I have been thinking for several years about making a simple circuit/microcontroller to take the output from almost ANY USB controller(s) and mapping it to a PPM output that could be fed into a TX for controlling RC vehicles. Well, the technology available today makes this extremely feasible and very affordable. I've been playing with a variety of Arduino boards lately, one being the Teensy 4.1. One of the example programs is able to read several USB controllers and dump the output to a serial port. So I wired up a USB connector, plugged an old MS joystic in, and low and behold, it could read the Roll, pitch, yaw, throttle, Hat switch, and all the buttons. The principle is very similar to mapping a head tracking headset to a pan/tilt mechanism for FPV.
There is already a PPM library available for arduino so it should be just a matter of scaling the 0-255 values to 1000-2000ms, mapping the channels I want to a PPM output, plugging it into my Taranis, and mapping those inputs to the appropriate TX outputs. The reality is, you could drive a car/truck with a steering wheel and pedals, Fly a plane with a yolk, pedals, and throttle, use a gamepad, and just about any other combo you want.
Current shopping list:
The Teensy 4.0 is about half the size of the 4.1, and I will get one without the header pins. This will keep the size extra small. This controller is VERY much overkill for the process at hand, but it is so cheap, I'm sure I can find other things for it to do in it's free time. Maybe even take the Telemetry data and put up a glass cockpit!
Expect more soon.....

There is already a PPM library available for arduino so it should be just a matter of scaling the 0-255 values to 1000-2000ms, mapping the channels I want to a PPM output, plugging it into my Taranis, and mapping those inputs to the appropriate TX outputs. The reality is, you could drive a car/truck with a steering wheel and pedals, Fly a plane with a yolk, pedals, and throttle, use a gamepad, and just about any other combo you want.
Current shopping list:
Teensy 4.0 (the brain that does the remapping)
USB Hub (if you want to use more than one controller)
3.5mm mono cable (to connect to the TX)
2A 5V UBEC to power it from a lipo.
The Teensy 4.0 is about half the size of the 4.1, and I will get one without the header pins. This will keep the size extra small. This controller is VERY much overkill for the process at hand, but it is so cheap, I'm sure I can find other things for it to do in it's free time. Maybe even take the Telemetry data and put up a glass cockpit!
Expect more soon.....
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