(cocos2d sneaky input) when setting joystick position with touchLocation, sprite won't move - iphone

Question

i want to let user choose where the joystick should be. i.e., when user touch at one location, the joystick will appear there and ready to use and will remove when finger released.
-(void) ccTouchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
if ([self getChildByTag:kTagJoyStick] == nil) {
[self addJoystickWithPosition:[Helper locationFromTouches:touches]];
}
}
-(void) ccTouchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
if ([self getChildByTag:kTagJoyStick] != nil) {
[self removeChildByTag:kTagJoyStick cleanup:YES];
}
}
-(void) ccTouchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
[self ccTouchesEnded:touches withEvent:event];
}
(do nothing in ccTouchesMoved method)
the update methods for joystick is:
-(void) sneakyUpdate {
if ([self getChildByTag:kTagJoyStick] != nil) {
if (joystick.velocity.x < 0) {
[self controlLeft];
}
else if (joystick.velocity.x > 0) {
[self controlRight];
}
else {
[self controlStop];
}
}
else {
[self controlStop];
}
}
but the result is, the joystick will appear and auto remove. but my sprite won't move. ( i set the break point, the sneakyUpdate method did get called. but the joystick.velocity is always 0. (and the thumbSprite didn't follow our finger.
please help me.
update:
and it turns out that i have to use 2 fingers (one for touch once and let the joystick show up, move my finger away, and then use another finger to control the joystick)

Answer 1

I'm not 100% sure, but I think you should use ccTouchBegan instead ccTouchesBegan, because sneakyJoystick classes use ccTouchBegan/Moved/Ended/Cancelled. Also, there are for a single touch, that is what you want.
I hope it works!

Answer 2

It looks like the problem is in your joystick class. Every joystick implementation I've seen uses the ccTouchesBegan method to activate the joystick, then in the ccTouchesMoved method, it makes sure its activated before using it. The problem I am seeing is that you create and add the joystick AFTER the touches began method, meaning your joystick never 'activates'. One way of bypassing this is to do all of the joystick's ccTouchesBegan functions in the method that creates the joystick, and 'activate' it from there by passing a reference to the touch that will be using it.