Joystick Wireling Python Tutorial

TinyCircuits Joystick Wireling product photo

This Wireling features a 4 position digital joystick. This board is great for user input for games or RC (Radio Controller) projects.

Technical Details

This Wireling lets you use a discrete joystick for inputs to your development system of choice! This Up, Down, Left, Right joystick outputs data to an SX1505 I2C I/O expander.

Technical Details

SX1505 Specs

8 Channel GPIO with NINT and NRESET
Fully programmable logic functions (PLD)

SKRHABE010 Joystick Specs

4 Directional Digital Joystick
Center Pushbutton Input
I2C Semtech SX1505 I/O Expander

TinyDuino Power Requirements

Voltage: 3.0V - 5.5V
Current: 1.0uA (Normal Mode). Due to the low current, this board can be run using the TinyDuino coin cell option

Pins Used

A5/SCL - I²C Clock
A4/SDA - I²C Data

Dimensions

17mm x 10mm (.670 inches x .394 inches)
Max Height (from the lower bottom of Wireling to upper top Wireling Connector): 16mm (0.63 inches)
Weight: 1 gram (.04 ounces)

Notes

Please note that this is not a full range analog joystick. It is essentially 4 buttons mounted sideways at the base of the joystick knob.

Materials

Hardware

Raspberry Pi and any other cables you'll need!
Wireling Pi Hat
(1) Wireling Cable
Joystick Wireling

Required Software

Python 3 (Python 2 is not supported!)
All Python packages mentioned in the Pi Hat setup tutorial (tinycircuits-wireling, Adafruit-Blinka, adafruit-circuitpython-ads1x15, and adafruit-circuitpython-busdevice)
SX1505 Python Package (Used for both the Joystick and Rotary Wireling)
Joystick Python Example Program

Hardware Assembly

Plug your Wireling into the port you plan on using! The default in the included program is port 0.

If you want to use a different port, you just need to change the port value in the program mentioned later.

Programming

Install the necessary Python package:

pip3 install tinycircuits-sx1505

Then you can download (above under Software) the Joystick Wireling example:

joystick-example.py

# Joystick Wireling Example
# This example will print out the direction the Joystick is toggled
# Note: The "up" direction is the one closest to the 5-pin connector
# Written by: Laverena Wienclaw for TinyCircuits

import tinycircuits_sx1505
import tinycircuits_wireling
import time

wireling = tinycircuits_wireling.Wireling()
wireling.selectPort(0)

joystick = tinycircuits_sx1505.SX1505()

while True:
    joystick.getJoystickPos()
    if(joystick.up):
        print("up")
    elif(joystick.down):
        print("down")
    elif(joystick.left):
        print("left")
    elif(joystick.right):
        print("right")
    time.sleep(.1)

Run Program

Navigate in the terminal to the directory with the file parent to the examples folder.

python3 joystick-example.py

Once the program is running, you should see printed output pertaining to the direction the joystick is being toggled. The joystick has four directions (up, down, left, right). Note that the "up" direction is the one closest to the 5-pin Wireling cable connector.

Downloads

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Thanks for making with us!