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Comment by aikinai | Hacker News Reader

Someone should do something like this smart knob[0]. It looks incredible.

Neat. Jog control knobs are great when you want fine control over a large dynamic range. They can feel wrong when used for for controlling a limited range that only needs coarse tuning. My microwave has a rotary encoder for the power level (10% to 100%) and it just feels so wrong that it doesn’t have a limit but can just keep turning (actually a slider would be a lovely UI for power level, however the knob is multi-functional and also sliders are harder to keep clean and physically reliable). My cheap stereo has a similar rotary encoder for the volume - uggggh.

I feel like it should be feasible to add a motor that gives tactile feedback by resisting turning by a little bit (e.g. for discrete power/volume level values within the allowed range) or a lotta bit (e.g. for the boundaries of said range).

Re: multi-functional sliders, I do know that motorized sliders exist in the pro audio space (e.g. to be able to program presets on mixers and such); shouldn't be too hard to adapt them to multiple functions (probably with some sort of indicator on or adjacent to the slider to show the function being manipulated).

Just FYI what you’ve described is exactly what the GPs video shows. I only mention it cause that knob and video are absolutely amazing and deserves a watch.

Well I'll be. That's what I get for not watching videos before replying lmao

There's an older 'smart' knob out there that was meant I think for CAD interfaces. I don't recall if it's made anymore, but I do know that it's shown up on the bridge of a number of scifi aircraft/spaceships over the last decade.

But for the purposes of this discussion, having a couple three of those on the dashboard and using them a bit like radial menus would probably split the difference pretty well.

https://3dconnexion.com/us/product/spacemouse-compact/

That's the one! Looks like they still make it. Not sure why I thought they stopped.

I thought I saw it most recently on The Expanse, but it does not appear to be part of the MCRN Frigate pilot's seat. So either I'm thinking of some other ship, or a different bridge.

The BMW X-Drive controller is somewhat similar with additional up/down/left/right buttons

Yep - very similar. You can navigate huge lists by spinning it fast and it freewheels. Its a pretty nicely designed interface.

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