Joystick

Joystick elements: #1 Stick; #2 Base; #3 Trigger; #4 Extra buttons; #5 Autofire switch; #6 Throttle; #7 Hat Switch (POV Hat); #8 Suction Cup

A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks are often used to control video games, and usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer. A popular variation of the joystick used on modern video game consoles is the analog stick.

The joystick has been the principal flight control in the cockpit of many aircraft, particularly military fast jets, where center stick or side-stick location may be employed.

Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles, wheelchairs, surveillance cameras and zero turning radius lawn mowers. Miniature finger-operated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment such as mobile phones.

History

Computer port view of the Atari standard connector: #1 up; #2 down; #3 left; #4 right; #5 (pot y); #6 fire button; #7 +5V DC; #8 ground; #9 (pot x)

Joysticks originated as controls for aircraft ailerons and elevators.

The name "joystick" is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie.^[1] There are also competing claims on behalf of fellow pilots Robert Loraine, James Henry Joyce and Mr. A. E. George. Loraine is credited with entering the term "joystick" in his diary in 1909 when he went to Pau, France to learn to fly at Bleriot's school. George was a pioneer aviator who with his colleague Mr. Jobling built and flew a biplane at Newcastle, England in 1910. He is alleged to have invented the "George Stick" which became more popularly known as the joystick. The George and Jobling aircraft control column is in the collection of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England. Joysticks were present in early planes, though their mechanical origins are uncertain.^[2] The coining of the term "joystick" may actually be credited to Loraine, as his is the earliest known usage of the term, although he most certainly did not invent the device.

The first electrical 2-axis joystick was probably invented around 1944 in Germany. The device was developed for targeting the glide bomb Henschel Hs 293 against ship targets. Here, the joystick was used by an operator to steer the missile towards its target. This joystick had on-off switches rather than analogue sensors. The signal was transmitted from the joystick to the missile via radio.

This invention was picked up by someone in the team of scientists assembled at the Heeresversuchsanstalt in Peenemünde. Here a part of the team on the German rocket program was developing the Wasserfall missile, a variant of the V-2 rocket, the first ground-to-air missile. The Wasserfall steering equipment converted the electrical signal to radio signals and transmitted these to the missile.

In the 1960s the use of joysticks became widespread in radio-controlled airplane modelling systems such as the Kwik Fly produced by Phill Kraft (1964). Kraft Systems eventually became an important OEM supplier of joysticks to the computer industry and other users. The first use of joysticks outside the radio-controlled aircraft industry may have been in the control of powered wheelchairs, such as the Permobil (1963). During this time period NASA used joysticks as control devices as part of the Apollo missions. For example, the lunar lander test models were controlled with a joystick.

Ralph H. Baer, inventor of television video games and the Magnavox Odyssey console, created the first video game joysticks in 1967. They were analog, using two potentiometers to measure position.^[3]

The Atari standard joystick, developed for the Atari 2600 was a digital joystick, with a single "fire" button, and connected via a DE-9 connector, the electrical specifications of which were for many years the de-facto standard digital joystick specification. Joysticks were commonly used as controllers in first and second generation game consoles, but then gave way to the familiar game pad with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System in 1985 and 1986, though joysticks — especially arcade-style ones — were and are popular after-market add-ons for any console.

More recently, analog sticks (or thumbsticks, due to their being controlled by one's thumbs) have become standard on video game consoles and have the ability to indicate the stick's displacement from its neutral position. This means that the software does not have to keep track of the position or estimate the speed at which the controls are moved. These devices usually use a magnetic flux detector to determine the position of the stick.

In the latest aircraft, like most of the Airbus aircraft, the joystick has received a new lease on life for flight control in the form of a "sidestick" — a controller similar to a games joystick, but which is used to control the electronics. The sidestick saves weight, improves movement and visibility in the cockpit and is said to be safer in the event of an accident than the traditional "control yoke".

Arcade sticks

An arcade stick is a large-format controller for use with home consoles or computers. They use the stick-and-button configuration of some arcade cabinets, such as those with particular multi-button arrangements. For example, the six button layout of the arcade games Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat cannot be comfortably emulated on a console joypad, so licensed home arcade sticks for these games have been manufactured for home consoles and PCs.^[4]

Technical details

1980s one-button game joystick

Most joysticks are two-dimensional, having two axes of movement (similar to a mouse), but one and three-dimensional joysticks do exist. A joystick is generally configured so that moving the stick left or right signals movement along the X axis, and moving it forward (up) or back (down) signals movement along the Y axis. In joysticks that are configured for three-dimensional movement, twisting the stick left (counter-clockwise) or right (clockwise) signals movement along the Z axis. These three axes - X Y and Z - are, in relation to an aircraft, roll, pitch, and yaw.

An analog joystick is a joystick which has continuous states, i.e. returns an angle measure of the movement in any direction in the plane or the space (usually using potentiometers) and a digital joystick gives only on/off signals for four different directions, and mechanically possible combinations (such as up-right, down-left, etc.). (Digital joysticks were very common as game controllers for the video game consoles, arcade machines, and home computers of the 1980s.)

Additionally joysticks often have one or more fire buttons, used to trigger some kind of action. These are simple on/off switches.

Some joysticks have haptic feedback capability. These are thus active devices, not just input devices. The computer can return a signal to the joystick that causes it to resist the movement with a returning force or make the joystick vibrate.

Most I/O interface cards for PCs have a joystick (game control) port. Modern joysticks mostly use a USB interface for connection to the PC.

Industrial applications

In recent times, the employment of joysticks has become commonplace in many industrial and manufacturing applications, such as; cranes, assembly lines, forestry equipment, mining trucks, and excavators. In fact, the use of such joysticks is in such high demand, that it has virtually replaced the traditional mechanical control lever in nearly all modern hydraulic control systems. Additionally, most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and submersible Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) require at least one joystick to control either the vehicle, the on-board cameras, sensors and manipulators.

Due to the highly hands-on, rough nature of such applications, the industrial joystick tends to be more robust than the typical video-game controller, and able to function over a high cycle life. This led to the development and employment of Hall Effect sensing to such applications in the 1980s as a means of contactless sensing. Several companies produce joysticks for industrial applications using hall effect technology. Another technology used in joystick design is the use of strain gauges to build force transducers from which the output is proportional to the force applied rather than physical deflection. Miniature force transducers are used as additional controls on joysticks for menu selection functions.

Global manufacturers that serve the largest OEM's, like Caterpillar, John Deere, AGCO, CNH, JLG, GENIE and others, are DeltaTech Controls and Penny and Giles Controls. Penny and Giles Controls also designs and manufactures joysticks for Sauer DanFoss. Apem Apem is another such manufacturer for the global market, with probably the widest range of industrial joysticks in the market place today, incorporating such brands are CH Products [1], Oliver Control Systems [2] and Apem own [3].

In North America there are several small regional manufactures that also service the industry; OEM Controls, Otto Engineering, PQ Controls, CH Products, and BG Systems.

In Europe there are several manufacturers that supply specialized market sectors, such as crane controls, aviation, etc.. One of the European global joystick suppliers is the Swiss company Genge & Thoma AG, supplying standard and tailor made industrial grade joysticks. In the UK Printed Motor Works have recently taken over the production of the Flightlink Controls/PML Flightlink ranges of industrial

Some larger manufactures of joysticks are able to customize joystick handles and grips specific to the OEM needs while small regional manufacture often concentrate on selling standard products at higher prices to smaller OEM's.

Assistive technology

Specialist joysticks, classed as an assistive technology pointing device, are used to replace the computer mouse for people with fairly severe physical disabilities. Rather than controlling games these joysticks plug into the USB port and control the mouse pointer. They are often useful to people with athetoid conditions, such as cerebral palsy, who find them easier to grasp than a standard mouse. Miniature joysticks are also available for people with conditions involving muscular weakness such as muscular dystrophy or motor neuron disease. They are also used on electric powered wheelchairs for control since they are simple and effective to use as a control method.

Hat switch

Hat switch - at top, in green

A hat switch is a control on some joysticks. It is also known as a POV (point of view) switch. It allows one to look around in their virtual world, browse menus etc. For example, many flight simulators use it to switch the player's views,^[5] while other games sometimes use it as a substitute for the D-pad; while computer gamepads modelled after Playstation DualShock controllers assign POV switch scancodes to the D-pad of it.

The term hat switch is a sanitization of the term "Coolie Hat", named for the similar-looking headgear, which may be considered offensive.

In a real aircraft, the hat switch may control things like aileron or rudder trim.

See also

• Gamepad
• Gravis PC GamePad
• Game controller
• Aircraft flight control system
• Kempston joystick
• TAC-2
• The Arcade
• Flight simulator

References

External links

• AtomicWarrior - Joysticks on Windows
• Whatever happened to the joystick?
• Help page for connecting old joysticks to new computers

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.