Is there a way to test a knobster?

Support for the SimWareKits Knobster in combination with Air Manager and Air Player

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Avenger
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Is there a way to test a knobster?

#1 Post by Avenger »

Is there a way to test a diy knobster? My DIY one is not acting right. It can behave right for a little while, then as you turn it, it can stop incrementing for a second or go backwards. Could it be an instrument or other software issue? How can I tell?

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Sling
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#2 Post by Sling »

When it does this are you turning it slowly or fast? If working when turning very slowly with noticeable single detents at a time but starts behaving weird when turning fast then it will most likely be the encoder you have chosen. The knobster does not have the same level of settings available as a normal AM hardware dial to tune it for best performance. If this is the case you could try an external circuit to improve it or change the encoder for a different type.

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Corjan
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#3 Post by Corjan »

Hi,

In Air Manager, if you select your knobster, it gives the option for the number of detents it has. You could try tinkering with that.

Corjan

Avenger
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#4 Post by Avenger »

Corjan wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:32 pm Hi,

In Air Manager, if you select your knobster, it gives the option for the number of detents it has. You could try tinkering with that.

Corjan
What do the number of detents represent technically? I am not very inclined electronic wise. I didn’t make the knobster but I think it is a PropWash encoder if I am not mistaken.

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Ralph
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#5 Post by Ralph »

It's actually the number of pulses per detent if I'm not mistaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_en ... al_encoder
Check for pulses.

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Sling
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#6 Post by Sling »

More commonly it’s detent per pulse. All of the AM supported types are like this. Meaning there are a number of physical detent for each full electrical pulse. For instance a 4 detent per pulse type will have a detent between each level change of anyone od the A & B contacts.

There is a post I made on this forum way back that helps explain this but you could just Google quadrature encoding.

Avenger
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#7 Post by Avenger »

Sling wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:23 pm More commonly it’s detent per pulse. All of the AM supported types are like this. Meaning there are a number of physical detent for each full electrical pulse. For instance a 4 detent per pulse type will have a detent between each level change of anyone od the A & B contacts.

There is a post I made on this forum way back that helps explain this but you could just Google quadrature encoding.
I think mine is a propwash and it’s 2 pulses per detent from the specs. But the options in AM are detents/pulse so it’s confusing.

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Sling
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#8 Post by Sling »

No it’s not pulses per detent.

If someone has it down as pulses per detent then that information is incorrect unless propwash have suddenly changed to a totally different encoder. The prop wash encoders I have work in AM. I can’t remember the setting but from what you say it just looks like they have it specified the wrong way round. In that case 2 detents per pulse should work.

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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#9 Post by Avenger »

Sling wrote: Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:57 am No it’s not pulses per detent.

If someone has it down as pulses per detent then that information is incorrect unless propwash have suddenly changed to a totally different encoder. The prop wash encoders I have work in AM. I can’t remember the setting but from what you say it just looks like they have it specified the wrong way round. In that case 2 detents per pulse should work.
Yes, I think the setting is correct. Something is just defective.

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Sling
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Re: Is there a way to test a knobster?

#10 Post by Sling »

If you are confident the knobster board has been flashed correctly and with the version of AM you are trying to use it with then it’s very probable you have a bad electrical connection or perhaps a USB related issue. For the USB try another port and eliminate any hubs in the current path.

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