Single rotary encoder and two buttons control

[hpihl]

OK, sounds to me like the ERsky board will be your friend, or if the stock board, the new TelemetrEZ card that's being discussed, as there will be spare ports on that card that can be used for extra devices like rotary and the switches.

My thoughts on the 7 way rotary is that it's primary use will be for "computer" functions rather than flying use, and in terms of the connect to the mainboard, the small card that's being used in the 9X case would make it possible to fit the switch anywhere in the tray, on mounting posts, and then instead of using the pins to directly connect to the main board, it would be very easy to use ribbon cable or wire wrap connections from the main board to the rotary, so the position tie is not a limitation. I used a coaxial encoder at one time on a flight sim device, there were 2 rotaries on the same spindle, though at that time they didn't have a press option, I found a way round that and had a press AND a pull option, which replicated what was in the aircraft we were modelling at the time. Given the extra processor and memory, developments of that nature will be easier on the ERsky card, the stock card is apparently getting very tight on flash and CPU capacity, whereas the new card has plenty of both still available. I'm hoping to get into some serious work with the ERSky card very soon, and I won't be using a TX case or a tray as such, but that's going to be the subject of another thread once some progress has been made. It won't be fast, I'm going to be dependent on getting some very specific scrap items from parted out aircraft, so I can't choose when that happens.

From other discussions, it's not going to be too much hassle to have extra switches and inputs on the ERsky board, the more complex issue is getting the information across the RF link, as we don't have access to the packet structure to make changes, although it seems that might change with the PXX protocol that's being developed.

It's going to be an interesting winter!

I do have a ersky board (prototype series) and a gruvin board (4.1) and I'm pretty happy with the controls when the 3-way encoders are connected (2 encoders on the gruvin board, 1 on the ersky). I rarely use more than 1-2 switches and 1-2 pots/encoder for adjusting. All I'm suggesting here is an option to use these existing adjusters for control software instead left side buttons.

[Irish Steve]

That sounds reasonable, the best plan will be to put the thoughts into a request, and see what Mike and the rest of the team make of it, the ERSky board is certainly well able to handle extra functionality, and this looks like a way to do it.

[MikeB]

The four buttons (left, right, up, down) are multiplexed with the LCD data lines on the ersky9x board. This makes them less easy to use for rotary encoders than if they were on separate pins.

I have some enhancements to the rotary encoder functionality almost ready (er9x and ersky9x). Just need a bit more testing.

Mike.