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Re: gEDA-user: OT - Joystick control of stepper or servo motors
David,
To talk to the joystick, you will need a board with a USB host
interface. I was just looking for such a beast and found an open
source project called Ethernut. The project can be found at
ethernut.org. They have several versions of the hardware and a new
one, ver 5, with a USB host port should be out soon.
Ethernut hardware can be bought from Egnite. I just sent them an
email asking if the host port is supported in software and what tools
are available for development. I expect a USB host interface will be
much more work getting up and running. I'm not sure why this board
is not shown on the egnite.de site. They also don't readily provide
contact info. The only email address I found is info@xxxxxxxxxx
Another place to look is microcontrollershop.com. I see they have a
large number of CPU boards and boxes with USB host ports. They are
supposed to distribute the Egnite products, but I haven't found the
Ethernut 5 there yet. Let me know what you find. I have a strong
interest in this sort of board and software.
Rick
At 10:19 AM 1/24/2011, you wrote:
Hi, electronics gurus! I'm looking for suggestions on the best
inexpensive way to use a USB game joystick to control stepper or
servo motors.
The application is using a joystick to drive the the platform
positioning knobs on a microscope, to help me keep the subjects in
the field of view, while I'm photographing them. I'll also be
adding the ability to trigger the camera shutter with the joy stick,
but I don't anticipate any trouble with that part; it's the motion
control side that I have no experience with.
Any suggestions? Are steppers or servos better for this use? What
should I use to control them, Arduino or a generic motor control circuit?
For background, I'm working as a programmer now, so I can handle the
programming. My degree is in EE, but I haven't used it in ~20
years, so I'm kind of rusty on the electronics side but I'm sure it
will come back.
Dave
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