FS224 Joystick Pin Mapping
Just a short 'info' post. I found an old Joystick at a local thrift shop for a couple of dollars. A big plus was this thing is mint, no scratches, smudges, or broken pieces. And I'm the type of person who finds this older tech that would be perfect for a hobby project.
That project would be a 3D printed 5-DOF robotic arm based off of µArm. I did that project years ago when the design files were released.
The Joystick is a FS224 from CH Products and is pretty much a 'barebones' controller. With 3 buttons, a trigger button, and y axis with trim for each, and finally a thumb wheel that, I believe, is meant for controlling a throttle. With this many buttons and potentiometers, it would be perfect for controlling my UArm. To be honest, there are more buttons than I know what to do with. But I'm sure I'll think of something. But before I can incorperate it, I need to hack it and figure out how it works.
The cable has 15 pin D-sub connectors which old computers used for serial communication. When I opened the casing, I was a little surprised to find some circuitry. There's 2 types of ICs, an AND gate array and a simple encoder. Since I am going to use an Arduino for control, I don't need these as I am going for a more simple design. For example, I'm using the buttons as a simple input that's pulled LOW, then active HIGH. The x and y axis along with the throttle thumb wheel have potentometers to give position data.
