On  5 Feb 98 at 15:28, Jim Meagher wrote:

> Michael Webb wrote:
> >
> > A buddy uses his joystick for flying Flight Simulator and then has to
> > unplug it and plug in his steering wheel for a Nascar driving
> > simulator.  Anyone know how to set up to leave them plugged in and then
> > work an easy software switch to change to the new configuration.  He has
> > to reboot each time he want to change games.  The alternative would be
> > some kind of T or a-b switch and then some software switching.  Any help
> > would be appreciated.
>
> The simplest solution might be to just add another serial port.

  Joystick ports are not comm ports.

  There is a single standard 8-bit I/O address for a joystick port,
if present.  Each attached joystick (Y cable if two) uses 4 bits of
the port.  Two of those bits reflect two buttons on the stick -- note
that on many sticks, one or both of these may include multiple
physical buttons.  The other two reflect X and Y values through A/D
converters -- the *duration* of this signal depends on the resistance
along that dimension.  (Calibration involves determining the minimum
and maximum durations for the current configuration; other values are
interpolated.)

  Adding a second joystick port isn't a workable option, because both
ports will try to be at the same address.

David G


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