Using multiple SpaceNavs as HID's

wetterberg · Post by **wetterberg** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:56 pm

I have just integrated a SpaceNavigator into my MaxMSP Jitter system using the HID capabilities of the unit.

I have two Space Navs now - one for each of my machines.
When I plug both units into one machine they both register as HI devices, but switching between them from the software doesn't work - it always registers the last one connected to usb.

Is there some way of using two at the same time? I don't care much for the integration into other software, I just need the raw data, and I am not afraid to hack a bit at the SDK.

Thanks,
Andreas.

Post by **jwick** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:25 pm

Hi wetterberg,

The 3DxWare driver doesn't (yet) support more than one of our devices attached at the same time so I can't be of much help. When we do implement this, though, I would think we would be able to get the USB bus address that each device is on and use that to distinguish between them. I would think this would be part of the address and the info you get from HID.

Let me know what you find out.

What were you thinking of doing with two at the same time? Two hands? Many more channels at the same time? Are you doing anything "spatial" with them (mapped into 3D) or are they just 6 (12) arbitrary sliders in the hand(s)?

Jim
3Dx Software Development

wetterberg · Post by **wetterberg** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:38 pm

jwick wrote:Hi wetterberg,

The 3DxWare driver doesn't (yet) support more than one of our devices attached at the same time so I can't be of much help. When we do implement this, though, I would think we would be able to get the USB bus address that each device is on and use that to distinguish between them. I would think this would be part of the address and the info you get from HID.

Let me know what you find out.

Hello Jim, thanks for getting back to me - right now I am simply seeing two instances of a HID device called SpaceNavigator, and any sort of USB bus identifier would be superb in the future, since I believe that would solve my issue.

jwick wrote: What were you thinking of doing with two at the same time? Two hands? Many more channels at the same time? Are you doing anything "spatial" with them (mapped into 3D) or are they just 6 (12) arbitrary sliders in the hand(s)?

Well, I am doing a 3d visualisation system, in which i had envisioned one SpaceNavigator as the camera controller, and the other as an object controller, allowing me to setup rules that govern the shapes of my characters, letting me bend them, flex them and deconstruct them with the second SpaceNavigator.

Needless to say I am still very keen to get this working, and since I will be using two computers for the setup I will route the control data from one machine to the other for the second Navigator, until a more convenient situation comes along.

I sincerely hope that the multi-device software makes it to market soon, because there are a number of us supremely interested in using two units simultaneously.

Yours,
Andreas.