Radial Switch (or whatever they are called)

[EmOneGarand]

What kind of rotating switch was used in Atari Driving Controllers? I use to think they were Potentiometers but have been told it's a series of switches, what kind of device is that? Is it a common part that can be bought or was it proprietary?

[alex_79]

What kind of rotating switch was used in Atari Driving Controllers? I use to think they were Potentiometers but have been told it's a series of switches, what kind of device is that?

The driving controller is a 2-bit grey code rotary encoder. you can find some more info in this post.

 

Is it a common part that can be bought or was it proprietary?

They are available (see this one for example), but probably they don't fit in an original case without modification.

Here there are instructions and schematics for building an optical driving controller.