Rotary switch with ratcheting feature

摘要

A rotary switch ( 102 ) for an electronic device ( 100 ) includes a bump stop ( 104 ) that triggers a ratcheting feature when hit. The range of the rotary switch ( 102 ) is expanded via the ratcheting feature. The ratcheting feature inhibits scrolling through a device parameter in one rotation direction and enables scrolling through the device parameter in the opposite rotation direction. Depending on which direction the bump stop ( 104 ) is hit, the parameter is either incremented or decremented. The range of the rotary switch can also be expanded by modifying the step size of the rotary switch based on the range of a selected parameter ( 504 ). The coarse step is then narrowed with each change in rotation direction ( 510, 518 ) based on current, previous and useable switch positions ( 512, 514 ).