Space Navigator PE Driver Development Thread

**sama** · 05-13-2007, 06:56 PM

1 month and a half later, I'm in the flat! been doing lots of DIY. carpc has really taken a back seat these days. I've promised myself to resume sometime.

what's missing that you'd like done?

**Churchill** · 05-13-2007, 07:21 PM

just wondering how you were getting on with the interface and with the hardware. someone had one in work the other day and it reminded me to look you up. it has a very nice weight to it. But i was disapointed by the lack of rotation.

**sama** · 05-13-2007, 07:58 PM

yeah, I thought it would be a rotate and click mechanism, but I can understand why it isn't when used in a 3D application like Google Earth, which is what it's sort of designed for.

I'll be hacking off the weighted part to fit it into the place I have in mind, when I finally get around to it. I'm actually thinking of buying another one, because it really is nice with Google Earth!

**ironfinger** · 05-21-2007, 10:16 PM

hey,

just wanted to give a thanks . I installed the SN in my car and am using it for the audio part of road runner. Works awesome. I'm looking forward to running the other screens with it.

**cherrybomb** · 05-24-2007, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by ironfinger

hey,

just wanted to give a thanks . I installed the SN in my car and am using it for the audio part of road runner. Works awesome. I'm looking forward to running the other screens with it.

Heya Iron,

Glad you're enjoying it. The project is still underway. I'm actually making some significant changes/improvements to it as a result of another project I took on, which has similar needs. Expect to see a new binary version with context switching fairly soon. :-)

**ik632** · 06-18-2007, 01:22 PM

This has been some great work, it's inspired me to buy one and use it as my primary input device in the car.

Here's another driver the guys at the 3DConnexion forum are working on:
http://www.3dconnexion.com/forum/vie...er=asc&start=0

Looks promising as well.

**ik632** · 06-22-2007, 01:55 PM

I installed the drivers that I linked above and they work pretty good. The system defaults to startup the 3DConnexion drivers so you have to stop them (just remove them from the startup folder) and then start the RBC9 driver. You can do the following:

Software actions which can be bound to the hardware:
Joystick Axis
Joystick Button
Joystick POV
Mouse X
Mouse Y
Mouse Wheel
Mouse Button
Keyboard
Special Key (Windows keys)
Switch Layout (you setup layouts for the mapping and can use this option to switch between them - usually mapped to one of the hard buttons).
Macros (so far I've been able to do keystrokes but haven't tried calling any programming type items)

Things you can map these to:
Pan Left/Right
Pan Front/Back
Tilt Left/Right
Tilt Front/Back
Push/Pull
Twist
Hard Buttons (1-2 for SN, 1-8 for ST)

One of the features which I like is that you can have the device AutoSwitch between profiles/layouts for different programs. There's a default layout for when you are not in any specific program and then when a specific .exe is running in memory (and you are focused on that window) it switches to that configuration. I use this for different CAD operation from basic Windows operation.

The next thing to figure out is whether or not it will switch when in a frontend (different music mappings versus navigation mappings). Somehow I doubt it but it's worth trying.

**ik632** · 06-22-2007, 02:10 PM

Does the SpaceNavigator turn 360 degrees or does it only turn about 20 degrees either way like the SpaceTraveler?

**turbocad6** · 06-22-2007, 02:27 PM

it has a pretty small range of motion, it is also difficult, if not impossible to cause a reaction on one axis without affecting another, as long as you don't try & use all the axises for functions it works fine, I use it, but it does have these slight limitations.

**ik632** · 06-22-2007, 03:16 PM

Originally Posted by turbocad6

it has a pretty small range of motion, it is also difficult, if not impossible to cause a reaction on one axis without affecting another, as long as you don't try & use all the axises for functions it works fine, I use it, but it does have these slight limitations.

Thanks that's what I was hoping.

The driver that I posted the link to has a "deadzone" setting so that any movement before you want isn't counted. There's also a specific "deadzone" setting for each binding as well as a min and max. The output value is from -360 to 0 to +360 so if you set the minimum to something like 150 or 200, movement or values up to that setting are ignored so you won't accidentally affect the other axis.

I found that while using it normally I would wander up to about 75 one each axis while I was intending to affect a different axis.