Servo controlled 4/8 way switching...?

[Level42]

While my nephew was demonstrating his new electric remote car, I got the following idea:

Did anybody think of making the 4/8 way ring that selects the mode on your joystick movable via a servo ??

Like the Omni stick prodigy but then completely hidden in your cab and controlled by a switch, or a button combination or even better, make a front-end hack that automaticaly sets the stick in the correct mode for the chosen game 

I hear some of you say: lot of work, hard to do, lots of space....but this IS the Build Your Own Arcade controls forum isnt it ? I think it fits nicely in the rotatable monitor line, so there must be a way to do this...

[Tiger-Heli]

Been discussed before.  Should be completely doable and much more expensive than buying a GP-Wiz49 and 49-way joystick, unless you just HAVE to have a very short throw joystick.

[AlanS17]

Well there is a difference. One offers true physical restriction and one doesn't. It seems simple enough in concept, but a true pain in the butt in application. I know I don't havr that kind of patience.

[Minwah]

I think someone did it with a J-Stik, or at least tried to.

I like the idea, I'd love to have automatic switching on my J-Stik.  On the other hand I would probably rather manually switch than figure out how the hell to do it 

[Stingray]

I like the idea, I'd love to have automatic switching on my J-Stik.  On the other hand I would probably rather manually switch than figure out how the hell to do it 

My sentements exactly. Although it would be neat, it takes about half a second to switch my Omnistick, it would take me months to engineer and build something to do it for me. Having said that, if someone decides to give it a go, do post pics.

-S

[Level42]

Ha, yeah, all very true but it was just an idea that struck me, hand't seen it here before (still pretty new to this forum ) and didn't search for it either, since I guess I didn't expect someone to have actualy done it.

O well, maybe when we retire ?

[ErikRuud]

Something like this would make it really easy to do.


The big question is how strong of a servo would it take.  They get pretty expensive as the torque goes up.