Hi Robert,
So the Leobodner board turned up, i wired in 1 encoder, it works like you said…new problem…i assigned the encoder to HDG bug, set it to the lowest ms and as i turn the encoder, the bug moves soooo slowly, it takes over a minute, 30000000 turns (lol) to go anywhere…is there a way i can speed it up? it works, but its way too slow. Im using xplane 11 or 12… same issue 
hope you may have a solution. Its so frustrating
Hi Hubert
It has been a little while since I fired up my XPlane but give me a couple of days to have a look. Unfortunately at the moment my Windows machine is not playing the game and unless Leo Bodnar has a Mac version of his configuration software I can’t even have a look at the settings I used. Forget what they are now. As far as I remember the bugs and tuning work fine
My encoders are as fools from the top.
Nav1 Bug, Tuning coarse , tuning fine
Nav 2 Ditto
NDB (I think) kHz X 100, X10, X1
Total 9 encoders.
The 10th one is Elevator trim, the encoder buttons replace the yolk buttons for nose up and down with the push button switch on the encoder set to return to “take off” position
You can play with some of the encoder settings in the config software, not sure what it all means at the moment but I will see if I can find what mine are. Give me a few days.
Cheers Bob
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Thank you so much, i am away for the next few days so perfect and no rush…enjoy your weekend !!
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Hi Hubert
Firstly a short description of my set up
Saitek Flight Yolk. Plugged into powered USB hub.
Saitek 3 axis throttle (etc) quadrant with 3 dual rocker switches. Plugged into USB hub on Flight Yolk.
CH Rudder pedals plugged into USB hub on Flight Yolk.
Box containing 10 Rotary encoders (Bourns PEC11R 18 PPR) assigned as follows
NAV1 OBS, tune coarse, tune fine (3)
NAV2 OBS, tune coarse, tune fine (3)
NDB kHz X 100, kHz X 10, kHz X 1 (3)
Elevator trim (1), reset to “Take off” using push button.
Flight Yolk Pitch and Roll pots via a cable and connector (analog input).
All connected to a:…
Leo Bodnar BU0836X Joystick Interface.
This box plugged in separately to powered USB hub.
Flight Sim XPlane10, aircraft Cessna 172.
I have not yet been able to check my encoder settings but I did temporarily reassign that HDG bug (I assume that is the one on the compass in the middle of the instrument panel) after finding it (attached to auto pilot settings) to one of by encoders. And yes, it is slow, This seemed to be 2º per step so 10 full turns for 360º but not consistent. I then assigned one of the quadrant rocker switches to this function with the same result (2º) per switch press. BUT when the button is held down there seems to be a controlled repeat function I suspect is part of the Sim. It starts slow then speeds up and takes about 5 Sec for 360º.
Of course the button hold function is not possible with the encoders. When I looked closer at the NAV radial select using the encoders I found they too jumped in 2º steps. All tuning control is nicely in single steps. When I hovered the mouse over these controls the steps appear to be 1º per button push and holding the button produces the same repeating or continuous rotation.
The only explanation for the 2º steps is that the encoder switch closure and the rocker button press is long enough duration for 2 pulses in repeat mode.
It would seem from this that if you want or need 1º resolution with the HDG or radial select bugs the mouse is the way to go.
However this exercise has stirred my interest and when I can have a look at my encoder settings I will have to do some experimenting. BUT even if I can succeed in getting 1º resolution with an encoder this will equate to 20 complete revolutions with my encoders and because you can’t hold a switch operated there is nothing can be done to speed that up.
Cheers Bob
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Gday mate
Wow thankyou so much for the detailed explanation. What is strange is i have the Honeycomb throttle quadrant and on that is a knob (assume its an encoder). There is a rotating position switch that is also there for selecting HDG CRS ALT IAS etc.
When that switch is in HDG mode, the encoder when turning The headging bug rotates the bug so fast, i can get a full revolution of 360 degrees in seconds.
The reason i made the other panel is because if i select CRS on the honey comb and the air raft is flying the course bar, i cant move the HDG bug unless i turn the switch to HDG. If auto pilot is engaged, and the HDG bug was left behind as the aircraft was flying the CRS, it begins to suddenly turn to follow the HDG bug…annoying.
So my panel was designed to overcome that. Sadly the encoders i have dont allow for the HDG bug to respond as fsat as the Honeycomb throttle quadrant.
So im a little annoyed and would be nice to fix that. For now, while flying CRS i spent a lot of time turning HDG bug before i switch autopilot over to HDG bug.
Thank you again for all you help…
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Hi Hubert
Just had a look at that Honeycomb gear. Pretty exotic but unfortunately so is the price.
Could be a rotary encoder. There are a lot more around than my modest 18PPR but I think most are optical. There is one I note on Element 14 which is 360 PPR which would be very convenient for applications such as this or even a couple of turns (180 PPR) would be useful. They seem to be optical with no detents. I don’t know if the Bodnar boards can handle things like open collector devices or if they have to be mechanical switches but I might look into it. In the past Leo Bodnar have answered queries readily and promptly.
Does your knob feel as if it has detents and if so how many per revolution. I can’t see any real requirement to have any as long is it is incremental. Might even dismantle an old mouse to experiment.
Cheers Bob
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Evening,
The encoder on the honey
Comb is a very fine 30 turns for 360 degrees and the ones i have on the box i made are only 20 turns for the full 360 rotation.
What does that all mean?
Regards
Hubert
Hi Hubert
Now I am confused.
By “turns” do you mean 1 complete revolution. If that is so it means 12 pulses per revolution (PPR) assuming 1 pulse per degree ie; 30 X 12 = 360. and your 20 “turns” would be 18 PPR. In which case your box should be faster than the Honeycomb because it takes 10 turns less to complete 360º.
You have not answered this. By “detents” I mean the little positive “clicks” when you rotate the shaft. Some encoders don’t have these “detents”, particularly optical ones which have lots of PPR and are sometimes coupled to machinery for position reporting etc. Like the old tracker ball type mouse which have 2 optical encoders for X/Y positioning.
Cheers Bob
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