Space Navigator PE Driver Development Thread

[inh]

Well, as of now, that problem i reported isnt causing any issues. Like i said, i just had to pick a different name Hopefully it doesnt cause any more issues though, once I sit down and tweak it some more.. If it does, you know i'll letcha know =]

As for the config app, I would love to see it. You've already implemented just about everything, the config app would be the last thing needed to really round this out and call it complete.

[Dingo509]

After many failed attempts to read this entire thread i finially made it!! looks like i'll be ordering one of these soon. Thanks so much cherrybomb and inh. I have held off really buying anything carputer related until i had the main input device squared away. With this working looks like i have found the winner!

Any progress on the configuration app? i think i'm gonna need it, since most of that code looks like hieroglyphics to me.

Thanks again guys for all your hard work
Dingo

[cherrybomb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dingo509

Any progress on the configuration app? i think i'm gonna need it, since most of that code looks like hieroglyphics to me.

There has been a little. I haven't had much time to focus on it though. Worst case scenario, I'll have a chance to work on it after my baby is born and I'm home from work. Between diaper changes of course. ;-)

That's a sweet cherokee you've got there. I used to own an 88 Suzuki Samurai which ran on 31's. Quite a lot of fun, till it got rear-ended in traffic. I bet your truck is a blast. :-)

[Dingo509]

Quote: Originally Posted by cherrybomb

There has been a little. I haven't had much time to focus on it though. Worst case scenario, I'll have a chance to work on it after my baby is born and I'm home from work. Between diaper changes of course. ;-)

lol have fun with that! i don't have any kids of my own but i get to borrow them whenever i want!

Quote: Originally Posted by cherrybomb

That's a sweet Cherokee you've got there. I used to own an 88 Suzuki Samurai which ran on 31's. Quite a lot of fun, till it got rear-ended in traffic. I bet your truck is a blast. :-)

Thanks, There's not much except the interior (and engine, for now) that is still stock. It has been alot of fun. I actually think i have more fun modifying it though than driving it. She's seen her fair share of nasty trails too though. Living in the Pacific Northwest (USA) we have lots of places to play.

Sammy's are good rigs, kinda fun to watch wheel. They remind me of big radio controlled cars. they drive for awhile, flop over, a couple guys push them back up, and the process repeats. They have impressed me a few times though.

Dingo

[Dingo509]

Well like i said i ordered one. I was really impressed with the feel of it but it is VERY touchy.

I am however trying to configure the software but since i can't even make DOS do anything i'm having some issues. First off I want the mouse control to be permanant with the PAN axes. I'll post my setting that far..

Code:

  <deviceContexts>
    <deviceContext name="Mouse" device="SpaceNavigator">
      <axe simulateMouseMove="x"
        threshold="50"
        divisor="10"/>
      <axe simulateMouseMove="y"
        threshold="50"
        divisor="10"/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="200"
        type="linear"
        startPulse="2"
        endPulse="6"
        posAction="RR Volume Up"
        negAction="RR Volume Down" />
      <buttons>
        <button simulateMouseButton="left"/>
        <button simulateMouseButton="right"/>
      </buttons>
    </deviceContext>
    <deviceContext name="SpaceNavigator" device="SpaceNavigator">
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="50" type="binary" posAction="" negAction=""/>
      <axe threshold="80"
        type="linear"
        startPulse="2"
        endPulse="6"
        posAction="RR Volume Up"
        negAction="RR Volume Down" />
      <buttons>
        <button downAction="Led On"
          upAction="" />
        <button downAction="Led Off"
          upAction="" />
      </buttons>
    </deviceContext>
  </deviceContexts>

My major problem is that the "x" axes is backwards. I pan left the mouse goes right. How do i correct that?

The second issue is that i want the push/pull axes to be right/left mouse button. either i get an windows error reporting screen or i get no action when i push down.

The third (for now i'm very slow at this programming stuff) is that i want the LEDS to be on all the time.

Then you if you could all explain the context switching for me that would be great.

Thanks alot for your hard work on this guys, without people like you, dummies like me would never have the ability to have a carputer.

Dingo

[Dingo509]

Ok, I played around with it enough to finally get the mouse working correctly. it was simple i suppose for me it's a major accomplishment. I ended up simply changing the divisor on the "Y" axis to a negative. Works great.

Still can't get theright and left buttons to work like i want, and can't get the led's to come on.

But i think i'm making progress.

Dingo

[cherrybomb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dingo509

Ok, I played around with it enough to finally get the mouse working correctly. it was simple i suppose for me it's a major accomplishment. I ended up simply changing the divisor on the "Y" axis to a negative. Works great.

Still can't get theright and left buttons to work like i want, and can't get the led's to come on.

But i think i'm making progress.

Dingo

Alright, finally finding a few moments to look at this. Sorry for the delay!

First, at the moment there is no support for using axes to simulate mouse buttons. I might add that in a future version..

The reversed direction on the "Y" axis is weird, it shouldn't be backwards, so I'll look into it.

As for context switching, inh outlined it pretty well in a previous post in this thread, so check it out, and see if it helps.

As for turning on the LED, you'll need to have RR send a window message to the SN app to turn it on. That should make sense from inh's post linked above as well. I think he also has another post somewhere else showing explicitly how to do that.

Hope that helps!

[HarryBash]

Here is the link to CherryBomb's own post on how to turn on the LED.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1125086-post287.html

[Dingo509]

[quote=cherrybomb;1144667]Alright, finally finding a few moments to look at this. Sorry for the delay![/quote)

I understand, i get impatient with new toys

Quote: Originally Posted by cherrybomb

First, at the moment there is no support for using axes to simulate mouse buttons. I might add that in a future version..

That would be great as this is how i envisioned using it from the start. in my application it will be almost impossible to use the buttons and have them be user friendly. Is there a script or something that can be written quickly so that: down=left click? Sorry for my ignorance here but i am really in over me head with trying to program this thing.

Quote: Originally Posted by cherrybomb

As for context switching, inh outlined it pretty well in a previous post in this thread, so check it out, and see if it helps.

I've read it a hundred times and it's almost starting to make sense. I plan on using pan axis as the mouse 100% of the time and only the tilt to different screen commands. so i guess i don't need context switching? i just need to set up a command in the ExecTBL file then?

Quote: Originally Posted by cherrybomb

As for turning on the LED, you'll need to have RR send a window message to the SN app to turn it on. That should make sense from inh's post linked above as well. I think he also has another post somewhere else showing explicitly how to do that.

Hope that helps!

Quote: Originally Posted by HarryBash

Here is the link to CherryBomb's own post on how to turn on the LED.
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/1125086-post287.html

Ok I'm lost again here. I don't understand the Windows message thing at all. Where does it come from? Where do i put it? I know spoon feeding is frowned upon, but if someone could write a line that has the LED's come on as soon as the program runs that would be very helpful.

I'm sorry for the lack of understanding on my part. Computer code is not my thing. It took me almost 6 hours to get the pan axis to work AT ALL for the mouse control, an other couple days of playing with it to get the axis reversed. My problem is there is so much i don't understand that it takes me hours to understand one sentence cause i have to look up every term.

I thank you all for your patience in helping me to get this working, CherryBomb, inh, you are truly a gift to this forum. to make this program on your own time and then help people to configure it is above and beyond what's expected. If your ever in Washington State you guys let me know and the drinks are on me!!!!!

Dingo

[gsireland]

Great work,

But I cannot find Xerces 2.7.0 it is now 2.8.0 and your SpaceNavDriver will not start up as it looks for 2.7.0. I have tried renaming files, but it still does not work. Any ideas?

Thanks

[cherrybomb]

Quote: Originally Posted by gsireland

Great work,

But I cannot find Xerces 2.7.0 it is now 2.8.0 and your SpaceNavDriver will not start up as it looks for 2.7.0. I have tried renaming files, but it still does not work. Any ideas?

Thanks

http://archive.apache.org/dist/xml/x...erces-C_2_7_0/

[cherrybomb]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dingo509

That would be great as this is how i envisioned using it from the start. in my application it will be almost impossible to use the buttons and have them be user friendly. Is there a script or something that can be written quickly so that: down=left click? Sorry for my ignorance here but i am really in over me head with trying to program this thing.

What are you trying to accomplish with the mouse click? If it's something specific to RR, you could just send the appropriate command. Like, for instance, if you intend to "click" by pushing down, to select a button or something, you could do it directly, rather than using a mouse click to accomplish it. Not saying I won't necessarily implement this, but as you might have noticed, I've been a bit slow to add features lately. ;-)

Quote: Originally Posted by Dingo509

I've read it a hundred times and it's almost starting to make sense. I plan on using pan axis as the mouse 100% of the time and only the tilt to different screen commands. so i guess i don't need context switching? i just need to set up a command in the ExecTBL file then?

Exactly correct. In fact, you actually don't need to do anything in the ExecTBL file if you want to do normal RR stuff. You can just create an "action" node in the config.xml file for the SNDriver software, which performs the function you want. One such node is the "RR Volume Up" and "RR Volume Down" nodes. Just change the name, and message values to suit your purpose. For instance, if you wanted to launch your GPS as one of your axis motions, you'd need to have an action like the following.

Code:

<sendWindowMessage name="Launch GPS"
        type="CopyData"
        window="RoadRunner"
        message="GPS"/>

Quote: Originally Posted by Dingo509

Ok I'm lost again here. I don't understand the Windows message thing at all. Where does it come from? Where do i put it? I know spoon feeding is frowned upon, but if someone could write a line that has the LED's come on as soon as the program runs that would be very helpful.

Okay, just add/edit the following line in your ExecTBL.ini file and the LED will be turned on when RR starts up. The application must be running first.

Code:

"ONSKINSTART","SENDMSG;SpaceNavigatorDriver;HID;SpaceNavigator;Led On"

Hope that helps! :-)

[cherrybomb]

Okay... I think I've got the config app in a form that I'm willing to submit the community for some feedback.

First.... And hopefully I will only have to say this once.

The format of the config file that this app makes is DIFFERENT than the application reads. So, a config file written by this app, WILL NOT work with the app.

So, I'm looking for feedback on how usable the app is, and if it makes sense or not. There are still some other features that I'll be adding, but I wanted to get a feel for how user friendly this is.

I'll work on making the SNDriver app use this format of config file next, shouldn't take too long.

Enjoy!

SN-ConfigApp-B.zip

[cherrybomb]

Okay.... I think I have a version of the application which will use the config files created by the config app.

I haven't tested it very thoroughly, but there are actually only minimal changes to the format, so it should be pretty robust. Please let me know if you have any problems!

SpaceNavigatorApp.zip

[inh]

Looks good man! I cant test because my laptop is still dead, but playing with it here at the internet cafe, I like it!

Only suggestion is to make it so that when you add a new device/context/etc, it has a default name, like NewDevice. Just looks wierd seing the icon in the tree view with no text. Other than that, good stuff man! Thanks for the hard work =]