how does an analog joystick work?

[tarunb]

hi there,

I am sorry if my question is very basic - I wanted to find out how does a analog joystick work. I want to use this joystick to move two motors in clockwise and anti clockwise directions.

Earlier, i had used digital joysticks where i was just making use of the actual circuit connections to make this happen. Please help!

Thanks,
Tarun

[bicostp]

They're usually 2 potentiometers (variable resistors, like a volume control), one mounted at a 90 degree angle to the other. One reads movement on the X axis, the other reads the Y axis. The controller circuit measures the resistance of the two pots and figures out where the joystick is from those two figures.