's good experience none-the-less and you'll learn more about your system. For me, this was writing a driver for my Radio card. It was a perfectly simple example, and was a lot of fun. Remember to share with the rest of us if you end up anyhow.