Controller from a joystick?

[steffanko]

Looking at all of these treads about making controllers out of joypad's, I got a wish to make one my self. Just I'm not that happy with idea of having only two faders/knobs.
So, I was cleaning my basement and came across an old Genius joystick


What do you think about making controller out of it?

It has 8 buttons, hat switch and two sliders. Am I thinking correctly that those hat, sliders and the main joystick can be turned to faders/knobs?

Also, would it possible to make one controller out of both joystick and joypad? So it would have 20 buttons and 6 fader/knobs?

[derschaich]

seems like a solid amount of controls to me.

be care ful with the hat switch, as it only accepts one direction at a time. keep that in mind while laying your new wires!

have fun on this machine!

[steffanko]

I was thinking about what would I like to make, and came to conclusion that it would be a Xone 1d like controller, about same dimensions and similar combination of knobs, faders and buttons. So, only one joystick or joypad is just not enough.
I was thinking about the ways to make this actually work, and came up with these ideas. Is this the right way to do it?


In case of using joystick and joypad, both with usb connectors, would it be enough to just put together wires from both cables to one usb connector or do I have to use hub?

Also, since the analog stick has two axes, X and Y, does that mean that I can connect two faders or two knobs per one stick? So I can get 4 faders/knobs from one joypad?

Is the hat switch actually the same thing as analog stick?

[chrismp]

don't know about the hub, but i guess so.

as for the axes: you're completely right 4 faders/knobs for each gamepad.
but the joystick's hat switch acts as buttons, so you won't be able to use it for faders/knobs. this joystick will give you three analog inputs. two for the stick itself (x,y axis) and one for the wheel on the left (z-axis).

[steffanko]

Tomorrow I'm going to check out local stores for parts.
Since I'm a total noob when it comes to electronics, please advise and educate me.
I have read almost all topics with a build log, but I don't get the basics.

1) Can I go wrong with buttons, I mean in electronics way?
2) Line faders. What it means 10k in the name and Mono or Stereo? As I get it, I should get 10k mono?
3) Rotary pots. Are they all the same tipe? Any particular to ask for?
4) LEDs. Are they all the same, or there are tipes? What to ask for?
5) Wires. Does the wire thickness plays any roll?

Sorry for being total noob, but I really want to learn and to make my own controller.

When I see tomorrow what shapes and sizes of knobs and buttons I can get, I'm gonna do some drawings of my ideas for the controller.

Please help!

[steffanko]

I made a pic of how I want my controller.



Tomorrow I'm going to buy joypads, found 2 joypads connected to one usb. Wonder if that could work?

[steffanko]

I bought Gamebird Dual Analog Joypad, basically two joypads connected to one usb connector.
Now I don't know how to map them in Rejoice. In drop down list there are both of them, but don't know how to set it up to one midi yoke channel, so Traktor can see them both at the same time.
Now if I select one of them in Rejoice, only that one works in traktor.
Please help!!!

[fbonito]

(hi, i've reply to your message regarding the software)

about the gamepads, i had two separate gamepads for my project but ended up burning one, so i got also a dual gamepads that only have one usb so i get extra usb slots in the usb hub, but there was a problem.

before my gamepads where more "simple" just connect the positive to a common ground and it's ok, this gamepads (i don't know iff your gamepad is the case) have more common grounds, meaning that i have one common from 1 - 8 another from 9-10 another from 11-12 a individuals in the hat switch, be aware of this possibility because you could have a lot more wiring to do