lever-style potentiometer / controller

[Brendan Humphreys]

Hi Folks,

I'm wondering if anyone knows where I can obtain a cheap "lever-style"
potentiometer / controller mechanism. I really want only a single axis
control, with mechanical resistance.

Something like this: http://www.specsensors.com/fader.asp

I need it to be tough, because its for a kid's toy I'm thinking about
building. Something second-hand would work too.

cheers,
-Brendan

[David Lyon]

I know I always get the answer wrong.. So here it is anyway..

Find a nice lever that you like. Maybe wood or metal. Maybe you can
get one off something retro.

Old planes have cool levers in the cockpit but not so common here.
Look for a poker machine.

If it doesn't have a ball on the end, and you need one, attach that there.

At the end, drill a hole and insert a shaft/axle/bearing and connect
the axle with a shaft extender to the potentiometer.

Make a housing for the lower joint to hide the mess.

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[David Lyon]

ps: if you use something like a car yardstick from the wrecker, you
only have to really worry about the bottom connection.

Some old vw gearsticks painted nicely may be ok.

[McGinnes Mark]

Somewhere that sells parts for flight sims?
http://www.aerosimsolutions.com.au has enough pictures for you to be able to build one yourself. Looking at his prices I suspect DIY is going to be the only viable way to go.
It would be trivial to laser cut it from acrylic, but something a lot more durable could easily be made from aluminium(or steel), using metal gears from a hobby shop.

Macca

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[McGinnes Mark]

You could probably also hack a servo. Rip out the control board, and solder directly to the potentiometer. Attach a lever to the horn. I don't know if such a contraption would work, but one of the RC peoples should be able to tell you if it is possible to abuse a servo in such a way.

[Matt]

Pick up and old analogue joystick and mod that. I may have one, I'll check.

Regards

Matt

Sent from my mobile phone

[David Lyon]

yeah,

I actually love what aluminium paint from Bunnings with esp primer
over laser-cut perspex does.

Ie gives you a part that looks like being metal. Esp is
paint-on-anything primer that makes paint stick to acrylic.

On the Daleks at the hackerspace, they have wonderful inspiration for
mock stuff.

[Brendan Humphreys]

Thanks for the replies folks.

This http://www.aerosimsolutions.com.au/throttle.html is definitely
something like what I had envisioned; I love that the guy made the
outer casing from clear acrylic so the inner workings are nicely on
display. It's certainly tempting to try to build one myself with
laser-cut acrylic, but that might have to wait - it would be a bit of
a diversion from the original project :-)

Cheers,
-Brendan

[Gav]

Ooh, that throttle is really nice. 

Yeah, the trick with that is to use a solid bearing and mount the lever on it, and use either gearing like they did or a pushrod to get the movement to the potentiometer. You can then mount your own stops whereever you like, and your users would have to smash through solid aluminium before they'll destroy your electronics :-D

[Terry Dawson]

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 10:23 AM, Gav <the.mechat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ooh, that throttle is really nice.

That is interesting. You've got to wonder though whether it wouldn't
be possible to design a 3D printable version that would avoid the need
for most of that hardware.
At similar prices it might even be commercially worth the effort if
you knew how to market it properly to the FlightSim community.

> Yeah, the trick with that is to use a solid bearing and mount the lever on
> it, and use either gearing like they did or a pushrod to get the movement to
> the potentiometer. You can then mount your own stops whereever you like, and
> your users would have to smash through solid aluminium before they'll
> destroy your electronics :-D

Terry

[David Huang]

An issue discussed long time ago

[Kris]

I'm confused. Are you asking about them or providing a solution?

---

From: David Huang <flagst...@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 April 2018 16:03:29 GMT+10:00
To: Robots & Dinosaurs <sydney-h...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [RnD] Re: lever-style potentiometer / controller

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