This is an exploratory code to manage FFB game effects from a C# feeder application made with vJoy, using an IO board based on arduino to make physical effects played on Sega Model2/3 hardware. This work has been done in a few weeks thanks to other people who paved the road before me.
In particular, this project is strongly based on the amazing work done by Shaul Eizikovich who did vJoy with support for force feedback effects. Without him, this would have never been started!
This vJoy+Arduino strategy is not new and was an idea of BigPanik (M2Pac author) and SailorSat (DaytonaUSB author) who made the first proof-of-concepts of controlling a Sega Mode2/3 drive board from an Arduino.
Compared to their respective developments, this project still misses complete support for digital outputs to control lamps/relays and also other Sega DriveBoards with a working translation mode, otherwise we will be leaving many people off the road.
Currently, analog inputs steering wheel angle and for pedals work. Force feedback is handled for PWM+Dir mode (pins D9/D10/D11) and Model 2 driveboards (only Lemans, I have bad behavior with Model 3 Scud Race).
Missing effects are emulated by cheating with fast constant-torque commands@5ms (200Hz). This allows for full effects to be played on your setup, whatever the underlying driveboard can provide. Emulating requires at least the constant torque effect to be operationnal on your motor driver (ie a rumble-only setup cannot be used).
Calibration of analog inputs can pe performed from the GUI to map your physical wheel rotation to the maximum vJoy amplitude (0..32768), same for pedals motion. Digital inputs are mapped to buttons and remapping is possible using the GUI. This allows to finally handle your personnal setup.
Outputs to drive lamps are retrieved for MAME, Supermodel (model 3), m2emulator, and OutputBlasters plugin games (Teknoparrot). Many thanks to SailorSat& BigPanik and Boomslangnz for all there work. Few games are not handled properly yet, but it will probably be fixed sooner or later.
The next steps I plan are:
- add schematics to help people do their cabling
- add more translation modes for other Model2/3 driveboards (SailorSat already has a long list of commands)
- support encoder feedback
!!! WARNING as this is still an alpha-stage developpement !!!
Two possibilities are offered : either pick the latest released installer/setup, or compile the software by your own.
To build the application, please install Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition with C# for Desktop.
The software expect vJoy 2.2.0 to be installed, so please install it separatly (see subdirectory tools/vJoySetup_2.2.0 signed.exe).
Next, configure the first virtual joystick using the Configure vJoy tool with following options:
Note: The 5th axis Dial/Slider2 is only used as a monitoring value to see how much torque is send to the motor driver when using PWM mode.
Depending on your hardware, different options are possible.
!!!TESTED OK WITH A LEMANS!!!
For cabling the Model 3 drive board with a parallel communication bus connected to an Arduino Mega2560, see http://superusr.free.fr/model3.htm
Hardcoded wiring on the Arduino Mega2560:
- 8 Buttons are mapped to D2-D8 (seven inputs) and D12 (plus one)
- Wheel "volume" potentiometer is A0
- Accel "volume" is A1
- Brake "volume" is A2
- Clutch "volume" is A3
- PWM output is D9 only 490Hz! (not yet configured for fast PWM at 15,6kHz)
- Direction output is D10 for forward, D11 for backward.
- Pins 22-29 are for 8x digital outputs (PORTA) connected to driveboard RX
- Pins 30-37 are for 8x digital inputs in pull-up mode (PORTC) connected to driveboard TX
In order to communicate with the DriveBoard, you need to flash the Mega2560 with the common Ino code (compatible between Leonardo and Mega2560): https://github.com/njz3/vJoyIOFeederWithFFB/blob/master/FeederIOBoard/FeederIOBoard.ino
For PWM2M2 installation, crawl on the web for information.
Hardcoded wiring on the Arduino Leonardo:
- 12 Buttons are mapped to D2-D8 (seven inputs), D12 (plus one) and D0/D1/A4/A5 (four more)
- Wheel "volume" potentiometer is A0
- Accel "volume" is A1
- Brake "volume" is A2
- Clutch "volume" is A3
- PWM output is D9 (configured for fast PWM at 15,6kHz)
- Direction output is D10 for forward, D11 for backward.
If using PWM mode to control a Model 2 motor with PWM2M, use an Arduino Leonardo, flash it with the common Ino code (compatible between Leonardo and Mega2560): https://github.com/njz3/vJoyIOFeederWithFFB/blob/master/FeederIOBoard/FeederIOBoard.ino
Not yet done
If using the installer, simply runs vJoyIOFeedeerGUI and go to the hardware page to configure your setup.
If building from Visual Studio, open the solution file vJoyIOFeeder.sln,
Build the solution in x64, then run it in Debug mode. Go to the Log Window to see messages from the internal modules. Check that you got at least these messages (in below example, the Arduino Mega2560 is seen as COM3):
10:47:54 | [MANAGER] Program configured for MODEL3_SCUD_DRVBD
10:47:54 | [USBSerial] The following serial ports were found:
10:47:54 | [USBSerial] COM3
10:47:54 | [USBSerial] Attempting to connect each with 115200bauds...
10:47:57 | [MANAGER] Found io board on COM3 version=1.0.0.0 type=IO BOARD ON MEGA2560
Check with vJoy Monitor if something is alive (like wheel position feedback).
You can then test the force feedback using tools/fedit.exe and selecting and effect you would like to try.
Once the application is run and then closed, an XML configuration file is created to
your %APPDATA% directory, which usually maps to :
C:\Users\LOGIN\AppData\Roaming\vJoyIOFeeder\
The FAQ is in a separate file here.