Behind the Scenes : How does the Honeycomb POV Switch work ?

 

As we had to make some repair to a defective POV switch on an Honeycomb Alpha yoke,
we took this opportunity to show you how this specific switch assembly works from an electrical standpoint.


When the front plate is dismantled, we can see the printed circuit onto wich
the POV switch switch is mounted :

The system is made of 4 dip-switches, installed 90° from each other.
The POV button itself is connected to a small rod .
When the user pushes the button, the rod will enter in contact and press one of the 4 buttons.


4 buttons but 8 positions ??

Indeed there are only 4 buttons and tough 8 positions can be triggered.
(A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H)
 

How does this work ?

àSimply by pressing two buttons at the same time.

When the user pushes the POV switch toward south-west for instance it will press two buttons :
LOW and and LEFT (SW #3 and SW #4 as we will see below)
The firmware in the yoke USB board detects this and “translate” it into “Point Of View Behind-Left” or F in the image above.

Here is a small mounting to how how it works.
The board is attached to a wooden plate, so that it doesn’t move.
We are going to press the buttons separately with miniature screwdrivers
and see the response in the Windows Peripheral Properties.


Here is the truth table of this switch system based on the two pictures above :


See in the video how it works.

NOTE : The SW #1 is defective, so it isn’t used in the video…

Do you know why some programs (FSHud, or PRO-ATC/X for example) do not identify the switches of the Coolie Hat? So these can not be assigned. All other buttons of the Alpha Yoke do work and in MSFS or Axis And Ohs the Coolie Hat can be assigned.

Hi Ha_Ma,

 

Are you specifically talking of the Honeycomb in this case ?

 

The reason I can think of, is that the POV button isn't part of the 5 bits register assigned to the buttons (2⁵ is 32).

Just like the Windows Joystick utility doesn't detect the Honeycomb buttons above #32.

Just my 2 cents guess...

 

If you really want to do that, there is a possibility with vJoy and UCR.

You can map each POV button to a standard vJoy button via UCR, then assign the

standard vJoy buttons in FShud or other programs.

See the photo attached (quick and dirty...)

 

Take care.