interface options

[tankist80]

hi all

as i said i'm going to start my projec with standalone yoke pedals and throtle quadrant.
while i'm ok with doing stuff to various pieces of wood/metal and have solid idea on how i'm going to actuate potentiometers of my controls, the interface to PC is still very open question for me.
i cant drop a ton of money and as such i need a solution that does not break the bank, works out of the box and does not require micro-controller programming and soldering (only to find i scewed up)

i looked at Mjoy16, FSBUS, IOcards, leo bodnar card, phidjets ...
Mjoy project looks dead. IO cards - "never could get mine to work " post on this forum did not instill much confidence. FSBUS (the super joystick) and phidjets expencive as all ****...
for now i'm heavily leaning towards Leos card.

however is there anything preventing taking a 20$ joystick (logitech attackX,Y +trottle, seems perfect for rudder +left/right toe break) and using its electronics to pick up readings from pots?

i took apart logitech extreme 3d that had its factory pots going south and played with it for a while. it seems to have 90Kohm pots (is this right? seems like strange value. perhaps time for new multimeter... ) installed of which it uses only small range - probably 40 to 50 K ohm. which can be done with 10K pot connected after 40K resisitor (or 30K + 10K trimmer to dial in that start spot ). further range adjustments in FSUIPC.

so the questions are as follows:
what would you recommend for interface with PC?
it seems that cutting up joystichs for their electronics is not very popular. why? low resolution of those cheap joysticks? perhaps i need to go with OK joystick instead (say saiteck aviator, 5 axis...)

also is there any options other then IO-card and phidget LED64 to output indications From flight sim? what do you guys use for LEDs and seven segment LEDs?

thanks!

[Michael Carter]

Your question was answered at Flightsim.com forums, though you may get additional opinions here.

[tankist80]

Your question was answered at Flightsim.com forums, though you may get additional opinions here.

yep , thank you again Michael.
as i said i really like the answer i recieved.
however this forum seemed much more around building stuff then flightsim and this post also kinda summarizes my entire plan

i hope there is nothing wrong with cross-posting

[Buddym]

Hi,

For my 2 cents worth, the IOCards and the Bodnar cards are both excellent and work good with each other. The thing to remember about using the Bodnar cards is that it is a custom joystick interface, inputs only. I have one of the latest model and it's great! I use it to read the pots for my flasp, speedbrakes, and encoders for radio controls.

The IOcards I use are for driving LED displays, single LEDs, and reading various switches. I also have a USB keys card for the CDU when I get to it (soon I hope). Getting the IOcards to work is not difficult, but does have a much steeper learning curve than the Bodnar card, IMHO. There are lot's of people here to help though..

BuddyM