Arcade joystick as pendant

[Mmedeiros89]

Hey everyone! I don't know if I'm the first to come up with this, but I thought I would share. I've been looking for a suitable USB jogging device, and for me, I think I've found one. I ended up thinking of using an arcade joystick, like this one:

http://www.mayflash.com/Products/XBOXXBOX360/F300.html

I did some research, and there is a free program called joytokey that can configure the arcade stick to do keystrokes. You can find the download here:

http://download.cnet.com/JoyToKey/3000- ... 20348.html

I have tried it personally, and it works great! I like having something a little bigger that I can mount, or grab a hold of if needed, so this worked out perfectly for me! You can find some really inexpensive ones as well, or if you're a gamer or ex gamer, you might have one lying around the house, or in storage.

I hope this hasn't been brought up before, and hopefully everyone finds this helpful. Let me know what you all think!

[frijoli]

This is very cool!
Can you post a quick video of this in action?
Clay

[Mmedeiros89]

I can try! I've never made a video before. So please, bear with me haha

[Mmedeiros89]

Here's a link to the video. Sorry for the noise in the back. The washer and dryer were working haha

https://youtu.be/8KEwHJ2Qg-E

[frijoli]

Here's a link to the video. Sorry for the noise in the back. The washer and dryer were working haha

https://youtu.be/8KEwHJ2Qg-E

That's cool as sh*t!

Thank you!

[Mmedeiros89]

Here's a link to the video. Sorry for the noise in the back. The washer and dryer were working haha

https://youtu.be/8KEwHJ2Qg-E

That's cool as sh*t!

Thank you!

Thanks! I'm glad you like it! Hopefully this is a good alternative for others. You could probably fabricate a smaller box for it if it's too big. I personally wouldn't, but some may like a smaller package.

[ScotY]

That’s really cool! How much does one of those controllers cost?

[Mmedeiros89]

I got this one for $50 on Amazon, but you can get some as cheap as around $30 on Amazon. I didn't really do any shopping around, so there could be some cheaper ones, or some diy ones that you can have as many buttons as you'd like Just make sure you get one that is compatible with pc. Some just work with gaming consoles.

[martyscncgarage]

Looks great for a lathe, because there are only 2 axis.
BUT how about for a mill? 3 axis.
Likely have to use two joy sticks...
Still a cool alternative. The asumption is that it would work with any USB joystick?

Thanks for sharing it!
Marty

[Mmedeiros89]

Looks great for a lathe, because there are only 2 axis.
BUT how about for a mill? 3 axis.
Likely have to use two joy sticks...
Still a cool alternative. The asumption is that it would work with any USB joystick?

Thanks for sharing it!
Marty

I ended up using 2 buttons for z on the mill. I think maybe an arcade joystick meant for 2 players would be more ideal for the mill, but I'm okay with my layout right now. I'm able to jog x and y with the joystick, z with 2 buttons, switch between fast and slow feed, incremental or continuous, switch between x1 X10 x100, turn on USB jogging mode, use program start, feed hold, and restart. Of course, I would like to be able to use all the functions, but I think I can get away with the ones I have mapped.