Hi all,this must be a stupid question to those wizzards out there, but it's really bothering me for so long:I have a rotary encoder (from Conrad, a German based company), and i want to use it for an elevator trim wheel. Tried the trim wheel on a USB-axis but that didn't do it for me, resolution is too small. Anyway, the encoder has three pins (as is usual i'm told) and when rotated left it gives pulses to the left-center pair of pins. But it also gives pulses (although offset) to the right-center pair ! And that way there is no way i can think of to get it to work as trim. It will always receive two pulses on either side when i switch it one full click and nothing happens. Is this normal operation for ratary encoders, and if yes, what should i do to wire it correctly ?Or is my encoder a bit special ???Thanx,Cas (The Netherlands)

Hi Cas,Sounds like you have a standard rotary encoder. Here is a link to a write up on rotary encoders that may be of interest: http://www.mikesflightdeck.com/switches+indicators_1.htm . Encoders are described about half way down the page. Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.comInfo for simpit builders.

There are rotary decoder boards that you can purchase to turn the 2-phase encoder signal into discrete events that can be interfaced to a Hagstrom keyboard encoder or the EPIC system. I offer one on my site that can interface up to 8 encoders at a time. www.avsm.com.bluesideup

Cas,All you have to do is go to Radio Shack (or its equivalent) and buy a cheap 12-position rotary (2 bucks at most) and wire wire as outlined below. This will run your trim wheel flawlessly. You will need to solder the jumpers on there every 3rd pin as shown. The 3 pin rotary you mentioned should work and is internally jumpered. But if your does not work, please realize that these things do go bad.Michael

Hi!You can make them work! How? with FSUIPC! I don't know exactly where it is described (I think in the FSUIPC adavanced user doc) but you only have to add some lines to your FSUIPC.ini to get your rotary encoder work properly!So the rotary would get interpreted correctly. You can change all offsets supported by FSUIPC...regards,steve

Michael, How do you interface that 12 pos switch to Flight Sim?Peter

>Michael, > How do you interface that 12 pos switch to Flight Sim? >www.fsbus.de is one solution, that kind of 12-position (or 4,8 or 16 ... position for the matter) works with it.Tuomas

Hi,1st: thanx for all the replies ! It has helped me along, and finally i have a working solution. Found a lot of info in one of the older threads over here (should have looked first, i know). I know my encoder is functioning normally, just isn't doing what i expected it to. I also know that in FSUIPC's advanced user doc there is a description (in the buttons, conditional programming section) of how to "program" fsuipc.ini to do a software interface able to connect two joystick buttons to the encoder. And that's what i want. Furthermore i found (when reading Mr Dowson's great doc's, cant praise him enough !) that i had forgotten one thing in trying to get the trim wheel USB axis to run. Yeah, i'm stupid, but it never crossed my mind to fiddle with the sensitivity settings in FS2k2. Oops.When i realized that these sensitivities only shorten the range of the trim (and thus give a higher resolution in the range that it operates in) i was there. Just had to set the sens-slider at about 1/3 of the scale and it's working. A really precise way to trim my a/c and also rahter real. At 1/3 the range is big enough for me, i never use the top and down 1/3 of the trim in any a/c.So that's it for the trimming problem, maybe in the near future i will experiment with the encoder and FSUIPC as its interface to 2 buttons. Maybe for setting the HDG-bug and/or the OBS, those are the only two i can't set on a 2D subpanel on my second monitor.Again, thanx ! If the above raises any questions, please let me know.Cas.

> I also know that in >FSUIPC's advanced user doc there is a description (in the >buttons, conditional programming section) of how to >"program" fsuipc.ini to do a software interface able to >connect two joystick buttons to the encoder. And that's what >i want. Interesting.>Furthermore i found (when reading Mr Dowson's great doc's, >cant praise him enough !) that i had forgotten one thing in >trying to get the trim wheel USB axis to run. Yeah, i'm >So that's it for the trimming problem, maybe in the near >future i will experiment with the encoder and FSUIPC as its >interface to 2 buttons. Maybe for setting the HDG-bug and/or >the OBS, those are the only two i can't set on a 2D subpanel >on my second monitor. You might experience problems with the trim axis if you fly with autopilot, since autopilot adjusts trim. So it can lead to a nasty "autopilot sets trim, trim wheel axis gets reset back to the position the trim is (especially if the axis has any jitter like joystick port ones do) - and autopilot adjusts the trim again and so on...If that becomes a problem the solution is to make the encoder be your trim, and bind it to "increase / decrease elevator trim" functions in fsuipc. Then the wheel itself doesnt have "position" but rather just adjusts the value. At least that is what I understand.Tuomas

Tuomas,on the AP ALT hold vs. axis-trim: thanx for the tip, but i already solved that one. It was the first problem i observed when i started thinking about making another axis (or really, buying a joystick and hack it) for trim. I just used one of the buttons as a switch (program it with fsuipc's buttons section) to center the trim and also turn on AP alt hold. Works great, trim is centered and no input is received from the wheel. When i turn alt hold off again, there's a little caution to be taken, as sometimes the ac goes wild (depending on the setting of the trim, but once you know that, it can be anticipated.Cheers,Cas