Select Leonardo Joystick and click Properties. In Windows 10 search bar, type Game Controllers, run Set up USB Game Controllers. Once the program is uploaded to the Leonardo board, Windows 10 should automatically detect the Leonardo Joystick.

Also restarting Windows 10 might also help freeing up the COM port. Pushing the reset button on the Leonardo board a couple times while compiling might help. I noticed some time, the program could not be uploaded with error code of COM port not available. Make sure Arduino Leonardo board is selected and port number is selected to the right COM: under the Tools menu. Load Pin_Joystick.ino onto Arduino IDE and compile and upload to the Leonardo board. The spring door stop is available from Home Depot for $2.83CAN. The base of the joystick is a spring door stop fixed on a piece of wood. This can be easily substituted with any short rigid pipe. The joystick handle is made from a scrap PVC water pipe. In this project, I only used 2 push buttons for simplicity. Other smaller items such as wirings and push buttons are necessary as well.

These 2 devices are the main requirements for this project. (Use of other type Arduino board is too complicated for this simple build project). Windows 10 will automatically recognize it as a joystick when the USB is plugged in. Once the board is programmed, you can use it on any Windows 10 PC and no additional software required. I got mine from eBay shipped from China for a lot less, but the shipping time was like 3 months or longer.Īny Arduino board would work, but using ATmega32u4 based board will be much simpler, because ATmega32u4 has native HID (Human Interface Device) support. In Canada, it costs around $7CAN in Amazon. One of the commonly used accelerometer/gyroscope sensor board is MPU-6050. With popularity of various Arduino microprocessors and various sensors, the cost of building an Arduino project becomes much more affordable. Instead of using potentiometers, I decided to go with accelerometer/gyroscope sensor board to send information to computer on the angles of the stick. This works well but does complicate the construction of the joystick. Most of the joysticks out there use potentiometers at the base to determine the angles of the joystick and send x and y axis information back to computer. The popularity of MS Flight Simulator and COVID 19 pandemic wiped out all the existing joystick stocks.

Most online retailers had them out of stock. Searching online, I could not find a reasonable priced joystick to purchase. With Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, I quickly realized how difficult it is to use keyboard to fly a plan.

Diy human gyroscope