PC Joystick Conversion

[Radakast01]

I’m looking to be able to operate my drone from a laptop using a computer style joystick controller system.

Is there any way to connect and select an alternate form of controls, or would
I need to manually solder connections to force the controller to work through the PC joystick?

I’ve seen RC controllers do the reverse to be able to be used for PC flight simulators - I’m trying to do the opposite.

I’m hoping it’s a simple connection/configuration thing but any advice would help.

I’m currently using a Typhoon H with the factory ST16 controller.

 

[MobileTechSpecialists]

This is impossible unless you have a 520 and you’re willing to do some heavy modifications for joystick pass through on a very very outdated version of QGroundControl

 

[MobileTechSpecialists]

You could flash it using H-Elsters custom firmware, your willingness to solder leads me to believe you could do this if you installed GitHub - h-elsner/Thunderbird: Thunderbird Firmware, A fork of PX4 Autopilot Software for Yuneec Typhoon H then connected to your H from your laptop (you’d have to figure out how to that), but it’s one step closer. It’s impossible on the stock firmware I am sure of that though.

 

[Radakast01]

Thanks to both of you!
It seems like there should be a relatively simple emulator that would allow the android language to be understood by a PC and returned via the USB joystick.

Has anyone done this successfully?

 

[MobileTechSpecialists]

Thanks to both of you!
It seems like there should be a relatively simple emulator that would allow the android language to be understood by a PC and returned via the USB joystick.

Has anyone done this successfully?

This doesn’t really make sense to me, it’s not simple at all, and there is not any way to connect the ST 16 to the computer either, only the Typhoon H GUI

 

[Radakast01]

I guess it seems like it should be simple because all I aim to do is take the physical inputs from the controller and bypass them with an auxiliary joystick. I don’t want to change the GUI or anything else - just the source of the controls based on a similar interface.

 

[h-elsner]

I'm not playing games on PC, I don't have a joystick and never used one. But I wonder if you want to control the camera and how you plan to control altitude and Yaw of the drone?
What type of joystick do you plan to use?

However, you will need a extra program as mediator between joystick driver and transmitter. As said above, it is not a simple connection/configuration thing. Also you need a ZigBee transmitter on the Laptop. If you plan to use WiFi connection you have to be aware of control signal lagging.

 

[Radakast01]

On most pc joysticks there is a small thumb control on the top of the joystick used for acquiring a target. My hope was to set that as the camera direction and use the main joystick for flight. Yaw is usually controlled by a thumb roller or programmable buttons.

If I don’t have to use a PC as an intermediary that would be ideal but there again I’m back to hard wiring connections somehow. At most I’d use the PC to host the visual input through the HDMI port.