Browning

I'm very glad you will have so e more time to work on this Honk. vJoy can already act as a virtual, forcefeedback USB device. So that route may be much easier than you think. Here is one thread that may be a good starting point for finding out more: http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/index.php/forum/5-Discussion/1244-what-do-you-use-as-an-ffb-source-when-coding

That H-Bridge is fine. You will only need one. Buy some very cheap motors to get a working test setup before you buy the motors you intend to use. Don't tear apart a Sidewinder for motors you can buy at a fraction of the cost. You can salvage a wall-wort for the power supply for the test set-up, but you will eventually need a proper power supply. You will also need an ATmega32U4 based board and something to use as an ISP programmer. An Arduino Uno would be an easy choice. You will need some 10 pots and some soldering equipment also. Practice before you solder anything if it's your first time. I'd recommend a breadboard and some easy use wires. Bear in mind, that it appears there is no working code at the moment.

Unfortunately, Iv'e had no luck integrating the 1115 ADC into the code and I can't imagine I'll make any progress soon, so I'm going to work on the gimbal for a while.

Those cards are for brushless motors. Not stepper motors. You want to use DC motors if you want things relatively cheap and easy.

Stepper motor torque control can be done, but it's going to require a lot more work. You would need a torque control method and that's not at all easy to do. It's way out of the scope of this thread.

Steppers are no good. You need a DC motor. Ideally one without much 'cogging'. Perhaps something that draws 2-4 amps for a full length stick.

My ADC parts just arrived, so I'll see if I can modify things to work with the external ADC.

Pin 9 now triggers button '1' when pin 9 is set LOW. The axis are also moving now! However, the axis values do not have anything to do with the pot's resistance value. Instead, they fluctuate wildly between five values: 0, -16384, -32768, 16384 and 32768. When I ground the axis pins or leave them open, they stay at zero, but as soon as a pot is connected (or even if I touch the pins) they start to fluctuate wildly.

Do you mean THIS one? Well, That didn't fix the problem, but it did cause an interesting result that may assist in finding out what is happening. The axis are stuck at 255 still, but now random buttons are pressed that periodically change for a microsecond or so and then go back.

OK, I think I understand. There are 8 axis at 16 bits each in the descriptors, so that's correct, however your //comments suggested there where 9 axis. 0x95, 0x04, // REPORT_COUNT (5) I assume that is just a error with the comment. There are 32 buttons at one bit each, so that is correct, however your comment suggested there are 48 buttons. 0x95, 0x20, // REPORT_COUNT (48 ) Just another error with the comment I assume. The HAT switch has 16 bits declared, so that is correct. I can't tell what 'repID' refers to in descriptors. REPORT_ID is mentioned several times with several different bit values. Here is a pastebin of the descriptors

Thankyou once again for your assistance Honk. It is appreciated very much. I am at the absolute limit of my understanding, so I apologise if my questions show a lack of understanding. I am doing my best to learn things my self and avoid treating you like technical support. The joystick.h reads: Is this the relevant part? I am sorry, I do not understand what is meant here. Perhaps I should wait until you have time to revisit this project?

I re-imaged the bootloader anyway and interestingly the Big Block properties now looks different. I suspect I had the wrong version imaged before. Strange. The same problem persists. Setting pin 9 high had no effect on the button states either. I only have a very, very basic understanding of the code. I have included an image of the parts you mentioned below. I have not touched the Descriptor. Is it likely to be incorrect?

This is concerning for me. I had assumed that the ADC was not onboard the mega because I hooked up a couple of 10k pots directly to the ATMEGA and it didn't show any input from them in the windows game controller settings (imaged below). My best guesses for troubleshooting are that either that there is something wrong with the way I set the bootloader up on the Pro Micro or it's because I don't have the shift registers attached yet (waiting on parts).

Hello MetalGear, Thank you so much for your efforts in this.What you have achieved for the community really is something special and I imagine people are going to benefit from it for a long time. I have a test set up being made. I already have a sturdy gimbal from a previous project made based on this. It should be easy to adapt that to a forcefeedback setup. I also have a Pro Micro that is working and appearing as "Big Block" in my devices list. It was quite a lot for me to learn to achieve that as although I have plenty of experience with discrete components, I do not have any experience with microcontrolers. Am I right in thinking that the finished setup should look something like this image? Thanks again.