The ultimate orb solution, at last.

SpaceOrb drivers and software discussions
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Agent_13
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby Agent_13 » September 30 2010, 0:00 AM

Hi Vic. I just assembled an Orbshield. It works fantastic! I can't thank you enough for all your hard work keeping this one-of-a-kind device alive. This has even spurred me into buying a 4000 FLX, and a 5000. There is an XBOX 360 controller emulator for the PC called xinputemu, this works by assigning axises, and buttons to correspond to the 360 controller (or any other device) via a config file, then copying the config file, and a .dll to the game directory. After that the game doesn't know the difference, and believes you are using the 360 controller. It works on all PC Games that support the XBOX 360 controller. To make a long story short, with a little fiddling around with the config I have it working in Borderlands, and the really cool thing is I can just copy those two files to any game that supports the 360 controller, and it will work too. I have a question regarding the programming to the Arduino: Is there a way I can set a different curve for each Axis? I have already set different gains for each, and I was wondering if there was a similar approach for curves. Again thank you soo much.



Jeff

vputz
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby vputz » October 02 2010, 22:14 PM

Agent_13:



Great news that it works! Sorry for the vagueness on replies... I'm on a tiny netbook in a hotel for the next month so without my computer it's not so easy browsing the source tree even using Sourceforge.



From what I can see, though, there is only one sensitivity curve for the whole system, not one per axis (unlike gain). The reason is that gain is just a short per axis (12 bytes) but the sensitivity curve is just a simple lookup table, and that takes up a fair amount of memory on the little Arduino (2k bytes!) However, nowadays, the 328 Arduinos (all the new ones) could probably handle it, so I should think about adding per-axis sensitivity lookups.



Sorry not more help yet. Maybe later!

shanselman
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Joined: September 08 2010, 2:26 AM

Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby shanselman » October 04 2010, 20:11 PM

Anyone get this working on a SpaceBall 5000? My shield works great with my SpaceOrb, but the *brand new out of the box* SpaceBall 5000 that I just bought on eBay for...wait for it....$.99. Yes, that's cents. Doesn't work at all. I set the dips 1 and 2 both to on.



I don't even know where to start debugging. Any hints?

Agent_13
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby Agent_13 » October 05 2010, 1:05 AM

I just received my 3DCONNEXION 5000 and it is not working either. I noticed that there were no beeps after pressing button one like there is with my 4000, so i wrote the 4000 programming to the arduino and then I got the beeps after pressing button one. It does have some movement in the control panel with the 4000 programming but its not right. By the way, the only difference I can tell between the 4000, and the 5000 is the buttons feel different when pressed, and the Ball seems easier to turn, and it has less range of motion on the 5000. If there is anything I can do to help troubleshoot this let me know Vic.

shanselman
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Joined: September 08 2010, 2:26 AM

Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby shanselman » October 05 2010, 19:51 PM

Ya, just to be clear, my 5000 does "beep" when plugged in, and both DIPs are set to ON (I saw in in instructions that the 5000 needs a special init string.)

vputz
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby vputz » October 07 2010, 22:40 PM

Agent_13:



Sorry for slow response (and I won't have GOOD responses for a while, at the rate we're going finding a house).



Okay. The 5k and the Magellan Spacemouse should work... at least somewhat. The obvious first check-- did you change the initialization to


[code]Logical_orb orb_buffer( SpaceBall5000 );[/code]

before testing? (not to be annoying, but I wanted to check; it's the sort of thing I forget).



Second--do the buttons work and the axes work but not far enough? If so, it may be possible to get a good effect from changing gain.



Grr, this sucks not being able to really help. I want my stuff back!

Agent_13
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby Agent_13 » October 07 2010, 23:58 PM

No hurry Vic. Here is the situation. I have a 3DCONNECTION 4000FLX, and a 3DCONNECTION 5000. The 4000FLX works perfect. I edited the initialization string (SpaceBall5000), and flipped both switches to the on position. I get 2 beeps from the 5000 when it powers up (no beeps when pressing button 1), but no response in the control panel. all axises show up, but no movement. The 5000 looks so much like the 4000flx, so I decided to write the 4000 programming to the arduino and see if the 5000 acted any different. It beeped 2 times on power up, and when I pressed button 1 it beeped 2 more times. At this point I launched the control panel again, and all the buttons, and axises were working, but not working as you would expect (some would barely move, and others would jump around). So to sum it up, the 5000 works somewhat with the (SpaceBall4000) initialization string, but doesn't work at all with the (SpaceBall5000) initialization string. Could it be that this 3DCONNECTION 5000 is a hybrid between a 4000flx, and a 5000? I only purchased the 5000 because it was cheap, and I wanted to see if it was any better, or worse, so there is no pressure from me to fix it. I only wanted to give you as much information as possible for when you are situated, and ready. I'll tinker with the gains to see if I can get satisfactory response, and post my findings.

vputz
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby vputz » October 08 2010, 17:52 PM

Sounds good, but I'll try to see what's up once we get set up here (month or two). Weird that it acts like a 4k... wait, maybe. Brain is tickling. I think there were some 4k's that instead acted like 5k's or something; maybe there is some other crosstalk the reverse direction. We'll get it going if for no other reason than to add it to the bestiary.

shanselman
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Joined: September 08 2010, 2:26 AM

Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby shanselman » October 13 2010, 18:20 PM

I'm happy to send you my 5000 for testing if you want. I got it for 99 cents on eBay. I was hoping to use it as a mouse. ;)



Yes, I set the init string. My results were the SAME as Agent_13's, competely.

NamVet

Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby NamVet » December 01 2010, 10:05 AM

I am a disabled vet and I have a problem with tremors in my hands, so I can no longer solder or weld efficiently. I miss using my Space Orb because it is the only game controller I can accurately use when playing video games, so I haven't played any of my Quake games since my computers switched over to XP on up. I have considered buying an older computer with 98 on it, but I would not have the advantage of the newer video cards and other options. So, if you, or someone you know who can build this equipment would be willing to build one for me, I would be happy to purchase it from you. I would appreciate any consideration you might give me on this and I would be happy to pay you what you would consider to be a fair price for your work.



MIchael Kilgus

adamh128
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Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

Postby adamh128 » January 08 2011, 16:30 PM

Hi,



I've just been catching up on the status of drivers for the SpaceOrb and was so happy to see these latest developments :)



Unfortunately Seeed is currently showing 0 stock for the Orbshield v1.0 kit - any idea if they plan to do another run?



I'm not sure which Arduino controller board to buy. These two are available, but which one is best?
[list]
  • [*]Arduino UNO ([url]http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/arduino-uno-p-694.html[/url])

  • [*]Seeeduino V2.2 (Atmega 328P) ([url]http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/seeeduino-v22-atmega-328p-p-669.html[/url])
  • [/list]


    Also, is there a suitably sized plastic enclosure we can use?



    Thanks,

    Adam

    RoyMacDonald
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    Joined: January 10 2011, 20:03 PM
    Location: London

    Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

    Postby RoyMacDonald » January 12 2011, 10:08 AM

    I'm trying to get an Orbsheild kit as well. I've tried Seeed who are out of stock and emailed easy electronics in India to ask if they have it in stock. Does anyone know the availability of the Orbsheild?

    adamh128
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    Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

    Postby adamh128 » January 14 2011, 16:57 PM

    I have a friend who wants one as well, so that makes at least 3 of us.

    RoyMacDonald
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    Joined: January 10 2011, 20:03 PM
    Location: London

    Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

    Postby RoyMacDonald » January 16 2011, 10:10 AM

    Just to update. The Orshield kit has disappeared from the easy electronics site. It's on the Seeed site, but still out of stock though. :(

    vputz
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    Re: The ultimate orb solution, at last.

    Postby vputz » January 16 2011, 19:33 PM

    Shields coming... sorry I've been away! See post "Status of orbshields, 16 Jan 2011" for more details.



    Vic


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