[simpits-tech] Easy way to handle rotary switches?

Wed, 24 Apr 2002 09:36:55 -0400

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I am well into creating a generic "twin-type" cockpit. Momentary and toggle
switches are no problem using a cannibalized old keyboard for the interface
and the instructions in the excellent guide some of you recommended (I'm
sorry - I can't recall the author but it was written in Taiwan). However,
I'm coming to the critical decision of what to do about rotary switches. The
heading, VOR, altitude bugs and the barometric pressure knob would all be
nice to use rotary switches but I have yet to see a simple way to do this.
The electronics needed for even one rotary switch seems pretty cumbersome.
It seems most of the problems deal with how quickly you can turn a knob and
still have it register as a keypress. I guess I'm not that picky - if I
needed to turn the knob slowly or if it occassionally skipped a keypress,
I'm not sure that would bother me too much. The alternative is to use
momentary-off-momentary switches instead. Not very realistic but easy and
cheap - although I wonder if the keypresses generated would prove too fast
or too slow. Any advice? Thanks!
David Lee

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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=420021013-24042002>I am well into 
creating a generic "twin-type" cockpit. Momentary and toggle switches are no 
problem using a cannibalized old keyboard for the interface and the instructions 
in the excellent guide some of you recommended (I'm sorry - I can't recall the 
author but it was written in Taiwan). However, I'm coming to the critical 
decision of what to do about rotary switches. The heading, VOR, altitude bugs 
and the barometric pressure knob would all be nice to use rotary switches but I 
have yet to see a simple way to do this. The electronics needed for even one 
rotary switch seems pretty cumbersome. It seems most of the problems deal with 
how quickly you can turn a knob and still have it register as a keypress. I 
guess I'm not that picky - if I needed to turn the knob slowly or if it 
occassionally skipped a keypress, I'm not sure that would bother me too much. 
The alternative is to use momentary-off-momentary switches instead. Not very 
realistic but easy and cheap - although I wonder if the keypresses generated 
would prove too fast or too slow. Any advice? Thanks!</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=420021013-24042002>David 
Lee</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV></BODY></HTML>

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