Renaming a Device in Windows to avoid conflicts when swapping wheels.

rikirk · Aug 10, 2021

Would be grateful if someone has a solution handy.

Each time I swap with a wheel based on a Bornard board, I have to remap the in game settings because the button box shares the same name as a device, which is super annoying.

No Google result i've found was helpful, I went far enough by changing the driver ID in the HID registry, but didn't work.

EsxPaul · Aug 10, 2021

rikirk said:
Would be grateful if someone has a solution handy.

Each time I swap with a wheel based on a Bornard board, I have to remap the in game settings because the button box shares the same name as a device, which is super annoying.
View attachment 494699
No Google result i've found was helpful, I went far enough by changing the driver ID in the HID registry, but didn't work.

I've never tried this myself but I seem to remember that you might be able to rename the Bodnar boards with some software tool that was offered on their site?

There's a link to the tool here but I've no idea how successful it might be.

rikirk · Aug 10, 2021

Thank you Paul! I'm asking the maker of the wheel to reach out since they are the actual buyer for the board (more than 10 units). If anything comes out, will share here.

Neilski · Aug 10, 2021

I think that when USB devices are not recognised by Windows as different, it's normally because they don't provide a unique serial number. So if you plug in two devices with the same basic hardware (so the VID and PID are identical), Windows will be unable to tell them apart if they don't have different serial numbers. Sadly a lot of gear just provides "0" as the serial number, presumably because it's easier to make them all the same.
Microsoft have published guidance articles about how to get this right but (LOL) their own hardware is among the offenders!

metalnwood · Aug 11, 2021

You have to have it requested at purchase and there may be a cost to cover it if you want unique id's for windows on the bodnar boards.

Another way if it is a real hassle for you is to use vjoy and universal control remapper. So create a virtual joystick that is always there with the same name and remap each bodnar button on to that. In UCR you can save a number of different profile for each board and how they map their buttons to the virtual one.

NeoGrotesk · Aug 11, 2021

You should be able to do it yourself using the Bodnar firmware update software that @EsxPaul linked to. You just need to know which board is being used in your devices. The 10+ thing is because the firmware only allows 10 different names, since you only have two that shouldn't be an issue.

When you run the HID Flash Software and choose the correct firmware for your board, it allows you to change the name of that device (for example, BU0836A-1, BU0836A-2, BU0836A-3, etc). It's a really simple process.