Can anyone help me out on a little dilema i have with building some throttles based around the design of Rob Barendregt,s.In his write up for wiring to the game port he uses a game port connector and connects it to usb throu a 'gameport to usb converter'.Is there a way to connect straight to usb?I have some old microsoft and quickshot joypads and wondered if i could use the interfaces from these some how.

Hi Cipprio,as long as your "old" parts are recognized by windows and are functionning well under FS the rest is basically a mechanical question as to how to control the potentiometers by your throttle mechanism.The Game to USB convertors have basically one major disadvantage as their resolution is sometimes rather corse compared to the analogue input. In other words, the convertor samples the resistor value (voltage) of the joystick potentiometer and depending on the A/D convertor

cipprio: I don't know about the quickshot joypads, but if they only use switches like some gamepads then you won't be able to connect your pots to them. However, it's certainly worth taking a look.Pantu: FYI - game ports don't actually use a true A/D converter. They simply use a one shot flip-flop. The PC resets and then counts the time it takes to trigger this flip-flop resulting in a pot position value. You are indeed correct in that they work like a simple A/D converter...but a poor one at that!As far as the RS adapter goes, you can effectively hack an RS adapter to use those 32 steps on a narrower rotation arc on the pots by replacing a capacitor. Unfortunately these are surface mount types and hard to do, but not impossible. You would basically be squeezing those 32 steps into the range you actually use on the pot and not the whole rotation which results in thos big steps you described.Cheers,-Leo

Thanks for all your advice,i have been in contact with a local freind who has just built a full size sim and he advised me it would be better to start from scratch with the wireing to a game port and to use a converter to usb.Thanks again for your help.