How does the Joystick Pad works?

[Timo]

I had some screencaps on the first page of the thread. Essentially, this device:

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s2/2x17/samaritansnare025.jpg

It's not a trackball, but something that protrudes significantly from the indentation in the panel, possibly on a short stick; it's grabbed by the whole hand when operated. Impossible to tell whether the prop component was actually built to move.

FWIW, when we actually see piloting happen with the flat panel interface, it seems that the "up arrow" makes the shuttle go forward and the "left arrow" makes her take a banking left turn. Or at least that's the general gist of what happens in, say, "In Theory".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

Ah, I see. Interesting.

Now that I think about it, I seem to recall the console of the Galileo/5 in ST5 having some sort of ball thingy. But then, why don't starships have such devices?

--Alex

 

[Timo]

We might postulate that computers take care of much of the flying - and that big starships got sufficiently good computers first, while small craft required hands-on controls till the middle seasons of TNG when most of the practical flying was taken away from the pilot and he was left with just those cursor keys...

FWIW, these seem to be our best screencap views to the controls of the ST5 craft:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tffhd/ch6/tffhd0713.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tffhd/ch8/tffhd0968.jpg
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tffhd/ch8/tffhd0977.jpg

Alas, none of this survives the prop's transformation into the Type 6 shuttle... But flat panels seem to be in vogue here as well as on the bridge of the hero starship.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

Yeah, I'm referring to the white ball on the dash in front of Sulu.

--Alex

 

[lennier1]

Don't forget that the idea of an oversized trackball was also present in TUC:
http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tuchd/tuchd0455.jpg

 

[B.J.]

^ Was that used for a control/interface? I thought it was just some sort of display, like a 3D starchart or something.

 

[secretreeve]

you know, if someone made a macro keyboard around image 3 in the OP and labeled the various buttons and stuff it could make for a really awesome STO control pad.

add in the little screen for the target which could display the ship your currently targeting ect and add in all ship controls that'd be worth a buy.

 

[Timo]

Yeah, I'm referring to the white ball on the dash in front of Sulu.

...OTOH, doesn't Uhura also have some sort of a smaller ball under her right hand in the first screencap provided, at the extreme bottom edge of the picture? Or is it just a particularly brightly glowing area of the flat panel?

The Ferengi shuttles were evidently controlled by domes similar to the ones on the ST6 starship helm consoles - they were rubbed by one or two hands, rather than physically twisted or pulled or rotated. An extremely clever parallel to our phallic joysticks here, demonstrating the priorities the Ferengi give to their various erogenic areas.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

Here's a better shot from ST5, When Spock, Kirk, and Sybok are shuttling to Sha-Ke-Ree and Spock "is no longer in control of the craft."

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/tffhd/ch11/tffhd1549.jpg

--Alex

 

[blssdwlf]

That's very interesting on the TFF/TUC steering hemispheres. Translating motions on the x,z (sideways,forward-back) axis should be easy and also yawing/pitching/rolling. The only curious part would've been y axis (vertical movement) as "going up" might be tricky but with those grooves in the hemisphere you could grip by the grooves and "lift up" to get that motion.

With it embedded like that, it is also possible to rest or brace your arm on the panel to minimize unexpected movements from the shuttle or ship shaking too. Hmmm....

 

[xvicente]

Does anyone know how real spacecraft are controlled/maneuvered? could be useful in this thread.

 

[Maurice]

One example: for manual control Apollo capsules used Rotational Hand Controllers (RHC) and also Translational Hand Controllers (TCH) for yaw, pitch and roll control. The former is a grip that looks like an aircraft joystick, which was pushed forward and back for pitch, left and right for Roll, and twisted for Yaw. The second is a T-shaped handle whose functionality is a little tougher to explain, but you can see both in this PDF. Do an image search of both terms to see what those looked like.