Did I Bork My Nubs?

[paddy]

Am i the only one who doesn't like the idea of calibrating on every bootup/resume currently i am not doing this and i do not have an issue with calibration,does the manufacturer state the nubs must be calibrated on every power on or is this only when needed if the nubs are off center.

Can't we have the choice of software calibration via the OS,an effective switch off of the more advanced nub calibration feature or do all analog controllers have this firmware feature already.

could someone with bad nubs try this ....


power on,once in the OS,move the mouse cursor slight left till the end of the desktop,then use the stylus to point the mouse back in the middle,then do slight right till the end,use stylus again to center,do up and down as well,when i say slight i mean only use around a quarter of the nubs travel,once done do full travel left/right/up/down

after that does the nubs work better in mouse mode? also try diagonals and see what mouse movement is like,i remember on the old units the mouse would move in a pressed direction but as the mouse cursor was moving it would slow down and speed up as if power wasn't getting to the nub or something else was stopping it like maybe something else touching the screen.

 

[Prometheus]

Anyone with the bad nub problem has little to no control over any movement at all (and the things will even move when not being touched, in some cases), that's the problem.

As for calibration, yes, they're really supposed to be calibrated shortly after power is applied, although as you (and when my units worked, myself, too) have found, you don't *really* always need to for some reason or other. I don't *think* (but I may well be wrong) that it's possible to have a calibration feature in the OS for this reason. The thing is, they're designed for "always on" use, but we don't have suspend-to-RAM just yet (in the same style as, say, the Nintendo DS does when you close it whilst in use) - once that's in place, the Magic Nub Dance will likely be a rarity from then on.

 

[WizardStan]

There is no way to flash the nubs from the Pandora, you would have to have one of those rigs like MWeston made. Also, isn't the firmware something that was made by the Design company, not the manufacturer? (Remember, they were different companies, and the design company went belly up)

The pads required to program it are on the board. A couple pins, some wire and electrical tape, and you can build your own ICSP connector.
As for the firmware, no idea who actually owns it, but MWeston did recently state that someone was holding up legality of actually letting anyone see it; the chips came preflashed, I believe he said.

Am i the only one who doesn't like the idea of calibrating on every bootup/resume currently i am not doing this and i do not have an issue with calibration,does the manufacturer state the nubs must be calibrated on every power on or is this only when needed if the nubs are off center.

You aren't the only one. Unfortunately that's how the nub firmware works. Others besides myself have expressed interest in hacking them to behave differently.

 

[God Ginrai]

There is no way to flash the nubs from the Pandora, you would have to have one of those rigs like MWeston made. Also, isn't the firmware something that was made by the Design company, not the manufacturer? (Remember, they were different companies, and the design company went belly up)

The pads required to program it are on the board. A couple pins, some wire and electrical tape, and you can build your own ICSP connector.

I realize that, my point was that you couldn't do it as easily as you would flash a new firmware for the OS. Sure you could do that, but a lot of people who don't have that kind of skill would not be able to (or fuck up something attempting to)

-God Ginrai

 

[WizardStan]

I realize that, my point was that you couldn't do it as easily as you would flash a new firmware for the OS. Sure you could do that, but a lot of people who don't have that kind of skill would not be able to (or fuck up something attempting to)

But someone with the skill could, and could then charge others a nominal fee for doing it for them.
Don't I remember people sending their GP32s (or 2Xs? whichever) to Dave to fix the D-pad? Same deal. If it's a really good fix, OPT might adopt it as official and help people to get the nub firmware reflashed.

 

[EmuGuy]

I get mixed results every time I reboot...my left nub is very troublesome. Sometimes I get it calibrated perfectly, other times it either won't move the mouse cursor Down, or it'll move only into the Top Left corner.

Does this sound like I need a replacement? I'm not excited about sending it back to the U.K...it took 3 weeks to get it here!

 

[marioweezer]

I feel really bad adding to this thread but my left nub is no longer centering properly. It's been fine for the first two weeks but gradually became looser and looser.

Today, the nub decided it didn't want to centre and it just drifts off to one side. I first noticed it when playing Super Mario 64 as I'd randomly fall off a ledge without pressing anything. It does the same on the desktop and it's a pain to even click anything.

It seems like the nub doesn't snap back to the middle (unlike the right one). Guess I'll have to return it

EDIT: Okay, now it's completely gone - the cursor won't stay still no matter what direction I press the nub! The right nub is much stiffer though and seems to work fine.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Mine will be going to newcastle this saturday, again.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Its on its way back, I feel so empty

 

[Rockthesmurf]

Sadly I will be adding to the statistics... I have never found my nubs to work nicely. I have pretty much given up using them for anything unless I just need to do something very basic and my hand are already near the nubs. Well I booted my Pandora up a couple of days ago and the cursor was just drifting in one direction; it had done this before when at its best and needed rebooting. But two reboots later and it still did it and then I realised it had stopped auto centering. I can add I was on Italy when it stopped working and the temperature was warmer than my usual UK climate nothing crazy though; less than 30 degree C.

My nub usage has been extremely minimal, the game I have been working on is touch screen input, and other than that I have mainly be playing Picodrive using the DPAD (which incidentally works wonderful).

I can't think of anything helpful to add for bad nub statistics, but hopefully cases like mine will greatly reduce with the extra testing now being done.

Finally, a small crack has developed at the back of my Pandora (wasn't there when shipped and Pandora has not been knocked around). Also one of the triggers is half popped out, it shipped like this. All of the issue I have described have been described by other users and I have seen photos of other cracked cases and bad triggers that exactly match my problem.

Steve

P.s I will be gutted to send my Pandora back, it is awesome despite problems.