5.11 Toggle the Joystick

If you play a lot of video games, then you should be very familiar with the Joystick. It is usually used to move the character around, rotate the screen, etc.

The principle behind Joystick’s ability to allow the computer to read our actions is very simple. It can be thought of as consisting of two potentiometers that are perpendicular to each other. These two potentiometers measure the analog value of the joystick vertically and horizontally, resulting in a value (x,y) in a planar right-angle coordinate system.

The joystick of this kit also has a digital input, which is activated when the joystick is pressed.

Required Components

In this project, we need the following components.

It’s definitely convenient to buy a whole kit, here’s the link:

Name

ITEMS IN THIS KIT

LINK

ESP32 Starter Kit

320+

ESP32 Starter Kit

You can also buy them separately from the links below.

COMPONENT INTRODUCTION

PURCHASE LINK

ESP32 WROOM 32E

BUY

ESP32 Camera Extension

-

Jumper Wires

BUY

Joystick Module

BUY

  • Available Pins

    Here is a list of available pins on the ESP32 board for this project.

    For Analog Input

    IO14, IO25, I35, I34, I39, I36

    For Digital Input

    IO13, IO12, IO14, IO27, IO26, IO25, IO33, IO15, IO2, IO0, IO4, IO5, IO18, IO19, IO21, IO22, IO23

Schematic

../../_images/circuit_5.11_joystick.png

The SW (Z-axis) pin is connected to IO33, which has a built-in 4.7K pull-up resistor. Therefore, when the SW button is not pressed, it will output a high level. When the button is pressed, it will output a low level.

I34 and I35 will change their values as you manipulate the joystick. The range of values is from 0 to 4095.

Wiring

../../_images/5.11_joystick_bb.png

Code

Note

  • Open the 5.11_joystick.ino file under the path of esp32-starter-kit-main\c\codes\5.11_joystick.

  • After selecting the board (ESP32 Dev Module) and the appropriate port, click the Upload button.

  • Always displaying “Unknown COMxx”?

Open the serial monitor after the code has been uploaded successfully to see the x,y,z values of the joystick.

  • The x-axis and y-axis values are analog values that vary from 0 to 4095.

  • The Z-axis is a digital value with a status of 1 or 0 ( when pressed, it is 0 ).