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Hi Jens and Alan. Jens, you're right. The actuators on my dive planes throw
6 inches, and the rudders by 12 inches. By the use of linkages the rudder
actuator will be less than the 12 inch throw, making the response time shorter.
The rudders ( 2 ) are using a stronger 4" actuator, which is slower but the
travel is shorter so the "net" throw is quicker.
But to Alan's concern, the sensor could be as small as needed by locating
the sensor and/or magnet closer to the fixed pivot point ( "A" in your sketch
) so the travel matches the length of the sensor. With only three reed
switches the device would only need to be maybe 1" long or what ever it takes to
get good separation of the signals. The reed switch module could even be
fabricated in a radial pattern if needed.
The problem of multiple wires remains though. Alan's potentiometer uses
only two wires, making the thru-hull a fairly simple one. Not as simple as
Vance's idea which uses NO thru-hulls.
One small advantage to my "three reed" design is it can be powered by a
simple 9 volt battery located just inside the thru-hull, or tied into the 12
volt instrument circuits. As this device uses so little power it wouldn't put
hardly any drain on it's power source.
Frank D.
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