Weird question, can I use my spinner as a volume knob for my cab?

[P-chan]

I'm thinking something like, if I hold button 2, 4, and 6 and turn the spinner it would act as a Windows volume knob.  Possible to set up in Win10, or am I crazy?

[SORHP]

I'm thinking something like, if I hold button 2, 4, and 6 and turn the spinner it would act as a Windows volume knob.  Possible to set up in Win10, or am I crazy?

You could probably set up an ahk to listen for the combination...  that would be an interesting script

Fairly possible

[Phreakwars]

That should absolutely be possible. A spinner ain't really nothing but a Potentiometer anyways. I don't think it would even require a script if using MAME and an i-Pac. Should be able to assign it in the admin panel software in a shift function just like you would other shift functions.

[PL1]

A spinner ain't really nothing but a Potentiometer anyways.

Sorry, man, that's just not correct.   

A spinner outputs data highs/lows on two wires that an optical encoder converts to a relative change in position.

A potentiometer provides a variable voltage on one wire that an analog encoder converts to an absolute position.

AFAIK the closest these two come to overlapping is the very unique spinner encoder assembly in Omega Race (Index #16 on page 63 of the manual here) that uses a free-turning potentiometer disc and a built in A/D converter that outputs 6-bit Gray code.


Scott

[Mike A]

Just put a volume knob somewhere.

[Phreakwars]

A spinner ain't really nothing but a Potentiometer anyways.

Sorry, man, that's just not correct.   

A spinner outputs data highs/lows on two wires that an optical encoder converts to a relative change in position.

A potentiometer provides a variable voltage on one wire that an analog encoder converts to an absolute position.

AFAIK the closest these two come to overlapping is the very unique spinner encoder assembly in Omega Race (Index #16 on page 63 of the manual here) that uses a free-turning potentiometer disc and a built in A/D converter that outputs 6-bit Gray code.


Scott

Interesting, I have always been told different, thanks for the info.

[Mike A]

Who told you that?

[fuchi_jeg]

Another option. I connected 2 arcade buttons to my ipac. On for volume up, one for down. Hide them on the side of your Cp, or put them up front if you want kids to blow your speakers.

[Mike A]

A volume pot doesn't need to go through a keyboard encoder, You don't need some dumb keyboard combination, and it fits in a much smaller spot than 2 arcade buttons.

What is wrong with using the easiest and most intuitive solution?

[Phreakwars]

Who told you that?

I was reading it somewhere a while back. It was an article about hacking a spinner to make a volume knob. There is even an article here on this site about it: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=74579.0

[Mike A]

That isn't what that thread is about at all. I think you need to reread it.

They are talking about using a spinner or a mouse scroll wheel through an encoder to control volume.

They don't discuss a volume pot at all.

[Phreakwars]

Yeah, honestly do not remember where I was reading it. It was some random article I came up on a while back when researching something else completely. It was something about using a potentiometer to create an arcade spinner. I didn't think much of it at the time because it wasn't a project I was interested in trying, but I remember it talking about using the potentiometer (volume knob) to act as a spinner in an arcade cabinet. Honestly my thoughts on it were... why not just buy a spinner? If the article was misleading, then my bad for believing it. Again, it wasn't something I was interested in, just something I stumbled on. If I stand corrected, that is a good thing. Always open to learning more myself.

[Mike A]

No worries. I am just trying to clear up confusion.

[DaOld Man]

Im sure you can use the spinner as a volume knob, but all my builds have had analog pots soldered into wire between PC and speaker amp. Works great.
However after a few years the pots I have used developed a little distortion when turning up or down. (Probably from me using cheap pots.)
This is not a big problem with arcade machines, since you usually set the pot and forget it.
But on my jukebox builds, this is a problem, no one wants to hear static and crackling when cranking the volume up on some Eagles tunes.
If I do anymore jukes, I will definitely go the digital encoder route.

[Mike A]

They are probably just a little dirty. Did you spray some contact cleaner in there? Just shut everything off and spray contact cleaner on the pot and turn the knob back and forth a bunch of times.

[DaOld Man]

They are probably just a little dirty. Did you spray some contact cleaner in there? Just shut everything off and spray contact cleaner on the pot and turn the knob back and forth a bunch of times.

Thanks MikeA. I will try that, got to pick up some contact cleaner first.

[Mike A]

WD40 will work.

[P-chan]

A volume pot doesn't need to go through a keyboard encoder, You don't need some dumb keyboard combination, and it fits in a much smaller spot than 2 arcade buttons.

What is wrong with using the easiest and most intuitive solution?

Because my cab will already have all of the above (spinner, keyboard encoder, etc), I was just hoping to get dual duty out of it as a volume control.