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potentiometer centering when swapping?

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Matthew Fisher:
I have a Happ's analog stick and I swapped the 5K pots for 100k and wired it up to go to the gameport.  The darn thing just won't calibrate correctly, however.   Symptoms: (best explained by behavior in Star Wars) no matter what I do, when the stick is at rest, the cursor sits about 2/3 of the way up the screen and I cannot get it to aim at anything in the bottom third of the screen.  I have tried calibrating in MAME and using JCENTER, an old CH utility that came with their flight yokes. 

My question is (before I take this thing apart), how important is it to physically center the pots when swapping?  I guess I assumed this would all be worked out in calibration, so I wasn't too careful to center the pots when I swapped them.  Was I wrong?  Thanks in advance. 

Kremmit:
Have you calibrated through the Windows Control Panel?

If that doesn't work, then it's probably time to center those pots.

Matthew Fisher:
Sorry, forgot to mention, I am running in DOS.  I guess I will take it apart (again  :() to center the pots. 

u_rebelscum:

--- Quote from: Matthew Fisher on December 28, 2005, 07:11:32 am ---Sorry, forgot to mention, I am running in DOS.  I guess I will take it apart (again  :() to center the pots. 

--- End quote ---

Yes, DOS is a pain to center, even with good drivers.  (Windows98 on come with "good drivers", AFA centering goes.)

Check what type of "taper" your new POT has:

* you should NOT use "audio", the resistance is logarithmic
* "S-curve", like happs, has a "dead spot" in the middle, and thus needs to be centered, good driver or not
* "linear", with a good driver shouldn't have to be centered, but it you don't have that driver, you'll have to center it.

Matthew Fisher:
Ah, I forgot about the s-taper!  I have the Happs, so I will just pull out the trusty multimeter and get those things centered, like I should have done when I put them in...   :-[

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