Please help with my joystick/midi controller!?!

I'm sure that in the old cycling site there was an article just on what you're looking for. I don't remember the exact name of the article but I use it to start a messy patch implementing a discrete amount of controls of Mackie Control Protocol on a logitech rumblepad. the controls missing from my patch, unfortunately, are just the ones about device parameters. It seems that the infos I have about Mackie Control Protocol relative to device parameters control are wrong, or maybe I was just missing something when I worked on it.
Anyway, as mo-seph (and the article) said you have to use the hi object.

basically there are three steps (that I remember of):
- you choose the usb device
- you see what kind of data arrives from the device (apart from numbers coming from the buttons what I personally had most problems with, was calibrating/mapping my control to the range of output values from the joystick, and I had to recalibrate it a few times because after a while I became softer and smoother in joystick movements...)
- you link specific data outputs to specific controls.

Ok, after I have written this much...
If you search for "hi joystick" on cycling74 home page you find the article I was speaking of at the start of this message.
"Making Connections: Connecting a Joystick to MaxMSP/Jitter"

The article suggests also where to go next...
I don't have the time, but I think that if you use your controllers exclusively with computers, and if you use them mainly through something like max, the usb-hid (human interface device) standard it's really a good simple way of making fast and powerful custom controllers.

Also... if you use it live... I have to 'warn' you...
Unless you use it 'a la Tim Exile', a lot of people will think that you're just playing a videogame on stage... this after reading you emails of course!

:-)