The force feedback interface is shown below. All diodes are standard signal (1N914) diodes:
Please take care when hooking up the 9V supply! Incorrect hookup may cause problems with the pad or printer port. Do not attempt to power the shock motor from your parallel port, this will not work and could cause damage to the port.
I've only got a few games to test the interface
on, and most work just fine within the pad's simple limitations. A known
issue with Flight Simulator 98 is that after a crash no shock vibrations
will be felt. The simple workaround is to deselect "Crash Effects" in the
forces setup dialog. Other games seem to work fine with some tweaking.
Once you've got the interface built, it's time
to install the drivers so that Windows can communicate with it. Go to the
"Control Panels" window, and select the "Game Controllers" icon.
Select the "Add..." button in the Game Controllers
window, then select "Add Other..." and "Have Disk..." in the windows that
appear. Specify the path into which you've extracted the .ZIP file, and
hit OK.
Select "DirectPad Pro Controller" from the list (this version does not have individual drivers for each joystick type). You will then be returned to the "Add Game Controller" dialog. For the second time, select the "DirectPad Pro Controller" and you're almost done. If you're running a Dual-Shock controller and want force feedback, select the "DirectPad Pro Force Feedback Controller" from the listing, after performing the "Have Disk" operation.
Finally, double-click on the newly installed joystick. Use the dialogs to configure to the proper interface, parallel port, and controller ID (when using multiple controllers).
If you're using multiple controllers you need
to repeat this exercise for as many pads as you have connected.
