Optical Gimbals

[JimC-MD]

Optical Gimbals

Is there such a thing out there? It is my understanding that our radios still use conventional potentiometers for the gimbals. Upper end radios have gone to high quality gimbals with bearings and such, but has anyone used an optical unit? The technology is out there and has shown itself to be reliable and accurate without the wear concerns of a traditional pot.

What do you think? Would this be something you would like to see?

If a company comes out with them and I was the first to post the idea, do I get royalties?

[tony-amps]

Jim you are right. Optical encoders have been around for over 15 years. I think why we have not seen them in our radios is simple economics .It would be much much more expensive to create a radio using optical encoders instead of pots. But now a day's who knows allot of electronics is getting less and less expensive. But i think you can't beat the simplicity of a pot over an optical encoder the encoder requires much more support circuitry. Nice idea though and could be way more precise.

Tony

[JimC-MD]

Tony,

Perhaps it is a financial issue. One thing I do know is that today's optical mice are priced about the same as what we used to pay for the old dirt ball design. Implement it and the price seems to drop with the demand. I know how accurate my AeroPerfect meter is and we are improving the speed and accuracy of the rest of the radio. It will only be as good as the weakest link though.

[Mithrandir]

Piezo

[JohnnyKatana]

and what exactly are gimbals?
i must sound like an idiot here haha

[sl1200mk2]

The two little sticks you use to fly the airplane with on the transmitter.

- Wayne

[gzkpez]

We do not even have hall effect gimbals. They are used in industry, are more accurate and durable. They however take more power and cost a little more. I read that the new pots put in the Futabia 14MZ were small and extremely durable which take away one of the two advantages.



On the traditional optical ( the wheel with holes ) how does one know when it is in center, if you put the transmitter on and the sticks are off to one side a little would not that mess up your centering? There is also the problem that our sticks do not deflect to much (maybe 45 degrees) which would cut down the digits that the optical unit can read. New optical readers are coming out all the time so maybe there is or will be one that will give us the resolution we need.