Arduino Esplora Joystick Mouse

This sketch shows you how to read information from the Esplora’s joystick and use it to control the movement of the cursor on your computer. You’re making your Esplora into a mouse!

This sketch will take over the mouse movement of your computer. If you lose control of your cursor do the following :

• unplug the Esplora
• open the EsploraBlink sketch in the Arduino software
• hold the Esplora’s reset button down while plugging it back in to your computer
• while continuing to hold the reset button, click “Upload” in the Arduino software
• when you see the message “Done compiling” in the Arduino IDE, release the reset button

This will stop your Esplora from controlling your cursor while you upload a sketch that doesn’t take control of the mouse.

Circuit

Only your Arduino Esplora is needed for this example. Connect the Esplora to your computer with a USB cable and open the Arduino’s Serial Monitor.

Joystick on the Esplora

Code

To send data to your computer, you need to open a serial connection. Use Serial.begin() to open a serial port at 9600 baud on the Esplora.

To start communication as a mouse, call Mouse.begin(). This makes the Esplora appear as a mouse to your computer.

To read the position of the joystick, call Esplora.readJoystickX() and Esplora.readJoystickY(), saving the values in variables. This gives you values between -512 and 512 for each axis. When the joystick is centered, the X and Y axes will report 0.

The joystick also acts as a switch when pressed. To read the button, call Esplora.readJoystickSwitch(). This will give you a value of 1 when pressed, and 0 when it is not.

For more detail: Arduino Esplora Joystick Mouse