Hello All, So my girlfriends dad is wanting to play space invaders and since he can be rather tricky to buy for I thought I would build him a little joy stick controller (With 2 buttons) I have seen a project similar to this
Now when it comes to building things with electronics I am rather useless, I do have someone at work who is rather good with electronics so if I get stuck I can ask him for help.
I specifically want to use this stick here for the project.
Any suggestions on parts I should buy to make this and how I would make it work over either bluetooth or USB.
Sorry if off topic but just wanted to let you know Space Invaders is a free game on the MS store. Found it a few months ago and play it more then most of my other games
Found this site a while back. It details the selection of components of building a joystick, and it is a bit outdated regarding a few of the sites that it links to. The creator of the site does provide an example in building a joystick (case and all).
If you aren't willing to follow that site, there is a joystick that is for sale that will allow for cross-platform use. According to the reviews (I haven't bought it), this joystick is easily modifiable (swapping out joysticks and buttons).
Hes still on Windows 7 at the moment, I'm sure there are other free copies of it around, I think I have a raspberry Pi magazine around somewhere showing how to build a little space invaders game.
My Apologies for nercoing a thread but had some time to look deeper into this and didn't want to create a new thread. So I can get everything apart from the Bluetooth module for this controller, personally I don't mind switching this to Micro USB, saves getting a battery. Any suggestions on what maybe a good alternative to this bluetooth module, or maybe even a completely different module that would work with 5 buttons (A/B/X/Y, On/Off) and the Joy stick?
I wouldn't really call it a necro if your reviving your own thread, especially with pertinent information :)
Arduino has mouse and keyboard libraries that will, as the name implies, make any Arduino be seen as an input device by another computer. So in your case, with a bit of fiddling, theoretically any Arduino compatible device should be able to be used with a joystick.
I've personally used the Metro Mini for a few things and it's been great. The Bluetooth Feather should work pretty much the same, I've just never used or had a need to have Bluetooth in anything. The Metro Mini might be slightly easier with the Mouse+Keyboard Libraries since it's only USB, but the Feather is nice because it has a built in battery charging circuit.
For both boards you'd need to add them to the Arduino IDE, which is fairly straightforward.
If I had time I'd actually test out the Mouse and Keyboard library myself to mimic what you're trying to do, but I have zero time for fun things nowadays :(