{"id":1754,"date":"2015-01-20T10:00:31","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T16:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2023-04-17T10:01:39","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T15:01:39","slug":"trainz-simulator-griffin-powermate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foell.org\/justin\/trainz-simulator-griffin-powermate\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainz Simulator + Griffin Powermate"},"content":{"rendered":"

My son Jules loves trains. I like trains too and my enthusiasm was probably the seed that grew into his obsession. My good friend Joe bought Jules a copy of “Trainz Railroad Simulator” for Christmas a year ago. It was in the bargain bin at Mills Fleet Farm:<\/p>\n

\"trainz_front\"<\/a>\"trainz_back\"<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

But rather than using the keyboard to play the game, I thought it would be easier to use some sort of joystick. A quick internet search yielded this:<\/p>\n

\"Train<\/a><\/p>\n

It looks huge and intimidating, but based on some of the flight simulator setups I’ve seen, the train cab controller is positively tame:<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\"FSX<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t
FSX Times Best Setup<\/a><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

Still at $180, I wasn’t about to buy the Train Cab Controller<\/a>, which would certainly make the game infinitely more complex for a 5 year old. Trainz has a “DCC mode” which allows you to control the trains very simply like they are model trains: with a dial.<\/p>\n

\"dcc_mode\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I always wanted a Griffin Powermate<\/a> – a superfluous USB volume knob you can add to any computer. But now I had an actual use. I got a USB Powermate for $30 shipped from Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Powermate Setup for Trainz<\/h2>\n

When it arrived, I downloaded and installed their driver software. It renders terribly in Windows 7 (it was probably last updated for Windows XP):<\/p>\n

\"powermate_trainz\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The “click” and “long click” actions are hidden in the interface (you can only see 4 at a time). But they’re there, you just need to highlight an action, and arrow down until you get to others.<\/p>\n

For the Trainz Simulator setup, I added the following settings:<\/p>\n

Rotate Right: Send Key – W (forward)
\nRotate Left: Send Key – X (reverse)<\/p>\n

These keys control the forward\/reverse dial in the game. I set the sensitivity fairly high (see screenshot) so a turn of the Powermate would closely match what you saw onscreen.<\/p>\n

Click: Send Key – S (stop)
\nLong Click: Send Key – A (apply brake)<\/p>\n

“S” stops the train by putting the dial immediately back to zero, so a quick click is an easy way to stop. Trains are heavy though and the “A” key normally applies the brake, so I added a long click action to apply the brake – I like to think of the long click like pressing the brake pedal in a car.<\/p>\n

Enjoy<\/h2>\n

\"jules_trainz\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It works exactly as I imagined: simple! You can see the “dial” on the screen and the Powermate glowing under Jules’ hand that now controls it. Easy peasy.<\/p>\n

Both the Griffin Powermate and Trainz Simulator (newer versions)<\/a> are available for Mac OSX so Apple loving trainiacs won’t be left out.<\/p>\n

Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My son Jules loves trains. I like trains too and my enthusiasm was probably the seed that grew into his obsession. My good friend Joe bought Jules a copy of “Trainz Railroad Simulator” for Christmas a year ago. It was in the bargain bin at Mills Fleet Farm: Send to Kindle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Trainz Simulator with Griffin Powermate - simple controls","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,115,31],"tags":[116,140,110,32,167,141],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-casual","category-fatherhood","category-transit","tag-apple","tag-games","tag-kids","tag-trains","tag-usb","tag-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t