Help with USB to stereo wire makeup

[richg99]

I have a radio control transmitter that controls my r/c planes.
I also have a Simulator program ( FMS ) that allows r/c people to train to
fly before crashing too often! Ha !!
The FMS simulator program works fine on my VISTA notebook computer with a
Joystick.

Prior to using this newish computer, I had the same program running quite
well on Windows XP.
In spite of downloading additional driver files; adding a program called
Smart Pro Po that was also supposed to help..I cannot get my Dell Inspiron
1525 notebook to recognize the Spektrum DX6 radio transmitter.

The input to the computer is accomplished by using the MICROPHONE port
on the computer, and the TRAINER port on the transmitter.

What some people have told me I MIGHT NOW NEED is a USB to Serial male plug
adapter cable. I don't mind buying one...but..so far nothing that anyone
says will work has worked. I hate to send ten or fifteen bucks off; wait
five or ten days, and then still not have the device work properly.

Since I have extra USB cables around, and I have a stereo plug sitting on
the bench, is there a simple wiring diagram that someone could point me
to.....that would result in a male stereo plug attached to a normal USB
male fitting...to put into my computer? thanks vm Richg99

 

[Tim Wescott]

richg99 wrote:

I have a radio control transmitter that controls my r/c planes.
I also have a Simulator program ( FMS ) that allows r/c people to train
to fly before crashing too often! Ha !!
The FMS simulator program works fine on my VISTA notebook computer with
a Joystick.

Prior to using this newish computer, I had the same program running
quite well on Windows XP.
In spite of downloading additional driver files; adding a program called
Smart Pro Po that was also supposed to help..I cannot get my Dell
Inspiron 1525 notebook to recognize the Spektrum DX6 radio transmitter.

The input to the computer is accomplished by using the MICROPHONE
port on the computer, and the TRAINER port on the transmitter.

What some people have told me I MIGHT NOW NEED is a USB to Serial male
plug adapter cable. I don't mind buying one...but..so far nothing that
anyone says will work has worked. I hate to send ten or fifteen bucks
off; wait five or ten days, and then still not have the device work
properly.

Since I have extra USB cables around, and I have a stereo plug sitting
on the bench, is there a simple wiring diagram that someone could point
me to.....that would result in a male stereo plug attached to a normal
USB male fitting...to put into my computer? thanks vm Richg99

Well, if it's guarantees that you're wanting -- I can pretty much
guarantee you that that particular hack won't work.

You don't just need something that has an audio connector in and a USB
connector out. You need something that acts to the computer like a
joystick, but uses the trainer-cord signal from your transmitter instead
of an actual joystick. That's what the USB adapter does. It _doesn't_
just patch the wires -- it has a little microprocessor in it that
emulates the joystick.

From what I know of things, if that USB adapter works on XP it'll work
on Vista -- but I'm not guaranteeing anything.

(There's a reason I avoid Windows Vista...).

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

 

[richg99]

Theoretically, the Smart Pro Po program is supposed to do that ( make it
look like a joy stick). It supposedly converts a simple stereo male to male
connecting cord to make the TX look like a joystick and to work.

My computer (Dell Inspiron 1525) seems to have a number of audio issues
according to a Dell group on the 'net. Some owners have had to send their
units back in. Normally, the audio is the very least of my concerns and
uses...but..in this case...that item seems paramount. The only entry is the
microphone port.

I have posted on the Dell "support group" to see what I can do about the
audio issues without sending the unit back in. I am at my summer place, and
the notebook is the ONLY computer that I have. Spending the summer waiting
for Dell to fix an audio issue is not in the cards. In the Fall, I will have
access to another computer, and the notebook could be easily sent away and
not missed.

Soooooo... that leaves me with the USB to stereo potential option. If it
can't be done, so be it...but...if it is a simple red wire to middle; black
to largest and rearmost connector and yellow to the end connector....or
whatever??? ..then I would like to try it. Rich

 

[Tim Wescott]

richg99 wrote:

Theoretically, the Smart Pro Po program is supposed to do that ( make it
look like a joy stick). It supposedly converts a simple stereo male to
male connecting cord to make the TX look like a joystick and to work.

My computer (Dell Inspiron 1525) seems to have a number of audio issues
according to a Dell group on the 'net. Some owners have had to send
their units back in. Normally, the audio is the very least of my
concerns and uses...but..in this case...that item seems paramount. The
only entry is the microphone port.

I have posted on the Dell "support group" to see what I can do about the
audio issues without sending the unit back in. I am at my summer place,
and the notebook is the ONLY computer that I have. Spending the summer
waiting for Dell to fix an audio issue is not in the cards. In the Fall,
I will have access to another computer, and the notebook could be easily
sent away and not missed.

Soooooo... that leaves me with the USB to stereo potential option. If
it can't be done, so be it...but...if it is a simple red wire to middle;
black to largest and rearmost connector and yellow to the end
connector....or whatever??? ..then I would like to try it. Rich

When you talk about USB and baseband audio you're talking about entirely
different worlds. Yes, they're both electrical so they orbit the same
sun, but they're different worlds none the less.

Your transmitter's trainer cord is digital of a sort, but it is encoded
in a format called "pulse position modulation", with square digital
pulses whose spacing in time corresponds to the positions of the sticks.
You're talking about a frame rate of 50-60Hz and pulse spacings of 1-2
milliseconds, which translates to frequencies in the low kHz.

USB is a way-fast digital mode. Depending on the flavor it can transmit
bits at over 400 mega-bits/second, and involves frequencies up to
400MHz. It has some very elaborate signaling schemes embedded in it to
make it work as reliably as it does.

The very best thing that can happen if you try connecting your
transmitter directly to your USB wires would be if neither your
transmitter nor your computer were harmed. The computer certainly
wouldn't be able to make sense of the very non-USB signals coming to it
from the transmitter.

Stereo audio is a slow analog signal. The voltage is a direct analog of
the motion of the air when you hear sound. You won't see significant
energy above 20kHz, or below 20Hz.

The only way that your Smart Pro Po program could work would be if it
hijacks the normal microphone input from the sound card, processes it to
figure out the signal from the transmitter, then presents it to the
innards of Vista as if it were some oddball custom joystick driver.
Speaking as someone who has written drivers for DOS and has avoided PC
programming since then, the possibilities for things going wrong are
absolutely boundless (which is why I avoid PC driver programming). The
sound card has to match the program's preconceptions, the program has to
match your peculiar installation of Vista's preconceptions (and _every_
installation of Windows is peculiar), and the moon has to be in the
right phase. If this is on a machine that already has known problems
with the sound card then -- good luck!!

The way that the USB joystick interfaces work, as I said before, is to
exactly emulate a USB joystick. Unlike Windows drivers, this is not
rocket science. There's an itty bitty computer sitting between your
transmitter and your USB port, and it's only job is to make that USB
port think that it's a regular old joystick. There's no soundcard
cleverness being played, there's no Windows driver cleverness being
played, there's just a device that knows exactly how to look like a
joystick, looking like a joystick. Again speaking as an old DOS driver
writer and current writer of embedded software, this is a much more
likely way to make things work.

So the task of making the soundcard audio not only look like a joystick
to Vista, but to correctly translate your transmitter's signals, is like
trying to weld 100 riding lawn mowers together to make a truck. It's
theoretically possible, but there's lots of really stupid things that
can go wrong.

On the other hand, the task of interfacing between your transmitter's
trainer port and a USB port is like putting a Dodge engine into a Chevy.
Some may find it a peculiar thing to do, but it's a project that's a
heck of a lot more straightforward than those 100 lawnmowers and the arc
welder.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Do you need to implement control loops in software?
"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" gives you just what it says.
See details at http://www.wescottdesign.com/actfes/actfes.html

 

[richg99]

So I will buy a cable then..just thought I'd save some time. thanks rich

 

[arydberg]

On Jul 15, 11:57 pm, "richg99" <rich99...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

So I will buy a cable then..just thought I'd save some time.  thanks rich

Do yourself a favor and go back to XP