The Agena controller (aka "encoder"), located on the edge of the seat on the
pilot's side of the cabin.
Mike Collins (the pilot -- rookie crewman -- on Gemini 10) describes using
the encoder in Carrying the Fire:
I sent these instructions [to the Agena] by manipulating a device near my right
elbow, called an encoder, a little box topped by two concentric wheels and a
lever. I spoke to the Agena in three-digit words. . . . The three-digit
instructions always ended in either a one or a zero, and were formed by setting
up the first digit on the outer wheel and the second digit on the inner wheel,
and then transmitting all three by turning the lever from center to either the
left (for zero) or the right (for one). The point is that the selection of the
last digit was also the manipulation which transmitted the message
instantaneously, so there was a built-in possibility for error, for the hand to
move right instead of left, or vice versa, and then it was too late to change
your mind.
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