9 years, 7 months ago.

Hi - that's not something I plan to add, but if you wanted to add the code yourself, I'd be open to merging it back into the base code. I think it would be doable: you'd just need to reassign the Analog In port that's currently used to read the charge on the CCD output and instead use it to read the voltage on the potentiometer tap. You'd then scale the voltage to get the plunger position.

I did look at the potentiometer approach when I was trying to figure out what type of sensor to use, but I didn't think it would be stable enough for what I wanted. Pot-based joysticks have a tendency to drift over time and need periodic recalibration. They can also be less than perfectly linear. The thing I like about the CCD is that it has rock-solid stability and essentially perfect linearity by its very nature. And in terms of installation difficulty, the CCD is quite easy. I think it would be harder to get the mounting for a potentiometer to work reliably given the mechanical forces it would be repeatedly subjected to. The only downside to the CCD I can see is that it's a relatively expensive part.