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Step 1: Connect your Potentiometer

(For best results, we recommend the use of 5K or 10K potentiometers where possible.)

A potentiometer is a simple "variable resistor", offering a defined range of movement of a shaft (rotational potentiometer) or of a slider (slide potentiometer). They are often referred to as "pots" for short. Both rotary and slide pots are capable of being connected to the SIM-board USB Input Module.

Pots have 3 terminals - the high terminal (H), the low terminal (L), and the wiper terminal (W). Usually these are arranged such that the middle pin of the 3 is the wiper terminal, while the high and low pins are on either side. This is not always the case, so you should refer to your pot's datasheet for the actual reference. In many cases, connecting the terminals of a pot to the wromg terminals on the SIM-board should not cause any great problem, other than the fact that your pot will not be reading correctly when you test it. In this case, you should swap the pins around methodically until you find the right combination that gives the correct behaviour (see later steps).

Begin by connecting the wiper terminal of the pot to the top pin of the pin pair marked "1" of the bank marked "Pots H/W" at the top of the left hand edge of the SIM-board Input Module.

Next, connect the high terminal to the bottom pin of this "1" pin pair.

Finally, connect the low terminal to any bottom pin of any BANK A to BANK Z block. In the picture example, the low terminal is the black wire, the wiper is the green wire, and the high terminal is the red wire.

(The picture below shows a pot connected to the module using wires that have been crimped onto metal crimps, and then inserted into a 2-way plastic housing. This makes for an easy individual connection straight onto the pins of the module.)

Step 7: Test the Pot

To test the potentiometer, select the tab titled "(Pots 1-8)" to reveal the pot nodes. Then click to expand "Node 1" to reveal the pot configuration settings.

Then click on the "Calibration Settings" text to reveal the calibration settings properties. Adjust the window so you can see all the settings available.

Next, change the "Active?" property to "Yes". This will activate this pot node for use. You will then see red and blue bars appear in the "Raw Signal" and "Calibrated Signal" areas. This represents the current position of the pot as detected by the SIM-board USB Input Module.

Twist your potentiometer through its range of movement, and notice the slider bars changing to reflect the new position of the pot.

If the pot bars do not appear to move, or are fixed fully red and blue, then the pot wires have been connected wrongly. In this case you should swap the H, L and W pins to a different combination until the bar is representative of the current position of the pot.

If you find that twisting your pot in a clockwise direction produces a reducing red/blue bar combination, set the "Invert state?" property of the pot node to "Yes" which will reverse the signals in software.

If this test performs correctly, you have successfully wired up your pot to the associated node.

Step 8: Assign a Flight Simulator function

Having verified that the pot is operating correctly in test mode, you can now assign a function to have it control functions within flight simulator.

For this example, we will use the pot to control the throttle lever of the default Cessna 182 aircraft.

Click on "Change action" (just below the calibration settings area) and from the list that pops up, select "Engine 1 Thrust Lever (0% to +100%)" from the "FS : Engines" subsection. This action will command the pot to adjust the throttle when the pot is moved. Click "Select" to assign this action to this node.