good supplier of rotary switch for spinner control?
Mad Scientist Jr
Atari driving controller but it seems the "resolution" is too low - you
have to turn the knob a whole lot just to register one state change.
I'm looking for the same kind of switch but more sensitive (the state
changes in a smaller amount of turn) for games like Pong or Breakout.
Can anyone recommend a good rotary switch model / manufacturer? Thanks
James Robert Leek
I'm not really sure what differenct quadrature will make in this case, but
I'll take a shot at your problem. Check hom many ohms of resistance the
spinner potentiometer is supposed to have. As I recall the Atari paddles
and driving controllers werr 500 ohms. PC Joysticks use 150 ohms. I once
hooked an IBM PC joystick up to an Atari 5200 in hopes that it would make
a better joystick, the cursor in missle command just kinda hung out in a
little box on the upper left corner.
--
Jim Leek
jrl...@soda.berkeley.edu
Mad Scientist Jr
the switch states are reading fine, there just aren't enough of them
per 360 deg. rotation. If you open the Atari driving controller and
look at the switch, you see the spacing of the rotary switches is such
that it takes 1 complete rotation to register 4 states. If one state
change moves your pong paddle 1 pixel, that translates to an awful lot
of turns to get it to move halfway across the screen. I think I just
need to find a higher resolution mechanical rotary encoder to replace
the Atari one and it will work fine. Either that or stick some gears in
there to get more state changes per turn :)
Mark C. Spaeth
: I am playing with spinner controls that use quadrature. I wired up an
Pong and breakout use a potentiometer and a crute ADC, not a quadrature
encoder.
If you want more pulses per rotation, you need to use gears to make
the encoder wheel spin faster, like arkanoid did, or use a giant encoder
wheel with many more pulses per rotation, like tempest.
--
Mark Spaeth msp...@mtl.mit.edu
50 Vassar St., #38.265 msp...@mit.edu
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 452-2354 http://rgvac.978.org/~mspaeth
Mad Scientist Jr
pots. I found some encoder wheels that are "hi res" - more pulses per
rotation. Will have to give one a try.
Mad Scientist Jr
enough resolution doesn't exist) - does anyone have any idea how to
build this crude ADC? It would need to read a pot (I would probably
just use the atari paddles, which are ... 1 MOhm?) and translate the
value into an 8-bit number (0-255) - that is open or close 8 bits.
Actually that sucks, as it would take up 8 inputs just to read a paddle
- that's more than a joystick! Quadrature is so much better. Maybe I'll
use gears if I don't find a mechanical encoder with enough pules per
revolution (PPR).
TBParrotHead
Plugs right in and off you go.
http://www.slikstik.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=4
Enjoy!
Mad Scientist Jr
for my purposes. thanks though, that may come in handy for some other
project
Deadly_Dad
> In planning for the worst (that a mechanical rotary encoder with high
> enough resolution doesn't exist) - does anyone have any idea how to
> build this crude ADC? It would need to read a pot (I would probably
> just use the atari paddles, which are ... 1 MOhm?) and translate the
> value into an 8-bit number (0-255) - that is open or close 8 bits.
> Actually that sucks, as it would take up 8 inputs just to read a paddle
> - that's more than a joystick! Quadrature is so much better. Maybe I'll
> use gears if I don't find a mechanical encoder with enough pules per
> revolution (PPR).
Check out this page: http://www.mindaugas.com/products/MJoy16-C1/
It has 8 axes at 10 bit resolution, as well as 64 buttons, 16 toggle
switches, 4 rotary switches, and an 8-way hat switch, all for $40US!!!
(.....and yes, once I get enough room to work on it, I /will/ be buying
one (or more) of these for /my/ MAMEcab.)
--
Thnik about it!
Deadly_Dad
mis...@uprightingv.org
wor...@Cercosporella.resighd.edu
bupr...@overquietnessi.tp
uninst...@supercanonicalv.su
thioba...@Ibseniteg.mil
Craig Yarbrough
pulse gets measured into a up-counter IIRC.
Still not sure what you're trying to do, but there are inexpensive
8-bit ADCs out there. Do you understand the difference between a wiper
POT and a rotary encoder?
You may try pinging Darren Harris and explaining to him what you're
trying to do. ;-)
- Craig
Mad Scientist Jr
requirements are I am limited to 2 inputs (via keypresses to my PC, the
controllers are wired to a keyboard controller) + 1 input for fire
button. I understand how a rotary encoder works, using quadrature to
send a 2-bit signal so the software can tell what direction it was
turned. A pot instead sends resistance to a DAC which converts it to a
digital value, for exampe 8-bit would be a value 0-255. This takes up
too many inputs/keys on my keyboard (8 keys per paddle + 1 for fire),
whereas with wiring up my Atari 2600 driving controller I am able to
read it with 2 bits + 1 for fire. The problem with the driving
controller is the resolution is too low (16 pulses per rev) which means
you have to turn the thing a lot to move a little. The atari paddles
respond in such a way where less than 1 rev can move the paddle all the
way across the screen, so I am looking for a higher res encoder. I did
the math and need about 256 pulses per revolution. However even 128 bit
optical encoders such as
http://www.potentiometer.com/600.pdf
cost $50, and I need 2x that resolution.
Therefore building an interface for existing atari 2600 paddles using a
PIC controller which reads the pot value, and mimics quadrature, is a
cheaper solution. It's not as reliable as using an optical encoder
directly but my target cost is $5 a paddle. Anyway thanks for
listening.
Dan Mazurowski
How about this:
http://www.oscarcontrols.com/vortex/
It is a direct replacement for the encoder whell used in the Tempest
arcade game - don't know if it will be a high enough resolution for
you, but the sucker should spin pretty well. Though it doesn't look
cheap...
Another idea would be to hack apart a mouse (the kind that has a ball
in it, not an optical).