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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Joystick

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Replied by Paul Mogg on topic Joystick

Hi Rick, I downloaded and installed the latest 3.5.2 Beta version of Kstars in the hope the joystick support might be included, and I see that there is a Joystick option and a Snoop device option under my telescope Options tab in Ekos, however when I edit a profile I don't see anything named "Gamepad" in the the Aux section. Unfortunately I don't know how to "build and install the indi_gamepad driver" as you suggest in an earlier post. I imagine that would require knowledge of Mac programming environment specifics, which I'm not up on. If you can point me to instructions on how to do this I'd be willing to give it a go. Otherwise if you could let us know if joystick support will be in a future build of Kstars I'd appreciate it. Thank you.
3 years 1 month ago #67643

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Replied by Rick Bassham on topic Joystick

Hey pdmogg, unfortunately, if you're not comfortable building C++ projects on mac, it's not quite ready for you. I'll see if I can create an easy way to install it for non-software engineers.
3 years 1 month ago #67647

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Replied by Paul Mogg on topic Joystick

Thank you. that would be much appreciated.

Out of interest, can a build be made just by learning to use Github? Or do you have to load Xcode and a bunch of other Mac programming environment stuff on your mac to do this? In another lifetime I programmed under MSDOS in C and Assembly language, but have no mac programming experience.
3 years 1 month ago #67649

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Replied by Rick Bassham on topic Joystick

You do not need to use xcode (but you do need to install it). If you have some programming experience (or are comfortable on the command line), you might be able to get it going pretty easily.

First, you'll need to install homebrew:

brew.sh/

Then install the dependencies needed to build all the things (I think this is comprehensive, but may not be):
brew install sdl2 cfitsio libnova gsl zlib libusb jpeg libtiff fftw cmake

Then you'll need to build libindi to provide the libraries we need to link against:
mkdir -p ~/indi_projects
cd ~/indi_projects
git clone https://github.com/indilib/indi.git
cd indi
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ../
make
sudo make install

Now that libindi is installed, we can build indi_gamepad and install it.
cd ~/indi_projects
git clone https://github.com/rickbassham/indi_gamepad.git
cd indi_gamepad
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo ../
make
sudo make install

Then you should be able to restart KStars and see the gamepad (hopefully).
3 years 1 month ago #67650

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Replied by Paul Mogg on topic Joystick

Hi Rick,
Thank you for the details of how to do that, unfortunately I just don't have the space free to install Xcode, I tried once before. Please let us know if you do come up with a method for non-programmers to be able to use the Joystick, as it would be make visual observing so much easier. Regards.
3 years 1 month ago #67681

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Joystick

Hi there, Jasem gave me a heads up about this thread and this very interesting driver. I thought it might be nice to try to include this in the latest KStars and test it out. So I built it and put it in my latest build for kstars. Then I found an old Logitech Rumblepad 2 in the drawer. So I decided to try it out. I can't get it to connect to the gamepad so far. I keep getting these messages when I try to connect: "GamePad is disconnected." even though I am fairly sure it is connected. When I run it from the command line I get this on the command line: "2021-02-26T03:39:16: Driver ./indi_gamepad: joysticks count: 1" but I still get this when I try to connect from KStars and start the driver: "GamePad is disconnected."

Is there something I need to do to enable the controller to get it to start the driver? I tried this link in Google Chrome and it worked perfectly: gamepad-tester.com/

Any ideas? It would be nice to include if I/you can make it work.

Thanks,

Rob
The following user(s) said Thank You: Jasem Mutlaq
3 years 1 month ago #67805

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Replied by Rick Bassham on topic Joystick

Hey Rob. I've only tested it with a Logitech F310 gamepad. Do you see "found gamecontroller at index" in the log after "joysticks count"?
3 years 1 month ago #67818

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Replied by Steven Hutchings on topic Joystick

Having followed the instructions here, Rick, I was able to get the GamePad working for a short time on macOS Monterey with KStars 3.5.7 beta. But, updating to the stable version of 3.5.7 appears to have stopped this from working, despite me rebuilding the GamePad driver.

The GamePad driver shows in the Indi equipment list, but is listed as a Server/remote option, rather than a service I can run locally. Do you have an idea of what may be causing this?
2 years 1 month ago #80232

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Joystick

Hey there,

Sorry I didn't ever see the response that Rick sent.  To answer the question, I see this line:
Driver ./indi_gamepad: joysticks count: 1
And then after that, I see information about the switches (if -vvv is turned on) but I don't see anything printing about finding gamecontroller at an index.

Steven I am not sure why it would have worked in one version but not another, but I am running from the command line using "remote".  I didn't install it into the kstars app bundle.

Thanks,

Rob
2 years 1 month ago #80288

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Replied by Rob Lancaster on topic Joystick

Ok I decided to run the program in QT creator and try to debug it a little to see why it isn't working for me.

I do personally have two joysticks, and I tested both of them.  For both of them, this line:

IDLog("joysticks count: %d\n", SDL_NumJoysticks());

gave the value of 1

But then this line:

if (SDL_IsGameController(i))

returned false.   Does this mean that my joystick and gamepad are both just not compatible as Game Controllers, or do I need to install some drivers to get them to be supported?

Thanks,

Rob


 
2 years 1 month ago #80289

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Replied by Rick Bassham on topic Joystick

Hey Steven, I'll see if I can get this working again.
2 years 1 month ago #80293

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Replied by Rick Bassham on topic Joystick

Rob, what game controller are you testing with? The SDL lib may not recognize it as a gamepad, but may still recognize it as a joystick. I can look at adding support for non-gamepad joysticks as well.
2 years 1 month ago #80294

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