Does such a thing exist?

[BTilson]

I envision a "knob" that when clicked/turned to the left will generate a momentary pulse for one button, and when clicked to the right will generate a pulse for a different button. For instance, when hooked up to a keyboard encoder, a left turn would bridge the connection needed to send a '-' signal, and when turned to the right, it would make the signal for a '+'.

Basically the same effect as one of those self resetting toggle switches that has a momentary in both directions, (On) - Off - (On)

Does anyone know if such a thing exists, and if so, where I might can find some?

Thanks in advance!!

[npbosch]

Yes, they do exist.
http://www.voti.nl/winkel/catalog.html?M-SW-ROT
Some people call them the Dutch rotaries. They do not need ane additional hardware like redec to connect them directly to fsbus/iocards or whatever.

Norbert

[Diesel]

Yes, they do exist.
http://www.voti.nl/winkel/catalog.html?M-SW-ROT
Some people call them the Dutch rotaries. They do not need ane additional hardware like redec to connect them directly to fsbus/iocards or whatever.

Norbert

Is this a swithch like an engine start Norbert ? It resets itself!

[BTilson]

So a rotary encoder is all I need? I looked at those things a hundred times and finally convinced myself that that was NOT what I needed. I would love to find out otherwise, because they did seem to be the most simple approach to this problem.

Thanks!

[npbosch]

Yes , it is a rotary, It turns endlessly in either direction if you like. But there are all kind of rotaries from an elctronic point of view. The one I mentioned does what you asked. Most rotaries don't, in any case not without special hardware. The special hardware is needed for your input/output card to determine whether you turn cw or ccw.

--------------
edit
Now I understand your question better.
No, my link does NOT do wat you want. AFAIK what you describe does not exist.
My first building project was a cessna like panel, completely done with keyboardhacking. For the radiostack, I made a knob that moves a little lever behind the panel. It pushed again one microswitch when turned left and against another when turned right. Because of the spings in the microswitches the knob was cenetered when I let it loose.  As long as I hold the knob turned ccw the frequency decreased and viceversa.
Perhaps for your purpose a nice idea.
have a look here
http://home.wanadoo.nl/norbert.bosch/firstpanel.html

[JSpahn]

is this what you are looking for?

http://www.hanskrohn.com/BuildingTips/E ... Switch.htm

He made mechanical start switches, pretty cool make sure and check out the video

[JBaymore]

is this what you are looking for?

http://www.hanskrohn.com/BuildingTips/E ... Switch.htm

He made mechanical start switches, pretty cool make sure and check out the video

There's a slick and professional looking piece of work!!!!!

Thanks.

best,

.................john

[BTilson]

Just thought I would bump this up and share what I found. I had decided that what I wanted did not exist, until I found it on a UK 737NG simpit site. Seems like these would be quite useful, especially if doing a joystick hack or something similar.

http://www.737ng.co.uk/technical.htm

Near the top of the page. It's a rotary that when turned CCW makes a connection across two pins, and when turned CW makes the connection across two other pins. The link is there for a datasheet and everything. I checked them out on mouser, and they're about $6 a piece. Not terrible by any means.

Just thought I'd share!

[npbosch]

The rotary you mention in the post on the www.737ng.co.uk website does the same as the one I mentioned in the second post. The one from voti is a lot cheaper

[BTilson]

Haha that figures. As much as I feel that I have learned sometimes, I am regularly reminded of just how much that still remains to be learned.

Thanks for the info!