Configuration of the Joystick

1. Verify that Linux recognizes my joystick

$ ls /dev/input/
by-id    event1   event12  event2  event5  event8  mice    mouse2
by-path  event10  event13  event3  event6  event9  mouse0
event0   event11  event14  event4  event7  js0     mouse1

js0 is my joystick's port.

2. Make sure my joystick is working

$ sudo jstest /dev/input/js0

I see the data parameters changing.

3. List the permissions of the joystick

$ ls -l /dev/input/js0

crw-rw-r--+ 1 root root 13, 0 2010-10-12 20:07 /dev/input/js0

This indicates I need to change the mode of the port through:

$ sudo chmod a+rw /dev/input/js0

Listing the permissions again will show this result:

crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root root 13, 0 2010-10-12 20:07 /dev/input/js0

4. Start the joy node

$ rosrun joy joy_node

5. Echo the joy topic

$ rostopic echo joy

And I see the data of my joystick is being published through the joy topic.