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Applications hosted on a system without a USB interface can utilize low-cost joystick and game controllers for visualization, virtual reality, and simulation applications.Joystick data is mirrored to shared memory which allows independent processes to easily interface to the joystick(s) A TCPIP client/server pair mirror the joystick shared memory data to a remote system
If I'm running the client application on the same system as the joystick only rjsd is required as shown in Figure 2.
USB support is included in the kernel for versions 2.3 and above. I recommend the backport of the USB drivers which is included in kernel 2.2.18 which you can download from kernel.org The Linux Joystick Driver is included in the 2.2 kernel - Make sure you kernel has this driver enabled. Refer to the Linux Joystick Driver homepage for a list of supported devices. If using repeatd the networked systems must be able to open up a socket connection between them. Port number 2013 is used by default and may be re-specified with the -p option to repeatd.
Get rjs.tz (2.0 Mb)
The Linux Driver Homepage - The best place to start
mjstest - the multiple joystick test - This is the basic code from which rjsd was formed
Logitech - Several good USB controllers. I have the Wingman Rumblepad![]()
Interact - Many low-cost USB and 15-pin gameport devices. I have aMakoPad that I'm currently working on interfacing ($4.99 at Staples!) (this website requires a Flash plugin for your browser)
Here's some links which assisted me in configuring USB on my laptop:
Linux USB ProjectSome General Dell Latitude and Linux on a laptop links:
John's USB on Linux Experience
How to get USB devices working under LinuxLinux on the Dell Latitude CPi A366XT (great stuff - very useful)
Linux on Dell Latitude (a little dated but still good)
Socket-level Programming - the basics for repeatd came from here
And of coursefor free and consistent tracking of website traffic.
Multiple joystick device support - support for more than a single host/single device Multi-threaded server for repeatd - allowing multiple applications on separate machines to interact with a single device Possibly integrating rjsd with repeatd Encapsulating the raw joystick data into an abstract class. I'd like to do things like:
- Turning a two-axis controller (digital or analog) into 4 separate switch devices
- Report rate data instead of instantaneous analog or digital data to the application
- Smooth data from "noisy" devices
- Incorporate quaternion or matrix-valued rotations into low-level joystick functions
- Adaptive sleep intervals for RJS. The code currently has a CPU-intensive inner loop.
- Allow the user to rotate the axis of a controller to accommodate left hand/right hand use or ergonomic issues
In the future I'd like to extend this capability with infared remote controls in addition to joystick devices. Cheap IR remotes could function in a similar manner as the joystick devices. The LIRC project page can give you a feel for the possibilities.
Microsoft has some very interesting controllers. I'm enamored with the Sidewinder Dual Strike. It seems like a great device for architectural walkthrough applications. (I'm not sure if they're supported yet however)
Ken Schwarz kschwarz@sgi.comHits
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