How do I get throttle input from a bicycle crank? I am trying to create a human-powered airplane simulator with Microsoft Flight Simulator 9. In other words, the pilot must pedal a stationary bicycle, a sensor measures the RPMs of the wheel, and those RPMs must be sent to Flight Simulator to adjust the throttle. If the pilot pedals faster and faster, the throttle will increase.I don't know where to begin with the coding in FS9, nor how to get this to work. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Here's a wild idea...get one of those old bicycle generators that were used to drive the old headlamps, and connect the output to a small computer fan that then blows against a vane attached to a pot. As the wheel speed increases, the fan speed increases, thus increasing the flow of air against the vane, which moves the pot. You might have to experiment with vane weighting and a possible gentle spring return.Might be a fun starting point... You'll have to add a fairly sturdy diode in series with the fan because I think those generators put out AC current, not DC. Ray Sotkiewiczwww.EllieSystems.com

Or even easier: take an rpm counter (cheap way: use an old fan with RPM control), wire that to a PIC, AVR or any other microcontroller, which converts the RPMs to the desired resistance value (if you really need to use resistors that is).Or leave out the resistor, and interface the uC with your PC directly using RS-232... a little piece of software will do the rest (shouldn't be too hard to program, basic knowledge should suffice).-Toine