creating a joystick for a pc

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi guys. I wanted to ask a few questions about the fesability of making a home-made joystick for my pc. I've never done something quite like this before but the idea came to me a few days ago and I started searching around for sites about homebrew electronics and found the Arduino website and it just looks great. The boards are really affordable!

I don't usually do electronics but I have in the past (have basic tools and ability to solder etc - last project was making a CMOY pocket amp which I did not finish due to getting bogged down with work) and its sort of fun and nice to not be looking at a screen for once and using my hands so this could be a good hobby project. What I would be looking at creating is a full featured flight-style joystick with seperate throttle lever, something like the saitek x52 ( http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/x52pro.html ) but obviously home made and not nessiarilly so flash :stuck_out_tongue:

i've considered the idea of dual joysticks with a throttle because i still like playing mechwarrior games (mech4 atm, thou mech online is coming!) and it would be EPIC to control a mech with dual sticks, one for strafing and one for rotating, etc :stuck_out_tongue: perhaps adding a small lcd for output is something to consider later too.

Anyway, I wanted to know if such a thing is fesable and which of the arduino boards would be best suited to it? i'd also want shed loads of buttons. like tons.. :slight_smile: I'm fortunate in that i have access to a workshop where i can both shape wood AND form plastic (and also access to a reprap 3d printer) so i can create custom housing for it all, that sort of thing i have np with.

Also i'm a programmer of 10+ years, fluent in c/c++/c#/javascript/php/html and pretty much anything that has c like syntax so i have no problems working with the arduino sdk or writing the onboard firmware - though i've never written a windows driver that should be fun to get win to reconise it as a gamepad :slight_smile: if thats even possible?

anyway, good idea? waste of time? maybe i have completely wrong end of the stick of what an arduino is for? :stuck_out_tongue: any links to remotely simular projects i can inspect and learn from? suggestions on where to get buttons and joystick electronics and how to interface with it? I'm capable and willing to learn! :smiley:

thanks for you time

2

The Arduino Leonardo might help with getting it to be recognised as a gamepad; it's set up so that computers will already see it as a keyboard or mouse.

It's also quite possible to use an Arduino to decode input from a wii extension controller; see NunChucky Wii Nunchuck I2C Breakout Adapter - Solarbotics Ltd.