Good news today on the physical aesthetics front.

Most of the inexpensive rotary encoders you find in the usual places have a "D" shaft, meaning that the part of the shaft where you put the knob is shaped like a "D". It's also really easy to find the small half-inch-diameter-or-so knobs for those "D" shafts. But I don't want those tiny knobs that someone might have to fiddle with in the dark. I want nice big knobs that are 1.5 - 2 inches in diameter.

Well, those big knobs for "D" shafts are pretty hard to find. It's possible to find a few, but many do not have the right size "D" cavity, so they don't fit. That was the case with the nice looking knobs I mentioned in an earlier log item. My good news is that I finally found some that are really, really nice. In relative terms, I paid way more for a pair of them than I wanted to, but in absolute terms it was just over $10 for a pair of them; and it's a one-time purchase. They arrived today and fit snugly over the "D" shafts of my rotary encoders.

Yay! Here they are. They have a nice matte finish and should be pretty easy to manipulate when I mount them. Even with arms loaded with groceries, it should be able to activate the on/off switch with the push of an elbow.