[sdiy] Do these things exist ? ( switch and pots )

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Friday 13 August 2004 06:56 pm, Peng wrote:

>   I'm pretty sure this next thing doesn't exist but it's an interesting
> idea so here goes:
>
> Imagine a SPDT  on/off/on toggle switch mounted so the switch flips 
> up/center/down. But when you get to the center position you could fip left
> to right. Like two seperate but interdependent switches. From the rear of
> the panel it would look like a + sign. Could be cool for matrix switch
> banks or who knows what.

I actually saw something that resembled this...

It was in an ancient R/C transmitter,  and functioned as the "joystick".  You 
could probably get kinda close to the same effect by finding one of the 
switch-type joysticks that were used with the old Atari 2600 game consoles,  
C64,  etc.  The unit I remembered had a standard toggle switch that had a 
really long handle on it,  which was mounted on a bracket.  In one direction 
you'd have the spring-loaded action of the long-handled switch,  while in the 
other direction you'd pivot the bracket,  which would actuate the _other_ 
(short-handled and concealed) toggle switch that was in there as well.

I have no idea who made this thing,  and it was old when I saw it back in the 
early 1970s,  as it used tubes in this hand-held transmitter box,  which was 
*way* bigger than the current crop of stuff.