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Render of the handheld controller: two thumbsticks and buttons on an ESP32 board in a cream and orange printed shell.

Twin-Joystick Motor Controller

A handheld twin-joystick controller built around an ESP32, and the control logic that turns each stick’s movement into the speed and direction of a DC motor.

Project stage
Functional prototype
Work type
Portfolio study

The controller

  • Top view of the controller layout, with the ESP32 mount between the two sticks.
  • Breadboard wiring of the ESP32 with two joysticks and three buttons.

Two thumbsticks and a set of buttons sit on an ESP32 board inside a printed handheld shell, with room set aside for batteries.

From sticks to motors

  • Flowchart of the control logic, from reading the joystick values to setting both motors’ speed and direction.
  • Circuit diagram: an Arduino, an L298N motor driver, a joystick and two DC motors.
  • The bench rig: microcontroller boards, motor drivers and two joysticks wired on a board.

The logic reads each stick, sets a motor’s direction and maps its position to a speed from 0 to 255, and an L298N driver runs the two DC motors. We proved it on the bench first.

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