CompuServe Messages

Peter: >Computers, robots, RC Cars..all the hobbies that are bottomless money pits!< yep, but at least RC cars can only kill $1k or so max.. That's where PC's and robots begin for the really cool stuff.<BG> I now have the Thrustmaster Pro FCS and the WCS Mark I.. (those nifty high-tech black joystick things) I picked the Weapons Control System (WCS) up at a computer show saturday, but haven't gotten it to work yet. I found out later (my ignorance) that it was the old one, and it's not as programmable as the new one. It hooks into the keyboard and sends keystrokes to the computer, but only has a certain amount of games it supports. All of them are old games.. like Falcon AT and such. Anyways, I've figured out a solution. I'm having a friend of mine write a little keymap tsr that will intercept the key commands, and allow me to send the appropriate keys to the game, or program I desire. I've got the keystrokes figured out to use all the buttons for Doom. 🙂 It should free my need of the keyboard for anything important in game play. I found that, even with the FCS joystick, I couldn't do everything without the keyboard. Now I should be able to. (I'm looking forward to Mechwarrior II- it will have net/modem play as well as full Thrustmaster support.) Another idea I had was to program it to run 3DS. I could assign 18 keystrokes, or macros to the hardware. Things like render last, etc. can be programmed into 3DS as a macro, and I could use the WCS to run the macros or other keystrokes.. that would be useful. A mouse in one hand, the WCS in the other. 🙂 I guess those who have tablets do that already, without looking like you're gonna blow up the models.<g> What kind of RC car do you have? I had a Hornet way back when I was in Jr. High and High school. I really beat that thing up bad, but I still have the controller (looks almost new too!). (Futaba Magnum JR.) I don't know why I kept it- I'm sure today's controllers are a lot better. Mabe I can use it with those nithol robots.. 🙂 That would be fun. What would you suggest for a good, beat-me-up, fast, good handling, multiple terrain car to get? How's the RC-10 "off road" baha type car? I've seen one of those in a mag, and it looked like a good blend of road and offroad/jumping abilities (depending on tires). On those robot kits, is there anything like an mechanized arm? If so, how strong would it be? I'm curious on how good a pull those wires would give. They seem pretty fragile. What have you done with them? JNJ