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 centre stick or side-stick location may be employed (see also Centre stick vs side-stick).

Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles 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

Joysticks were originally controls for an aircraft's 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. The latter 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. The joystick itself was present in early planes, though the mechanical origins themselves are uncertain.^[2]

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, i.e. a digital joystick. The signal was transmitted from the joystick to the missile by a thin wire.

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.

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 for which was for many years the '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 86, 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 are usually using a magnetic flux detector to determine the position of the stick.

The joystick has found a new lease of 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 of the latest aircraft. Almost the entire family of Airbus aircraft (with the exception of the A300 and A310) up to the A380, the largest commercial aircraft in aviation, use the 'sidestick' which 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'.

A gaming joystick- with a computer