Rotary Encoders for Dummies

[ArtBurkeN4PJ]

Once upon a time, I had a bunch of GoFlight stuff. Traded one hobby for another and the GoFlight stuff got sold.

 

I barely understand how rotary encoding works - basically identifies which way the knob got turned and how many "clicks?" The new keyboard encoder board I bought has some support for rotary encoders.

 

It seems to me that with some nifty programming, two pairs of rotary encoders could be use to "drive" several different radios - two at a time so you could have COM1 and NAV1 active at the same time. By having four rotary encoders and using a "program/macro" you could control radios (NAV, COM and ADF and even the transponder) by making only "active" whatever you need to be active at any given time.

 

Is there some place someone could direct me to obtain a bunch of knowledge about rotary encoders?

 

Thanks.

 

Art - N4PJ

Leesburg, FL

 

[alaxus]

Well you pretty much answered you own question about rotary encoders. A typical encoder is 2 bit gray. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_code

What is it that you want to know? How to interface a encoder with FSX/P3D?

 

Cheers

[ArtBurkeN4PJ]

Years ago I bought a Hagstrom keyboard encoder board. It had to be loaded using a bona-fide serial port and the programming had to be done in DOS. Recently, I "upgraded" to a newer, bigger, better version - point and click to make your assignments. And super quick to load different versions for different planes. Coupled with FSUIPC you can almost throw the keyboard away!

 

Well, bigger and even better things dawned on me. My encoder board will support two rotary encoder inputs. They make an accessory that will handle up to five (5). it seems to me - and my programming skills are only sufficient to make me dangerous! - that there should be a way (or two) to use a couple sets of encoders and make them look like radio dials - use one knob for the integer portion and another knob for the fractional portion. With four knobs, you could take on the "appearance" of two radios (COM1 and NAV1) and further switching could give you access to either COM2 or NAV2. Of course, if you want to track something on both NAV radios *and* maintain comms.....

 

Others have undoubtedly done this already. There have to be a lot of people out there who've built some pretty sophisticated cockpits. I went the easy way when I bought some stuff from Elite Simulations, some CH Products and GoFlight.

 

Just kind of thinking about it, it just seems like it wouldn't be that difficult to build your own frequency controls so you can reach over and turn the knobs instead of clicking with the mouse - or rolling the mouse wheel - or squinting like a son-of-a-gun because the "+" key is just too stinkin' small. LOL

 

Art - N4PJ

Leesburg, FL

[Pete Dowson]

My encoder board will support two rotary encoder inputs. They make an accessory that will handle up to five (5). it seems to me - and my programming skills are only sufficient to make me dangerous! - that there should be a way (or two) to use a couple sets of encoders ...

 

If you are careful about which encoders you get you can have those which are dead simple to program. Those have three contacts, as others, with a common ground. But they signal each "click" by a rise or fall in the logic level of one of the other connections, depending whether you turn clockwise or anticlockwise.

 

That type can feed into the PC as just two buttons, one which is alternately pressed and released for clockwise turns and the other for counter-clockwise turns. Then you just assign as needed, taking care to assign for both the press and release if you want all clicks to matter.

 

You can even use a Lua plug-in with FSUIPC (or write your own program) to have two or more speeds of Increment and Decrement -- in fact I think there's an example in the Lua examples collection installed with FSUIPC.

 

The other type of encoder is more difficult to program. I think there's a section about those in the FSUIPC Advanced guide. They produce signals one both signal connections for both directions, but just in a different phase. I think that might be the type alaxus was talking about in his reply, above. I've avoided those.

 

Pete

[ArtBurkeN4PJ]

Thanks for the advice on the encoders Pete. According to the manual for my encoder board, the existing rotary inputs are:

 

"2 Quadrature Rotary encoder Inputs - 4 position MTA header .100" spaced pins."

 

It sounds like what you describe can be accommodated by the KE-USB108 encoder board.

 

They also offer an accessory that will handle up to five (5) rotary encoders and apparently they can be daisy-chained

for those who need even more.

 

I've decided - for the moment - not to go quite as overboard as I did several years back. My wife bought me a beautiful desk as a present. Before she could say "WTF" it was covered with a yoke/throttle system, a couple of monitors, a home-brew switchbox, and a host of Elite Simulations and GoFlight equipment! At the moment, the desk is only slightly junked up, LOL. Since the new encoder board interfaces more easily than the old one did, I can remove it with little fuss when I'm not flying.

 

With all the manipulations going on between the encoder board and FSUIPC, I feel more like a programmer than a pilot. When my wife complains, I throw you under the bus - LOL!

 

Art - N4PJ

Leesburg, FL