What Even Is This?
Kerbal Space Program is a spaceship flying game that I absolutely love.
The only downside to Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is that I have to use my keyboard to play. It really takes the immersion out when I have to look for random keys to do actions in game.
To fix this super pressing issue, I spent WAY too long creating this panel to play KSP with!
My KSP controller
Overview
Joysticks
The joysticks control the direction of the spaceship/aircraft! They have 3 degrees of rotation: forward-back, left-right, and rolling.
Rainbow Buttons
These are the action buttons! They each have their own effect in game; blue toggles the landing gear, white toggles the lights, red is abort flight.
How Does It Work?
My controller uses an Arduino Mega to connect with my computer through USB.
Our first attempt at this was essentially a USB keyboard. My computer and KSP would think that I was simply pressing keys on a keyboard (like "Space" or "Shift" or "Left Click"). However, we very quickly found a better solution: kRPC.
kRPC is software that lets us interact directly with KSP. This means we can set values and trigger events through code.
Through some very professional wiring...
Very professional wiring
... we were able to get everything working!