Aim your moving heads
with a stick
A thirty-euro gamepad replaces click-and-drag with a mouse when you need to place a beam. The gesture is the one you know from a console trackball: push to move, release to stop right where you are.
The stick controls speed, not position
This is the choice everything else follows from. A stick is spring-loaded back to centre: if its position controlled the absolute position of the fixture, letting go of the stick would send the beam back to the middle of the stage. Unusable in the field.
So deflection controls speed instead. You push, the beam travels that way; you release, it stays where it is. Exactly how a trackball or a console encoder behaves — and the reason aiming with a stick beats dragging inside a 2D pad.
The response is quadratic: fine control near the centre to place a front light twenty metres away, real speed at full deflection to cross the stage.
Left stick — the heavy lifting
It moves the beam at full speed. This is the one you use to bring the fixture into the right area.
Right stick — the finishing touch
Eight times slower. It places the beam precisely once you are in the area, with no setting to change.
While the sticks are at rest, MyStrow writes nothing and sends nothing. The gamepad therefore cannot fight with a running effect, a recalled memory or a REC Light sequence: it only takes over while you are actually pushing.
Which gamepads work
MyStrow relies on the SDL gamepad database, which ships more than two hundred models and reads sticks in a normalised way: whatever the brand, the left stick stays the left stick. Here is what works, and what needs a step from you.
| Gamepad | USB | Bluetooth | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox 360 | ✅ | ✅ | Nothing — Windows handles it natively. The safest choice. |
| DualShock 4 (PS4) — v1 and v2 | ✅ | ✅ | Nothing. For Bluetooth pairing: Share + PS until the light bar flashes. |
| DualSense (PS5) | ✅ | ✅ | Nothing. |
| Nintendo Switch Pro | ✅ | ✅ | Nothing. |
| Logitech F310 / F510 / F710 | ✅ | — | Set the switch on the back to X (XInput mode). |
| 8BitDo (Pro 2, SN30 Pro, M30…) | ✅ | ✅ | Nothing. Sixteen models are recognised. |
| DualShock 3 (PS3) | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | Third-party driver required on Windows — see below. |
| Unbranded “compatible” gamepads | ❔ | ❔ | Case by case: many are not recognised as gamepads at all. |
Hori, Thrustmaster, Razer, Nacon, PowerA, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna are in the database too. If your gamepad is plugged in but MyStrow does not list it, no profile matches its identifier: the configuration window then shows you its name, rather than pretending nothing is connected.
The PS3 gamepad is detected… and silent
It deserves its own section, because the symptom is baffling: Windows shows it, MyStrow detects it, its name turns green — and nothing moves. Not the sticks, not the buttons.
The cause is not in the software. A DualShock 3 sends no data until something tells it to start reporting, and the stock Windows driver never does. That is exactly why third-party drivers exist for this gamepad. A second clue when this is what you are facing: it disconnects on its own after a few minutes.
The fix: install DsHidMini, the maintained driver that replaces the old ScpToolkit. The gamepad then appears as a standard controller and MyStrow needs no change. Do not go looking at the cable or at a MyStrow option: without that driver, no software can read this gamepad.
MyStrow recognises this exact case and says so in the configuration window, naming the driver to install. If you are buying a gamepad for this purpose, a second-hand DualShock 4 or an Xbox controller spares you the question entirely.
Four steps
Plug the gamepad in
Over USB, or over Bluetooth if your PC has it. Preferably before opening the window: detection is immediate, but you may as well start clean.
Open Connection ▸ Control ▸ 🎮 Gamepad (pan/tilt)
The name of the gamepad appears in green. The two bars in the window move as soon as you touch a stick: that is the fastest way to know everything is in place.
Choose what the gamepad drives
Either the fixtures selected in the stage plot — you switch targets mid-show with a single click — or every moving head at once. Static fixtures are never affected: only moving heads have a pan and a tilt to move.
Tick “Enable” and close
The gamepad stays active in the background. Reopen the window whenever you want to change the speed or the target.
Two sliders, and that is all
Dead zone — 12 % by default
This is the threshold below which the stick counts as at rest. It is not there on principle: a worn stick never returns to exactly zero, and without a dead zone your moving heads drift slowly all evening without anyone touching the gamepad. If your fixtures move on their own, raise this slider. If the stick feels mushy off centre, lower it.
Sweep time — 3 seconds by default
This is how long the beam takes to travel the full range of an axis at full stick. Three seconds suits a club stage. On a large stage, or for fine aiming during rehearsals, make it longer: the gesture becomes gentler and the right stick even more precise.
The pan and tilt limits you set on your fixtures are still enforced. If you have forbidden a moving head from sweeping the audience, the gamepad cannot take it there.
If nothing moves
- The gamepad does not appear at all: check that Windows itself recognises it. If MyStrow shows its name while saying it is not recognised as a gamepad, no profile matches that model — a common case with unbranded pads.
- It is listed but nothing moves: on a PS3 pad, this is the case described above and you need the driver. On any other model, test it first in the Windows game controllers panel.
- The bars move but the fixtures do not: the “Enable” box is unticked, or no fixture is selected while the target is set to the selection.
- Fixtures drift with nobody touching anything: raise the dead zone. The stick is worn.
- The movement is jerky: increase the sweep time. Very fast movement always reads as steps on a slow moving head.
Aiming by hand
Download MyStrow, plug in a gamepad, and place your beams with a stick instead of a mouse.