thumbwheel

2 Articles

This Device Is A Real Page Turner

September 22, 2025 by 6 Comments

You can read e-books on just about anything—your tablet, your smartphone, or even your PC. However, the interface can be lacking somewhat compared to a traditional book—on a computer, you have to use the keyboard or mouse to flip the pages. Alternatively, you could do what [NovemberKou] did, and build a dedicated page-turning device.

The device was specifically designed for use with the Kindle for Mac or Kindle for PC reader apps, allowing the user to peruse their chosen literature without using the keyboard to change pages. It consists of a thumb wheel, rotary encoder, and an Arduino Pro Micro mounted in a 3D printed shell. The Pro Micro is set up to emulate a USB keyboard, sending “Page Up” or “Page Down” key presses as you turn the thum bwheel in either direction.

Is it a frivolous device with a very specific purpose? Yes, and that’s why we love it. There’s something charming about building a bespoke interface device just to increase your reading pleasure, and we wholeheartedly support it.

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Building A Resistor Substitution Decade Box

August 21, 2012 by 24 Comments

[George] built an incredibly tidy resistor substitution decade box. These devices feature a pair of connections and a way to select the resistance between the two of them. In [George’s] case it’s a pair of banana jacks and these eight thumbwheel switches.

What you see above is the side of each thumbwheel switch. These are panel mount devices which show one digit with an up and down button to change the setting. As you can see, the PCB for each provides connections to which a set of resistors can be mounted. This is the difficult part which he goes to great lengths to explain.

At this point he’s got the resistor groups for each digit soldered in place, the next step is to stack the switches next to each other and connect them electrically. From there it’s off to a project box in which they will be mounted.

This project does a great job of explaining the assembly process. If you’re interested in the theory behind a substitution box check out this other project.