Way to use a Spaceball (serial) and Space Traveler (USB)

Questions and answers about 3Dconnexion devices on Windows.

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mitchi
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Way to use a Spaceball (serial) and Space Traveler (USB)

Post by mitchi »

3Dx Dudes,

I am having issues using these two products together. I have a M90 Dell laptop and when I am docked I have a serial Spaceball. I recently bought a Space Traveler and now when I dock I cannot get my serial spaceball to work.

I looked in the Reg and saw that it was looking for the USB spacetraveler and is not looking for the Serial device. Is there any way to get the 2 devices to work? Can I change something in the reg to look for both. I tried to reinstall the software but it still looks only for the spacetraveler.

Thanks,

Mitch :roll:
agoenczi
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Way to use a Spaceball (serial) and Space Traveler (USB)

Post by agoenczi »

Hi mitchi

The new software versions for 3Dconnexion devices doesn't support anymore serial devices under Windows.
mitchi
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Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:25 am

Post by mitchi »

I am using 2.8.2 which supports both.

If I remove the registry entries or change them for the serial device. I was thinking of a batch file could do this.

Short of me trying combinations of this. What would the registry entries be for the spaceball?

Maybe, this would not be the company line, but I am posing this to the other users as well.

Thanks,

Mitch
jwick
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Post by jwick »

Hi Mitch,

There is something else wrong here. This should work fine. That old driver will search for all other types of devices if it doesn't find the device that is in the registry.

You will get a message something to the effect that the previously attached device has not been found, do you want to search for a different device. You have three choices: A) search, B) don't search, just exit silently and I forget the last (maybe it is exit just this time).

If you pick one of the options, the driver will always exit silently if it doesn't find the device. This could be why it is exiting on you. This state is controlled by a registry value. If you start the driver from the Start menu->Programs->3Dconnexion->3Dconnexion 3DxWare->Start Driver it will reset this registry flag and you will get the warning dialog box again. Make sure you don't select, "exit silently from now on". You should then get the search prompt each time you change devices.

If this doesn't work, there could be a problem detecting your serial device. That is a different issue that we can deal with if need be.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
mitchi
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Post by mitchi »

Jim,

You are correct. The driver did not start when I was docked. Any thoughts on that? I have had issues currently with Solidworks, and it was resolved by re-regitering a dll. Any dll for your software I should check?

Thanks,

Mitch :shock:
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Post by jwick »

Hi Mitch,

OK. A couple of things to try:

What about the other possible configurations:

Does the ST work when you are docked?

Does the SB work on your laptop's serial port (no docking station)?

Make sure your serial port is enabled in your docking station.

Look at the system device manager while your SB is attached to see if the COM port has detected it (and is enabled).

Turn on the log file for the driver, try to start with the SB attached to your docking station and post the file (3dxware.log) here.

Jim
3Dx Software Development
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