Back to the point about why this is never finished / painted comes to a fine & vital point of prototyping. It is quite one thing to have an idea, envision a solution, source the parts, work out the technology etc. AND! To quite convince yourself that's the solution. Then you come to use it.
In this case I found using those triggers detracted enormously from the fidelity of control I had reached by this simply being engine control, even though that essentially takes up my whole left hand. Furthermore there's always the unexpected. I found I could catch them accidentally all too often while operating the keyboard, sometimes depleting quite a bit of your 30-mm ammo, say, when you were on your way to HO J0ker in a K-4 (say). Then because of that it cocked-up desk-position, compromised my engine control further etc so therefore:-
Ziiiiiiip!
Off it came:-
There. That's much better. Super-duper-high-precision electronic virtual piston-engine control restored. Sometimes simple is best. However I failed to solve the problem of additional controls. The 'pool-ball' is hollowed out for a momentary switch so I might revisit this. I didn't do that yet because the counterbalance I made wasn't quite enough to balance the weight of the ball on the end of a long lever.
Here's the counterbalance revealed underneath the cover. I appreciate the earlier pictures are gone I can't do anything about that I'm afraid. Many people who are apparently not AH players have PMed me through the years asking this or that. I can re-explain the mechanical operation if I have time and there's interest etc. It's much better being able to upload pictures here.
![](https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=404902.0;attach=35119)
Again it was definitely worth it, it is basically made out of recycled crap and the odd eBay purchase / re-appropriated items. The Bodnar controller I can highly recommend. It's 12-bit, so as stated earlier 1024 (? I forget now) steps as opposed to 255. I've literally had to calibrate it once (per controller). I updated at some point to the more expensive version with the push-in connectors. They are a bit of a pain in the arse to use actually as the wires are close together and the angle awkward and sometimes you lose a control when you keep packing it away and unpacking it as I have done for long periods here and there, but very configurable of course.
All of this is leading into why my Homemade Joystick project became quite a mammoth, well, thing really. Since my right hand necessarily needed to absorb all of the 'fine-motor' control duty which my left hand is unable to help with. Pictures of that in a forthcoming thread (maybe). If you think this project is nuts wait until you see that
![ROFL! :rofl](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/rofl.gif)
Happy Friday
![salute :salute](http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/salute.gif)