How do joysticks work?

Answer 1

The working of a Joystick is totally based on the potentiometers attached to it. The movement of stick in any direction from center position corresponds to the movement of cursor on screen in the same direction. The amount of movement is measured by the potentiometers and the springs return the stick to the position. A small movement of stick moves a lot , the cursor on the screen because the movement of it is amplified approximately 5 to 10 times in the movement of the cursor.

The Joystick is mostly used to control the velocity of the cursor movement in various games. Like in car race it is used to control speed of car but is not used to control or locate the absolute position of the cursor. The basic reason behind it is the amplification of stick movement for moving the cursor. Because of this amplification the movement of cursor is also jerky and may not be positioned quickly and accurately. This is why the joysticks are more used for games and are less used for graphics.

A joystick is a low speed device and is perfectly suited for use with USB port. A USB Joystick requires special drivers because the original joysticks are analog devices that need to have special drivers to interrupt the digital signals as equivalents to the original design which used analog levels.