The 'Alpha' Controller?

[sparta98]

I have noticed something weird about joysticks: On our computer, one will dominate the other, becoming the 'main' controller and pushing the other back to 'second' controller. This happens no matter what order we plug them in. My question is, "why?"

We use two Xbox 360 controllers, one is an 'afterglow' and the other is a Pittsburg Steelers controller. The program we use is Labview, if that helps.

Thanks in advance.

[Redcap]

If the order they're plugged in does not effect them, what about the location/port they're plugged into?
If they're USB, I'm fairly sure it depends on which USB port you plug them into.

[Soeren]

I have noticed something weird about joysticks: On our computer, one will dominate the other, becoming the 'main' controller and pushing the other back to 'second' controller. This happens no matter what order we plug them in. My question is, "why?"

A fact of life... The bigger stick always dominates 

Why does it matter?

[sparta98]

We did try switching the ports, but that didn't do it.

It matters because one of them has a sticky left stick. That one happens to be the dominator. The dominator always seems to control the robot. Problem is, in our setup, left stick=throttle. You can imagine why that's bad in competition.

We want the dominator to be the second controller because it would then only need working triggers and buttons.

[Redcap]

Assuming you don't want to dismantle it and see if the sticking can be fixed...
If you're using MS Windows, you may have some luck. (not sure how to do this in Linux, XOS etc)

Go to your "Control Panel" > "Game Controllers".
If you click the "Advanced..." button, you can select which device is the preferred.

Method 3: Configure your game controller as the preferred device
To configure your game controller as the preferred device, follow these steps:

   1. In Control Panel, open Game Controllers. To do this, use one of the following methods:
          * In Windows Vista, click Start, type joy.cpl in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
          * In Windows XP and in earlier versions of Windows, click Start, click Run, type joy.cpl, and then click OK.
   2. Click Advanced.
   3. Under Preferred device, select the game controller that you want to use.
   4. Click OK two times.

[sparta98]

I'll pass it on, thank you.