How to connect and use an Analog Joystick with an Arduino - Tutorial 

Brilliant. Clear and succinct. Thanks! (7 years later)

I did the same thing with a broken xbox controller. I desoldered it from the board, mounted it to a small perf board, then soldered jumper wire to the board. It worked on the arduino. It's just 2 10k pots on a stick with return springs. Each axis will have a slightly different "zero range". If you are using this for a project, then the most important part is to find the min and max zero reading, then map that range of values for each potentiometer to zero. This prevents "idle drift" as I'm sure most gamers end up seeing with a controller at some point. Ex. Letting off the stick to see very slow motion in the x or y axis.

This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for your efforts. You have done a great job explaining this.

crystal clear and short video! thanks! :)

This was really helpfull, thank you! Now i have to figure out how to graph my outputs

I’m building my own version of the gmk joystick and this helps a lot thank you

Excellent work, thank you!

thank you so much this is awesome, you showed exactly what i needed

Great video, really simple to understand!

Thanks for making this video it's so helpful for my project

i am new to arduino and this is my 3rd experiment with arduino , great experience, really nice thank you for this video . video was very help full thank you

You´re Website is so awesome!!! Helped me so much!

Very useful, thank you!

thank you very much,great video!!!!

Thinking these will be great for controlling LED strips: left-right to cycle through animations, up-down to control brightness, push to turn on/off!

Thanks, your code works good. It's unfortunate these joysticks are crap and have a very low threshold before going to max of 1023.. way too sensitive.

I've got a couple analog keyes analog joysticks here as well and I think similar to your demo, they don't auto calibrate their centers at 512,512 perfectly. I guess there needs to be some sort of calibration mode for more advanced systems to init the rest position and then calculate the relative offsets based on that as a relative center position. I guess I can try to share an example once I finish coding it on my end.

It works! Thanks!

THANK YOU , Brief & Beneficial

Thanks, it was very useful!

Thanks Ivan! Appreciate it

Very clear tutorial, appreciate it.

Super useful, thanks

Great tutorial

Nice. Clear to undesrtand.

How do you make the serial monitor do that? Like a "static serial monitor"... like overwrite the values on the same line instead of going to a new line?

How different would the coding be for a pro micro board? Looking to use two joysticks on one pro micro.

Do you have a script for joysticks that dosen't have buttons? I REALLY need help please!

thanks ,its working

I'm planning on making a controle panel for ksp this will work great for rcs thank you.

Pretty nice and simple...keep it up!!

Thank you for this very quick and simple joystick tutorial. Appreciate it.

Great video, I have a question though. Will this code (or a similar code without the button input) work to map two potentiometers to Windows control panel for use in game? The game will allow calibration of end points but it needs to see the input. I am looking to use three separate pots for gas, brake and clutch in racing sims. I know I would have to change the code to add an additional pot read out from another analog pin but from a conceptual stand point will this basic code work as to send pot input to a game/pc or will it only function within the serial monitor. I have been trying to figure out the key to using an arduino to send pot input to my pc and ultimately games but I feel like I'm missing something. I also heard about the need for a resistor between the ground and signal on the pot to prevent spikes, it would be great to know if this is needed when using an arduino or even just be directed to somewhere I can get more info on this topic(s). I already have arduino uno boards so that is preferred unless there is reason to go with another board. Thank you in advance if you get a chance to respond.

you made it very very easy!

this has help me so much

Hey looks great and great video! Can I input this code and transmit these codes via bluetooth given I have paired my two bluetooths to slave and master to control a servo? Or how would I go about doing that?

That was a quick answer, ty. And btw can you guys make a video where you use the joystick, arduino and a makey makey to controll the PC

That was very useful and well explained, but can you tell me how to make the computer read these values like a game controller?

hi, ist that all the code you need to run a teensy with an (e.g. psp thumbstick) on a raspberry pi? dunno how to configure my teensy++ 2.0, that makes me get kinda stressed. I want to do a Gameboy Zero

Thanks. Good tutorial.

Айван? Круто, я конечно не лингвист, но я почти не детектировал соотечественника по произношению. Круто, спасибо

I am able to get it working. However I cant seem to understand how to get it recognized as a joystick in Windows using an Promicro. I read the other mouse tutorial but couldn't find the code that makes it be recognized. Any help would be appreciated.

Awesome tutorial, thanks so much! Quick question, how many analogue sticks and buttons can be connected to the Arduino? Thanks again

Can you please explain the wire colours and why?

Awesome Vid!

thank you so much...🤎

I am trying to use a xy joystick into a arduino uno to use as a mouse and left clicker for kodi within retropie But I cannot find the next steps to get the raspberry pi to interact with the Uno when I plug the usb from the Uno to the pi. Any advice?

hey i liked your work a lot but i am making a project and it uses 2 joystick module so can u plz tell me how to connect them to arduino actually i want to connect 4 servos

hello, do you have documentation on this joystick such as specs/datasheet? i am having a hard time finding one. thanks!

Can I use gyroscope sensor instead of joystick module?

I want to control four motors with the joystick. I think I can use that code to operate four solenoids to feed power to the motors.

thanks man you'r the best

the whole code is //Arduino pin numbers const int SW_pin = 2; //digital pin connected to switch output const int X_pin = 0; //analog pin connected to x output const int Y_pin = 1; //analog pin connected to y output void setup() { pinMode(SW_pin, INPUT); digitalWrite(SW_pin, HIGH); Serial.begin(115200); } void loop () { Serial.print("Switch: "); Serial.print(digitalRead(SW_pin)); Serial.print(" "); Serial.print("X-axis: "); Serial.print(analogRead(X_pin)); Serial.print(" "); Serial.print("Y-axis: "); Serial.println(analogRead(Y_pin)); Serial.print(" "); delay(500); }

I always get x: around 240-270 and y: around 240-270. It wont change if I use my joystick and I have no idea why :(

Is it necessary to use microcontroller with joystick module?

Can I use two joysticks for this board instead of only one?

Would it be possible to make this work with an application on Android?

can i use this analog stick and arduino to control a motor to turn in both directions

I'm new to Arduino. Do you know if I have to solder the ends of the jumper wires to the Uno board, or if there is a special way to insert them?

How do you replace the cap on these? They seem stuck on the stick and I can't seem to get them out. Any advice on that?

Curious, why in the setup did we need to declare the SW as an input, but didnt need to declare the Y or X analogs as inputs?

it keeps on telling me i need a redefinition for 'void setup()'

Thanks!

what baud rate do we use, and why does it matter? I find that 9600 works for me better than 115200

I need help i want to move 5 servos with 3 joysticks but when i release the joysticks the servo restart the position, I need a code that when you release the joystick the servo Remain in position. please help me!

No links for the items used :(

So, I'm working on a robot that has four DC motors controlled by two motor driver chips. Am I correct in assuming I can use this joystick to control left, right, forward, and backward motion using a command interpreter and checking the range of these values? For example, if y-axis between A and B, turnLeft( ), where turnLeft( ) will be a function call with the logic to turn left. Thanks!

can i get a Program to control the speed of dc motors ?? using joysticn?

Does this allow you to fix large deadzones in 3rd Party Controllers?

Estén tiene de casualidad para códigos, atreves conectan con eso con luces los 5

how are u getting a reading for X and Y axis if u didnt declare the pinmode

how can i use one joystick input to turn 2 servo motors in 2 different directions at the same time? like when the joystick is moving left... one of the servos moves left and the other right, simulataneously?

I liked the video and understood a lot. But man you should give the code link (present in the description) directly to the tutorial on your website. I searched a lot on your website but did not find the tutorial. Finally, I had to write the code in my arduino IDE by seeing the code in your video and then write it on the arduino IDE.

Why did u choose a value of 115200 in serial begin

are the values its reading ohms?

Is there any reason why everything would work except the x axis? I tried 8 different joysticks and they all only worked for up and down and the key

Excelent explain ! so easy , thanks

it helped me a lot it was so easy bro🤑🤑😱😱😱😱😱

Guys , I am trying to connect this to a game I made in Unity. I know this video is old but I would love to hear your ideas! Is it even possible , and if so how? +Brainy-Bits ?

can we connect two joysticks to the UNO

Hi, I would be appreciative if someone can please explain this line: digitalWrite(SW_pin, HIGH); Is that to set the input as a pullup, rather than a pulldown?

Can i use this joystick for 40v??...

Could this work with any kind of Arduino? I do not have acces to that exact model, the cheapest I can find is the Nano (and the page does not say what V it is sadly)

I am trying to apply tiva instead of arduino, but the problem is that it doesn't have 5v Vcc, only 3.3, and I assume there is no way to make it work. because you need at least 75% of the voltage 5*75/100 = 3.75. So my question is if the joystick operates only on 5V vcc? and are there any of those that operate on 3.3 V?

Sir I have a question what is the SW pin of joystick for?

Nice. can I tap off an existing joystick and use the output signal to run say a motion simulator platform? will the output signal from the joystick still be strong enough to continue sending the signal to both the pc game as usual and the arduino simultaneously? cheers guys, your videos are a lifesaving compilation.

How do i make aiming smoother for fps games? i tried antimicro and joytokey

After uploading the serial monitor keeps adding new text but it doesn't read the switch, x input, or y input. This is my code // Arduino pin numbers const int SW_pin = 2; // digital pin connected to switch output const int X_pin = 0; // analog pin connected to X output const int Y_pin = 1; // analog pin connected to Y output void setup() { pinMode(SW_pin, INPUT); digitalWrite(SW_pin, LOW); Serial.begin(115200); } void loop() { Serial.print("Switch: "); Serial.print(digitalRead(SW_pin)); Serial.print(" "); Serial.print("X-axis: "); Serial.print(analogRead(X_pin)); Serial.print(" "); Serial.print("Y-axis: "); Serial.println(analogRead(Y_pin)); Serial.print(" "); delay(500); } Thanks

Why is only (analogRead(Y_pin)) a Serial.println and the other two are a Serial.print?

I got 4 of these joysticks. 2 old ones and 2 new ones. None of them give any signal over the switch pin... What could I possibly do wrong? Or are they all coincidentally broken?

Writing the switch pin HIGH doesn't work on my ESP32, I just had to add a pull-up resistor to 3.3V on the switch pin. :)

My output just says weird zalgo symbols i dont know if an alien is the one showing the output but pls idk how to fix this in new to electronics

why is it when i change the baud rate that the code isnt static anymore ?

Why is the digitalWrite necessary in setup?

Hi, did it can work to move for example a player on a game like minecraft? Because me I'm rn making a project about it and I want it to move my character on Roblox with a arduino keyboard too. But nice video btw :).

Why in the constants you did not set 'A0' or 'A1' ?

I am actually working with it now. But what i meant whas that you could make a video where you uses the arduino uno (only or i used The makey makey beacuse i am not so good at hacking or stuffs like that) to controll the buttons up, down, left and right or w,a,s and d on the computer.

if it works one sime and then it spits out random caracters try serial monitor to 9600 worked for me

Does any one has 8 pin analog joystick pinout.Please provide a link