Joystick Expansion

[baronep]

My team purchased Saietk X52 for a joystick. The joystick and the other device (a throttle) are connected to each other by a cable and then the throttle is connect to the computer via usb. Together, they have more than 12 buttons. Is there any way to go into the dashboard and configure it to send information for the remaining buttons?

Also, does anyone know how to configure HUD on a joystick?

[wilmo]

I'm not sure how/if the X-52 will work with the control system since the system must use a Saitek program to allow the flight stick to function. This would be a big thing to check out before trying to configure the joystick. Also remember that turning the top right mode select knob will rename each button on the joystick. Also, with all the hat switches and dials on the X-52, there has to be more than 200 button combinations (there are "function" buttons that will change the name of a group of buttons) The X-52 is VERY complex and i would highly suggest reading all you can about it, you can really get yourself in a situation if you accidental push a few buttons.

[baronep]

Thanks,

The joystick works in PnP mode by default so i think that that is ok. I did some detective work in the labView code for both the cRIO and dashboard and i have come to the conclusion that the place where the joystick is limited to 12 buttons is inside the driver station software. Is there a way to edit the source code files to add more buttons.

Also, I had the idea that if we could trick the computer to thinking that 2 joysticks were plugged in by cloning the 1st one and then reassigning buttons values? Would this be possible?

Finally, Is any of this legal under the game rules?

[Mark McLeod]

You can't get or modify the Driver Station code, mostly for safety reasons.
So we are limited to the USB inputs it provides.

Only the Windows device drivers come between the Driver station and the standard joystick inputs.

You could possibly use the capabilities of the Cypress IO board to get yourself more switches and buttons, but not through the standardized Driver Station joystick inputs.

[baronep]

Ok. Thanks,

I'll take a look into the drivers.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by baronep

...the place where the joystick is limited to 12 buttons is inside the driver station software.

Even if the driver station software could be changed to recognize more buttons, the communication protocol between the DS and the cRIO will still limit things. Each joystick (or other USB device) has six axes and twelve buttons, that's all.