interface options

hi all

as i said i'm going to start my projec with standalone yoke pedals and throtle quadrant.
while i'm ok with doing stuff to various pieces of wood/metal and have solid idea on how i'm going to actuate potentiometers of my controls, the interface to PC is still very open question for me.
i cant drop a ton of money and as such i need a solution that does not break the bank, works out of the box and does not require micro-controller programming and soldering (only to find i scewed up)

i looked at Mjoy16, FSBUS, IOcards, leo bodnar card, phidjets ...
Mjoy project looks dead. IO cards - "never could get mine to work " post on this forum did not instill much confidence. FSBUS (the super joystick) and phidjets expencive as all ****...
for now i'm heavily leaning towards Leos card.

however is there anything preventing taking a 20$ joystick (logitech attackX,Y +trottle, seems perfect for rudder +left/right toe break) and using its electronics to pick up readings from pots?

i took apart logitech extreme 3d that had its factory pots going south and played with it for a while. it seems to have 90Kohm pots (is this right? seems like strange value. perhaps time for new multimeter... ) installed of which it uses only small range - probably 40 to 50 K ohm. which can be done with 10K pot connected after 40K resisitor (or 30K + 10K trimmer to dial in that start spot ). further range adjustments in FSUIPC.

so the questions are as follows:
what would you recommend for interface with PC?
it seems that cutting up joystichs for their electronics is not very popular. why? low resolution of those cheap joysticks? perhaps i need to go with OK joystick instead (say saiteck aviator, 5 axis...)

also is there any options other then IO-card and phidget LED64 to output indications From flight sim? what do you guys use for LEDs and seven segment LEDs?

thanks!

Your question was answered at Flightsim.com forums, though you may get additional opinions here.

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Originally Posted by Michael Carter

Your question was answered at Flightsim.com forums, though you may get additional opinions here.

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yep , thank you again Michael.
as i said i really like the answer i recieved.
however this forum seemed much more around building stuff then flightsim and this post also kinda summarizes my entire plan

i hope there is nothing wrong with cross-posting :roll:

Hi,

For my 2 cents worth, the IOCards and the Bodnar cards are both excellent and work good with each other. The thing to remember about using the Bodnar cards is that it is a custom joystick interface, inputs only. I have one of the latest model and it's great! I use it to read the pots for my flasp, speedbrakes, and encoders for radio controls.

The IOcards I use are for driving LED displays, single LEDs, and reading various switches. I also have a USB keys card for the CDU when I get to it (soon I hope). Getting the IOcards to work is not difficult, but does have a much steeper learning curve than the Bodnar card, IMHO. There are lot's of people here to help though..

BuddyM