David Megginson wrote: > John Check writes: > > Hey David, I was thinking of getting another controller, what was > > that one you recommended? > > I use a Logitech WingMan RumblePad. It is USB-based and has two > thumb-controlled joysticks, a throttle, two triggers, a view hat, and > seven or eight additional usable buttons, for about USD 25 or so. The > joysticks are pretty sensitive, and it takes some getting used to, but > it travels nicely with my notebook. If you buy one, I can send you my > bindings.
Just to plug another choice, I've been really, really happy with my Saitek X45 stick/throttle combo. Once you get over the initial aesthetics (it looks like a control for a giant transforming robot, I have to hide it when we have guests), it's a great stick. The stick itself has a reasonably good feel -- not as stiff as the Thrustmaster X-Fighter I was used to, but not mushy either. The throttle has a good range of travel, and the detents aren't too stiff (I'll never understand this feature on consumer sticks, it's never done anything but get in the way). But it's the peripheral stuff that kicks butt. One trigger, one pinkie, four stick-top buttons and two throttle buttons. Four (!) hat switches, two each on stick and throttle. One "rocker" axis on the throttle to simulate rudder (not very well -- I still use my analog TM pedals for that). Two three-position mode switches on the throttle. And, best of all, there are two analog "rotary" dials on the throttle that make *great* mixture/propeller (or thrust vector, or spoilers) controls. All of this can be yours for about $75 US, which really isn't so bad at all. Definitely recommended. One one caveat: it's USB response is slower than the spec allows, so the linux driver doesn't work out of the box. You need to enable the "slow USB devices" option when you compile your kernel. The default Red Hat kernels appear to have this already set for you, probably true for other distributions too. For the same reason, DON'T plug the thing into windows until you've installed the custom driver. Windows will detect it and try to use the default USB HID driver, with equally useless effect. There's a big yellow sticker on the USB plug to tell you this. :) Andy -- Andrew J. Ross NextBus Information Systems Senior Software Engineer Emeryville, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.nextbus.com "Men go crazy in conflagrations. They only get better one by one." - Sting (misquoted) _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
