Signal Switch

[Larry Burger]

Hello:
In the directions for a gameport switch for signal switch, there are two switches to install.
Why are there two switches and what function does each serve?

Someone who works here said he read somewhere the was an engineer and producer discrete talkback systems, does this apply?

Thank you..

[Bob L]

Yes... you can use two separate switches... one for the engineer and one at the producer's desk. Both switches can control the one mic and switch... or better yet... patch in 2 signal switches on 2 separate talkback channels... two separate mics... one near the engineer... one near the producer's desk... each can now have their own switch.

Look at the Signal Switch popup menu (Blue Pyramid Icon).

Bob L

[Dave Labrecque]

Yes... you can use two separate switches... one for the engineer and one at the producer's desk. Both switches can control the one mic and switch... or better yet... patch in 2 signal switches on 2 separate talkback channels... two separate mics... one near the engineer... one near the producer's desk... each can now have their own switch.

Look at the Signal Switch popup menu (Blue Pyramid Icon).

Bob L

Bob, Anyone,

Quick primer -- gameports -- do we need two ports for two hardware switches? Does that mean two soundblasters? Or two USB/gameport adapters?

[Bob L]

1 gsmeport = 2 switches.

The Radio Shack usb adaptor is the easy way to go... no drivers necessary... I paid $12 for my last one which I bought when I finished the switch plugin a short while ago.

Bob L

[Dave Labrecque]

1 gsmeport = 2 switches.

The Radio Shack usb adaptor is the easy way to go... no drivers necessary... I paid $12 for my last one which I bought when I finished the switch plugin a short while ago.

Bob L

Beauty, eh? (to quote guys like Bob and Doug McKenzie and Carey Langille) That's the exact adaptor I found with a quick Google moments ago. Looks like you saved three bucks. :)

Thanks!

[William Bushnell]

I looked for the adapter at Radio Shacks online store but it wasn't listed. I ordered several Belkin USB adapters from PC Connection. Hope they are the correct ones.

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=315653
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

Looks like they should work.

The RadioShack ones are no longer listed in the RadioShack online catalog, but are still being sold in stores.

Bob L

[Dave Labrecque]

I looked for the adapter at Radio Shacks online store but it wasn't listed. I ordered several Belkin USB adapters from PC Connection. Hope they are the correct ones.

http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=315653
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William Bushnell

It don't look so good, but it's on the website (http://www.radioshack.com/sm-usb-to-game-port-adapter-for-pc--pi-2133180.html). (Google is your friend.) :)

EDIT: Wow -- The Belkin is $3? Is this basically the same thing as the Radio Shack device @ $15? Zowie!

What I don't get is how it can work with no drivers. Just some wires hooked up to a switch. How does the USB bus know what to do with it? :confused:

[Angie]

EDIT: Wow -- The Belkin is $3? Is this basically the same thing as the Radio Shack device @ $15? Zowie!

What I don't get is how it can work with no drivers. Just some wires hooked up to a switch. How does the USB bus know what to do with it? :confused:

Interesting. I found a couple others on line that were more than the RS one. So, if the Belkin is the ticket, I'd order a few of them.

[William Bushnell]

DON'T BUY THE BELKIN USB JOYSTICK ADAPTER! I received my order today and they will not work. After speaking with Belkin tech support I found that this is an old discontinued product for use with the Microsoft Sidewinder which requires a driver.

I then purchased the Radio Shack USB adapter. It shows up as a USB Adapter under game controllers with Status OK. Going to properties to test it, switch 1 and switch 2 both work. I checked both of the Link To JoystickA - Switch 1 and Switch 2 settings on the Signal Switch. However, I can not control the Signal Switch with either of the joystick switches. I can only control the Signal Switch with the mouse. What am I missing? Thanks for the help.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

Not sure... is the RS port adaptor dip switch set to Joystick A... it may be set to Joystick B and that would be the problem.

Also, make sure you are using version 1.3 of the SignalSwitch... there were problems with the earlier ones.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the quick reply. The switch on the Radio Shack adapter is set to JoystickA and I do have Signal Switch ver 1.3. Just downloaded and installed it again but with the same results. Tried two different controllers and both indicate they are working in Game Controllers > Properties for switch 1 & 2.

The Radio Shack adapter shows up under Human Interface Devices as a USB Human Interface Device in the Device Manager. Under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers in Device Manager only Standard Game Port is listed. Is the correct?

I have the same results on two different computers, one with SP2 and my main SAW machine with SP1.

I really need this to work. Any other ideas are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

Did you create the switches as mentioned in the popup help info... did you use the resistors... this has been needed on every system I have tested to have the joystick ports initialize correctly.

The joystick functions are known to be pretty flakey in Windows but I have gotten this working so far on 4 different systems I tried it on.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Bob,

I just tried using two existing joystick controllers I had laying around and thought since they seemed to work in Windows they would be ok. I have male 15 pin D connectors, resistors, and switches so I will build a test setup as per your instructions and give it a try. Thanks for your help.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

If you are testing with actual game controller joysticks, go to the gameport testing page and make sure you are pushing the switch on the controller that lights up the switches 1 and 2 red dots on the test dialog.

I just tried with a Logitech controller and it worked fine... but I first checked which of the 12 switches on the controller lit up switches 1 and 2 in the Game Controller Properties Test dialog.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Bob,

Just connected the male 15 pin D connector with the 150 K ohm resistors between pins 1 & 3 and 1 & 6, push button switches between pins 5 & 2 and 5 & 7. In Game Controllers > Properties > Test, red lights 1 & 2 each light, same as with the joystick controllers.

Checked Signal Switch" Link To Joystick - Switch 1 & 2" but does not activate the Signal Switch. Same results on both computers. I must be over looking something.

What state does SAW Studio need to be in? Maybe this is where my problem is. Thanks.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

SAWStudio does not need to be in any state for the switch to toggle... I am not sure why the joystick function calls inside the switch are failing for you.

I will have to think on this one for a while.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Thank you. It will be very useful when I get it to work.
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William Bushnell

[Angie]

DON'T BUY THE BELKIN USB JOYSTICK ADAPTER! I received my order today and they will not work. After speaking with Belkin tech support I found that this is an old discontinued product for use with the Microsoft Sidewinder which requires a driver.
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William Bushnell

Thanks for the warning, William! It did look suspicious.

[Larry Burger]

Do you have to go inside the blue triangle and choose port 1 or 2?

[Bob L]

You click the pyramid and select the menu option for which switch you are using... that is all that should be needed... I am not sure what is blocking his access to the switches... all of my machines work fine with it, and I did set the switches up on two other systems at two local studios here in Vegas... both with the Radio Shack USB adaptor.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Thought I would try the game port switches on a third computer, my wire's old 1.4 Ghz AMD based machine to see if there was a change.

I get the same results as with the two other computers, red lights 1 & 2 in Game Port Properties each light when the switches are pushed but the Signal Switch only activates with the mouse. (Both joystickA and joystickB options on the Signal Switch are checked).

Seems as my computers are missing a necessary piece of software to make the connection.

PS: Anyone besides Bob who has the Signal Switch working with a game port controller, is there anything unique concerning software, drivers, ect. on your computers? Thanks.
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William Bushnell

[Larry Burger]

William:
I put the joystick switch on two computers and had the same proiblem you did.
The test worked fine but SAW would not see it.
I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled on powerup, worked fine on two machines.
Third machine saw the device and had to reboot and it worked fine (brand new OS installation).
Also the gameport device showed no gameports before the install.
I did not look on the first two machines.
Fourth machine the gameport installed and did not need to reboot.
Old OS, had just been updated. Looking at the devices there was no gameport.

On the first two machines there were more than one gameport devices, if you have the same try and remove all and then plug in your new one.
SAW is working fine so we need to fix the computers the address the problem.

William my first two machines did not work and did after tedious setup.
Hang in there and we will get it to work.

Larry...

[bcorkery]

What are you using for a physical switch?

Thanks.

[William Bushnell]

Larry,

Thanks for the reply. I did uninstall the game port drivers on my SAW computer (Intel MB with dual core CPU, XP Pro, SP 1) as well as my office computer (AOpen MB,single core Intel CPU, XP Home, SP 2) , rebooted and Windows reinstalled them but no go. My wife's computer is new (Intel MB single core CPU, XP Home, SP 2) and no go there as well so what ever the problem is it is common to all three computers.

Update:
While I was in the process of replying to your latest post I realized I hadn't tried the Signal Switch on my video editing computer (SuperMicro MB, dual Xeon, XP Pro, SP 1). Guess what. It works. I noticed one thing different under the "Sound, video, and game controllers" heading in the Device Manager. There was no "Standard Game Port" listed. On the first three computers there is a "Standard Game Port" listed under the "Sound, video, and game controllers"

I first uninstalled the "Standard Game Port" listing on my SAW and office computers, rebooted and Windows put it back. Next I disabled the "Standard Game Port" and rebooted but still no go. Next I disabled the game port in the BIOS on my office computer (AOpen MB). This removed the listing in Device Manager so things now looked the same as my video editing computer but again no go. There is no game port listed in the BIOS of my SAW computer (Intel MB)

I am sure the problem is a Windows issue. It works on one out of four computers. No ideas at this point on what else to try but I bet it will be a simple fix once we find the problem. Thanks for your help.
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William Bushnell

PS: The test were run with the Radio Shack USB Game Port Adapter, two different joysticks (2 switch), and a two push button switch arrangement wired as per Bob's instructions. All three pass the game controller Red Light test. Sorry for the long post.

[Pedro Itriago]

I am sure the problem is a Windows issue. It works on one out of four computers. No ideas at this point on what else to try but I bet it will be a simple fix once we find the problem. Thanks for your help.

I forbid you to blame it on MicroShaft ;)

[Larry Burger]

William:
For a test is there a physical gameport you can test (standard)?

Larry...

[William Bushnell]

Larry,

I looked through some old cards I have and found several multi port cards that have game ports as well as one game port card. Problem is they are all ISA cards. (remember those)

This is going to drive me up the wall until I find a fix for it. The only computer I really care about getting it to work on is my SAW computer, although I would like to discover why it doesn't work on the others.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

William,

Look in the Control Panel and make sure the usb adaptor is set as Contoller ID 1 in the list of controllers... there is a slection to change the ID number assigned to which device in the Control Panel Game Controller dialog.

Just in case Windows is placing that gameport further down the list depending on other active devices.

The plugin will make the function call to the first Controller ID 1.

Bob L

[Angie]

I just got mine working without a problem. Only have one switch wired right now and I'm on Win2K.

And Bill, to answer your question, I'm using a momentary switch.

[Bob L]

A standard midi piano sustain pedal makes a great choice for a switch.

Available at any music store.

Bob L

[William Bushnell]

Hi Bob,

Good news! While I could not find the exact setting for the controller ID listed as you mentioned I did find a setting that fixed the problem. (SP 1 on my SAW computer did not let me get to the Controller ID. SP 2 on the office computer did but the Controller ID was a long string, not just a 1 or 2 ect. listing)

This is what I was able to do.

In the Controll Panel I selected Game Controllers. In the Game Controllers dialog box under the heading "Installed Game Controllers", USB ADAPTER was listed. Under the "Status" heading was OK. This was normal on all the computers. I then clicked the Advanced button to get the "Advanced Settings" dialog box where you can "Select the device you want to use with older programs". The Preferred Device listed was NONE. I selected USB ADAPTER which was the only other choice. (Once the USB ADAPTER choice was selected the NONE choice was no longer available)

That fixed the problem. Tested it on my office computer and it also works there as well.

For some reason the USB ADAPTER choice was already selected on my video editing computer and that was why it worked and none of the other computers did.

Life in upstate New York is once again good.

Bob and Larry thanks for your help. It turned out to be a simple fix for a frustrating problem. Hope this helps someone else.
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William Bushnell

[Bob L]

Good job hanging in there till a solution was found.

Bob L

[bcorkery]

Thanks!