MiSTer FPGA Forum

Is it possible to use two USB spinners or two Mice, for the Atari 2600 or the arcade Pong?

Any chance that in the .ini, we can assign the X range as spinner 1, and Y range as spinner 2?

I'm specifically looking at having two GRS TS-BSP-02 spinners working at the same time.

I’m runny two Turbotwist spinners. Having some similar issues.

One of them works with Arkanoid.

Neither work in Forgotten Worlds.

They show up as X and Y axes in the input test program, but most things that should take mouse/spinner input don’t see either one at all.

I did have one working in Bally Astrocade, but now neither do.

Should be simpler than this I think.

I just took the time to figure out all the pinouts for the spinners, boards, etc. Funny how tricky it is to get straight tech docs for any of this. Guessing it’s to avoid headaches for the vendors to support. IMO good information is much more valuable. Anyway, I moved the TurboTwist2 spinners over to the Ipac2.

I tried:

Two Spinners on OptiWiz (default TT2 interface X + Y)

One Spinner + One Trackball Axis on Ipac2 (one on X one on Y, both on X, etc.)
Two Trackball axes Ipac2 (X + Y)

These all work as mouse axes in Windows.

They all work in the MiSTer Controller Test Utility.

None are mappable in the controller define menus of MiSTer (they do nothing have to skip)

None work in Astrocade
Only one X axis (player one) works in Arkanoid.
None work in Forgotten Worlds.

I tried specifying them specifically in the INI using exact hardware IDs, I tried using 0xFFFF to use ALL spinner/mouse input.

I tried adding the hardware IDs to the duplicate hardware definitions.

No idea what’s happening here.

However Arkanoid and the Controller Test Utility work seem best. However everything else works, I’m not sure.

I’ll keep at it though, and post anything interesting here.

I think I'm just going to switch to the GRS v2 spinners. They're configurable, I can try them on their own USB connections, you can modify the PID (which could potentially help) etc. They just seem like they may suit the MiSTer better than the TurboTwists.

I'll use the TurboTwists for other controllers. Maybe I'll make a dual steering wheel setup with them, or single player devices or something.

I ordered two GRS spinners. I'll report back on how they work.

I'm going to continue to work with the TurboTwist ones though, and see what I can do with them.

I have two GRS spinners (one is a push/pull spinner) and both are set as X axis and both are independent usb devices (not attached to an ipac or anything).
Both work with Forgotten Worlds (I just have to make sure I move Player 1's spinner first so it gets recognized first).
I don't have any TurboTwists to play/test with but have you tried adding their PID/VID to MiSTer.ini?
Ex:

spinner_vid=0x32BE
spinner_pid=0x1521

In my setup, I had to comment out the following because it was messing around with the mouse and cores that use it:

;spinner_vid=0xFFFF
;spinner_pid=0xFFFF

Yeah, I tried setting their IDs. However, that was on the original setup using the OptiWiz controller. I'm not sure if I tried again after I swapped to the Ipac2. I'll give it a try while I'm waiting for the GRS ones to arrive. If they all work, I feel another controller build coming on.

J3RK wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:21 pm

I ordered two GRS spinners. I'll report back on how they work.

I'm going to continue to work with the TurboTwist ones though, and see what I can do with them.

Please do report back, and if you get them both working independently, what settings resulted in that.

Flandango wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:58 pm

I have two GRS spinners (one is a push/pull spinner) and both are set as X axis and both are independent usb devices (not attached to an ipac or anything).
Both work with Forgotten Worlds (I just have to make sure I move Player 1's spinner first so it gets recognized first).
I don't have any TurboTwists to play/test with but have you tried adding their PID/VID to MiSTer.ini?
Ex:

Code: Select all

spinner_vid=0x32BE
spinner_pid=0x1521

In my setup, I had to comment out the following because it was messing around with the mouse and cores that use it:

Code: Select all

;spinner_vid=0xFFFF
;spinner_pid=0xFFFF

So you don't have any PID or VID entries in the INI, for either of your spinners?

I wonder if I need to change the PID in one of my identical spinners to mimic your setup of two different model spinners?

Update:

I just tried the Forgotten Worlds core, and it's working two players, no problem. Then I tried Pong again, and it's working no problem. The Atari 2600 took a bit of time finessing the core's settings, but it's working now too.

I'm not sure what I was doing wrong before, but now I have great success!

PS: I didn't change the device PID. I had already entered the PID & VID info for the spinner:

spinner_vid=0x32be;
spinner_pid=0x1520;

Thank you for the replies.

Mort Handsome wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 12:10 am

So you don't have any PID or VID entries in the INI, for either of your spinners?

I wonder if I need to change the PID in one of my identical spinners to mimic your setup of two different model spinners?

Since it looks like you got your setup working, I am not sure if my response is relevant but I'll answer just in case.
Yes I do have the VID/PID in the INI file, just like you have in yours...except of course with the values for my spinner.
What I had mentioned in the second code section was that I originally had VID/PID of 0xFFFF/0xFFFF which signals mister to use your mouse as spinner, but it was giving me issues with some computer cores and if I recall (been a while) some cores like Forgotten worlds also gave me a hard time where my actual spinners weren't being detected by them.
Funny thing is, I only have VID/PID for one spinner...the other spinner, which has a different PID isn't in the INI...yet it's detected. If I remove all references of spinner_vid...etc, from INI...they usually don't get recognized.
Anyway, glad you got yours working

Interesting!

Seems like I have more experiments to do. I still have those GRS ones on the way, but if I can get these ones working, I can build more controllers

I did try specifying what I though was the VID/PID in the INI, but nothing yet. However, I’m going to try redecting those and making sure I have them correct. I’ve had so many device changes over the past couple of weeks, I’m not sure now

Popped in the GRS spinners (Button Hole 2 type), connected them to a PC, set one to PID 1 and the second to PID2. Both set for X Axis. Saved.

Plugged them into the MiSTer.

I had to set the VID/PID to 0xFFFF

Both work perfectly in Forgotten Worlds, Bally Astrocade (though the axis is backwards in Astrocade) and will try more ASAP.

These spinners are great! Nice quality and feel.

I will say that the TurboTwist 2 spinners with the inertia cylinders attached do have a slightly more substantial feel to them, but the simplicity in use, modern config app, and flexibility make the GRS ones a MUST for this type of thing on the MiSTer.

They took zero effort to get working flawlessly.

Now I plan to use the TurboTwist spinners in some different controllers for a MAME box I have. The GRS ones will stay with the MiSTer setup.

Quite happy now!