spaceball(7)
spaceball - Spaceball X Input Extension device driver
As shipped in IRIX 6.5.30. Added in IRIX 6.5.22.
NAME spaceball - Spaceball X Input Extension device driver SYNOPSIS Section "InputDevice" Identifier idevname Driver "spaceball" Option "Device" devpath ... EndSection DESCRIPTION spaceball is an XFree86 input driver for the Spacetec Spaceball 4000 FLX. The spaceball is a six-degrees-of- freedom (6DOF) controller. It reports three values for translational forces, and three values for torsional forces. The driver supports seven valuators and 13 buttons. The 7th valuator is the period, the time in 1/16 ms since the last event. The 13th button indicates the handedness of the spaceball hand rest, with on indicating a left-hand positioning. It is possible to send command strings that will be sent directly to the spaceball. These are sent via an XChangeDeviceControl hack.It is a hack because the only currently defined control type is DEVICE_RESOLUTION (see BUGS). The example code below shows how to send a string to the Spaceball.The most useful string is a bell command. You can send a single beep with "\rS\r" or a custom multi-beep with "\rBbeep-commands\r", where beep-commands are lowercase letters for a beep from short (a) to long (z), and uppercase for a pause. You must end in a pause, or the bell will stay on. Example: "\rBcCcA\r" will send a double beep. /*Subroutine to send a char string to the spaceball*/ int SpaceballDeviceControl (Display * display, XDevice * xdevice, char *string) { int i; int slen = strlen (string); int data[6 ]; int err = 0; XDeviceResolutionControl ctrl; ctrl.control = DEVICE_RESOLUTION; ctrl.length = sizeof (ctrl); ctrl.first_valuator = 0; ctrl.num_valuators = 0; ctrl.resolutions = (int *) data; for (i = 0; i < slen; i++) { data[ctrl.num_valuators] = (int) string[i]; if (++ctrl.num_valuators == 6 ) { if ((err = XChangeDeviceControl(display, xdevice, DEVICE_RESOLUTION, (XDeviceControl *)(&ctrl))) ) return (err); ctrl.num_valuators = 0; } } if (ctrl.num_valuators != 0) err = XChangeDeviceControl (display, xdevice, DEVICE_RESOLUTION, (XDeviceControl *) (&ctrl)); return (err); } This driver works with the glut spaceball callbacks, and with a patched version of the Spaceware SDK. The only significant patch to the SDK was adding the DeviceControl hack to send stings to the spaceball. Contact the author if you would like a copy of this patch. SUPPORTED HARDWARE The driver currently supports only the Spaceball 4000 FLX. Support for other models will be added if someone is willing to help or supply/loan devices to the author. If you have an unsupported spaceball model and would like to help, please contact Joe Krahn <krahn@niehs.nih.gov> CONFIGURATION DETAILS Option "EnablePeriod" "boolean" The driver can supply a period pseudo-valuator, which represents the time since the last internal motion event in 1/16 milliseconds. Scaling the valuators by this number will give an integration effect in case events are delayed. Events normally occur at a constant rate, so this value can typically be ignored. The period is supplied as the 7th valuator, and is sent in a seperate motion event preceding the actual valuator data. This is the format expected by the Spaceware SDK. Default: on. Option "Device" "devpath" This defines the name of the serial port device that the Spaceball is connected to. Default: For SGI system, use: Please refer to XF86Config(4) for general configuration details and for options that can be used with all input drivers. This section only covers configuration details specific to this driver. TO DO Add a bell feedback. For now, you can send bell commands via the DeviceControl hack. (I think the bell feedback is not yet working in XFree86-4.0.1.) Add a dialbox emulation mode, for 6D-unaware applications that use dialboxes. Possibly add an absolute mode, where the driver sends integrated values. Possibly enable a pointer-capable mode. Possibly add built-in controls for dominant-axis filtering, etc. BUGS When trying to use this driver and a dialbox driver at the same time, there was interference with the mouse unless I moved the extension devices above the mouse in the ServerLayout section. Driver initialization will take up to 10 seconds trying access the device on the serial port, with the Xserver paused during the process. This is bad, but consistent with at least the SpaceORB driver. Ideally, we should only try to access the device at the time of an XOpenDevice call, and return a failure if it isn't found right away. Currently, I send device-control strings to the spcaeball as they arrive. I should probably accumulate characters until a zero is received, then send the whole packet. The device controls are implemented via a hack. To do it right, the device control copmmands need a new control type. I propose a DEVICE_PRIVATE type for device control commands, to send for device-specific character string commands. Char data is the easiest to implement for general-purpose data, because there is no byte-swapping to worry about. typedef struct { XID control; int length; int private_type; int data_length; char *data; } XDevicePrivateCharControl; FILES /dev/spaceball Symbolic link to the appropriate serial port SEE ALSO XFree86(1), XF86Config(4), xf86config(1), Xserver(1), X(5). AUTHORS Joe Krahn <jkrahn@nc.rr.com>