Slide pot paddles?

[Inky]

Was just reading the Off the Wall! thread, whilst sitting here at my radio job, and a thought occoured to me...

 

To raise and lower the volume on the various different feeds we have coming through this place, we use slide pots. viz

 

 

That is a potentionometer that doesn't turn like a regular volume control, but slides up and down.

 

Could a paddle game controller be made from one of these slidepots? Methinks it would work great as a contoller.

[Dauber]

It'd be great in theory, but the user has to be sure to center it before starting up, know what I mean?

[Inky]

Not really. Regular paddles don't require that you do that.

Edited November 4, 2006 by Inky

[Student Driver]

Slide controllers would work okay for some games (my g/f can't mentally map rotary controls onto linear vertical movement like in Pong), and were used on a lot of GI-chipset Pong systems. I do think the rotary controls make more sense because they lend themselves to a wider variety of games (the thought of playing Night Driver, Tac-Scan, or Jedi Arena with slide pots seems wrong).

[Inky]

I agree that it would probably not be a good idea for some games, for breakout / pong style games, methinks it'd be an excellent alternative.

[Student Driver]

I agree that it would probably not be a good idea for some games, for breakout / pong style games, methinks it'd be an excellent alternative.

 

Oh, yeah... sorry if I came across as saying "bad idea," because I think it'd work quite well for paddle games. It might even get the g/f to play a game with me again without complaining that she can't get used to the controls. And in my mind I see someone programming a Bemani-style music mixer game.

 

Another compromise are... uhh.. don't know what they're called, kind of like rotary levers.

[Inky]

So, how would one go about trying to develop something like this?

[Video]

I've said that for years, and no, you wouldn't have to recenter it. The 2600 doesn't care where it is, it cares how 'loud' it is, that's what it's measuring. (the reason modern systems tend to center on power up, is due to the fact the designers finely realized that the pots can shift and wear out)

 

Will the slider pots still measure 255 degrees of movement? I don't know that that's important, as the 2600 doesn't use half of it's pot anyways, but if it reads the upper end of it's movement, rather than the lower end, then you'll need all 255 steps. If it reads the lower end, then you could use a 127 step pot instead.

 

Also, where can I get those? I've seen the standard pots at Radiosack, but while I see lots of electronics that use sliders, I've never seen the slider pots for sale anywhere.

 

BTW, some "slider" pots, like in the tuner's on radios, are just strips of thin flexable plastic attached to a standard round pot, and sliding the slider, simply rotates a pot inside.

 

That being said, I see no reason you couldn't make a slide switch with a round pot, or a round rotery controll with a slid pot.

Edited November 12, 2006 by Video