Simple Joystick Project

[pwierz]

Hi,
I'm a software developer and I'm working on a project in my spare time. My project requires a joystick that I will need to design but from a microcontroller standpoint, it's a standard joystick. Can someone tell me how much work it is to design a microcontroller (cheaply) that has inputs of a 1-axis potentiometer joystick and a few buttons and a USB PC interface? Is anyone out there willing to help me out with this? I have very limited funds but I could compensate a little bit for your help. Thanks for you help.

 

[Sceadwian]

The USB interface is the hard part. Interfacing a POT, even a few to a micro controller is almost trivially easy. Define 'cheap' it means many things to many different people =) What's your budget?

 

[pwierz]

The reason I put cheap in there is because one suggestion I've received a few times is to do it using a prototyping board. But those can get expensive and if I end up making, say, 50 of them, it's just not cost effective to buy 50 prototype boards. I assume the cost will be the price of the microcontroller, PCB, a couple of electronic components, and the one-time cost of the chip programmer. Am I missing anything?

As for compensation, like I said, I don't have much. I'm just throwing it out there because I know I'd be hard-pressed to find someone out there to help out of the goodness of their heart. Give me an estimate on the time it would take to get it done and how much you can do it for and I'll see if I can meet your request.

 

[Sceadwian]

Why don't you just buy them? It's not like no one's ever made a joystick before. It'd be cheaper than developing one yourself.

 

[pwierz]

Because under the hood, this is a common joystick. But the human interface is going to be unique to anything commercially produced. So what I need is a standard joystick controller with the ability for me to add my own pots and buttons.

 

[Hero999]

So what's stopping you from ripping the guts out of a pre-built joystick and using the controller board?

 

[mikesullen]

The microcontroller,ST72623 is very cheap.It has usb 1.1 interface,I think it's enough for joystick.But if you want to make it yourself,the problem you encoutered is not only the design but the assembling.The joystick is not very expensive.In my city,a joystick is only $10~20.

 

[mikesullen]

oh,I see.You don't need the joystick,just need the controller design for your project.

 

[Sceadwian]

Find yourself a few playstation dual shock controllers. The interface description is available on the net and there are USB to Playstation controller interfaces you can find on the net as well. That will give you four analog channels and more buttons than you'll know what to do with. Opening one up and gutting it for the electronics it's easy just to make longer wires and build your own housing. A WHOLE lot easier than desiging an entire joystick from scratch yourself.

 

[pwierz]

The problem with ripping apart an existing joystick is that I may need to make a sizeable amount of these. Also, in the future I hope this will be a component of a commercial product and therefore can't use someone else's device components.

Everyone seems to be detracting from designing one because it would be too much work. How much are we talking about?

 

[Sceadwian]

You can use one for a prototype to get your idea off the ground. You can't start a project off with the final components, you have to work up to it. They're called 'proof of concept' prototypes =) It'll take a whole lot less time to test it out, then once you have the design finalized you can build the final hardware around it. Generally you don't go about creating final hardware and worrying about exact cost of each unit until you prove the idea is even viable in the first place.

 

[pwierz]

Thanks for the advice but like I said, this is a small component to a larger project. I already know what my project requires from this component so I'm saving time by getting it made. Can anyone out there help?

 

[art-666]

Hi see here

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main/howto/mind.htm

There is one for a pic18f2550 but I lost the link (will post if found)

 

[mramos1]

I saw https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=508122

RC guys, looks like hooking joystick to USB for a PC.

Also, found stuff on the microchip.com forum. You can look over there.

 

[BronzeG3]

Here is a link to a PDF for using a PIC as a gameport -> USB HID device. https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/91054c.pdf

It shows how to connect X and Y axis along with 6 buttons.