Hi all, new user here,
While dismantling an old toshiba tecra laptop, I came across a 6-pin isometric joystick in the keyboard. Thinking it would be fun to use with an mcu, I looked it up online to see what the hobbyist community was doing with them. Nothing. :problem: I couldn't even find a site describing how the sensed pressure is translated to electrical signals...

So, do you have any clue? Are two pins for vcc and gnd, with the remaining four leading to the respective sides of the device?

It's definitely not a trackpad, or a psp joystick.
The ones I found for psp joystick were all 4-pin devices...
It looks something like this:

but with six tracks in the ribbon, and a square head.
This laptop is the same model as the one I got the part from:

From what I've read, the joystick senses force exerted upon it.
I would use the module that the stick belongs to, but it is part of the motherboard and I can't tell where it is.

Your first pic isn't showing to me.

To me neither.....

I'd bet on 3 strain gauges.

I'm sorry, I guess I should have looked at one more page before I asked... This pic helped a lot:

My part is half as tall as the one in the pic, and had a bunch of rubber around the base that I thought was solid. I didn't want to ruin the joystick, so I hadn't tried to pull it off. Now I see four two-terminal sensors, which makes sense why there are only six terminals on the ribbon cable. Two are commons (each one connects to one terminal on two sensors), and the other four connect to the other ends of the sensors.

Well, I hope this helps someone down the road...