I interpreted it to mean they used pulse-width modulation, varying the % of time the button was being pressed in relationship to how far the wheel was turned.

I interpreted it to mean they used pulse-width modulation, varying the % of time the button was being pressed in relationship to how far the wheel was turned. It's the same trick used to control LED brightness, even though the light only has binary ON and OFF states. https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pulse-width-modulation https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pulse-width-modulation