gravis mousestick \ VOGONS

gravis mousestick

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First post, by ratfink

Posted on 2010-03-23, 15:11

ratfink Offline

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Joined: 2006-05-09, 15:06

i got one of these recently but on attaching it to my 5500 mac, the buttons work but the stick doesn't move the cursor - the cursor just wobbles a bit.

i've got the inputsprocket loaded that covers gravis sticks, but i wonder if there's something specific to this joystick - a control panel and/or extension maybe.

i'm using os9.1, the stick it attached to the 5500 and the keyboard plus into the joystick adb plug. mouse plugs into keyboard. mouse and kb continue to work fine. the inputsprocket extension loads.

not an emulation/dosbox issue so maybe this should be in marvin, i dunno, move if need be of course.

Reply 1 of 3, by Jorpho

Posted on 2010-03-24, 02:16

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Joined: 2003-02-14, 19:50
Location: Canada

I happen to have the manual for a MouseStick II here, and it suggests that there is indeed a control panel that is used to toggle between moving the mouse cursor and sending keystrokes. Maybe you can launch Key Caps (from the Apple menu) and see if it registers keystrokes when you move the stick?

Unfortunately I do not have any software with this manual. I don't even know if InputSprocket offers equivalent functionality.

Reply 2 of 3, by Mu0n

Posted on 2019-09-18, 13:39

Mu0n Offline

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Joined: 2019-09-18, 13:34

I know that this post is very old, but I encountered the same problem when I bought the ADB version of the MouseStick this summer. Buttons would work, the driver would work (under System 6 and 7) but the stick movement would never register.

After a month of casual probing, I found the problem and fixed it. I also probably know why every single one of those joysticks develop the problem - each movement axis is rotating a cylinder with an optical plastic film strip and it gets scratches in the long run, since it's an unfortunate film-on-film contact. This lowers the level of light the DELs send to their corresponding photocells and the signal captured ends up being too low for the next step in the circuit and nothing related to movement is sent to the GMPU. Lowering potentiometers associated with the DELs worked. Here's a thread I created in an electronics forum.

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/ve … oystick.162374/

1Bit Fever Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9YYXWX1SxBhh1YB-feIPPw
DOS Fever Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIUn0Dp6PM8DBTF-5g0nvcw

Reply 3 of 3, by error1

Posted on 2019-10-11, 19:02

error1 Offline

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Joined: 2019-10-11, 18:54

Thank you so much! I just received a MouseStick II from ebay and thought it was broken but opening it up and carefully nudging the potentiometers clockwise from the underside of the board fixed it.

I gambled on doing the adjustment while the stick was connected to my mac, there is a diagnostics option in the Gravis control panel that lets you see the raw numbers coming in from the stick. I adjusted the potentionmeter until I started seeing the numbers change and then went a little further so wiggling the joystick would reliably stay in the same number range.

I love the mechanism inside this thing, it seems both really overengineered and amusingly simple. And not a single drop of grease, so it creaks, rattles and squeaks like a horror movie 😁

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