Need Help Wiring Joystick

Flaring_Afro · 08-15-2009, 07:33 PM

I read everything about wiring steering wheel controls and have the software, but I cant figure out how to wire them to my controller. It only had one wire input to the stereo, so i'm using the controller's joystick. It's more complicated than buttons though, and I cant figure out how or where to solder the wire. I took a bunch of pics around the joystick in hopes of help. Thanks in advance.

sergatiuk · 08-15-2009, 09:10 PM

it is not much complicated then buttons at all. ive done it with the same controller... the xbox controller uses a USB interface. all you need to have it working as a joystick is get the joystick drivers for it, they are called xbcd

then if u want to use just one thumbstick u need to extend it away from the controller board by removing it from the board and connect it back with wires, as far as i remember its 6 or 8 wires...

then you need another software thats called joy2key which is used to map joystick actions to keyboard shortcuts... then just map it to whatever keys or shortcuts you want to use it for, make sure that the software you are using will recognize these shortcuts and perform the needed operation.

the way i put it to use ... its mounted on the dashboard to the left of the monitor, and operates : up-down=vol up-down, left-right=previous-next track, push=mute/unmute...

Flaring_Afro · 08-15-2009, 10:43 PM

yeah i have xbcd (used that before 360 even came out for emulators). joytokey is awesome software but doesnt work in making one joystick direction into different things, but i downloaded something god of cpu (i think thats his name) created that works.

I didnt realize there were wires under the joystick though, never even thought of that as a possibility. thanks.

Curiosity · 08-16-2009, 10:32 AM

There are 3 pins on each potentiometer for each axis. Center is the A/D input, outer 2 are ground and 5V. There was a long thread on hooking it up by god of cpu a few years ago. I used to use a joystick with my TA but found it to be a lot more trouble and noisy than a real A/D converter like FusionBrain.

Flaring_Afro · 08-16-2009, 01:03 PM

^ i saw the thread but i think its different for usb? idk im new to electrical things, and i dont see why we need a diode for constant power when the controller is read with no buttons/joysticks pressed. resistor makes sense i guess.

also, how was it loud? its just wires. unless something was activating the rumble in the controller lol.

2k1Toaster · 08-16-2009, 01:16 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Flaring_Afro

^ i saw the thread but i think its different for usb? idk im new to electrical things, and i dont see why we need a diode for constant power when the controller is read with no buttons/joysticks pressed. resistor makes sense i guess.

also, how was it loud? its just wires. unless something was activating the rumble in the controller lol.

noisy in an electrical sense.

Instead of getting say 3.3v out of a button, you would get something like: 3.3, 3.4, 3.35, 3.1, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.5, 3.4

That jumping around is called noise...

sergatiuk · 08-16-2009, 01:28 PM

personally i havent experienced any problems with the xbox joystick ... it works great, does what its suppose to do... heres my setup... you can see the joystick mounted on the left of the monitor...
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...undra-sr5.html

Flaring_Afro · 08-16-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

noisy in an electrical sense.

Instead of getting say 3.3v out of a button, you would get something like: 3.3, 3.4, 3.35, 3.1, 3.5, 3.4, 3.3, 3.2, 3.5, 3.4

That jumping around is called noise...

Oh ok. I've heard of "noise" as in an electrical interference that changes the signal in a wire, just not like that where software cant read it right. God of CPU's software does have a tolerance changer so I'll see how it goes. I dont have the money to do anything else lol

sergatiuk · 08-16-2009, 02:10 PM

since the controller is USB i dont so how it would have any change in output voltage...
its already regulated through the USB port...
the only think is you might want to set the key bindings to where the joystick reaches the end of each axis...this way you wouldnt have a situation as for example when you move it to the left with a slight decline it wouldnt read the Y axis unless you move it ALL the way down...

sergatiuk · 08-16-2009, 02:13 PM

also depending on the way you position it, make sure to calibrate it, as if its vertical it would always have a slight decline in the Y axis, while if its mounted horizontally it might be slightly off the 0 point on either of the axis

2k1Toaster · 08-16-2009, 02:14 PM

Doesnt matter what voltage the potentiometers are based around, they all have inherent error. And I was saying the signal lines will fluctuate with noise. They will be sampled in an A2D converter and sent digitally over USB connection with a hopefully stable 0v/5v 0/1 pattern and when demodulated you will still get that noisy signal out of it.

Curiosity · 08-16-2009, 04:09 PM

The A2D is much better in a PIC from my experence, and I usually sample 8 or 16 times and avarage before sending the result so it's rock solid. The gamepad is hard wired for whatever it's intended purpose and less than half the 8-bit register is usable due to the fact that it auto calibrates the start voltage as center stick, so then you have only 2.5V to work with. So first thing to do is set up resistors for 2.5 open and still have differences in every button close. PITA.

Oh, Flaring_Afro.. The diode is to protect the gamepad. Your SWC has 12V running through it which would fry the gamepad and possibly more without it. What god of cpu did was run the 5V backwards through it.

sergatiuk · 08-16-2009, 04:16 PM

its interesting where this is going ... however i dont see the need for the diod, nor resistors... all i did to make mine work is extend the thumbstick away from the controller board, bind the axis ends to keys and whalla ... works fantasticly... never fried, never failed...had it for over a year...

2k1Toaster · 08-16-2009, 04:28 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by sergatiuk

its interesting where this is going ... however i dont see the need for the diod, nor resistors... all i did to make mine work is extend the thumbstick away from the controller board, bind the axis ends to keys and whalla ... works fantasticly... never fried, never failed...had it for over a year...

Then you are extremely lucky and the buttons are already divided to 0v-5v. On a lot of systems, that second divider resistor is located in the HU itself. So the 1 wire contains 12v to 13.8v (or 14.4v on some charging systems) with varying resistance. You connect that to a 5v gamepad and things may melt.

sergatiuk · 08-16-2009, 04:35 PM

may-b i misunderstood the thread then .. lol
however, if the gamepad is used to control the software on the PC then it should just be plugged in the USB... after all the Xbox controller is USB...

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