Main > Main Forum
Fake optical rotary joystick? *** DONE !!!
(1/3) > >>
abaraba:
I do not have any rotary joysticks, so I'd like to wire left/right rotation to two buttons, somehow. On 'Caliber 50' PCB there is pin marked "Loop1" and pin "Loop2", meaning "clockwise" and "anticlockwise" I think, but when you connect them with ground pin nothing happens. Loop24 joystick takes 4 wires, 2 for Loop1 & Loop2 signal pins, and 2 for power line pins +5v & GND, so I am tempted to connect Loop1 or Loop2 pin with +5v instead of GND and see if that might rotate the character, but they say it's always best to ask (first), so - does anyone know, or can measure, what kind of signal is produced by optical rotary joysticks such as Loop24? Is it digital, analog, encoded as serial signal like PC mouse, or whatever, and how to fake it?
Ed_McCarron:
Quadrature output?  More like the encoder on a mouse axis than the serial output.

Just a guess.
abaraba:
MAME calls it "Analog Dial", and I think it would be simplest and fastest solution if there was no any serial encoding, but simply variable resistor like with PC analog joystick, say zero ohm=no rotation, 50ohm=180 and 100ohm=359 degree rotation. That would also make it easier for me to make my own rotary joystick from practically any joystick whose stick can be rotated by using a simple potentiometer. I just hope someone who actually owns this joystick will come along with some facts before my temptation makes me start blindly connecting those pins.
SavannahLion:
Checked the manual yet?

Nvm I'm an ass. I thought the manual would have the schematic. It does not. Well KLOV lists the Loop_24 as optical rotates. That makes sense with four wires. An analog rotor would have three, would it not?

+1 to Ed's guess but I would test/verify first.
abaraba:
Yes, I hope they would not call it "optical" if it was "analog".

So one "loop" pin is DATA and the other is CLOCK then, just like mouse, which makes it a "spinner".

Why in the world MAME calls this "Analog Dial"? There is nothing analog there then, it would be serially encoded digital signal. Curiously also, in their implementation instead of position analog displacement determines the speed, huh.



Yes, of course Ed's guess is reasonable, the word "optical" implies "mouse/spinner", however the last part of his sentence is contradicting - that IS actually "serial output" then. All the mice are serial devices, on COM port they used RS232 serial protocol, on PS/2 port they use that serial protocol, and on USB port they use universal serial bus protocol. To wire a mouse/spinner as "parallel device" you would loose resolution and require too many wires. So, what serial protocol does Loop-24 joystick use, is it compatible with arcade trackballs maybe, or some PC mice?

Interestingly, mechanical rotary joysticks are "digital & parallel", in contrast to optical which are "digital & serial", and it actually seems there is no such thing as "analog rotary" joysticks at all, even though it would be the simplest design, having faster communication than "digital-serial" (optical spinner), using less wires than "digital-parallel" (mechanical spinner), while having high resolution of optical spinner, if not better.
Navigation
Message Index
Next page

Go to full version