Misc. Questions & Answers

It's impossible to answer every possible question in one place, but here are a few questions that are often asked, and some answers...

• Q: Why are controllers often 8, 16, or 24 channels? Why not 10, 20 or 30? A: This is because of the electronic chips used in the controllers. Manufacturers of digital electronics chips often make them as 8-bit, 16, 32 or 64-bit devices, and digital electronics works best when numbers are evenly divisible by digital "bits." It would certainly be possible to create a 10 or 20 channel controller but in so doing, it's likely that some of the capability of the digital chips used to create it would go unused because 10 is not evenly divisible by 8, 16 or 32. For example, to make a 10 channel controller you might have to design a 16-channel controller and then not connect 6 of the channels. Seems wasteful...