Hi, Im trying to make an object which is sensitive to tilting and motion. The object will be taken over an obsticle course by a team of people.
So far I have been experimenting with a lm3914n circuit but im not sure if this is the way to go.

I have mounted a PC analogue joystick upside down in a frame. I have replaced the grip handle with a metal weight which causes the joystick shaft to pendulem very freely.

I have removed all the electronics from the joystick and left 2 100K pots.
I then connected 1 of the 100k Pots to a lm3914 circuit that i have found on the net. I thought that i had recalculated the component values to use a 100k pot.

The trouble I have been having is that I keep destroying the pots. This is causing me to cycle through alot of joysticks.

My plan was to have four lm3914 cicuits which will display the position of the pendulem for each direction that it swings in. When the last led lights for each direction this will cause a counter to decrement.

As i mentioned im not sure if the LM3914 is the way to go so im open to ideas