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Main => Driving & Racing Cabinets => Topic started by: portyman on June 13, 2020, 09:11:28 am

Title: A-PAC or U-Hid - which should I use
Post by: portyman on June 13, 2020, 09:11:28 am

I am building a pole position/ off road cab with a raspberry Pi and 360 wheels. I have an analog potentiometer gas pedal and brake set. I use a mini pac for buttons and joystick. What should I use for the pedals. I will eventually get 2 more gas pedals to use for the off road game but I’m starting simple at first. It’s my first uses of anything with Pots.
Thanks

Title: Re: A-PAC or U-Hid - which should I use
Post by: PL1 on June 13, 2020, 01:38:52 pm

Quote from: portyman on June 13, 2020, 09:11:28 am

I am building a pole position/ off road cab with a raspberry Pi and 360 wheels. I have an analog potentiometer gas pedal and brake set. I use a mini pac for buttons and joystick. What should I use for the pedals. I will eventually get 2 more gas pedals to use for the off road game but I’m starting simple at first.

Several approaches to this:

1. Use your Mini-Pac for the buttons, joystick, and 360 wheels.  Use a U-HID nano for the pedals.
- Two 360 wheels are electrically the same as one trackball.

2. If you want to fit all of the controls on one hybrid encoder board, you're looking at a full-size U-HID.
- It's a bit expensive for some people's budget but a very powerful and flexible encoder.

3. You can roll-your-own joystick/button, optical, or analog encoders using inexpensive 32u4 Arduino boards.
- Costs far less than the encoders mentioned above, but requires some soldering skills and loading the desired firmware on the board.
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Dedicated admin buttons or shifted functions?  http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ#Number_of_admin_buttons (http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ#Number_of_admin_buttons)

How many of each type of control will you need for your final build?

  2 - 360 wheels (optical encoder)
  4 - potentiometer pedals (analog/gamepad encoder)
  __ - admin and player buttons (gamepad or keyboard encoder)
  __ - joysticks (gamepad or keyboard encoder)

Based on that info, you can determine how many inputs/connections you'll need.
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ#How_many_encoder_inputs_do_I_need_for_my_control_panel.3F (http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ#How_many_encoder_inputs_do_I_need_for_my_control_panel.3F)
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A 360 wheel is an optical (mouse) control.
- 5v
- Ground
- Two data lines ("quadrature waveforms")

A potentiometer is an analog control.
- 5v
- Ground
- Input for variable voltage from the wiper (center tab)

Buttons/joysticks are microswitch controls.
- Input
- Ground


Scott

Title: Re: A-PAC or U-Hid - which should I use
Post by: portyman on June 13, 2020, 02:02:23 pm

Awesome..thank you. I think option 1 is the best for me since I have the mini ipac already and my soldering skills are terrible.