I'm not using rotary encoders what should i change.

​@@ivanravenski Just set the number for rotary encoders to zero at the top and remove the lines of code which refer to rotary encoders. (the bit around 24.34 in the video). However, if you are JUST using buttons (no rotary encoders or potentiometers) it will be much cheaper and easier for you to use a zero delay USB controller as described in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gd5jYK2ZuZq8j4E.html

Can I use "pro mini"?

yeah, but multipos and hat switches are little more than several buttons in one compact spot. I'm considering doing this for elite dangerous, where there's several functions that you'd never do at the same time where multipos can save space on the layout of the box in exchange for a bit more wiring on the inside.

I dont use potansiometers. Where should I change

i got something even better, aliexpress

@@janzugic6798 true, the prices in that store are crazy high

Go to a commercial truck repair supply store

@Joshua Lawson the store he is in is a Jaycar

Yes, it's a Jaycar store. Prices are high, but when you need something in a hurry, they are open seven days a week, when no one else is. As a hobbyist, I use them when needing something in a hurry or short of a component for that weekend project.

What rating potentiometers did you use? For the leonardo

@@tommyfallon7925 I used 50k Ohm linear potentiometers on one of the button boxes I built. Plenty of resolution for the function of cowl flap controls.

If you want a hot tip, chat GPT can actually do most of this coding all by itself. All you need to do is tell it to write code for an arduino button box using the keypad and joystick libraries and tell it how many buttons and other components you want. That thing is scary good.

@@wimwamjoey Wow.....never imagined! You just added to the list of all the scary cool things it can do. Thanks again for your time!

Actually, you're better off with the matrix method whenever you have more than 5 buttons. For 6 buttons a 2x3 matrix is enough and uses only 5 pins instead of 6. The more buttons you have, the bigger the advantage. For 25 buttons you can use a 5x5 matrix, so only 10 pins instead of 25. And the Keypad library also has built-in debouncing. I'm not sure if this is relevant when you send the buttons straight to the Joystick library, but if you want to use the button inside your code to switch modes you should have some form of debouncing. If you want to reduce the number of pins required even further, you may want to look into shift registers. They are quite cheap, only need four pins (or three for some models), and you can daisy-chain them getting 8 inputs per register (still needing only three or four pins per chain). I'm currently redesigning my button box with shift registers because I need to free up some pins so it can also handle my pedals and gear shifter that are currently handled by the steering wheel I am going to replace at some point.

@@panicpetes7676 This makes total sense if you're optimizing for number of pins. But if you've got the pins spare, a "one pin per button" approach seems much simpler to me, and in many cases that would be "better" overall. Wouldn't you agree?

@@aaaidan ​ I do agree that the wiring is much simpler if you connect the buttons directly, but as you said it would reduce the number of pins used in your original comment, I thought I'd clarify that this depends on the number of buttons you want to use. Also, in my experience, these projects tend to grow over time, so I'd recommend to use as few pins as possible in the beginning. I started with a rather simple button box (7 push buttons, 3 momentary on-off-on toggle switches, 3 rotary encoders and one pot). Later I added a DIY handbrake using a load cell and HX711 amplifier, so I needed two more digital pins. And as already hinted in my previous comment, I am now using the same Arduino to also handle my Logitech G25 pedals (+3 analog pins) and gear shifter (+2 analog and +3 digital pins).

@@panicpetes7676 You're right - choosing the right approach depends on several factors. In the pinned comment it says "this video is designed for newcomers with no experience in coding or electronics", and I hope to convince you here that this is _the_ most important factor. My hunch is that for many folk (especially those beginning electronics) using the minimum possible number of pins is just not very important, especially when their board probably has plenty to spare. The matrix approach is a powerful (and delightful) concept to introduce to beginners. But it also acts as additional barrier to entry - an unnecessary one - because a first project is unlikely to run out of pins. Using a matrix takes more effort to learn, and extra time (and testing) to build correctly. There are also more points of potential failure. It could easily be the difference between an enthusiastic young person finishing their first project or not. Or even starting out in the first place. As experts, it's incredibly hard for us to keep perspective on how far we've come in our journeys, and almost impossible to "simulate" how much more effort everything is as a beginner. For these reasons, I strongly recommend folk start out with "pullup+ground" pins until there are no more pins available, before investing in mitigations (like a matrix) that add complexity. This basic approach still allows a dizzying variety of exciting and useful _first projects_ to build. If a project outgrows the pin count, simply switching to the matrix wiring at that point would be a fun and satisfying optimization/workaround. People often are most motivated, and learn best, when they're solving a clear and present problem. Depending on factors, I'd even suggest considering just solving the pin problem by buying another board with more pins, or even using a separate I/O chip (like a multiplexer or I2C expander). Perhaps this seems wasteful or unsophisticated to some experts. but I hope we can agree that it's more important to draw beginners in to the fascinating and joyful world of electronics, than to insist on best practices from the very start. What do you think?

@@aaaidan I fully agree with everything you wrote - when starting a project from scratch. In this case however, with a full code provided I think it is far easier for beginners to adapt the existing code to their project (as it is described quite well in the video) than to rewrite the whole button section.

Open source is the way of the future.

You could get a USB switch? That way you just switch the whole arduino off.

@@wimwamjoey I'm looking at them now thanks, I had no idea they were an option. Another thought just came to me while sitting here, add a starter button and just interrupt that single starter button with a key switch, I think that might achieve what I'm looking for, that or just omit the starter button and use the key switch for the starter, food for thought but I think I'd like the duel method for starter.

If you started at 0, then 11 would be the 12th number.

For a simple button box like this, the Leo Bodnar card will be way easier and just as effective. You only switch to Arduinos when you want the Simulator to turn on LEDs or change other hardware. Look over some of my videos, you may enjoy some of the simple projects such as adding Rotary encoders and Landing Gears :)

@@joshuamarius thx for the tip, but I made one based on arduino and its working perfectly. I did however use different arduino code as the one in this video would not work with my rotaries.

I too learned from his video. I have 30 buttons, 4 pots and a spare pin left if that helps.( I set the buttons up on a 6x5 matrix (11 pins), 4 pots on A0-A3.) Note: an on-on toggle counts as 2 buttons. Tinkercad is a great place to test build a matrix. Good luck

@@funwithfitswell6609 I'm up and running, thanks.

Thank you I’m new. So will I still have to do 5:50 to around 14:40

​@@comet2164 No, Leo Bodnar needs different wiring and you can't make a button matrix work with them (as far as I'm aware), so this video won't help with that. There are some good instructional videos on how to make Leo Bodnar boards on KZfaq and you can also ask for help on their forums. Also, keep in mind that those boards are often significantly more expensive than Arduino.

Cheers mate! I'm looking at remaking and upgrading my button box so will probably do a new video on that, plus a DIY video on building a basic sim-pit out of an office chair.

wimwamjoey thanks.

I just finished my Cessna Throttle with the help of this video for the Arduino control as it was very popular in the flight sim groups. was asked to make a guide and in the Arduino section, i linked your youtube vid as it's so clear and easy to follow. hope this helps with views on your video, cheers Kris

Hi man!! I'm trying to use some toggle switches (with lights) but I am a bit confused on how to use / connect them. Mines have POWER - ACC - GROUND pins. I guess Power goes to 5v and ground to ground so I end up having ACC. That way , the switches are "out of the matrix" as only the columns are connected to different inputs but the row instead of going to a normal input, it goes into the 5V input.... How do you make them work? Thanks!

Hey there. I just got my arduino nano and was wondering the same why i didnt have any 0 and 1. Thanks for mentioning it! How did you make a fake rotary? just two blind wires?

@@Recrohin I just configured an extra 1st rotary in the arduino code using pins 0 and 1 that doesnt actually physically exist.

Argh yes, thanks for those corrections. Had a brain fart for both those points. I'm not sure Fritzing actually is free? They ask for at least 8 euro on their website but maybe there is a workaround I'm not aware of.

@@wimwamjoey I actually installed Fritzing through the chocolatey package manager (highly recommended tool to manage all software on windows). However, you can also download it manually using this link: fritzing.org/download/0.9.3b/windows-64bit/fritzing.0.9.3b.64.pc.zip

Thank you very much for the tip about the Uno otherwise I would have thinking and searching my ass off. I was just about starting to build a test setup for myself using this video but now I know it has no use as my boards here are all uno's :) Thank you for saving me time and frustration :)

@@wimwamjoey I believe if you create an account, the option to download becomes visible without needing to donate. Something along those lines. I don't know if the workaround still works but it definitely used to.

@@computerjantje Time to buy some Pro Micros (-;

It's easier than you might think. You only need a cheap soldering iron to get started. Just watch a few videos on technique and practice with bits of spare wires until you feel confident enough to have a go with real components.

I learned that literally the day after making this video...

Ebay, very inexpensive.

@@steveneltringham1478 I was talking about brick and mortar

@@z_polarcat Fair enough, but you don't say where you are. Ebay is everywhere the internet is.

@@steveneltringham1478 I can buy online, but I found it interesting to see a physical place where you can buy the stuff if you’re in a pinch

@@z_polarcat Good luck.

Sure, you could do that (effectively its still a matrix but with only one row), however as you say: its an inefficient use of pins which you might want for other components like encoders and pots. If you just wanted a button box with a small number of buttons you'd be much better off using a zero delay joystick encoder which is cheaper than an arduino and doesn't require any coding.

You might be able to do this using autohotkey and setting it up so that the farther the pot is turned, the faster it taps a key. It's a bit of a janky workaround though and would probably take a lot of fiddling to make it work properly

The buttons are connected to the pins of the arduino by the matrix. It's just that instead of having 2 pins per button, all the buttons are sharing a smaller number of pins.

@@wimwamjoey oh yeah I got it, but if the digital pins are giving 5 volts then the analogs are working as ground for the matrix? Otherwise where should the 5 volts go?

Yeah I have the same question. Are all of the voltages floating? I don't see and pull up resistors or pull down resistors. I know you can set some digital pins to be pulled up through software but I just don't see how the analog pins can get a voltage reading when they're connected to an open wire. Wouldn't the signal just be noise?

I don't actually know (I cribbed this together from various articles and videos, I'm not that experienced with arduino) but I expect the answer is that it's all handled through the keypad library, not in the code you can see in IDE.

Yes, it's all handled by the keypad library. They use the pullup resistors integrated into the board. It actually makes no difference if you use analog or digital pins for this, as all analog pins can also work as digital ones. If anyone is interested in the programming, you can check the source code of the keypad library here (the pin write/read operations start at line 83): github.com/Chris--A/Keypad/blob/master/src/Keypad.cpp#L83

This video is intended for people with zero experience who want to build a button box. It's not intended to be a full lecture in how all the electronics actually work.

@@wimwamjoey I understand that, and it's a great video, but how much harder to say or understand is it to say "ghosting can happen when you press two buttons at the same time" than "ghosting happens when you press *more* than two or three buttons..." And I don't think it would be that much harder to understand "the controller turns on the rows one at a time, and checks whether any columns come on at the same time." That way, if you ever want to explain the use of diodes in a later video you wouldn't have to explain that you -lied- oversimplified in this video. I imagine you expect your viewers to progress with time, yes? If you say that the controller recognizes when a column input and a row input come on at the same time, then as they start to understand how electricity works it is going to confuse them.

@@wimwamjoey I'm sorry, I just realized, your channel is a gaming channel, not an electronics channel. Few if any of your viewers would care at all how it works, or progress, or be any more confused, in their understanding of electronics.

@@geoffwallick can you explain how you do that I the code? Im a complete novice and couldn't figure this out at the time I made the video.