On  4 Feb 98 at 16:44, 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.

  A simple "T" won't work *well* with analog joystick devices,
although it may be usable if you recalibrate the device for each
game.  I haven't seen a 15-pin A-B switch, but I can't say I've
looked very hard for them.
  Note that it should be relatively safe (much safer than some other
connectors...) to unplug one device and plug in the other without
powering the machine off.  So a "T" doesn't have to be very
complicated; if you can find one with 15 pins, you may be able to get
a cheap 25-pin switch and a couple of 15-pin connectors and build one.

  There used to be "Y" cables for joysticks around; the PC joystick
interface can actually handle two devices.  It should be easy enough
to write software that will use either device, but I don't know of
any.  This would be a nice thing for MS to build into DirectX.

David G


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