Rocker assembly and gamepad

Abstract

A joystick assembly is adapted for a gamepad, including a base, a shaft, a motion sensing device, a memory and a processor. The shaft is pivotally disposed on the base. The motion sensing device is disposed in the base and is used to sense a motion of the shaft relative to the base to generate a motion signal. The memory is disposed in the base and stores a joystick assembly identification code and a plurality of calibration data. The processor is disposed in the base, electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the memory, and is used to determine whether to output the motion signal according to the plurality of calibration data.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a joystick assembly, and more particularly to a joystick assembly configured for a game controller. Background Technology

[0002] Joystick components are widely used in game controllers or other equipment that requires coordinate input. By manipulating the joystick, players can control the movement of characters or objects in games. However, the actual manufactured structure of a joystick component often differs from the design drawings; for example, the spindle may not be perfectly perpendicular to the mounting surface. This difference can lead to a significant deviation between the user's intended control position and the actual control position responded to by the joystick component.

[0003] Therefore, calibrating the joystick assembly is a necessary step. Currently, most joystick assembly calibrations on the market are whole-machine calibrations, meaning that calibration is performed only after the joystick assembly and other components have been installed into the game controller. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of the above, the present invention provides a joystick assembly and a game controller.

[0005] A joystick assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention, suitable for a game controller, includes a base, a spindle, a motion sensing device, a memory, and a processor. The spindle is pivotally mounted on the base. The motion sensing device is disposed within the base and is used to sense the movement of the spindle relative to the base to generate a motion signal. The memory is disposed within the base and stores a joystick assembly identification code and multiple calibration data entries. The processor is disposed within the base, electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the processor, and is used to determine whether to output a motion signal based on the multiple calibration data entries.

[0006] A game controller according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a main body and a joystick assembly. The joystick assembly is disposed in the main body and includes a base, a spindle, a motion sensing device, a memory, and a processor. The spindle is pivotally disposed in the base. The motion sensing device is disposed within the base and is used to sense the movement of the spindle relative to the base to generate a motion signal. The memory is disposed within the base and stores a joystick assembly identification code and multiple calibration data entries. The processor is disposed within the base, electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the memory, and is used to determine whether to output a motion signal based on the multiple calibration data entries.

[0007] With the above structure, the joystick assembly and game controller disclosed in this invention incorporate a memory and a processor within the joystick assembly itself. The memory stores the joystick assembly's identification code, which can be used for subsequent data collection, tracking, and analysis. Additionally, the joystick assembly's memory also stores calibration data for the processor to determine whether an input signal should be output. In other words, the joystick assembly can be calibrated before leaving the factory or before being installed on the game controller, avoiding the problem of traditional whole-device calibration where each component needs to be tested individually when a signal is faulty, resulting in a significant amount of calibration time.

[0008] The foregoing description of the disclosure and the following description of the embodiments are used to demonstrate and explain the spirit and principles of the present invention, and to provide a further explanation of the claims of the present invention. Attached Figure Description

[0009] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a rocker assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0010] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a game controller according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0011] The following detailed description of the features and advantages of the present invention in the embodiments is sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art to understand the technical content of the present invention and to implement it accordingly. Based on the disclosure of this specification, the claims, and the drawings, any person skilled in the art can easily understand the related objects and advantages of the present invention. The following embodiments further illustrate the points of the present invention in detail, but are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

[0012] Please refer to Figure 1 , Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a rocker assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1 As shown, the joystick assembly 10 includes a base 101, a spindle 102, a motion sensor 103, a memory 104, and a processor 105. The spindle 102 is pivotally mounted on the base 101 and can be fitted with a joystick cap 106. It should be noted that... Figure 1 The shapes of the base 101 and the joystick cap 106 of the joystick assembly 10 are illustrated only by way of example and are not intended to limit the invention.

[0013] A motion sensing device 103 is disposed within a base 101 and is used to sense the movement of the spindle 102 relative to the base 101 to generate a motion signal. The motion sensing device 103 may include one or more magnetic elements 1031 and a Hall effect integrated circuit (IC) 1032. The magnetic element 1031, which may be implemented using a magnet or other magnetic material, is disposed at one end of the spindle 102 located within the base 101. The Hall effect integrated circuit 1032, disposed within the base 101, is used to sense the movement of the magnetic element 1031 along with the spindle 102 relative to the base 101 to generate a motion signal. Furthermore, the Hall effect integrated circuit 1032 may include multiple Hall effect sensing elements and a signal processing circuit. The multiple Hall effect sensing elements can respectively measure multiple magnetic field sensing signals, and the signal processing circuit can process the multiple magnetic field sensing signals to generate digital signals corresponding to movement along the x-axis and y-axis, respectively, as the aforementioned motion signal.

[0014] In another embodiment, the motion sensing device 103 may include at least two potentiometers. The two potentiometers output voltage values ​​corresponding to the movement on the x-axis and y-axis, respectively, as the spindle 102 moves relative to the base 101, to serve as the aforementioned motion signal.

[0015] Memory 104 is disposed within the base 101. Memory 104 may be implemented as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), or other non-volatile memory. Memory 104 may store a joystick assembly identification number (ID) and multiple calibration records. The joystick assembly identification number may indicate the batch of joystick assembly 10 produced. The calibration records may include a stationary signal and a virtual circle, wherein the stationary signal indicates the signal (e.g., voltage value, current value, etc.) measured by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 is not pushed by an external force, and the virtual circle indicates the range of motion of the spindle 102 relative to the base 101. In addition, memory 104 may also be electrically coupled to the motion sensing device 103 and store the signals measured by the motion sensing device 103.

[0016] Furthermore, the memory 104 can also be controlled to output one or more of the joystick assembly identification code, calibration data, and signals measured by the motion sensing device 103, for use by an external processing device in data collection, tracking, and analysis of the joystick assembly 10. Specifically, the external processing device can read the joystick assembly identification codes and calibration data of multiple joystick assemblies to perform processing such as analyzing calibration data of joystick assemblies belonging to the same production batch or comparing calibration data of joystick assemblies from different production batches. For example, the external processing device can use the calibration data of all joystick assemblies with the same joystick assembly identification code to analyze the yield of these joystick assemblies produced in the same batch.

[0017] Processor 105 is disposed within base 101 and electrically coupled to motion sensing device 103 and memory 104. Processor 105 can be implemented using a central processing unit. Specifically, processor 105 and the aforementioned memory 104 can be included in a microcontroller, that is, processor 105 and memory 104 can be implemented using the processor and memory in a microcontroller. Processor 105 is used to determine whether to output a motion signal based on the multiple calibration data. Further, the calibration data can include a stationary signal and a virtual circle. Processor 105 can use the stationary signal and motion signal to obtain two-dimensional coordinates, determine whether the two-dimensional coordinates are within the virtual circle, and if so, output a motion signal; otherwise, do not output a motion signal. Herein, the two-dimensional coordinates and the virtual circle belong to the same coordinate system, and the data content indicated by the stationary signal and the virtual circle is as described above and will not be repeated here. By using the virtual circle as a calibration index, it is not necessary to design a special mechanism to limit the movement range of the spindle 102 based on the sensing range of the motion sensing device 103 of the joystick assembly, thereby reducing the cost of mechanism design.

[0018] Specifically, the Hall integrated circuit 1032, memory 104 and processor 105 of the motion sensing device 103 can be mounted on a circuit board.

[0019] In one embodiment, in addition to the operations described in the preceding embodiments, the motion sensing device 103 is also used to generate a stationary signal, a horizontal movement limit signal, and a vertical movement limit signal associated with the spindle 102. The stationary signal indicates the signal measured by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 is not pushed by an external force; the horizontal movement limit signal indicates the signal measured by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 moves to its horizontal limit; and the vertical movement limit signal indicates the signal measured by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 moves to its vertical limit. In addition to the operations described in the preceding embodiments, the processor 105 is also used to perform a zero-point correction calculation based on the stationary signal, and to perform a true circle correction calculation based on the stationary signal, the horizontal movement limit signal, and the vertical movement limit signal, and to store the result of the true circle correction calculation and the stationary signal as correction data in the memory 104.

[0020] Furthermore, the zeroing correction operation performed by processor 105 includes using the two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the stationary signal as the center coordinates. The true circle correction operation performed by processor 105 may include: obtaining the x-axis coordinates using the stationary signal and the horizontal movement limit signal, obtaining the y-axis coordinates using the stationary signal and the vertical movement limit signal, converting the x-axis and y-axis coordinates to polar coordinates to obtain the radius, and using this radius and the aforementioned center coordinates to obtain a virtual true circle, which serves as the result of the true circle correction operation, i.e., one of the correction data. The movement of the aforementioned spindle 102 can be manually operated or operated by the robotic arm of the testing machine, and processor 105 can be triggered by the operator or the testing machine to perform the aforementioned correction operation.

[0021] Specifically, the calibration data can be obtained by the joystick assembly 1 before it leaves the factory through the operation of the motion sensing device 103 and the processor 105. Compared to traditional whole-machine calibration, or after leaving the factory, the joystick assembly 1 can update the calibration data by re-executing the operation of the motion sensing device 103 and the processor 105.

[0022] Please refer to Figure 2 ,in Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a game controller according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2As shown, the game controller 1 may include a body 11 and one or more joystick assemblies 10, wherein the joystick assembly 10 is pluggably disposed on the body 11, and may be any of the joystick assemblies 10 described in the preceding embodiments. Furthermore, the game controller 1 may also include a processing device 12 disposed on the body 11, and may be coupled to the processor 105 via a wired or wireless means. The processing device 12 may be disposed in an area of ​​the body 11 other than where the joystick assembly 100 is disposed. The processing device 12 may be disposed on a circuit board different from that of the processor 105. The processing device 12 may be implemented as a microcontroller, used to receive motion signals output by the processor 105 based on calibration data. The processing device 12 may perform signal processing on this motion signal, or combine it with control signals from other control components of the game controller 1, such as the D-pad, circular buttons, etc., for analysis and / or processing; this invention is not limited thereto.

[0023] With the above structure, the joystick assembly and game controller disclosed in this invention incorporate a memory and a processor within the joystick assembly itself. The memory stores the joystick assembly's identification code, which can be used for subsequent data collection, tracking, and analysis. Additionally, the joystick assembly's memory also stores calibration data for the processor to determine whether an input signal should be output. In other words, the joystick assembly can be calibrated before leaving the factory or before being installed on the game controller, avoiding the problem of traditional whole-device calibration where each component needs to be tested individually when a signal is faulty, resulting in a significant amount of calibration time.

[0024] [Symbol Explanation]

[0025] 1: Game controller

[0026] 10: Joystick assembly

[0027] 11:Ontology

[0028] 101: Base

[0029] 102: Spindle

[0030] 103: Motion sensing device

[0031] 104: Memory

[0032] 105: Processor

[0033] 106: Joystick Cap

[0034] 1031: Magnetic components

[0035] 1032: Hall effect integrated circuit.

Claims

1. A joystick assembly for use with a game controller, comprising: Base; The main shaft is pivotally mounted on the base; A motion sensing device is disposed within the base and is used to sense the movement of the spindle relative to the base to generate a motion signal; A memory is located within the base and stores the joystick assembly identification code and multiple calibration records; as well as A processor, disposed within the base, is electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the memory, and is used to determine whether to output the motion signal based on the calibration data. The calibration data includes a virtual true circle and a stationary signal. The processor's function of determining whether to output the motion signal based on the calibration data includes obtaining two-dimensional coordinates using the stationary signal and the motion signal, determining whether the two-dimensional coordinates are located within the virtual true circle, and outputting the motion signal if yes, and not outputting the motion signal if no.

2. The joystick assembly of claim 1, wherein the motion sensing device comprises: A magnetic element is disposed at one end of the main shaft located within the base; and A Hall effect integrated circuit, disposed within the base, is used to sense the movement of the magnetic element relative to the base along the main shaft to generate a digital signal, wherein the digital signal serves as the motion signal.

3. The joystick assembly of claim 1, wherein the memory and the processor are contained in a microcontroller.

4. The joystick assembly of claim 1, wherein the motion sensing device is further configured to generate a stationary signal, a horizontal movement limit signal, and a vertical movement limit signal associated with the spindle, and the processor is further configured to perform a correction operation based on the stationary signal, the horizontal movement limit signal, and the vertical movement limit signal, and store the result of the correction operation and the stationary signal as correction data in the memory.

5. The joystick assembly according to claim 4, wherein the correction operation performed by the processor includes obtaining the x-axis coordinate using the stationary signal and the horizontal movement limit signal, obtaining the y-axis coordinate using the stationary signal and the vertical movement limit signal, and converting the x-axis coordinate and the y-axis coordinate into polar coordinates to obtain a virtual true circle, as the result of the correction operation.

6. The joystick assembly of claim 1, wherein the memory is further configured to be controlled to output the joystick assembly identification code and one or more of the calibration data.

7. A game controller comprising: The subject; and The joystick assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is snap-fitted into the body.

8. The game controller according to claim 7, further comprising: A processing device is disposed on the main body and coupled to the processor, for receiving the motion signal output by the processor based on the correction data.

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