Wio Tracker L1: Proposal to improve joystick select usability (avoid accidental menu navigation)

[Mankianer]

Problem

On the Seeed Wio Tracker L1, selecting menu items with the joystick is difficult because pressing the joystick often triggers a direction input at the same time. This frequently causes the menu selection to move while trying to confirm an item.

In practice, selecting an item without accidentally moving to the next one is unreliable.

Goal

Allow reliable selection of menu items without unintended navigation changes when pressing the joystick.

Proposed Approach

As an experiment, I changed input handling so that:

• Right direction can act as Select
• Left direction can act as Back/Cancel
• Direction inputs are no longer interpreted as Up/Down alternatives in certain UI contexts (e.g., selection menus or message pickers).

This allows selection without relying on pressing the joystick, which is mechanically difficult on my both devices.

My implementation currently modifies:

• notification and selection UI behavior
• parts of input handling related to select/cancel usage

Example implementation:

https://github.com/Mankianer/meshtastic-firmware/tree/feat/joystick-select

Open Questions

Since I can only test on the Wio Tracker L1, I would like feedback:

• Do other devices have similar joystick press issues?
• Are there devices that rely heavily on Left/Right navigation in these menus?
• Should such behavior be device-specific or configurable?
• Would maintainers prefer a different approach, such as prioritizing press events over direction events?

Feedback Requested

I’m fairly new to contributing here and would appreciate feedback on:

• Whether this approach makes sense
• How input mapping differences between devices are usually handled
• Whether a configuration or board-specific solution would be preferred

I’m happy to adjust the implementation based on feedback.

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