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I am ready to build my cab and want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row
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markrvp:
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.


Think of a rotary joystick as having two separate parts.  The top part (part 1) controls UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT movements of your character (sprite) in a game.  There are 4 microswitches to control UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT just like the Happ Super or Competition joysticks.  The microswitches will take up 4 inputs on the encoder.  Nothing from part one is connected to the Optipac or Optiwiz.  The U, D, L, R motions have nothing to do with the Optipac or Optiwiz.

Part 2 is at the bottom of the joystick shaft.  This is the optical rotary attachment.  It is a spoked wheel which turns when you twist the shaft left or right.  There is an optical sensor (two actually) which reads the speed and direction the wheel is turning and reports that motion to 1 Axis of the Optipac or Optiwiz.

On the panel you describe, Rotary joystick 1 would have 4 lead wires and a ground wire going to the GP-Wiz 49 from the microswitches.  Then you use 4 wires to connect the rotary part to the Optipac or Optiwiz.  The 4 wires are:  +5v, Ground, Direction A, Direction B.  This connection only uses 1 AXIS of the Optipac or Optiwiz and for joystick 1 I would assign it to the X AXIS.      Joystick 2 would have 4 more lead wires and a ground wire going to either one of the GP-Wiz 49s and then 4 wires from the optical attachment that would take up AXIS Y on the Optipac or Optiwiz.

Only 2 AXES are needed to hook up 2 optical rotary joysticks.
Spaz Monkey:
Twist/turn the rotary joystick to face a direction, push the joystick to move another.  If you remember the game Smash TV, you had two joysticks, one to move, another to shoot.  Same principle.
trog_4269:
OK.  I understand it now.  I just assumed that the actual joystick was also optical, like the rotary, so I assumed that I would be needing to connect the whole thing to the optical board.  Thank you very much for clearing that up for me.   
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