** Introduction | |
This document describes what I managed to discover about the protocol used to | |
specify force effects to I-Force 2.0 devices. None of this information comes | |
from Immerse. That's why you should not trust what is written in this | |
document. This document is intended to help understanding the protocol. | |
This is not a reference. Comments and corrections are welcome. To contact me, | |
send an email to: deneux@ifrance.com | |
** WARNING ** | |
I may not be held responsible for any dammage or harm caused if you try to | |
send data to your I-Force device based on what you read in this document. | |
** Preliminary Notes: | |
All values are hexadecimal with big-endian encoding (msb on the left). Beware, | |
values inside packets are encoded using little-endian. Bytes whose roles are | |
unknown are marked ??? Information that needs deeper inspection is marked (?) | |
** General form of a packet ** | |
This is how packets look when the device uses the rs232 to communicate. | |
2B OP LEN DATA CS | |
CS is the checksum. It is equal to the exclusive or of all bytes. | |
When using USB: | |
OP DATA | |
The 2B, LEN and CS fields have disappeared, probably because USB handles frames and | |
data corruption is handled or unsignificant. | |
First, I describe effects that are sent by the device to the computer | |
** Device input state | |
This packet is used to indicate the state of each button and the value of each | |
axis | |
OP= 01 for a joystick, 03 for a wheel | |
LEN= Varies from device to device | |
00 X-Axis lsb | |
01 X-Axis msb | |
02 Y-Axis lsb, or gas pedal for a wheel | |
03 Y-Axis msb, or brake pedal for a wheel | |
04 Throttle | |
05 Buttons | |
06 Lower 4 bits: Buttons | |
Upper 4 bits: Hat | |
07 Rudder | |
** Device effects states | |
OP= 02 | |
LEN= Varies | |
00 ? Bit 1 (Value 2) is the value of the deadman switch | |
01 Bit 8 is set if the effect is playing. Bits 0 to 7 are the effect id. | |
02 ?? | |
03 Address of parameter block changed (lsb) | |
04 Address of parameter block changed (msb) | |
05 Address of second parameter block changed (lsb) | |
... depending on the number of parameter blocks updated | |
** Force effect ** | |
OP= 01 | |
LEN= 0e | |
00 Channel (when playing several effects at the same time, each must be assigned a channel) | |
01 Wave form | |
Val 00 Constant | |
Val 20 Square | |
Val 21 Triangle | |
Val 22 Sine | |
Val 23 Sawtooth up | |
Val 24 Sawtooth down | |
Val 40 Spring (Force = f(pos)) | |
Val 41 Friction (Force = f(velocity)) and Inertia (Force = f(acceleration)) | |
02 Axes affected and trigger | |
Bits 4-7: Val 2 = effect along one axis. Byte 05 indicates direction | |
Val 4 = X axis only. Byte 05 must contain 5a | |
Val 8 = Y axis only. Byte 05 must contain b4 | |
Val c = X and Y axes. Bytes 05 must contain 60 | |
Bits 0-3: Val 0 = No trigger | |
Val x+1 = Button x triggers the effect | |
When the whole byte is 0, cancel the previously set trigger | |
03-04 Duration of effect (little endian encoding, in ms) | |
05 Direction of effect, if applicable. Else, see 02 for value to assign. | |
06-07 Minimum time between triggering. | |
08-09 Address of periodicity or magnitude parameters | |
0a-0b Address of attack and fade parameters, or ffff if none. | |
*or* | |
08-09 Address of interactive parameters for X-axis, or ffff if not applicable | |
0a-0b Address of interactive parameters for Y-axis, or ffff if not applicable | |
0c-0d Delay before execution of effect (little endian encoding, in ms) | |
** Time based parameters ** | |
*** Attack and fade *** | |
OP= 02 | |
LEN= 08 | |
00-01 Address where to store the parameteres | |
02-03 Duration of attack (little endian encoding, in ms) | |
04 Level at end of attack. Signed byte. | |
05-06 Duration of fade. | |
07 Level at end of fade. | |
*** Magnitude *** | |
OP= 03 | |
LEN= 03 | |
00-01 Address | |
02 Level. Signed byte. | |
*** Periodicity *** | |
OP= 04 | |
LEN= 07 | |
00-01 Address | |
02 Magnitude. Signed byte. | |
03 Offset. Signed byte. | |
04 Phase. Val 00 = 0 deg, Val 40 = 90 degs. | |
05-06 Period (little endian encoding, in ms) | |
** Interactive parameters ** | |
OP= 05 | |
LEN= 0a | |
00-01 Address | |
02 Positive Coeff | |
03 Negative Coeff | |
04+05 Offset (center) | |
06+07 Dead band (Val 01F4 = 5000 (decimal)) | |
08 Positive saturation (Val 0a = 1000 (decimal) Val 64 = 10000 (decimal)) | |
09 Negative saturation | |
The encoding is a bit funny here: For coeffs, these are signed values. The | |
maximum value is 64 (100 decimal), the min is 9c. | |
For the offset, the minimum value is FE0C, the maximum value is 01F4. | |
For the deadband, the minimum value is 0, the max is 03E8. | |
** Controls ** | |
OP= 41 | |
LEN= 03 | |
00 Channel | |
01 Start/Stop | |
Val 00: Stop | |
Val 01: Start and play once. | |
Val 41: Start and play n times (See byte 02 below) | |
02 Number of iterations n. | |
** Init ** | |
*** Querying features *** | |
OP= ff | |
Query command. Length varies according to the query type. | |
The general format of this packet is: | |
ff 01 QUERY [INDEX] CHECKSUM | |
reponses are of the same form: | |
FF LEN QUERY VALUE_QUERIED CHECKSUM2 | |
where LEN = 1 + length(VALUE_QUERIED) | |
**** Query ram size **** | |
QUERY = 42 ('B'uffer size) | |
The device should reply with the same packet plus two additionnal bytes | |
containing the size of the memory: | |
ff 03 42 03 e8 CS would mean that the device has 1000 bytes of ram available. | |
**** Query number of effects **** | |
QUERY = 4e ('N'umber of effects) | |
The device should respond by sending the number of effects that can be played | |
at the same time (one byte) | |
ff 02 4e 14 CS would stand for 20 effects. | |
**** Vendor's id **** | |
QUERY = 4d ('M'anufacturer) | |
Query the vendors'id (2 bytes) | |
**** Product id ***** | |
QUERY = 50 ('P'roduct) | |
Query the product id (2 bytes) | |
**** Open device **** | |
QUERY = 4f ('O'pen) | |
No data returned. | |
**** Close device ***** | |
QUERY = 43 ('C')lose | |
No data returned. | |
**** Query effect **** | |
QUERY = 45 ('E') | |
Send effect type. | |
Returns nonzero if supported (2 bytes) | |
**** Firmware Version **** | |
QUERY = 56 ('V'ersion) | |
Sends back 3 bytes - major, minor, subminor | |
*** Initialisation of the device *** | |
**** Set Control **** | |
!!! Device dependent, can be different on different models !!! | |
OP= 40 <idx> <val> [<val>] | |
LEN= 2 or 3 | |
00 Idx | |
Idx 00 Set dead zone (0..2048) | |
Idx 01 Ignore Deadman sensor (0..1) | |
Idx 02 Enable comm watchdog (0..1) | |
Idx 03 Set the strength of the spring (0..100) | |
Idx 04 Enable or disable the spring (0/1) | |
Idx 05 Set axis saturation threshold (0..2048) | |
**** Set Effect State **** | |
OP= 42 <val> | |
LEN= 1 | |
00 State | |
Bit 3 Pause force feedback | |
Bit 2 Enable force feedback | |
Bit 0 Stop all effects | |
**** Set overall gain **** | |
OP= 43 <val> | |
LEN= 1 | |
00 Gain | |
Val 00 = 0% | |
Val 40 = 50% | |
Val 80 = 100% | |
** Parameter memory ** | |
Each device has a certain amount of memory to store parameters of effects. | |
The amount of RAM may vary, I encountered values from 200 to 1000 bytes. Below | |
is the amount of memory apparently needed for every set of parameters: | |
- period : 0c | |
- magnitude : 02 | |
- attack and fade : 0e | |
- interactive : 08 | |
** Appendix: How to study the protocol ? ** | |
1. Generate effects using the force editor provided with the DirectX SDK, or use Immersion Studio (freely available at their web site in the developer section: www.immersion.com) | |
2. Start a soft spying RS232 or USB (depending on where you connected your joystick/wheel). I used ComPortSpy from fCoder (alpha version!) | |
3. Play the effect, and watch what happens on the spy screen. | |
A few words about ComPortSpy: | |
At first glance, this soft seems, hum, well... buggy. In fact, data appear with a few seconds latency. Personnaly, I restart it every time I play an effect. | |
Remember it's free (as in free beer) and alpha! | |
** URLS ** | |
Check www.immerse.com for Immersion Studio, and www.fcoder.com for ComPortSpy. | |
** Author of this document ** | |
Johann Deneux <deneux@ifrance.com> | |
Home page at http://www.esil.univ-mrs.fr/~jdeneux/projects/ff/ | |
Additions by Vojtech Pavlik. | |
I-Force is trademark of Immersion Corp. |