TWI796891B - Joystick assembly and game controller - Google Patents

Abstract

A joystick assembly applicable to a game controller includes a base, a shaft, a movement sensor, a memory and a processor. The shaft is pivotally disposed at the base. The movement sensor is disposed in the base and configured to sense the movement of the shaft relative to the base to generate a movement signal. The memory is disposed in the base and stores an identification number of the joystick assembly and pieces of calibration data. The processor is disposed in the base and configured to determine whether to output the movement signal according to the calibration data.

Description

Joystick components and game handles

The present invention relates to a rocker assembly, in particular to a rocker assembly configured on a game handle.

Joystick components are widely used in gamepads or other equipment that require coordinate input. Characters or objects in the game can be controlled to move arbitrarily through the manipulation of the joystick component. Because the actual production structure of the rocker assembly is often different from the design drawing, for example, the main axis is not completely perpendicular to the installation surface, and this difference will cause a large difference between the user's expected control position and the actual control position of the rocker assembly. deviation.

Therefore, calibration of the rocker assembly is a must. At present, the calibration of the joystick assembly on the market is the whole machine calibration, that is, the calibration is performed after the joystick assembly and other components are installed on the body of the game handle.

In view of the above, the present invention provides a joystick assembly and a game handle.

A joystick assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention is suitable for a game handle, and includes a base, a spindle, a motion sensing device, a memory, and a processor. The main shaft is pivotably arranged on the base. The motion sensing device is arranged in the base, and is used for sensing the motion of the main shaft relative to the base to generate a motion signal. The memory is set in the base, and stores the rocker component identification code and multiple calibration data. The processor is arranged in the base, is electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the processor, and is used for judging whether to output a motion signal according to the plurality of calibration data.

A game handle according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a body and a joystick assembly. The rocker assembly is arranged on the body and includes a base, a main shaft, a motion sensing device, a memory and a processor. The main shaft is pivotably arranged on the base. The motion sensing device is arranged in the base, and is used for sensing the motion of the main shaft relative to the base to generate a motion signal. The memory is set in the base, and stores the rocker component identification code and multiple calibration data. The processor is arranged in the base, is electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the memory, and is used for judging whether to output a motion signal according to the multiple calibration data.

With the above-mentioned structure, the joystick assembly and the game handle disclosed in this case are provided with a memory and a processor in the joystick assembly itself, wherein the memory stores the identification code of the joystick assembly itself, which can be used for subsequent data collection, tracking, analysis etc. In addition, the memory of the rocker assembly also stores calibration data for the processor to judge whether the input signal is output or not. That is to say, the joystick components can be calibrated before leaving the factory or before being installed on the game handle, avoiding the problem of requiring a lot of calibration time by testing components one by one when a signal failure occurs in the traditional whole machine calibration.

The above description of the disclosure and the following description of the implementation are used to demonstrate and explain the spirit and principle of the present invention, and provide a further explanation of the patent application scope of the present invention.

The detailed features and advantages of the present invention are described in detail below in the implementation mode, and its content is enough to make any person familiar with the related art understand the technical content of the present invention and implement it accordingly, and according to the content disclosed in this specification, the scope of the patent application and the drawings , anyone skilled in the art can easily understand the purpose and advantages of the present invention. The following examples are to further describe the concept of the present invention in detail, but not to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic diagram of a rocker assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , the joystick assembly 10 includes a base 101 , a spindle 102 , a motion sensing device 103 , a memory 104 and a processor 105 . The main shaft 102 is pivotably disposed on the base 101 and can be mounted with a rocker cap 106 . It should be noted here that FIG. 1 only exemplarily shows the shapes of the base 101 and the rocker cap 106 of the rocker assembly 10 , and is not intended to limit the present invention.

The motion sensing device 103 is disposed in the base 101 and used for sensing the motion 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 integrated circuit (IC) 1032 . The magnetic element 1031 can be realized by a magnet or other magnetic substances, and it is disposed at one end of the main shaft 102 inside the base 101 . The Hall integrated circuit 1032 can be disposed in the base 101 for sensing the movement of the magnetic element 1031 with the spindle 102 relative to the base 101 to generate a motion signal. Further, the Hall integrated circuit 1032 may include a plurality of Hall effect sensing elements and a signal processing circuit, the plurality of Hall effect sensing elements can respectively measure a plurality of magnetic field sensing signals, and the signal processing circuit The plurality of magnetic field sensing signals can be processed to generate digital signals respectively corresponding to movements on the x-axis and the y-axis as the aforementioned motion signals.

In another embodiment, the motion sensing device 103 may include at least two potentiometers. The two potentiometers respectively output voltage values corresponding to the movement on the x-axis and the y-axis as the main shaft 102 moves relative to the base 101 as the aforementioned motion signals.

The memory 104 is disposed in the base 101 . The memory 104 can be read-only memory (read-only memory, ROM), flash (flash) memory, dynamic random access memory (dynamic random access memory, DRAM), static random access memory (static random access memory, SRAM) or other non-volatile memory implementations. The memory 104 can store an identification number (identification number, ID) of the joystick assembly and a plurality of calibration data. The rocker assembly identification code may indicate the lot in which rocker assembly 10 was produced. The calibration data may include a static signal and a virtual true circle, wherein the static signal indicates the signal (such as voltage value, current value, etc.) measured by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 is not pushed by external force, and the virtual true circle Then it indicates the movement range of the spindle 102 relative to the base 101 . In addition, the memory 104 can also be electrically coupled to the motion sensing device 103 and store the signal measured by the motion sensing device 103 .

Furthermore, the memory 104 can be controlled to output one or more of the rocker assembly identification code, calibration data and the signal measured by the motion sensing device 103, so that the external processing device can perform the operation of the rocker assembly 10. Use of programs such as data collection, tracking, and analysis. In particular, the external processing device can read the rocker assembly identification codes and calibration data of multiple rocker assemblies, so as to analyze the calibration data of rocker assemblies belonging to the same production batch or compare rocker assemblies of different production batches. Processing procedures such as calibration data of components. For example, the external processing device can use the calibration data of all the rocker assemblies with the same rocker assembly ID to analyze the yield rate of these rocker assemblies produced in the same batch.

The processor 105 is disposed in the base 101 and electrically coupled to the motion sensing device 103 and the memory 104 . The processor 105 may be implemented as a central processing unit. In particular, the processor 105 and the aforementioned memory 104 can be included in a microcontroller, that is, the processor 105 and the memory 104 can be realized by the processor and the memory in the microcontroller. The processor 105 is used for judging whether to output the motion signal according to the plurality of calibration data. Further, the calibration data may include a static signal and a virtual true circle, and the processor 105 may use the static signal and the motion signal to obtain two-dimensional coordinates, determine whether the two-dimensional coordinates are within the virtual true circle, and if so, output a motion signal , if not, no motion signal will be output. Wherein, the two-dimensional coordinates and the virtual true circle belong to the same coordinate system, and the contents of the data indicated by the stationary signal and the virtual true circle are as described above, and will not be repeated here. By using the virtual true circle as the calibration index, there is no need to design a special mechanism to limit the moving range of the main shaft 102 according to the sensing range of the motion sensing device 103 of the rocker assembly, thereby reducing the cost of mechanism design.

In particular, the Hall IC 1032 , the memory 104 and the processor 105 of the above-mentioned motion sensing device 103 may be disposed on a circuit board.

In one embodiment, in addition to the operations described in the above embodiments, the motion sensing device 103 is further used to generate a stationary signal, a horizontal movement limit signal and a vertical movement limit signal associated with the spindle 102 . Wherein, the stationary signal indicates the signal detected by the motion sensing device 103 when the main shaft 102 is not pushed by external force, the horizontal movement limit signal indicates the signal detected by the motion sensing device 103 when the main shaft 102 moves to the limit in the horizontal direction, The vertical movement limit signal indicates the signal detected by the motion sensing device 103 when the spindle 102 moves to a limit in the vertical direction. In addition to the operations described in the preceding embodiments, the processor 105 is further configured to perform zero-return correction operations based on the static signal, and to perform true-circle correction operations based on the static signal, the horizontal movement limit signal and the vertical movement limit signal, and The result of the true circle correction calculation and the static signal are stored in the memory 104 as correction data.

Further, the zero-returning correction operation performed by the processor 105 includes using the two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the static signal as the center coordinates. The true circle correction operation performed by the processor 105 may include: obtaining the x-axis coordinates by using the stationary signal and the horizontal movement limit signal, obtaining the y-axis coordinates by using the stationary signal and the vertical movement limit signal, and converting the x-axis coordinates and the y-axis coordinates Convert to polar coordinates to obtain the radius, use this radius and the aforementioned center coordinates to obtain a virtual true circle, as the result of the true circle correction operation, that is, one of the correction data. The movement of the main shaft 102 can be operated manually or by the mechanical arm of the test machine, and the processor 105 can be triggered by the operator or the test machine to perform the above correction calculation.

In particular, the calibration data can be obtained by the operation of the motion sensing device 103 and the processor 105 before the rocker assembly 1 leaves the factory. Compared with the traditional whole machine calibration,. Alternatively, after leaving the factory, the joystick assembly 1 can update the calibration data by performing the operations of the motion sensing device 103 and the processor 105 again.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , wherein FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a game handle according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 2, the game handle 1 may include a body 11 and one or more rocker assemblies 10, wherein the rocker assembly 10 is pluggably arranged on the body 11, and may be the rocker described in any of the preceding embodiments. rod assembly 10 . Furthermore, the gamepad 1 may further include a processing device 12 disposed on the main body 11 and coupled to the processor 105 in a wired or wireless manner. The processing device 12 may be disposed in an area of the body 11 other than the rocker assembly 10 . The processing device 12 may be disposed on a circuit board different from that on which the processor 105 is disposed. The processing device 12 can be realized by a microcontroller, and is used for receiving the motion signal outputted by the processor 105 based on the judgment of the calibration data. The processing device 12 can perform signal processing on the motion signal, or analyze and/and process it in combination with control signals from other control components of the game handle 1 such as cross keys and circular keys, which are not limited by the present invention.

With the above-mentioned structure, the joystick assembly and the game handle disclosed in this case are provided with a memory and a processor in the joystick assembly itself, wherein the memory stores the identification code of the joystick assembly itself, which can be used for subsequent data collection, tracking, analysis etc. In addition, the memory of the rocker assembly also stores calibration data for the processor to judge whether the input signal is output or not. That is to say, the joystick components can be calibrated before leaving the factory or before being installed on the game handle, avoiding the problem of requiring a lot of calibration time by testing components one by one when a signal failure occurs in the traditional whole machine calibration.

Although the present invention is disclosed by the aforementioned embodiments, they are not intended to limit the present invention. Without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, all changes and modifications are within the scope of patent protection of the present invention. For the scope of protection defined by the present invention, please refer to the appended scope of patent application.

1: Game handle 10: rocker assembly 11: Ontology 101: base 102:Spindle 103:Motion sensing device 104: Memory 105: Processor 106: rocker cap 1031: Magnetic components 1032: Hall IC

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a rocker assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a game handle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

10: rocker assembly

101: base

102:Spindle

103:Motion sensing device

104: Memory

105: Processor

106: rocker cap

1031: Magnetic components

1032: Hall IC

Claims (8)

A rocker assembly, suitable for a game handle, includes: a base; a main shaft, which is pivotally arranged on the base; a motion sensing device, which is arranged in the base and is used for sensing the The main shaft moves relative to the base to generate a motion signal; a memory is set in the base and stores a rocker assembly identification code and multiple calibration data; and a processor is set in the base , electrically coupled to the motion sensing device and the memory, and used to judge whether to output the motion signal based on the calibration data, wherein the calibration data includes a virtual true circle and a static signal, the static The set signal indicates the signal measured by the motion sensing device when the spindle is not pushed by external force, and the processor executes judging whether to output the motion signal based on the calibration data including using the static signal and the motion The signal obtains a two-dimensional coordinate, and it is judged whether the two-dimensional coordinate is located in the virtual true circle. If yes, the motion signal is output, and if not, the motion signal is not output. The rocker assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing device includes: a magnetic element disposed at one end of the spindle in the base; and a Hall integrated circuit disposed in the base, It is used for sensing the movement of the magnetic element relative to the base along with the spindle to generate a digital signal, wherein the digital signal is used as the motion signal. The joystick assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the memory and the processor are included in a microcontroller. The rocker assembly as described in claim 1, wherein the motion sensing device is further used to generate the stationary signal, a horizontal movement limit signal and a vertical movement limit signal associated with the main shaft, and the processor is further used to generate the signal according to The static signal, the horizontal movement limit signal and the vertical movement limit signal perform a calibration calculation, and the calibration calculation result and the static signal are stored in the memory as the calibration data. The joystick assembly as described in claim 4, wherein the correction operation performed by the processor includes obtaining an x-axis coordinate using the static signal and the horizontal movement limit signal, using the static signal and the vertical movement limit signal A y-axis coordinate is obtained, and the x-axis coordinate and the y-axis coordinate are converted into polar coordinates to obtain the virtual true circle as the result of the correction operation. According to the joystick assembly described in claim 1, the memory is further configured to be controlled to output one or more of the joystick assembly identification code and the calibration data. A game handle, comprising: a body; and the joystick assembly as described in one of claims 1 to 6, which is pluggably arranged on the body. The game handle as described in claim 7, further comprising: a processing device, disposed on the body, coupled to the processor, for receiving the motion signal output by the processor based on the judgment of the calibration data .

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