Joystick Converted Into USB H-Shifter

While modern vehicles rarely come with a manual transmission, there is something immensely satisfying about throwing your car into a lower gear, then hitting the gas to quickly accelerate. If you’d like to try it in a simulated environment, check out Oli Norwell’s project that creates a stick shifter with a relatively simple parts list.

The device uses a regular joystick as the input method, which is extended with a length of threaded rod to make a shift lever. The assembly is mounted inside a frame constructed out of wood and threaded rods, which allows for very easy height adjustment. The top piece is cut out in a pattern for gears 1-5, plus reverse, and the middle portion indicates neutral. Cleverly, a series of magnets holds the shifter in each non-neutral position, compensating for the return-to-center action of the joystick itself.

With the mechanicals sorted out, the joystick switch inputs are fed into an Arduino Leonardo-style board with HID capabilities. It examines the switch states to decide which gear it’s in, then passes the info on to a computer. Future ideas include extra buttons, DIP switches to change behavior, an LCD screen for feedback, or perhaps even a clutch input. You can see it in action in the video below, simulating driving around a rather peaceful city road.