Can't use my Spaceball 3003C any more...

[Jabberwock]

Until yesterday I had my SB 3003C working perfectly with my programs (mostly games through GlovePIE).

However, yesterday I have updated Orbiter and found out that one of its plugins supports 3dconnexion hardware. I have tried it, but it did not work anyway...

Unfortunately, during configuration I must have messed up something (I have tried different drivers, for one thing). I cannot get SB to work at all - I have tried to install the drivers that I think worked before (2.8.2), but to no avail.

What is the last version fo drivers supporting SB 3003C? How can I find it?

(And no, I do not want one of the newer devices, thank you very much. Not having a ball makes me puck...)

[UtaSH]

Hi Jabberwock,

the Spaceball 3003 is a legacy device and no drivers are available since a long time. Sorry that I do not have a better answer for you.

[Jabberwock]

Uta,

Well... thanks?

For anyone who might and is willing to help:

The problem got stranger with subsequent reinstallation... When drivers are started normally, the SB beeps twice and I get an error: "Unable to open Spaceball 3003 on . ".

When I start the driver with "-com 1" it seems to work... but it doesn't. The device is communicating properly - I can assign buttons and they are recognized in the configuration window.

However, no other software, including Jet and Chicken does not work with the device. Only the Cube demo does seem to work - go figure...

[3003flx]

Hi - I have a couple of 3003C spaceballs,
I would love to get them running with glovepie - how did you do it Jaberwock??

What system are you running on and what versions of the driver and glovepie are you running?

If anyone can help me to get my 3003c working with glovepie I would be really greatful.

I know they are obsolete - but it is such a shame to send these relatively young, $700 pieces of hardware to landfill.

Thanks!

[Jabberwock]

The solution to this is quite simple:

viewtopic.php?t=1328

When you register the dll on top of the last working drivers (3.6.3) it should work with GlovePIE, Google Earth and all other compatible software without problems.

[3003flx]

Side Node: It is also possible to get older (serial) SpaceMouse devices working with the SpaceNavigator backend on Windows, but that involves a little bit of hacking. You have to install the appropriate driver from the 3Dconnexion web site ("3DxSoftware 2.x"). Additionally you have to get and register a library (TDxInput.dll). This library only comes with the drivers for newer (USB) devices ("3DxSoftware 3.x"). So you have to perform the following steps to get older (serial) devices working:

Cool - it works!
I found the instructions there a bit obscure - but they led me to this explanation which is foolproof:
(Except for the first bit - you need to download the spaceball 5000usb drivers - to get the right dll on your system):

QUOTE:
* Get and install the driver for newer (USB) devices ("3DxSoftware 3.x"). As I already said, this driver is the same for all USB devices, so it does not matter whether you choose the driver for the SpaceNavigator, the SpacePilot or any other USB device.
* Locate the library "TDxInput.dll". On an english version of Windows, when you installed the driver into the default location, the location of that library is "C:\Program Files\3Dconnexion\3Dconnexion 3DxSoftware\3DxWare\win32". Copy that library into a safe location.
* Uninstall the 3DxSoftware 3.x driver.
* Get and install the driver for older (serial) devices ("3DxSoftware 2.x").
* Register the library "TDxInput.dll". To to that, you have to log in as an administrator, open the command line, go into the directory that contains the library, and enter the following command: "regsvr32 TDxInput.dll". Do not move the library to another location or remove it from the hard disk - it is registered at that specific location.


Thanks!! Very Happy!