Usb Gameport Adapter

Features :

# 4-mode switchable (all conventional analog game controllers and ForceFeedBack, Av. Garde, ThrustMaster FCS, Bazooka, Maya, CH Flt Pro, FirePlus, FireDragon & 4-axis/4-button, Silver Hawk II, Space Ranger & 2-axis/8-button) ... for all PC/Win98 USB equipped systems. Works with many Game Port/MIDI interfaces, too! 6 foot USB cable. The USB-Nest only supports General Game Port Racing Wheel
# Not Force Feedback or Digital type controllers

Hi.

Like many others, i'm very displeased with the lack of support from Saitek :mad: , regarding the R4 Force wheel/winxp issue. Can anyone tell me, if a gameport/USB adapter, like this one (http://www.joy-stick.net/reviews/other/usbadapt.htm), would make it possible to use the R4 Force wheel in winxp? Never mind the FFB, just as a standard Wheel perhaps?
I ask, although i'm affraid I already know the answer, Saitek support would probably have mentioned this sollution, if it were indeed possible...

Anyone?
UKSupport
6th November 2002, 10:02
Indeed - if there was a solution at all then I would have posted it on the support page for the R4 on the website and on here. Sorry, but there is no way to get it running under 2000 or XP.
GTM|Bigchief
19th December 2002, 01:39
Is it able to get it working by doing alterations to the wheel?
You+Me+Devil=3
19th December 2002, 01:53
I had an R4 FF wheel and I don't think there's anything you can do to the wheel itself to make it work on Win2K or XP. It needs a driver.

Someone at Saitek once told me that the reason they couldn't make an updated driver was because of a licensing problem. Seems Saitek made the R4 under a license from M$ for the FF technology. Well, it turns out M$ didn't have the right to license Force Feedback technology that wasn't theirs and Immersion sued them over it.

Don't know if that story is true, but thats what I was told when I asked about why there would not be a new driver.
xyr
25th December 2002, 20:55
Originally posted by UKSupport
Sorry, but there is no way to get it running under 2000 or XP.
It turned out that the Saitek wheel has almost the same electronics as the MS one. I've took apart my wheel, examined the PCB and found 3 places for jumpers with only one connected. Interesting, isn't it?
After removing the SMD shortcut on pos. J3, the wheel was recognised as an MS wheel. :cool:

Needless to say my wheel works fine since (under win2k).
No comment...
GTM|Bigchief
25th December 2002, 22:23
Originally posted by UKSupport
Indeed - if there was a solution at all then I would have posted it on the support page for the R4 on the website and on here. Sorry, but there is no way to get it running under 2000 or XP.
I think you can post this solution to the support page it works great under XP too. thx xyr i think this is the best chrismas gift i got this year :)
P-OP
2nd January 2003, 20:07
Hello to you all ,
happy owners of R4 force wheels who runs under Win XP.
Does the R4 force wheel still work with the modifications on the circuit board.No unpleasant bieffects I hope.
I would like to hear some comments before I try the modifications.
Mayby GTM Bigchief or xyr can give me some answers , grateful in advance
I have a P4 with Win XP and i would like to have the wheel working this PC as well , the old one P2 350 Win 98SE was working wery well with the wheel.
Whats the latest driver for the R4 force wheel I can update my old Pc with and can I use the same one to the new one Pc with Win XP , I tried to install the wheel on the new Pc and it didn't work , any ideas ? lets hear them.
I would like to see that Saitek took care of the update question and mayby put in downloads for older models of wheels too in their download section for an exampel R4 force wheel and with a picture of the wheel of course so I can recognize it, couldn't find it myself , it would be a good idea I think.
I bought the wheel few years ago , I spended almost 150 ? to be an owner of a R4 Force Wheel .
GTM|Bigchief
3rd January 2003, 02:51
when you remove the jumper the wheel is found as a microsoft sidewinder wheel and works fine with the MS drivers so u don't need any saitek drivers on your XP.
I didn't use my wheel for a time so i can't say if it works like before but i think it does its job very well - also the force feedback.

sorry for the confused english I have pumped water from the cellar for the last 13 hours - time for bed :rolleyes:
Ramjet
9th January 2003, 14:12
Thanks for the tip on J3... I was wondering about that link for ages but my mates wouldn't let me butcher they're microsoft wheel to compare.

But i figured give it a go, got nothing to loose!

Opened it up this morning (note the pcb is under the bonnet of the wheel). Desolder J3 which is the surface mounter link resistor

will look like [000] the triple 000 means zero ohms.

If you don't know how to desolder properly please make sure you get someone who can. Too much heat can and most probably will lift printed tracks from the board!

Once the link is removed. Put it all back together and plug it in. Goto game controllers in winxp and add SideWinder (AutoDetect) and whamo! there she'll be!

Calibrate it and have some fun! Personally I modded it for Need for speed : Hot Pursuit 2 and I'm having a ball!!!

THIS MOD DOES WORK IN WINDOWS XP!

Thanks again!

Rammy
:D
g_funk3
9th January 2003, 23:46
Thanks XYR your the man, I am sure you made a lot of peoples gaming lifes better. And thank you Ramjet for the detailed explanation!

I have been waiting to buy a new computer until the game Racing Legends (www.west-racing.com/news.htm) comes out. But I have been really leary since that also meant I would have to buy a new wheel. I really liked my r4 wheel so much so I bought another one off of ebay when my first one died.

I hope Saitek puts this up somewhere as a solution for the XP problem. I also hope Saitek goes back to making good looking wheels and pedals like the R4.

Has anyone tried different pedals with this wheel, either other brand, or home made??
callahann
21st January 2003, 01:52
THANK YOU XYR
Desmosedici
28th January 2003, 14:41
Thank you xyr!

You made this XP-user happy!
Following your instructions I converted my R4 into a microsoft sidewinder wheel.
In my opinion the microsoft drivers doesn?t provide as good force feedback as the original Saitek drivers did, but thats a minor problem compared to the alternative (wheel not working at all).
I noticed that the sidewinder wheel carries two extra buttons compared to the R4, can anyone figure out if it?s possible to add those to the R4? Maybe the connections exists on the board?

Thanks again!
vantorf
5th February 2003, 08:00
:D THANK YOU, XYR
It works well under XP!!!
Dhauzimmer
5th February 2003, 16:42
I wonder if it's possible to make a minor change to the Microsoft .infs to make them pick up the R4 without needing to make hardware mods. If there's someone out there who's having trouble, but hasn't modded their wheel yet, give me an e-mail and I'll see what I can come up with.

-D
xyr
8th February 2003, 16:32
I'm glad I could help other desperate saitek owners. Problem is it's not me who should have done it.

Dhauzimmer:
I'm afraid modifying the inf files won't help here. The ms driver (msgame.sys) checks the id sent by the wheel and if it is not the value of the ms wheel, it exits.
So if you want a software solution you could
a) Modify the ms driver not to ignore the saitek id. New inf file will also be required for the new device id.
b) Write a filter driver that will change the id but will pass everything else to the ms driver.
Unfortunately I do not posess the required programming skills to do it, that's why I chose the hardware mod. This way you won't need new driver for each new os release, the wheel will work as long as the ms supports it.
Dhauzimmer
8th February 2003, 17:06
I could do either or both. Will download the driver and take a look.

-D
fitterashes
20th February 2003, 13:49
With what should i remove the link en J3 ? i m not very good on electronics. :confused:
GTM|Bigchief
20th February 2003, 15:59
use an soldering iron (is this the right word for "l?tkolben"?) or better ask a friend who is better in electronics than u
MRM
4th March 2003, 20:12
I am glad I found this post. I just upgraded to XP last weekend and no working wheel. I was ready to sell mine until I saw this post. I'll be making the change to the board tonight.
Arminator
4th March 2003, 22:51
A friend of mine has the R4 Racing Wheel and I told him about this thread. He just wants to know if *all* buttons / levers are supported. He told me, that the MS Wheel only has 4 Buttons, and the R4 Wheel has 2 Buttons, the lever behind the wheel and the stick shift lever, which I assume is handled as 2 buttons, too.

Will this modification utilize all buttons in Win XP?
GTM|Bigchief
5th March 2003, 04:39
yes all 6 buttons are useable
MRM
5th March 2003, 15:21
I removed the chip and the wheel works fine. All buttons are working. Isn't the Internet a great thing? This saved me some money. Thanks for help to everyone with helpful input.
Arminator
5th March 2003, 19:09
Originally posted by GTM|Bigchief
yes all 6 buttons are useable

Yaaaay!!!! http://www.trillian.cc/forums/images/icons/emot-woot.gif
R@tman
9th March 2003, 07:24
Can anybody tell me, what i have to do to get to the chip?? Im noobie at technics! Can somebody describe it for me??

Kann mir irgendwer sagen, wie ich an den Chip komme! Ich hab keine Ahnung! Hab alle schrauben entfernt aber bin trotzdem nich hingekommen! W?re ganz nett, wenns mir jemand sagen k?nnte!!

MfG

R@tman
R@tman
12th March 2003, 05:37
Is here nobody who can help me?? PLEASE!!! I want to play!!!
PunkMonk
18th March 2003, 21:36
Well, i couldn't find a soldering iron anywhere, i guess it's in the Garage somewhere. Anyway, I decided to attack the J3 chip with a pair of Crayola scissors :rolleyes: Which was a stupid mistake. Well, the wheel now works, strangely. I plugged it in expecting it to short circuit and blow a fuse but it didn't... the wheel aligned itself (a sight i haven't seen in about 2 years) and on the screen appeared the "New Hardware Found" thingy. It said it was a 'Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel' and went ahead installing it, and its working fine. Except now sometimes the wheel randomly aligns to the left or right, not sure if this is because i attacked it with scissors or because my computer is ****e or what. Not really a problem because as soon as I launch the game I want to play the wheel goes right back to the center.

Anyway, so yeah. Thanks for the great mod. I'm quite pleased that I managed to get it working like that :)





P.S. Why do I always end up with about 4 screws leftover? :confused:
griemmel
22nd April 2003, 22:37
I have got the r4 racing wheel not the force-wheel and there is no driver for win XP , too. What can I do to calibrate my wheel?
Phantomfighter
28th April 2003, 14:16
I have modded The R4 Racing Wheel successfully, Win XP detects it as the MS Sidewinder Force Feedback Wheel and installs it.
But I can only configurate and calibrate the wheel . But no way to test Force Feeback or anything like Configurate the Force Feedback Strenght.

The MS Sidewinder Software would do the trick but the 3.02 works just for Win 95 an win 98

and the Sidewinder software 4.0 is just for USB Controller and not for Gameport (which I have).

(Force Feedback works in Win 98 cause of the Sidewinder Software 3.02)

Is there a possibility how to get Force Feedback to work ?
UKSupport
28th April 2003, 15:59
This was as much support as MS provided for the gameport version of their force wheel in XP. There are no test screens for hte force feedback but you should find that it works when you go into the game. If the game has a force level adjuster then you can use that but otherwise there's no way to adjust it.