New software to use your TX as a joystick

[shinichio nishiya]

Mr. Seki made a completely new type soft ware.
You can use your R/C transmitter as a joystick controller in the PC connecting them with an audio cable.
It works on the PCs that Windows 2000 or Windows XP has been installed.
Visit here.

[johnhlong]

Anybody had a chance to try this yet?

John
Seattle, WA
USA

[garfield]

Yes!

Took me a couple of hours messing around with the settings, but I finally got it to work. I have a JR 652 radio and am running Windows 2000 with a Sound Blaster Live Value sound card. I used a simple 6' long 1/8" mono mini-plug cable purchased from my local Radio Shack without any transistor. (Probably the same cable JR sells as a Trainer, but I'm not certain). It sure beats soldering a bunch of elecrical components or paying 40 bucks or more for a USB interface cable! - But you will have to do a bit of soldering if you own a Futaba or Hitech, the info is on the web site noted above.

I couldn't get it to work on the Microphone port on the sound card. The Microsoft "Sound Recorder" did register the input signal when the radio on the microphone jack, but for some reason FMS could not pick it up at any input volume level.

So I used the Line-in port instead which worked fine. I set the input volume control to about 30% of maximum (set from from Settings->Control Panel->Sounds and Multimedia).

One VERY important thing is, if you use Sound Recorder to test the input signal TURN IF OFF BEFORE YOU LAUNCH FMS - the Sound Recorder somehow interferes with the signal and will not pass it through to FMS.

And it's also important to make sure that you download and install the latest drivers for your sound card for Windows 2000/XP first! The default Microsoft Drivers for Windows 2000/XP are bare-bones and may not have all of the features activated.

Seems kind of weird controlling FMS through the line-in jack of a sound card, but it works!

Kudos to Tsutomu Seki, a very ingenious fellow. And thanks to Shinichio Nishiya for bringing it to my attention!

Gary
London ON
Canada

[shinichio nishiya]

Hi,
Thanks for your important information.
As Tsutomu Seki said, SmartPropo is not perfect software.
It depends on the circumstance of the PC
It is required some work to adjust to one's PC
I will announce your information to the users in Japan.
And if the way to fix the control stability will be discovered I will let you know here.

Shinichiro Nishiya
Aomori city, Japan

[garfield]

>>>
Shinichiro Nishiya wrote:
"And if the way to fix the control stability will be discovered I will let you know here."
<<<

Hi Shinichio:

I'm not sure what you are referring to by "control stability", but my control setup is rock solid. Everything works perfectly.

Gary

[shinichio nishiya]

Gary,
I misunderstood your word

[bsergeev]

I tried to use this DLL in Windows 2000 with JR 652. The only difference from Gary's system was a different sound card: I've got Vortex2 based card, while he was using SB Live Value.

First, FMS wouldn't start in w2000, throwing an error "some function not found/not initialised in WINDMM.DLL". At the same time, FMS started fine in Windows 98.

Next, Sound Recorder detected the signal coming from the TX. If the mono cable is plugged into Mic connector, Sound Recorder showed very strong signal. When the cable is in Line-In--the signal was barely visible. In both cases, though, FMS didn't detect the signal.

I also tried Futaba CONQUEST with 10k resistor--same rersults.

I wonder if the results depend on the CPU speed, sound card brand, ... ?
It would be useful for users of this promising software as well as for the code debuging if Mr. Tsutomu Seki could post the success stories: Windows version, sound card type and drivers version, CPU speed, TX type, etc.

Boris

[garfield]

Hi Boris:

Since you obviously read my post, you probably know this...but just to make sure:

1. Close (dismiss) Sound Recorder before launching FMS.

2. Make sure you have the volume set correctly, and the Line-in check box SELECTED:

Start->Settings->Control Panel->Sounds and Multimedia
click on Audio Tab, and Volume button on the "Sound Recording" panel, then click on the "Select" checkbox under LINE-IN.

I set the Volume of my line-in to 30% but that may or may not be representative of your system.

Gary

[robc]

Could this software be compiled to work with Win98?

[bsergeev]

Sill no luck making it work: can't start FMS in w2000, no signal in FMS in w98...

[johnhlong]

Garfield,

Where did you get the new drivers for you Sound Blaster Live Value?

John

[NEM3]

I tried the software with a regular mono cable from radio shack. I am getting a signal but the whole thing is jumping all over the place liek my 16 bit dll connector use to only worse. Is there any way to fix this. I just bought a new computer and have installed Win2000 Pro and the Audio codec is called AC '97.

Any ideas on how to help this out.

[rob]

Any chance somebody with a working setup could record the control signal in sound recorder or something so that it can be played back through the system to test if fms responds to it?

The plan is to use the "stereo mixer" input that is a loop back of the sound being output to the speakers. I'm thinking I could play a recorded control signal in winamp and assuming everything else works, fms should respond to the signal.

Just an idea,
Rob

[garfield]

NEM3:

I had the same problem when I used the Microphone jack on my sound card, so I switched to the Line-In jack instead. Make sure that when you do, though, that you tell Windows to use the line-in jack as the recording source. You do this by going to Control Panel, select the "Sounds and Multimedia Prpoperties" icon, Click on the Audio tab, and click on Volume button in the Sound Recording panel. Make sure the "Select" checkbox under Line-in is checked.

And one other important thing! If you are using a JR radio, do NOT turn it on! It won't work if the radio is on. With the radio turned off, just insert the cable into the jack on the back of the radio and it will turn itself on in "buddy" mode which is what you want.

BTW, I am using Windows 2000 Pro.

Rob:

Sorry, that won't work, I tried it but FMS will not read the playback from Sound Recorder.
Sorry.