Here's your explanation :-)


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Posted by rmfx on 31, 2001 at 4:59 PM:

In Reply to: Dumbo would like an explanation :-P posted by Mojo2000 on 31, 2001 at 3:06 PM:

Well, it seems that many analog gamepads use pots that are less than 100k, so they work well as interfaces for old analog arcade controls, such as genuine Terminator 2 guns, and Star Wars yokes. What's better, the Dual Strike it only $19.99, so it's just cheap enough to muck around with.

In the case of the MS Sidewinder Dual Strike, it has a regular d-pad, plus a side handle that you aim with your right hand, much like aiming a gun. It turns out that the pots inside are about 20k 3/4 turn, and the handle only allows less than 1/4 turn. This means that the circuitry only expects to get about 5k ohms out of it, and thus can be interfaced directly to the original pots on most arcade controls!

What I did was to strip the Dual Strike down to its main PCB, mapped out what wires go to pots and what goes to buttons (I will give an exact pinout later on...), and de-soldered the remaining pot from the main PCB. Soldered new wires where the pot used to be, twisted the DS wires to the corresponding yoke wires to test things, then soldered everything together and put shrink tubing over the soldered points to keep from shorting out. Plugged in my new USB authentic Star Wars yoke, configured the buttons in the DS software, tweaked the sensitivity settings in MAME, and was blasting tie fighters in no time!

In my case, this works out perfect, because I only have one gameport but at least 3 old analog arcade controls that I'd like to interface--1 Star Wars Yoke and 2 T2 guns. With the Dual Strike, I can make them USB, and have as many plugged in at once as I desire. (there's the main benefit!) On top of this, the DS software allows me to use each one as either a joystick or a mouse, allowing better compatibility with MAME (the mouse interface is less jumpy in Star Wars & Stun Runner, while T2 needs them set up as joysticks since 2 "mice" would just fight over the same gunsights.) I could even use, say, the yoke to select other games like Stun Runner or ESB in Arcade OS without switching control panels.

Hope this clears things up!


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