[sdiy] Joystick hunting

[Tom Arnold]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:54:55PM -0800, Jaco Sloof wrote:
> I vaguely remember that I posted a reply earlier about using 
> sony-Playstation-controller-joysticks as err, joysticks.. Which is a
> nice idea really. Insidfe these controlers, things are controlled by
> 10K linear pots, pretty standard sized ones too.

What I've been playing with is interfacing some standard IBM joysticks.
Here's where the problems come in that I've found sofar.

1. They arnt very mechanically repeatable.  I mostly care about
repeatability at 0volts so I've worked around that for now.

2. You cant predict what value pot they actually put in the joysticks, so a
generic interface like I'm trying to do has to be wildly adjustable.

3. The pots are wired single-ended.

4. The spring centering is a joke for accuracy.

5. Stick Travel to Pot Travel is a nasty ratio.  Some are as low as 50%.

Even with all these drawbacks, the cost and availablity makes them too good
to ignore.  Hopefully I'll have something working soon I can share.

My goal is a Fracrak module that will take two joysticks and give 4 CV outs
and 4 trigger or gate outs ( avg joystick has two buttons ).   I'm actually
really close except for the scaling issue where things look exponential when
they shouldnt.

-- 
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 - Tom Arnold       -  Free Synth DIY webspace http://www.sdiy.org 
 - SynthGeek        -
 - BBD Fanatic      -  "...is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" 
 - echo evho wjxo   -    Juanita Shrugs. "What's the difference?" 
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