Phidgets 8/8/8 and the Joystick sensor

**_dopehead_** · 11-29-2005, 08:25 PM

Hi there

i just got my Mini Joystick Sensor for the phidgets 8/8/8 hw yesterday http://www.phidgets.com/index.php?mo...iew&CID=6&KID= and wanted to see if i could use it as a mouse mainly for Roadrunner for me, but should work fine in any frontend.....just for fun mostly. I did some simple VB6 code using the phidgetslibrary, maybe some can use it, at least as a starting point. One thing that is missing is hooking up the button in the joystick for mouseclick, maybe with a timer for right click or something, like the touchscreen drivers do.

It works in any resolution

<code>
Option Explicit
Private Declare Function SetCursorPos Lib "user32" (ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long) As Long
Private WithEvents PM As PhidgetManager
Dim SensorX As Long
Dim SensorY As Long
Dim SensorXCenter As Long
Dim SensorYCenter As Long
Dim SensorXMin As Long
Dim SensorXMax As Long
Dim SensorYMin As Long
Dim SensorYMax As Long
Dim ResolutionX As Long
Dim ResolutionY As Long
Dim ConvertX As Double
Dim ConvertY As Double

Dim WithEvents IFKit As PhidgetInterfaceKit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
MsgBox ("Slip Joysticket helt,ok")
SensorXCenter = IFKit.SensorValue(4)
SensorYCenter = IFKit.SensorValue(5)
MsgBox ("Right,ok")
SensorXMax = IFKit.SensorValue(4)
MsgBox ("Left,ok")
SensorXMin = IFKit.SensorValue(4)
MsgBox ("Up,ok")
SensorYMin = IFKit.SensorValue(5)
MsgBox ("Down,ok")
SensorYMax = IFKit.SensorValue(5)

ConvertX = ResolutionX / (SensorXMax - SensorXMin)
ConvertY = ResolutionY / (SensorYMax - SensorYMin)

Text1.Text = "XCenter" & " " & SensorXCenter & "YCenter" & " " & SensorYCenter & vbCrLf & "Xmin" & " " & SensorXMin & "Xmax" & " " & SensorXMax & vbCrLf & "Ymin" & " " & SensorYMin & "Ymax" & " " & SensorYMax & vbCrLf & "ConvertX" & ConvertX & "ConvertY" & ConvertY
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Load()
Set PM = New PhidgetManager 'Get the phidget manager going
SensorXCenter = 500
SensorYCenter = 500
SensorXMin = 0
SensorXMax = 1000
SensorYMin = 0
SensorYMax = 1000
ConvertX = 1
ConvertY = 1

ResolutionX = Screen.Width / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
ResolutionY = Screen.Height / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY

End Sub
'An InterfaceKit was found. Start everything up
Private Sub PM_OnAttach(ByVal PHIDGET As PHIDGET.IPhidget)
Dim I As Long
If PHIDGET.DeviceType <> "PhidgetInterfaceKit" Then Exit Sub
Set IFKit = PHIDGET
'make the sensors less sensitive so that we don't get flooded with events
For I = 0 To IFKit.NumSensors - 1
IFKit.SensorChangeTrigger(I) = 5
Next I
End Sub
' Call this whenever phidget gets changed sensor data
Private Sub IFKit_OnSensorChange(ByVal Index As Long, ByVal SensorValue As Long)
' We only care about port 4 and 5 which the joystick is on
If (Index = 4) Then SensorX = (SensorValue * ConvertX) ' X Value on port 4
If (Index = 5) Then SensorY = (SensorValue * ConvertY) ' Y Value on port 5
Text1.Text = "X:" & " " & SensorX & "Y:" & " " & SensorY
Call SetCursorPos(SensorX, SensorY) ' Set cursor to the actual joystick position
End Sub
</code>

Jan

**DeltaFX** · 11-30-2005, 11:47 AM

That mini joystick has a spring to autocenter it, right ? You'd better not use this like an absolute-positionning, it would be hard to maintain the position and click the same time.

I did the same with an old PS2 minijoystick connected to a VM110 board. (sensors range from 0 to 255)

GetCursorPos(PosXY);
DeltaX:=Trunc((((-25/3072)*(127-Data1)+1075/96)*(127-Data1)/1000)*Abs(127-Data1));
DeltaY:=Trunc((((-25/3072)*(127-Data2)+1075/96)*(127-Data2)/1000)*Abs(127-Data2));

PosXY.X:=PosXY.X + DeltaX;
PosXY.Y:=PosXY.Y - DeltaY;
SetCursorPos(PosXY.X,PosXY.Y);

Maths are there to alter linearity.

And to emulate a left click (switch connected to input 1, (i and 1) checks if input #1 is 0/1)

if (i and 1)>0 then
begin
mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN,0,0,0,0);
sleep(20);
mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP,0,0,0,0);
end;

**_dopehead_** · 11-30-2005, 06:48 PM

Ya, i tried to use the button in the joystick today, and it is a bit tricky, so i might just put two buttons in my armrest on the side of the joystick i think, as for accuracy in positioning it seems fine for the big buttons in the skin i use for RoadRunner @ 800x600.

**DeltaFX** · 11-30-2005, 07:31 PM

Separate buttons will help. My point is, to click a button on RR, you will need to keep the right position of the minijoy while you click (using others buttons, or the integrated switch). That will be tricky if you are driving.

The way I coded mine, you can position the mouse over a button, do something vital - avoid a crash-, then click.

Idealy a minijoy like this, coupled with a Frontend, should imho work like the arrow keys, a kind of "Jump to the nearest button in the direction you pushed".

Just my 2 cents

my joystick