Rotary switches

[Steve A]

I know i'm gonna get an award soon for the dumbest builder :oops: :wink:
Could somebody point me towards a good rotary switch tutorial.
I have started my budget overhead now and im using Leo's BUO836x card's.
I have no problems with toggle switches or push buttons and these are all installed and interfaced with fsuipc.
Today i got 2 rotary switches from a local electronics store, only 4.50 euro for the pair but as i dont speak greek very well i couldnt really understand completely what i was buying LOL.
The switches have 2 centre "tabs" and 12 around the outer diameter and if i flick a little metal ring around the shaft i can alter the "clicks" from 2 upto 12.
Hope this helps identify them.
I looked online at Ian's site and it advises to get the rotary switch config file from Leo Bodnars site but as we all know, His site is temp offline, Can anyone send me the file?
My biggest struggle is knowing what to wire where, Please help a complete newb with electronics.

At least i taught myself soldering due to this site.

Thanks in advise Steve

[Jackpilot]

Normally the center is one pole and the outside terminals are the other pole for each position.

The little lug allows you to limit the rotation travel to as many positions you need.
Be careful to which one you buy because some are 30 degrees between each position some are 45...so check carefully if you want that each position is facing the appropriate marking on the panel itself.

Check with a multimeter (if you do not have one buy one, cant do without it)
Jack

[Bob Reed]

The 12 tabs on the outside are 1 per click. It wires just like a togel. So 12 clicks 12 wiress on the outside 12 lugs. Any better? Trying not to make it aharder then it is.

[Steve A]

Yup i understand. So in this instance i want four positions for the engine start panel on the overhead.. grd, off, cont, and flt. That would mean 5 wires coming off each rotary.
My problem is where they go on the buo836x card.

Thanks a lot for your help :D

[Steve A]

I think i worked it out, if my rotary switch has 4 positions, that will take up 4 inputs on the card, but with just one ground, correct me if im wrong please because now i dont have enough inputs:-? I need to get more input cards if this is the case. The same wll apply for on-off-on toggle switches, they will use 2 inputs.. right? Thanks for your help guys :D

[Bob Reed]

I think i worked it out, if my rotary switch has 4 positions, that will take up 4 inputs on the card, but with just one ground, correct me if im wrong please because now i dont have enough inputs:-? I need to get more input cards if this is the case. The same wll apply for on-off-on toggle switches, they will use 2 inputs.. right? Thanks for your help guys :D

Yup, you got it! See not so hard..... Isen't this fun??!!

[Steve A]

LOL i'm having a blast. I have got quite far now i understand the very basics.

I decided to add a few switches to my budget cheapo overhead, Just to add a little more and take more workload off the mouse ;)

6 hours later and i have completley depleted all of my inputs on one of my cards.
And yes it was fun.

The overhead is just a print at about 80% actual size, which i covered with thin perspex. Please be gentle as i know its not realistic or perfect but we all have to start somewhere and i didnt wanna go shelling out 1000's before i was sure i could do this. Here it is the cheapest overhead ever LOL

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb82/Quadropheniac_album/Picture063.jpg

[Jackpilot]

This kind of budget overhead is very neat.
You can even add some annunciators which can lit when a toggle is closed. Just use a dual pole toggle and use one side for the card one for the lamp circuit

Very nice.