I just got a 3Dconnexion spacenavigator a few days ago, and I was wondering if there's any chance of it being supported as an input device. For those who haven't seen them before, it's basically a cylindricalish grip that can be twisted or pushed on all 3 axes, giving you six degrees of freedom. Right now they're mostly supported by CAD and 3D modeling applications, but SecondLife recently started using them, and they're hoping to get more widespread support.

The SDK can be found at http://www.3dconnexion.com/support/sdk.php, along with some sample code. They work on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix, so Vendetta wouldn't have any cross platform trouble with it.

Interesting item.

Has anyone ever gotten one of these to work?

I tried my SpaceNavigator SE just now and it seemed to be working okay with the Mac OSX client. All 6 axes registered, left button mapped to JOYBUTTON 0 and the right to JOYBUTTON 1.

I wouldn't recommend buying one for VO, though, as they don't work too well for gaming.

We supported a puck device like this, which was made by Logitech, back in the late 90s. It worked pretty well, but it was more of a gaming device.. had buttons and things for the other hand. Probably the same people who ended up being 3Dconnexion.

Well so far its just a paper weight under linux - thier driver turns it into a HID device instead of a joystick....

would have been good for my bad shoulder but it looks like its gonna get returned

If it shows up as a generic HID device it might be possible to write a user mode driver for it using uinput to make it appear as a normal Linux joystick device.

That's how this driver for the Logitech G13 works: http://www.nexoid.at/g13/

Send me a 3Dconnexion and I'll make you a driver? :D

I always wanted one of those fancy mices

There you have it folks!
This is why i <3 Linux. :)

I decided to finish modding my flight yoke and send the paper weight back for a refund....