Recently Neil from the YouTube Channel Retro Man Cave (RMC) invited fellow YouTuber Dr. Andrew Armstrong from Back Office Show, to show off the latest update to his product. The “Ultimate Joystick Interface” version 2.0 is Dr. Armstrong’s latest iteration of his analogue joystick interface. This product allows old analogue joysticks and peripherals to have a chance at new life albeit a bit of modding and work. Ultimately making them compatible with modern USB systems.
In this video the two break down the functions, usability and installation of the mods and their successful reworks translating over onto modern hardware. Dr. Armstrong states that each board supports up to 10 total inputs (2 digital and 8 analogue). These boards are also designed to daisy chain with others to support more complicated game pads or joysticks and HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) where many more buttons and inputs are involved.
In the video the joystick mod example they choose is an old Thrustmaster F-22 Pro Stick from around 1995. Many of these joysticks and game pads of the era would use DB 15 port. Though now a days these often do not function or have serious issues reading in modern operating systems. While some solutions for DB15 to USB converters have been around for years. Compatibility on many of these products are hopeful at best. Solutions and workarounds have included examples like using a “teensy board” with “arduino” to make a large and clunky electronic interpretation device to be used for USB conversion.
Dr. Armstrongs board is compact compared to other solutions and offers a clear and clean setup to install. His solution could be installed inside many gaming accessory and products of the time. The Ultimate Joystick Interface has a high polling rate, with data being sent at over 40Hz, and the doctor states, “Thats 40 times per second for lag free input”. For software support, the board is aided by an open sourced software platform called “vJoy”. vJoy can be found on GitHub and is a flexible program with the ability for users LUA scripting to customize for even further enhancements.
Dr. Armstrong states that he is gauging this products interest among the community and if the board sells out. Will look into making another production run with further possible enhancements and community feed back. He has openly invited feedback and wants community involvement going forward. Links down below.
LINKS:
Main Website | https://backofficeshow.com/shop/ultimate-joystick-interface
UJI Manual | Manual URL Link Thats Really Really Long…
vJoy Program Download | http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/index.php/download-a-install/download
vJoy github | https://github.com/Cleric-K/vJoySerialFeeder/releases
Dr. Armstrong Build Example | https://youtu.be/sLY6zKVR9_w
The Backoffice Community Discord | https://discord.gg/dtUUndw
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