So I got myself a Panther Lord GT-5 Steering Wheel. It's a Chinese jobbie with part number PT-PS-3015. It's a Playstation (2) Wheel, with a PSX-USB adapter bundled in.
As anybody who's dealt with Chinese hardware before will be familiar with, the device came with a CD which has a whole bunch of drivers on it. All setup.exes, no direct inf files (more on this later). And, just my luck, I click on the button to install the drivers for PT-PS-3015 and am presented with a message box with a bunch of random accented letters (I guess if I changed my system language to Chinese, the message would be in Chinese) and no further action.
Of course the setup executables are not names in accordance with the device part number so there's no way of telling which one I need to install. I've tried pretty much all of them but then Windows will decide which is the best driver anyway and it may not be right. As the inf files aren't provided, I can't simply go through them one at a time and force install.
Now, Windows recognises the device as a HID game pad *anyway*, and the actual wheel works just fine. However, the pedals - which are supposed to be analoge, register as digital buttons 3 and 4.
I conclude that either:
1 - There's a driver issue with the PSX-USB converter and the controls are incorrectly mapped
or
2 - There pedals aren't actually analogue in the first place and are actually digital controls (it is not uncommon for Chinese products to not fully function, after all)
Unfortunately the only ways I can think of to proove either the case:
1 - Test the adapter with a PSX controller. If the analogue shoulder buttons show up as digital buttons 3 and 4 then it's probably a driver issue
2 - Try and find another PSX-usb adapter, hopefully supplied with a driver that actually installs correctly
3 - Try the wheel with a PlayStation (2)
Well unfortunately I don't have a PSX controller and don't really want to spend the cash on one if I can avoid it. Either way I've shelled out for a controller that I don't need. And if I've then gone on to prove that it's a driver/adapter issue I'm probably going to have to spend even *more* money on another converter. On the other hand if I get another converter, I'm never going to be 100% sure if it's a driver issue or not until I've tested it with a real controller. Hmm I think I'm probably talking myself into shelling out for a controller, aren't I?
Option 3 is not practical as I don't have any playstation products (as you can probably deduce by my lack of controllers to test the adapter with!)
Anyway point being, I'm a bit of a tight arse and don't want to buy a controller and/or new adapter if I don't have to. Does anybody have any experience of this situation, or this device, who might know a better way to resolve the problem? I've searched around on google and there seems to be various bits about how to swap axis around and how to deal with second analogues that don't work at all. But nothing as far as I can see about the button 3-4 problem. So I thought I'd throw it out to the temp...
As anybody who's dealt with Chinese hardware before will be familiar with, the device came with a CD which has a whole bunch of drivers on it. All setup.exes, no direct inf files (more on this later). And, just my luck, I click on the button to install the drivers for PT-PS-3015 and am presented with a message box with a bunch of random accented letters (I guess if I changed my system language to Chinese, the message would be in Chinese) and no further action.
Of course the setup executables are not names in accordance with the device part number so there's no way of telling which one I need to install. I've tried pretty much all of them but then Windows will decide which is the best driver anyway and it may not be right. As the inf files aren't provided, I can't simply go through them one at a time and force install.
Now, Windows recognises the device as a HID game pad *anyway*, and the actual wheel works just fine. However, the pedals - which are supposed to be analoge, register as digital buttons 3 and 4.
I conclude that either:
1 - There's a driver issue with the PSX-USB converter and the controls are incorrectly mapped
or
2 - There pedals aren't actually analogue in the first place and are actually digital controls (it is not uncommon for Chinese products to not fully function, after all)
Unfortunately the only ways I can think of to proove either the case:
1 - Test the adapter with a PSX controller. If the analogue shoulder buttons show up as digital buttons 3 and 4 then it's probably a driver issue
2 - Try and find another PSX-usb adapter, hopefully supplied with a driver that actually installs correctly
3 - Try the wheel with a PlayStation (2)
Well unfortunately I don't have a PSX controller and don't really want to spend the cash on one if I can avoid it. Either way I've shelled out for a controller that I don't need. And if I've then gone on to prove that it's a driver/adapter issue I'm probably going to have to spend even *more* money on another converter. On the other hand if I get another converter, I'm never going to be 100% sure if it's a driver issue or not until I've tested it with a real controller. Hmm I think I'm probably talking myself into shelling out for a controller, aren't I?
Option 3 is not practical as I don't have any playstation products (as you can probably deduce by my lack of controllers to test the adapter with!)
Anyway point being, I'm a bit of a tight arse and don't want to buy a controller and/or new adapter if I don't have to. Does anybody have any experience of this situation, or this device, who might know a better way to resolve the problem? I've searched around on google and there seems to be various bits about how to swap axis around and how to deal with second analogues that don't work at all. But nothing as far as I can see about the button 3-4 problem. So I thought I'd throw it out to the temp...
