Lighting Panel -- encoders or rotaries?
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I noticed that the callbacks for the Lighting Panel (INST PNL, DED, Flood Consoles) are step up/down callbacks which seem to suit encoders but the images for these controls look more like rotaries or “volume control” like the HMCS knob. Which one is it in the real aircraft and if it is rotaries/volume control, are there plans to make this an axis input in the future?
Thanks!
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@Atlas Knobs which do not spin infinitely are potentiometers which are analog devices to simply limit the flow/signal over a wire by changing the resistance. Typically applied to volume, brightness, and other such functions with a hard minimum and maximum value(s).
These can
easilybe programmed to send appropriate callbacks based on the current position to ensure the cockpit matches the analog potentiometer, or more easily by creating a game controller where these potentiometers are axes which can be assigned in BMS. -
@SemlerPDX said in Lighting Panel -- encoders or rotaries?:
easily be programmed to send appropriate callbacks based on the current position
?
#=================================================================================== SimDoNothing -1 0 0XFFFFFFFF 0 0 0 -1 "======== 5.04 LIGHTING PANEL ========" SimInstrumentLightCW 116 0 0xD0 3 0 0 1 "LIGHT: INST PNL Knob (Primary) - Step Up" SimInstrumentLightCCW 116 0 0xD0 5 0 0 1 "LIGHT: INST PNL Knob (Primary) - Step Down" SimDedBrightnessCW 116 0 0xD0 6 0 0 1 "LIGHT: DED Knob (Primary) - Step Up" SimDedBrightnessCCW 116 0 0xD0 7 0 0 1 "LIGHT: DED Knob (Primary) - Step Down" SimInteriorLightCW 116 0 0xCD 3 0 0 1 "LIGHT: CONSOLES Knob (Flood) - Step Up" SimInteriorLightCCW 116 0 0xCD 5 0 0 1 "LIGHT: CONSOLES Knob (Flood) - Step Down"
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@airtex2019 okay - perhaps I should not have used the word “easily”… what would be easy would be using a board programmed to act as a game controller where the potentiometer can be defined as an axis, and then it can be recognized in BMS as an axis which can be set to any of the available controls which accept an axis as input.
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@SemlerPDX yes, I think the crux of Atlas’s question is
are there plans to make this an axis input in the future?
I agree it would be nice to have finer-grain control over the cockpit lighting and instrument backlighting.
The instr panel backlighting looks like a rotary knob but effectively is just an on/off switch in BMS.
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@SemlerPDX Yes, I probably should’ve used the term “potentiometers” but these controls are not presented in the game as axis and callbacks seem to imply having to use encoders.
@airtex2019 in-game implementation has different dials rotating or “stepping” up/down a different number of steps, so it’s not just an on-off all-or-nothing scenario. Would be nice to be able to map a certain band on the potentiometer to a specific “step” in the dial but not sure how to do this at the moment.
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@Atlas said in Lighting Panel -- encoders or rotaries?:
are there plans to make this an axis input in the future?
Good question
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@Atlas OMG my bad, brother!! I clearly had not had enough yet…
I see what you mean now, this is for those items which do not have an axis definition in the BMS Setup > Controllers > Advanced window.
In that case, until they decide to add them in this way, you may be relegated to using rotary encoders for hardware controls of these axes. I’m fairly certain these would be potentiometers in the IRL cockpit, but if not allowed as such in BMS, you’d have to get creative.
If you need help with an Arduino sketch for rotary encoders that use the step up/down callbacks, let me know. I already have one for my HSI (CRS/HDG) that could easily be adapted for any other dial(s), and a keyfile section that allows it to fire the callbacks when dials are turned.
https://pastebin.com/drUnCfKN -
@SemlerPDX Hmmm, watching!
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Don´t forget Lighting Ext potentiometers too, aerial refuelling and Form.
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@Atlas I have both on my button box controlling stuff in BMS, here’s my 0.02$
Analog dials
Allow you to get back to where you left them and that’s very nice for stuff like radio volumes, and would be great for internal lights.
They use ‘pots’ which must be calibrated, and degrade over time (unless you use hall sensors and the like, which in modern gear, are replacing the old wiper types.).Encoders (digital dials).
More reliable overtime, and generally have a limited spin rate. Its the only solution for dials which rotate more than 360.Would be great to have the choice for all dials (like with the HUD brightness, and COMM’s dials.
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@SemlerPDX For HSI/CRS/altimeter knobs, I’m using rotary encoders I got from Leo Bodnar. Very impressed with the dual rotary encoders from Leo Bodnar!! I guess I can use some encoder for these too.
@Fish44 I just might use a rotary switch for these instead.