Single-axis joy-stick for industrial and medical

Author: EIS Release Date: Oct 23, 2024


Megatron is stocking a rocker-switch-like single-axis joysticks that are “ideal for integration into portable devices or control panels in harsh industrial applications and for sensitive control tasks in medical technology”, said the company. “The selection of knobs, spring returns and sensors allows the thumb joystick to be optimally adapted to the application.”

Megatron PW30 rocker joysticks
Called the PW30 family, its members are typically sprung to return to the centre, but can optionally be sprung to return to one end. Knobs are smooth, or with a weather resistance soft-touch coating rated for “two to three years of exposure to direct sunlight”, according to Megatron.

Inside is either a 10kΩ (other values are options) potentiometer, or one Hall sensor, or two Hall sensors – the latter for redundancy to increase reliability.


Hall versions need to be fed with 5V (7mA, or 14mA for dual) and the output is a 0.5 to 4.5V sweep. These are sealed to IP65 and expected to last for 5,000,000 operations – or IP40 (options to IP54) and 2,000,000 from potentiometer types.


As an idea of size: the rear block is 20 x 19mm plus protrusions, and the joysticks are designed to be partially sunk in the front panel with a maximum depth requirement of 21mm behind. The actuators are mostly ~40mm end-to-end (see picture), although there is a giant ~80mm version.