Schlagwort: joystick

  • This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors

    This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The joysticks found on ordinary controllers are quite simple, and as a result, they fail to provide much in the way of haptic feedback for the user. This is especially tough in racing or flight simulator games where making sharp turns should require a greater amount of force.

    YouTuber zeroshot’s project aimed to overcome this by combining a pair of stepper motors and positional sensors into a single two-axis joystick for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Based on how a gimbal can rotate in several directions while moving along static axes, the custom 3D-printed housing features a central pivot point and two sub-frames that each connect to ball bearings in the base for smooth movements.

    The motors are responsible for applying a varied amount of force that is constantly trying to realign the joystick to the center. An Arduino Micro was selected since it could act as a native USB human interface device (HID) to relay the positions being sensed by the magnetic encoders to the host machine. This data was also used to instruct the motors on how far to move in each axis.

    Once fully assembled, zeroshot’s next-level flight joystick was able to provide plenty of resistance when flying in a virtual cockpit and could even fly the plane itself once a few inputs had been preprogrammed into the Micro.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdNP5jIJ0dU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • Don’t ignore single-axis joysticks

    Don’t ignore single-axis joysticks

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    When you hear the word “joystick,” you probably think of the standard dual-axis joysticks that we see on video game controllers. As the name implies, those move and provide signals for two axes (X and Y). But there is no reason that a joystick needs two axes and, in fact, that may not be desirable. To demonstrate the practicality of single-axis joysticks, Austin Allen built this simple controller suitable for several different applications.

    Allen’s device controls three different things with its three single-axis joysticks: an RGB LED, a servo motor, and a stepper motor. Each of those is an example of a single-axis at work. That axis maps to color (red and green) and brightness for the LED, horn position for the servo, and rotation direction/speed for the stepper motor. There are, of course, several other viable use cases for single-axis joysticks.

    To showcase this, Allen’s unit provides signals to an Arduino Nano board, which then controls the LED and motors. It controls the LED and servo motor directly, but goes through a TMC2208 driver to handle the stepper motor. The signals from the joysticks are easy to read, because they’re just potentiometers. Each joystick accepts positive and negative power, then outputs a voltage between those two based on its position. With a standard analogRead() function, the Arduino can check the voltage and determine the joystick position.

    You may not have any use for this specific controller, but it does do a good job of illustrating potential applications for single-axis joysticks and you should consider them for future projects.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC1AI6w4J7Y?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post Don’t ignore single-axis joysticks appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • A DIY USB gear stick for PC racing games

    A DIY USB gear stick for PC racing games

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    A DIY USB gear stick for PC racing games

    Arduino Team — July 22nd, 2020

    If you’d like to add a gear stick to your virtual race car, then Oli Norwell has just the project for you.

    His USB device extends a joystick with a length of threaded rod through a custom-cut wooden plate, restricting movements to a 1-5/reverse/neutral layout. The shifter is held in different gear positions using magnets, in order to keep it from automatically springing back to center.

    An Arduino Leonardo reads the switch states, and passes along the shift positions as a simulated joystick in HID mode. Possible future improvements include extra buttons, mode selection switches, and even an LCD screen for feedback.

    Check it out sim-driving in the video below!

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDyUr7-dn4?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

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    Website: LINK