This project creates the possibility for everyone with nearly any type of Arduino to connect his or her favorite RC transmitter to a pc and play games with it. This eliminates the need for expensive external RC dongles.
The Arduino system even has a higher controller sample rate than the normal dongle I used. :) (external dongle: 70-80 FPS, Arduino uno dongle: 80-90 FPS)
IMPORTANT: if you are thinking of buying an Arduino uno specifically for driving with your RC transmitter on your computer instead of buying a RX dongle DON'T, read what Arduino would be perfect for this project alone
- Info
- Table of contents
- System specifications
- How it works
- What Arduino to buy specifically for this project
- Get it running
- How do I test if everything works
- Known bugs
- What else is on the agenda
- Communicate with me
- Development updates
This project is currently tested on a windows 10 64 bit pc but it probably works on regular x86 pc's too. The vJoy driver that this project uses works from windows XP and up so I guess it works on older pc's as well.
I would write this for Linux and mac as well but I don't think anyone actually needs that. If you do, just open a github issue, ask for it and I'll look into it.
Some Arduinos like the Arduino Micro and the Arduino leonardo have a chip in them that is able to emulate HID's (human interface devices). Note that not only the micro is able to do so, the micro pro, digisparks, micro ss, and loads more can do this.
Now this means that you can connect your RC receiver to your Arduino via the pins on the board. Connect the Arduino to the pc, load in a sketch that translates the commands from the RC receiver to joystick commands and sends them to the pc and boom. You have yourself a DIY RC to USB dongle.
However the most common Arduino, the Arduino uno is not able to do this (without changing firmware etc.). Luckily for you I found a workaround. The Arduino uno can, like nearly all Arduinos to my knowledge, work as a serial device and send data over a serial connection. So just like before you connect your RC receiver to the Arduino via the pins and load in the correct sketch. The only difference is that this time instead of letting the Arduino emulate a joystick, we will send the received RC data to the pc over a serial connection and have a script running on the pc that translates them to joystick data. The script then creates a virtual joystick to trick the pc into thinking there is an actual joystick attached and feeds the RC data to the virtual joystick.
This project will normally work with most if not all Arduinos. (although currently only tested with an Arduino Micro and a Arduino uno)
But if you are thinking of buying an Arduino specifically for this project and nothing else, don't buy an uno. Go for a cheap Arduino and maybe even one without header pins so that you can solder the wires directly. Also make sure that the Arduino you buy is capable of USB HID emulation. Because it's the easiest solution (no running scripts and software etc).
Personally I would recommend an Arduino Micro because it's a versatile little board and is well documented and supported. However you could go for something cheap like a standard digispark (although the sketches don't currently work on the digispark I tested, working on it though) or an Arduino micro SS. Maybe some cheap clones will even work (no guarantee here).
If you have some old standard Arduino lying around chances are it's supported and if it isn't, hit me up we'll look into it together.
The hardware you'll need for this system:
- Arduino
- Your favorite RC transmitter and receiver
- The wires to connect the two (see diagram)
- Cable to connect the Arduino to the pc
Software you'll need for this system:
- Arduino IDE to upload the sketch
- python to run the script
- the vjoy driver
- pyserial
- pyvjoy
Note that those last two can be installed by running the install-python-dependencies.bat file.
And of course this repository.
So now that you have all the hardware and installed all the software. We can begin building this setup it's actually pretty simple.
We will start with connecting the RC receiver to the Arduino. It's a matter of connecting some wires. You can probably just use the wires that came with your receiver.
I wrote an instructables article to make it easier for you.
This project can be configured in the python config file (config.py) and in the top of the Arduino sketch. I'd recommend to only change stuff if you know what you are doing but there are some things that might be worth looking into.
The config.py file specifies the THROTTLE_MIN, THROTTLE_MAX, STEERING_MIN and STEERING_MAX constants. I figured those values out by some testing. To make it easy for you all I wrote a third python script that shows you the values that are being sent over the Arduino in real time. So if you think your throttle and/or steering values differ from mine. Run the script test-values.bat (this will automatically start the valuetest.py script for you). And note the different values and change them in the config file.
Please know that changing your THROTTLE_MAX won't necessarily make you drive faster it might even make you slower You will drive slower if you set this value higher then the value your transmitter actually sends out because if you were to push the throttle back completely the python script will think your max value still isn't reached and it won't actually push the joystick value all the way up to the max.
The same goes for steering.
Pretty simple. Locate the run.bat file, it will launch the python script for you. Now just leave that black command prompt open in the background. It is constantly translating serial to joystick. Just run any program you want where you can you use a joystick and select the vJoy joystick :)
The hardware you'll need for this system:
- Arduino capable of USB HID emulation
- Your favorite RC transmitter and receiver
- The wires to connect the two
- Cable to connect the Arduino to the pc
Software you'll need for this system:
- Arduino IDE to upload the sketch
And obviously this repository's code.
That's it, easy right?
The build process is pretty much the same as before only this time we upload a different sketch and you need to configure the project before uploading the sketch.
Please note what pins are selected in the config.h file when you connect up the pins of the receiver to the Arduino.
I know I haven't made a separate instructable for this part of the project but here you see a photo of an Arduino micro all connected up.
If you have any questions about how it should be wired up on your Arduino or really want me to make a separate instructable about it. Just ask me
This project can be configured completely in the config.h file in the sketch folder. You can configure the pin, axis, joystick, minimum and maximum values in here. It's pretty self explanatory but more info is found in the comment in the header file.
This project currently supports up to 4 channels.
Well plug in your Arduino (obviously), turn on your rc transmitter and locate the joysticktest.exe program. Run it, select the correct joystick from the dropdown menu and test your system. If no green bar is moving and you've checked all the devices, start troubleshooting because something is wrong :(
- vJoy driver stops receiving input after a while ...For some unknown reason after letting my pc sit here idle for some time ...the vJoy driver just stops receiving input from anywhere. I don't know ...why it happens and the only way I've been able to reproduce the bug is ...by waiting. Currently the only fix I have found to work is rebooting the ...computer.
Adding multiple channels to make it possible for drone or airplane pilots to use this software.
If you have any questions about this project, any other project of mine, or want to see something else implemented don't hesitate to contact me
my email: robbedegreef@gmail.com
And if you like what I'm doing here you can always leave a star on the repository to let me know you like it ;)
Reverse engineered the 9TURBO RC-USB RX4 SS dongle it works pretty simple really, it just takes the PWM signal from the receiver (via the white or yellow wire) and translates it to joystick controls. It just emulates a joystick and sends those controls to windows so you can use it in game. This can be done with an Arduino micro as well, because their chips can work in 'slave' mode. But I don't have a Arduino micro right now (it is arriving in a few days but there are delays). So I wrote a sketch that sends the throttle and steering controls to windows over serial connection. Now I have two options, I can either constantly emulate a joystick in user space or write a windows kernel driver. I think I am going for the second option because the first will probably have terrible latency.
Got it working :) I haven't tested it in game yet so I don't know if the latency is good but it seems to work fine and snappy. The solution I use right now is just receiving the throttle and steering values over serial. Translating them to joystick values and then use pyvjoy which uses a custom vJoy driver (virtual joystick driver) everything in good 'ol python :)
I do however right now only support steering and throttle axises so I'll probably make an update for the software that can support up to multiple channels and thus making this software work for drone and airplane drivers too.
Tested the Arduino UNO system in game and everything works perfectly. I didn't even detect any latency so it works better then expected. Now I also received my Arduino Micro in the mail so a PnP version is in the making.
Arduino Micro RC dongle 0.1 works! It currently supports 4 channels and works by emulating 2 joysticks. The system is a bit too unstable to release right now though. It will probably be ready in a day or so.
Possible improvements:
- replace pulseIn() function with interrupts to improve sample rate
- replace double joystick setup with a gamepad setup or maybe add ...extra z axis and rotation axises.
Arduino Micro RC dongle 0.2 is pretty configurable. It's still not perfect but it does the job so it's now ready to be released in the wild.
I also created a joysticktest.exe file. It's a simple window where you can select any of the joysticks connected to your pc and see their X and Y axes output. It's a simple python script that can be found in the extras folder but I converted it to a exe so that you don't need to download more python libraries. I might convert the other scripts too but the problem is that that breaks the configurability.