Hey everyone!
I'm hoping someone can shed some light onto a project I'm currently working on. I'm building a motion control rig (for cameras) and have two joysticks which control stepper motors.
I'm a bit dissapointed in the performance of the joysticks because, even though the joystick physically moves at angles ±45°, I can only get a reading off the pots between the first ±10° -- which yields a sort of 'deadband' or 'deadspace' for the outer ±35° where the readout values are stuck at max/min. This makes it very difficult to actually use the joysticks because you aren't using all the travel distance to choose different values on the pots (i.e. they are highly sensitive to change).
So, my questions are:
- am I missing something or am I doing something stupid? I've got 5V feeding the pots and am reading the analog values through an analog pin (10-bit) on the Arduino Due
- are the pots just too cheap and should i consider switching them out for others that perform better? I can open up the joysticks and i'm thinking i could find some pots to put in there with the help of my trusty dremel...
- if I should consider switching them out, could you recommend a proper pot to use?
thanks everyone!
I'm hoping someone can shed some light onto a project I'm currently working on. I'm building a motion control rig (for cameras) and have two joysticks which control stepper motors.
I'm a bit dissapointed in the performance of the joysticks because, even though the joystick physically moves at angles ±45°, I can only get a reading off the pots between the first ±10° -- which yields a sort of 'deadband' or 'deadspace' for the outer ±35° where the readout values are stuck at max/min. This makes it very difficult to actually use the joysticks because you aren't using all the travel distance to choose different values on the pots (i.e. they are highly sensitive to change).
So, my questions are:
- am I missing something or am I doing something stupid? I've got 5V feeding the pots and am reading the analog values through an analog pin (10-bit) on the Arduino Due
- are the pots just too cheap and should i consider switching them out for others that perform better? I can open up the joysticks and i'm thinking i could find some pots to put in there with the help of my trusty dremel...
- if I should consider switching them out, could you recommend a proper pot to use?
thanks everyone!