I know very little about electronics, some.

 

I want to build two sets.

 

First a single push/pull unit for single engine planes, 

 

it would have three, one for throttle, prop and mix

 

A while back I had a saitek unit but no more.

I opened up the wheel once and saw like a light emitting little device with a small wheel inside of it with little "windows" cut in the wheel and as you turned the wheel it turned the little wheel breaking the light path into "pulses"

Anyone know where I can get one of those?

 

I think something like that would work well

 

also, thinking of going slide pot. 100K ohms

 

can anyone help me out and get me on the right path.

 

the second of course will be for met/p  a lever slide up and slide down partial arc type. two throttles, prop and mix.  but I'll worry about that when I'm ready for it. Now I'm trying to concentrate on the single unit.

 

Thanks.

 

How about 

http://www.opencockpits.com/index.php/en/download/item/how-to-build-a-b-737-300800-throttle-quadrant