Why go to all the hassle of gutting a joystick and assigning an axis and all that? A four-position rotary sends a 'click' on a different pair of contacts in each position. Assign the first position to Flaps 0, the second to Flaps 10, etc. The position of the switch is the flaps position. Why wire resistors to a rotary to do what you can do with a rotary with no resistors?Richard

Because there are only TWO keys available (flaps up and flaps down).Therefor a rotary would only have two usable positions - and not four.TONY

There are rotaries that can tell which direction it has been turned, thus can be used to send the relevant key press. Say it's at top (0 flaps) by default (if it's not the rotary can be turned to the top without any problems), turning the rotary down one notch will lower the flaps one notch, and turning the rotary up one notch will raise the flaps one notch. I think that's what he meant by using the 4-position rotary. Just use a rotary that has as many positions as flap positions.

Richard:>>Why go to all the hassle of gutting a joystick and assigning an axis and all that? A four-position rotary sends a 'click' on a different pair of contacts in each position. Assign the first position to Flaps 0, the second to Flaps 10, etc. The position of the switch is the flaps position. Why wire resistors to a rotary to do what you can do with a rotary with no resistors?Tony:>>Because there are only TWO keys available (flaps up and flaps down).Therefor a rotary would only have two usable positions - and not four.Sorry, Tony, but that's simply not so. FS2002 has actually got 9 key commands for flaps, although two of those - Flaps Detent Set and Flaps Set - are more for setting the panel up than actual use in flight. The remaining 7 however are in-flight control types. "Flaps Incr" and "Flaps Decr" are by default set to F6 and F7 and, as the name implies, increase or decrease the flaps setting by one position. These are the ones you could wire to a toggle switch. The remaining five are "Flaps Up", "Flaps 1", "Flaps 2", "Flaps 3" and "Flaps Down". Note that "Flaps Down" and "Flaps Incr" are NOT the same thing. "Flaps Incr" (F7 on a default keyboard) increases the flaps setting by one detent, whereas "Flaps Down" moves flaps to max. Likewise for "Flaps Decr" / "Flaps Up". Since a Cessna only has 4 detents on the flaps lever (0, 10, 20 and 30) "Flaps 3" and "Flaps Down" have the same function.Therefore, if you set up a rotary switch to Flaps Up / Flaps 1 / Flaps 2 / Flaps 3, the position of the rotary will indicate the actual flaps setting.Richard

Hi All,There may be some confusion here on what I ment with a rotary switch.If you look at the picture attached to post#7, you see what I ment: a four-position switch with one center contact (which I call rotary because it rotates :-) ).That diagram is to be used as an axis in FS (eiher on the gameport or via a USB convertor).The advantage of using that diagram (four-position switch with fixed resistors) over a potmeter, is that it has exactly 4 fixed position; with a potmeter you have to guess the correct position, unless you make detentes on the external housing. The other "rotary switch" mentioned, is a switch that gives a "contact pulse" when you rotate it. And they need "buttons" instead of an "axis" to give input to FS (unless you use more sophisticated easily inputs like FSBUS, EPIC card, or alike).However, I like these "pulsing" rotary switches for gauges that don't have fixed positions (like setting the AP ALT or radio frequencies).The reason I don't like them for Flaps is, that your switch can be out-of-sync with FS: e.g. if you press the F5 key on the keyboard). The advantage of using an "axis" over "buttons" is, that Axis always have priority.Compare it with using F1-F4 to manipulate the throttles if you also have a throttle axis.Rob

Rob:>>There may be some confusion here on what I ment with a rotary switch.I think we're clear, Rob. What you're referring to as 'pulsed rotaries' are more often called rotary encoders. The trouble with using one is that it then needs a decoder to get the input info into the computer. What you have made by connecting four resistors to a rotary switch is basically a variable pot with four fixed values rather than the more normal infinitly variable range. The only real downside to that method (other than the somewhat greater difficulty of making it) is that any fluctation in the power supply will result in fluctuations of the resultant control. Look at the throttle knob on a panel to see what I mean - you'll see it 'quivering' in place due to the PS not being perfectly clean.By using the rotary switch without resistors, and simply assigning each position to a different keypress command, you do away with this control flutter. Yes, the pilot could ignore his Flaps lever and hit a button on the keyboard, thus getting the control out of synch with the switch, but that's self correcting. Let's say you're at Flaps 20, and you want to go to Flaps 10. You forget you have a nice new Flaps lever, you reach out and hit F6 (Flaps Decr), and the flaps go to Flaps 10. Damn, your switch still says "FLaps 20". No problem, though - you just flip the switch to "Flaps 10". Since they're already AT 10, nothing will happen, and your switch is back in synch.Richard

Cheers Rick.I am looking into this now.TONY

Hi Richard.You say that FS2002 has 9 key commands - 7 of them in flight control types. 5 of these are FLAPS UP/ FLAPS 1/ FLAPS 2/ FLAPS 3/ and FLAPS DOWN.It would be perfect if I could locate these keys and use them for flap settings using my keyboard emulator. Unfortunately, I have no idea where they are?? Perhaps I'm confusing key commands with actual keyboard keys? If so, can you put me right and let me know how I can configure this? It's a great idea for use with a rotary switch.Many thanks.TONY.

Well, the commands that aren't in the drop down list that you can look at in FS2002 can be directly edited in fs2002.cfg if you want to mess with the numerical equivalents, but far and away easier is just to use FSUIPC's 'keys' tab. It lets you assign keys to each of the - literally - thousands of possible key driven events in FS2002.If you're trying to bulid any sort of cockpit at all you are, eventually, going to want to access some part of FS' innards that the gmomes of Redmond chose not to give us an easy way to get at, and for that you'll want FSUIPC. So, if you haven't installed it yet, go ahead and do so, it's not expensive, and its the first step in an awfull lot of what you'll want to do.Richard

As an aside, here's some views of V1.0 of my GA panel. Everything you see works, though my intention is to make a new front panel to fix it all to. When I get the new small (13") LCD screen I'm buying as an instrument panel, it'll go to the left of the radio stack, and a single front panel will cover it all, with cut-outs for the instruments on the LCD panel.Incidentally, I bought Leo's 0x64b card to drive the switches etc, thinking that 64 buttons would be more than enough for a simple Cessna 'pit..... and I've run out of inputs :-(http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/54145.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/54146.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/54147.jpgRichard