Configuring joysticks

You can configure any joystick (or any game controller supporting at least one axis) attached to your computer, so you can control the camera display in Security Desk.

Before you begin

Connect a joystick to your computer.

BEST PRACTICE: Do not connect two joysticks of the same model. They are listed with the same name, and you might not know which one to select. Furthermore, you can only have one joystick active at a time.

What you should know

You can associate two different Security Desk commands to each button, one for the button down event, and another for the button up event. The Up command is optional. The number of buttons you can configure depends on the type of joystick that you have.

The Joystick dead zone option value determines the percentage of movement required on the joystick before the PTZ camera starts moving. When you bring the joystick back into the home position, this value determines how close to the home position the joystick needs to be for the PTZ to stop moving.

The joystick settings apply to the local Security Desk workstation for all users.

To configure a joystick:

From the home page, click Options > Peripherals .
Click the Joystick tab.
From the Active joystick drop-down list, select the brand and model name of your joystick.
You can click at any time to refresh the list.

All axes supported by your joystick are listed below.
(Optional) To import a previously saved joystick configuration from a disk, click Import.
To map the joystick axis commands to the PTZ commands of your choice, do the following:
1. Select an Axis from the list.
2. From the drop-down list in the Commands column, select a PTZ command.
3. To invert the command, select the option in the Invert column.
  Example: If you mapped the Tilt command to the Y axis, inverting the commands causes the camera to move up when you pull the joystick towards you, and down when you push the joystick away from you.
4. To erase the selected command mapping, click Clear ().
To map the joystick buttons to the Security Desk commands of your choice, do the following:
1. Select a Button in the list.
2. To associate a command to a button down event, select a command from the drop-down list in the Down command column.
3. To associate a command to a button up event, select a command from the drop-down list in the Up command column.
4. If the selected command requires an argument, such as selecting a PTZ preset, then enter it in the Args column field.
To erase the selected command mappings and start over, click Clear ().
To set the threshold for registered movement in relation to the home position (idle zone), select a percentage value in the Joystick dead zone option.
To save the joystick configuration to disk, click Export.
Click Save.