Hi all,

My FPV interest is QuadCopters mainly, and I really feel that flying with a PC style joystick would make it easier & more enjoyable.

I also enjoy Arduino programming. So, I decided to bring the two together.

So tonight I got my first prototype powered up & working. I ripped out the electronics from a Saitek AVR8 Joystick and replaced with an Arduino Nano and my own code.
There's a single cable direct from the joystick to the trainer port (PPM) of my Futaba Tx.

So it works, all I have to do now is built in additional functions to read the switches for trim functions, dual rates etc. The nice thing about the Saitek is that there's a wee panel on the front with a plethora of switches.

At the moment it's 6 channel, but no reason why it can't be more and make use of the switches/buttons at the top of the joystick to control pan/tilt channels etc.

Here's a quick video of it in operation and a photo of the guts.
(Apologies for the rough video, it's not easy to work a camera and operate a joystick at the same time!).

Can't wait to test fly!

Ian.

RC Joystick (0 min 33 sec)

Very nice work Ian, I have test flown my T28 with a Logitech JS and it is a blast, I am currently intergrating it into my Back Pack GS as an add on feature for FPV.

Tarro,

Yes I saw your vid clip.....looks really good. It really is a problem all this hardware we have to carry about, you look to have sorted that one in a novel way.

I have had a day off today, so did a bit more to my code and added dual rate functions to the joystick. Am now really looking forward to trying it on a real flight!

Ian.

Ian, my Back Pack Ground Station is evolving as we speak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kITFdlUj7U

Very neat setup, i wish i could do some thing with Arduino. i had to hack up a joystick and transmitter to get it working.

Originally Posted by IanJ

Hi all,

My FPV interest is QuadCopters mainly, and I really feel that flying with a PC style joystick would make it easier & more enjoyable.

I also enjoy Arduino programming. So, I decided to bring the two together.

So tonight I got my first prototype powered up & working. I ripped out the electronics from a Saitek AVR8 Joystick and replaced with an Arduino Nano and my own code.
There's a single cable direct from the joystick to the trainer port (PPM) of my Futaba Tx.

So it works, all I have to do now is built in additional functions to read the switches for trim functions, dual rates etc. The nice thing about the Saitek is that there's a wee panel on the front with a plethora of switches.

At the moment it's 6 channel, but no reason why it can't be more and make use of the switches/buttons at the top of the joystick to control pan/tilt channels etc.

Here's a quick video of it in operation and a photo of the guts.
(Apologies for the rough video, it's not easy to work a camera and operate a joystick at the same time!).

Can't wait to test fly!

Ian.

http://www.vimeo.com/10536754

nice work ian!

lube the yoke! that sound made my dogs go bananas!

Basically, are you just juming the wires from the joystick pots to the transmitter pots (replacing with) so the oem joystick pots are now the transmitters control pots?

No he replaces the electronics with a device that takes the pots/switches in the joystick and converts them to a PPM signal. Plugs it into the trainer port and uses it to fly with through the controler. I've ordered the same bits and going to try it out.