<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px">What about something like this.<br><div><span></span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR"><br><br></div><div style="display: block;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462662534057_3121" class="yahoo_quoted"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462662534057_3120" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462662534057_3119" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles@psubs.org><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Friday, May 6, 2016 10:43 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Speed controllers<br> </font> </div> <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462662534057_3118" class="y_msg_container"><br><br clear="none">I'm a proponent of spring return joysticks also. I considered <br clear="none">non-return ones early on but rejected them just on a perceived need <br clear="none">(real or not) to have them quickly return to a dead zone instead of <br clear="none">fumbling to find that dead zone if I was in a hurry to stop propulsion. <br clear="none">Assuming there's no throttle feedback to indicate where center is, <br clear="none">you'll need a relatively large dead band (or zone) to not overshoot the <br clear="none">center position. I've never been a fan of Z-axis though because I <br clear="none">personally do not find them comfortable or user-friendly even with a <br clear="none">large joystick for a computer. There's something about twisting motion <br clear="none">that is fatiguing and this would be especially true on a small diameter <br clear="none">joystick.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">The degrees of joystick movement is not as important as the <br clear="none">potentiometer value controlling the signal to the controller. You can <br clear="none">find joysticks with different potentiometer values to get the fine <br clear="none">control you need. The more expensive joysticks use hall sensors (I <br clear="none">believe) to get past this issue. One problem I see with a mechanical <br clear="none">KISS approach for components is that the UI ultimately begins to <br clear="none">suffer. Instead of one or two joysticks, extreme KISS requires four to <br clear="none">accomplish tractoring and crabbing which means both hands on controls. <br clear="none">I think potentiometers in this configuration are going to be less <br clear="none">intuitive and more complex to operate, relatively speaking, than <br clear="none">joysticks. Think Etch-a-Sketch, and I was never good at that. <br clear="none">Mechanical KISS ultimately equates to more buttons/levers/switches than <br clear="none">a fly-by-wire design. Yes, at a component level mechanical KISS has the <br clear="none">benefit of being able to target a single switch for replacement but <br clear="none">nothing is free and the UI becomes more complex because the user has to <br clear="none">control multiple components simultaneously to perform a certain task.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Back to the Z-axis, I think if I were to use one I would give up <br clear="none">crabbing and use the Z-axis simply for vertical movement. Twist left <br clear="none">for down, right for up. I'm not sure there is a lot of use for crabbing <br clear="none">in something that is not a Deep-Worker type vessel, but I do plan on <br clear="none">implementing it for my sub.<br clear="none"><br clear="none">Jon<div class="yqt6556805725" id="yqtfd90757"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">Personal_Submersibles mailing list<br clear="none"><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1462662534057_3123" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org" href="mailto:Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org">Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles" target="_blank">http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles</a><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>