Controlling an RC Airplane with PC Joystick

Traditionally RC airplanes are controlled by transmitters that have 2 sticks (e.g. throttle+ailerons and elevator+rudder).
I thought it would be more intuitive to just use PC Joystick.

This short video (sorry for the low quality!) shows a Java program, in it's first version, that allows just that.
It uses a PCBuddy serial interface and a traditional transmitter,
to translate PC Joystick movements from the pilot into servo movements in
the RC plane.

-PC with home-bred Java program
-RC Airplane: Tutor 32E electric powered (brushless)
-Airtronics RD 6000 Super RC Radio
-PCBuddy interface (google it if you want)
-Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• RC
• Airplane
• Aeroplane
• Joystick
• PC
• PCBuddy
• Java

[gauravaggarwal88]

hey.. i wanna write a similar java program to control a wireless robot that i made for a project, using my joystick or a game pad.. can u tell me how u wrote the code... thanks a lot!

[L10R]

Hi. I used JInput to get the joystick inputs - just google it and check out the documentation. It's only a few lines of code to use. If you get stuck send a msg.

[ShaneC1985]

That's brilliant, have you tried flying it like that? Do you think it would be possible to create a java program to actually fly the plane?

[L10R]

Hi, sorry for the lag. Nope, I didn't yet fly it, the reason being performance. There is a noticable delay between the commands I send to serial port of the servo driver to the actual motion.

I don't have a lot of time to play with it at the moment.

[L10R]

To answer your question - if you mean a program to fly the plane automatically, then yes, just search for 'rc uav'.

And thanks for the feedback - I'm neither the only one nor the first to ever hook up a joystick to servos, still it's nice to hear :)

[Aparsanlal]

Hey me and my friend are trying to fly a plain using a PC joystick for a class project, but we have no clue what we are doing, could you please just point me in the right direction as far as software and hardware goes

[snowman3514]

hey could you please make an instructional, i have the same joystick and plane. could you please send me the link for the download :) cheers Mitch

[Gintaras]

I'm working on something similar only I use PS3 joystick, Visual Basic and the circuit board on the plane is made by me as well. It uses 18F4550 microcontroller with its own intelligence plus GPS and accelerometer so if the transceiver (Xbee) loses signal it will turn around and fly to the starting position on its own.

Your joystick looks way cooler though ;)

[gauravaggarwal88]

Thanks man...