• What is this?
• Compiling
  • Y axis as buttons
• Wiring
• Debugging

What is this?

This is a simple recipe for turning your Arduino into a usable joystick/gamepad.

I am using RobotDyn Joystick shield which makes the whole process trivial.

Compiling

Install the dependencies:

• Arduino Makefile (available as arduino-mk in Ubuntu/Debiab)
• Arduino Joystick Library

Tweak joystick.ino to suit your needs. In particular, enable or disable using the Y axis as additional buttons.

Then just run make and make upload to flash the board.

Y axis as buttons

Using the Y axis on the joystick as additional buttons is useful for playing e.g. SuperTuxKart, where you only need the joystick for steering.

Wiring

There is nothing to wire – just pop the shield onto your board and plug it in!

Debugging

You can use the jstest tool on Linux.