Servos instead of poteniometers?

[nosecone]

Hi all
I am looking at different options to connect the cyclic, collective and pedals in my helicopter cockpit to the computer via a usb board .

Instead of using poteniometers is it possible to use servos form say model aircraft but heavy duty ones, and if so what usb board would be recommend.

Thanks

Rhys

[Gsey]

No, You can use servos in conjuction with potentiometers for movement in autoflight but you still need pots to tell the software that a movement has been made.

Gary

[skywatch]

Potentiometers are variable resistors and provide a signal TO the PC to tell it where the control is positioned. Servos are motors that take a signal FROM the PC to make something move.

I am not certain that I understand what you want to achieve here.

Skywatch

[nosecone]

Thanks guys
I am looking at the best options to connect the control rods on my helicopter cockpit to the computer usb port.
My cockpit has a total of 5 control rods

-2 rods control the cyclic, 1 for forward/back movement and 1 for left and right movement these two rods are in between the pilots/copilots seat in a horizontal position

-2 rods for the pedals under the cockpit floor

-1 rod in a vertical position for the collective

I am looking at what would be the best option to get the controls to interface with the computer

Cheers

Rhys

[Michael Carter]

10K pots and any number of available input cards from Open Cockpits, Phidgets, FDS, Leo Bodnar, Hagstrom, etc, etc.

It's up to you to design and engineer the linkage to hook your control rods to the pots, as well as anchor the pots in a mount of some sort that you design and build.

[XOrionFE]

10K pots and any number of available input cards from Open Cockpits, Phidgets, FDS, Leo Bodnar, Hagstrom, etc, etc.

It's up to you to design and engineer the linkage to hook your control rods to the pots, as well as anchor the pots in a mount of some sort that you design and build.

Michael, out of curiosity, I have been using 100K pots. Is 10K better? do you get better resolution from one over the other? Just curious? I may be using the wrong type :-(

Scott

[AndyT]

The type of Pot you use depends on how much juice you have in the circuit. 10K and 100K pots are pretty standard.
10K = 10,000 Ohms of resistance
100K= 100,000 Ohms of resistance

[skywatch]

100K pots are used in most joysticks as they were the standard for the 'game port' interface on soundcards and motherboards. Actually a 100K will use less current over 90% of it's range than a 10K one will. You would not know without looking at the pot which you have from the movement on the screen.

As for the original question, the cheapest thing would be to get some cheap usb joysticks and use the circuit boards in them. Just keep the rest of them for the future and use your own new pots wired to the joystick boards.

Skywatch

[Michael Carter]

Michael, out of curiosity, I have been using 100K pots. Is 10K better? do you get better resolution from one over the other? Just curious? I may be using the wrong type :-(

Scott


Doesn't really matter. As Skywatch said, you can't tell the difference in operation or calibration. The only thing that really matters is linearity and accuracy or tolerance.

[XOrionFE]

thanks guys