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/images/notams/notams22/auth1113.jpgOn Friday 11th we were very proud to release our first Mosquitoflight control. This really is a magnificent piece of engineering andis the result of a collaboration between several community membersover more than 12 months. The primary designer was Harry Armstrongably supported by Dennis Wierzbicki who managed to set up a greatrelationship between AuthentiKit and AV Specs in New Zealand, a worldrenowned authority on the Mosquito. At the crucial stage of testingand documentation Saladin_Wolf (Discord name) stepped in to finallyhelp get this project over the line. A Twin Engine First For AuthentiKitYet again we have a project that is pushing the boundaries of theAuthentiKit modular flight control system. It's our first dual engineunit but compatibility with our hub system is of course assured. Withtwo inputs, the first goes to the H2 throttle input on the universalhub with no wiring changes needed and the second goes to the new H8engine two input. We've now actually achieved maximum capacity for theUniversal Hub Version One however in the near future we intend toincrease capacity for 20 more inputs. Coming NextHarry is actually already well progressed on more Mosquito controlsand you can look forward to the elevator trim wheel in the nearfuture followed by flaps, rudder bias and more. Source
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Honeycomb Aeronautical announces global shipping of Alpha Flight XPC and Honeycomb Xbox Hub. The Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls XPC brings the ultimate immersion of aviation in the comfort of your own home. San Diego, CA - November 2, 2022 - Honeycomb Aeronautical has just released the Alpha Flight Controls XPC and offers worldwide shipping. Alpha Flight XPC is compatible with both Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. The Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls XPC were designed and developed in California by pilots and aerospace engineers to ensure the most realistic flight simulation experience possible. The Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls XPC bring the ultimate immersion of aviation in the comfort of your own home. It features NEW front grill design, a full 180° yoke rotation with upgraded hall effect sensors to provide smooth precision with no center detent. The base includes a switch panel with master, alternator, avionics, and light switches as well as a spring loaded 5-position ignition switch. The left and right handles feature 13 programmable buttons and switches for fully customizable flight. Alpha Flight Controls XPC will be shipped from http://www.flyhoneycomb.com and participating retailers worldwide for the retail price at $349.99. The Honeycomb Xbox Hub releasing simultaneously will allow owners of the Bravo Throttle Quadrant and/or upcoming Charlie Rudder Pedals to use those devices in combination with the new Alpha XPC on the Xbox Series X|S. Similar to the Alpha XPC, the Honeycomb Xbox Hub will offer the same shipping options and will retail at $39.99. In addition, the Hub is compatible with the Logitech Flight USB Throttle and Rudder Pedals to offer a solution to the price conscious flight simmer. The Alpha XPC/Xbox Hub/Logitech Flight Throttle bundle will be offered through retail partners for $429.99. "We have worked closely with Microsoft to implement Xbox Series X/S compatibility as well as the Microsoft Flight Simulator team to ensure that the Alpha XPC as well as the Bravo Throttle and Charlie Rudder Pedals through the Xbox Hub, provides a plug and play experience" says Nicki Repenning, Founder and CEO of Honeycomb Aeronautical. "The design of the yoke handle has been left largely unchanged compared to the outgoing Alpha and all Xbox buttons have been integrated discretely to retain an authentic aviation look. The yoke has also been updated with new 12-Bit updated Hall Effect sensors, which increases the aileron and elevator sensor resolution by 400%. It features an updated panel design on the front of the base which also includes a new spring-loaded ignition key and Xbox buttons. Features The left handle features one 8-way hat switch, two Vertical 2-way rocker switches, a button and a Push to Talk Button. The right handle features two Horizontal 2-Way rocker switches, one large & one small button. Solid steel yoke shaft with dual linear ball bearings. 180° Yoke rotation. 5-Position spring loaded ignition switch. Switch panel with a total of 9 switches. Universal Panel-Mounting System. Adjustable cockpit backlighting. The smooth matte finish on the panel and on the main yoke. Easy conversion between Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. New high-end 12-Bit Hall Effect Sensors with 400% increased resolution. For more information about Honeycomb Aeronautical visit www.flyhoneycomb.comand be sure to follow Honeycomb on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. About Honeycomb Aeronautical Based in San Diego, CA, Honeycomb Aeronautical has assembled leading talent in the fields of aeronautical engineering, industrial design and simulation, to craft an exceptionally realistic range of hardware designed to replicate the true feeling of flight. Honeycomb's flight simulation products are used by flight schools, simmers, and current pilots around the world to provide the most realistic and cost-effective training possible. With a focus on quality, durability and realism, Honeycomb flight simulators are the perfect solution for anyone looking to take their flight simulation to the next level.
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/images/notams/notams21/mosq1011.jpgAuthentiKit is delighted to announce significant progress on theirsuite of Mosquito FB VI flight controls. A working prototype of theelevator trim wheel has now been created and development is underwayon the flight stick and dual engine throttle quadrant. AuthentiKithopes to release the first control before the end of 2021 and havemost controls complete ready for the launch of the Mosquito for IL2'sBattle of Normandy campaign. AuthentiKit is a freeware project creating flight controls in kitform that you can either 3D print yourself or source via theircommunity 3D printing service at rates much cheaper than commercial 3Dprinting. Hardware parts are all low cost commodity components whichcan be self sourced or purchased as an all in one kit. The flightcontrols are simple to assemble requiring no soldering, workshop toolsor metalwork. AuthentiKit Mosquito Project AuthentiKit Spitfire Flaps Lever Released AuthentiKit Announces Mustang P-51D Flight Controls
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Tutorial: Aircraft Flight Controls - Aircraft Basics By thecorporatepilotdad In this second tutorial of aircraft basics, flight controls are discussed. This is a new series of videos covering basics and working toward gaining knowledge that would be learned when getting a private pilot license. The video offers a description of primary and secondary flight controls and the difference between the types of control surfaces.Primary flight controls include ailerons, elevator, and rudder.Secondary flight controls are various types of flaps, trim, and leading edge devices. Adverse yaw is briefly talked about but will be discussed more in detail in a later video. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel Previous video: Ignition System and Magnetos About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
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How To...Build Flight Controls By Lolke Doornik (September 26, 2011) After buying and using several plastic joysticks I wanted to make my own, more sturdy flight controls, usable for GA aircraft and helicopters. This is what I made. You can use this article as a starting point for building your own version. Always check measurements, mine may not work for you. Main Components: MDF fibreboard 18mm Ball bearings used in inline-skates 8mm steel rod Some aluminium pipe with inner diam. 8 mm. 15 mm. steel central heating pipe 22 mm. central heating pipe 10 K potentiometers Plastic cog wheels, mine have 50 cogs/ 10 cogs Metal strips to make brackets for the potentiometers A second hand car seat Some screws, bolts and nuts Heavy duty glue for construction (wood/metal) Base Unit This is made from MDF 18mm, glued and screwed to make a sturdy base. The blue edged part is removable (screwed only with 4 screws) and the base for a car seat. Joystick To this base unit connects a "box" for the joystick. In this box are holes for the ball bearings and the ends of the axis. For maintenance better not glue these parts. Stick Assembly Stick is made from 15mm central heating pipe with a steel rod of diameter 8mm soldered or welded into a cross shape. Length of the stick depends mainly on how much space jou have under your table. The longer the stick, the more precise its movement. The stick is clamped between four pieces of MDF with holes for bearings, axis and bolts (M6x60). Three pieces are glued together and the 8mm rod for the ailerons-axis is inserted and glued in one piece. When the glue has dried cut away the centre piece of the (aileron) rod. This way the remaining two pieces are perfectly aligned. For keeping the stick centered a spring is used that pulls down from the floor of the base unit. Length, tension, stick length under the pivot point is trial and error. Rudder The rudder assembly is detachable by removing four screws. The rudderbar is made from 22mm central heating pipe soldered or welded through it is a piece of 8 mm steel rod. Centering: two springs. When you do this with tie wraps you can center the bar perfectly by sliding a tie wrap inwards or outwards (look at photo at the beginning). To keep the rudder at he right height there is a piece of pipe (inner diameter 8 mm) slid on the rod (pink in the picture), between the lower bearings, with a screw to keep it in place. Throttle Again a box and a steel cross shape. I planned to use a bolt on the metal rod for friction but that didn't work (too much stress on the parts). My son came up with a window retainer that works on friction. You can see it in the photo at the beginning. This system is perfect for me. Important Details The bearings always have a washer on both sides (white in the picture). Some have more washers to retain parts. The metal rod has a small piece of pipe (diameter 8mm) glued on top (red in the picture), to center the cogwheel. The metal rods have a hole into the front face (drilled) with thread M4 to fasten the cogwheel with a bolt M4 (be sure to drill this hole exactly in the centre of this face!). The small cogwheels are glued to the shaft of the potentiometer. And there is a groove in both the shaft and cogwheel in witch a smal piece of metal wire is pushed. Optional I purchased an old serial joystick, took it apart and adapted the handgrip and buttons for use in this project. And made a control box on the right side. Electric This howto is focused on the mechanical aspect of the cockpit. To complete this project you need an interface (see links below) and wire it all up. Instructions you can find on the internet. Links: Cogwheels: www.pmot.nl Interface: www.leobodnar.com (BU0836 or the a/x version) or you could build an MJOY from the howto section of www.flightsim.com Parts: www.voti.nl Lolke Doornik ldoornik@home.nl Download Sketchup model of controls: FlightcontrolsLDoornik.zip -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 7
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 7 By Ferry Herfst Additional Information Try to use one design philosophy. Go for a Learjet style, Beech, Boeing or Cessna. I chose the Beech aircraft in FS (though I used a Piper yoke) but try not to be too specific. Otherwise it will feel unnatural to fly different aircraft with your hardware. Unless you want to make an exact copy of a certain cockpit off course. I had two important design features in mind. Ease of installation and removal of the set-up and be able to use it for a wide range of aircraft. Donor Hardware Logitech offers a nice line of products with lots of features and updates drivers often. These devices are easily converted. You may want to try cheaper hardware but I have no idea if they will work as well. Be very aware that opening it up will void any warranty! Logitech provides software for programming, but the last time I checked (already some time ago) it only allowed you to program one device at the same time. All my devices are USB which comes in handy because USB is hot plugable. Setting up my hardware takes just 2 minutes and I am ready to fly. This includes moving my monitors. I do have an internal 4 port USB hub in my PC. It is conveniently installed in the front of my PC. As well as two additional USB ports which are a common feature on most PC's nowadays. The joysticks need proper calibrating but they allow for differences in potentiometer values. They do not need to be calibrated every time the joystick are plugged in. Windows uses the last settings. There is a certain minimum angle the potentiometer needs to turn to be able to calibrate it. You just have to try to see what each device needs. It can even depend on the particular axis. The game pads on the other hand need no calibrating but are calibrated as soon as each axis is used for the first time. One thing to keep in mind is the fact the game pads use some kind of compensation for the fact that e.g. left up will produce smaller pot rotation than full left or up. This is due to the fact the joystick on the pad moves in a circle. A joystick moves in a square. Chose your device depending on your requirements. I check my controls free and correct before each flight; this calibrates the controls. The controls need to be in the neutral position when plugged in otherwise the neutral position will be offset for the session. In case I forget, I just pull the plug of the device concerned out and back in (best not to do this in FS but beforehand). I do pay attention to which device gets plugged in which USB port. Windows somehow scans the ports in a certain order and this in turn determines the order of the devices. When they are out of order FS will react to the order in which it was programmed. (for example: joy1 x-axis is ailerons and joy2 x-axis is rudder, when they are in the wrong order the plane will roll when you use your rudder). Button Programming I use FSUIPC to program the POV buttons. The other joystick buttons can be programmed using the assignments menu in FS. But you are not limited to these. Pete Dowson has a list of the FS controls available on his site and you can edit the FS9.cfg (or FS200x.cfg for older versions) to add the extra commands. I found FSUIPC sometimes misses a button press. This may have to do with the length of my button pulses generated by my circuits but when I tested these FS2000 still was able to use the POV for 8 different functions depending on direction. This was lost in FS2002. Fortunately Pete Dowson built this feature into his module for which I am very thankful. You need to register it to use this feature but it is well worth it. But it's best to program the buttons using assignments as far as practicable or editing the fs9.cfg. This can influence the type of control you connect to the buttons or the POV. I would not want a failing gear switch. A frequency swap function on the other hand is not that critical. Axes Programming The axes can be programmed by using the assignments feature in FS. But you may want to use FSUIPC to tune the way FS responds to your axes. FSUIPC provides a way to change the center position of the joystick axis as well as the minimum and maximum deflection (dead zones at the end can prevent riding the brakes for an entire flight or fluttering spoilers or inability to cut the mixture fully). FS uses one half of the throttle axis for reverse and the other half for normal operation. Feathering also takes up half the of the prop axis. FSUIPC lets you alter this so your FS reverse starts where your hardware reverse starts. The same applies to feathering props. Parts Finding the right parts can be a little hard. Unfortunately people don't spend as much time tinkering and this has caused a decrease in the number of electronics shops and the diversity of available hardware. At least in the Netherlands. I bought a lot of my switches and other electronics in Den Haag at "Stuut en Bruin" (nice to know for people living in Holland) But sometimes I bought the last of their supply. You have to be careful if parts will not be available anymore because if it breaks you will have to rework part of the project. Conrad electronics has a good online store but I like to see what I buy before I buy it. Use your imagination and see what else is available. Visit different hardware stores. I found nice thick nylon rings which proved ideal as bearings for the yoke rod where the enter the box. Another store had different rings which were used in the throttle quadrant. Nylon is a great bearing material which does not need lubrication I used a broom stick to make the throttle prop and mixture knobs. That took a lot of woodworking skills I was previously unaware of. I found nice generic gear wheel sets at a modelling shop. You might want to try K-nex or Lego or stuff like that. These companies often sell parts separately or in small expansion packs. I found it hard to find springs for my project. Sometimes the size was right but the strength was wrong, or the other way round. You don't know how the yoke will feel unless you try. I used a CH products original spring for the roll axis to replace my original spring which was a little weak. They sell these via their dealers. They also sell buttons etc. I also got a CH POV switch. More info can be found on their website. Try your luck at your local airfield and talk to the mechanics, maybe they've got something laying around which they are willing to sell. Maybe they will let you take measurement inside the airplanes or just look around to get some ideas. Labels Labels on your switches are mandatory. I used the Dymo label system. I got clear film with white letters. This works well on grey background, even better on a black one. A small downside of the Dymo film is the fact that it's glossy, while I used satin paint on my project. If you know someone who owns one of these printers or similar systems you only need to buy the film. It's not very cheap, but looks good. It can also help your kids keep track of their belongings in school This is often used on real aircraft when additional or new placards are needed. Paint Revell or Humbrol model paints can be used to paint small parts, matte gloss or satin, available in lots of colors. These were used for the mixture and prop knobs on the throttle quadrant. The containers are only 15 ml but will last long. The paint is very durable. Use several thin layers to get a very nice result. The knobs don't feel like wood at all. One thick layer will not cure properly leaving you with a sticky feeling after flying. Wiring Try to save on wires by using 1 common ground wire for systems or buttons which share one ground connection. The yoke features 4 buttons and one rumble motor, I only use 2 ground wires. 4 wires in each telephone wire means I needed 2 telephone wires running from the yoke to the box. The Logitech devices have a clustered set-up, often 4 buttons share a common ground, combining groups tends to produce strange results though. Expandability And Durability Always think ahead, as much as possible. Think about leaving room for future expansion; trust me you'll need it. You'll want it, it's addictive. I still want to add a rudder trim and aileron trim to the throttle quadrant. I have a few spare axes and the wires are already connected, I just need to build the hardware. Think about easy disassembly, things break down, they will. Soldering can corrode and produce bad connections, wires will break near soldering points when you're working on your hardware. Longer wires will allow you to have easy access as well without the immediate need to take your hardware apart. Use connectors on circuit boards so you can take one board out of your hardware without the whole wire spaghetti attached to it. Think about the stresses parts will have to face, try to build it strong and durable. You will have a lifelong on-site service warranty on your device Soldering Get a good soldering iron with a thin tip. I used a 15 watt one for the circuitry. A damp sponge will help you clean it as you're working. Clean the tip of the iron to get rid of burned soldering alloy, this can cause bad soldering connections. You can use shrinking plastic hose to insulate soldering connections, it is better and more secure than tape. Costs The total cost of the project was approximately between 750 and 800 euros. The yoke was about €450 and the radio panel about €275. The rest was spent on the throttle quadrant and the modification of the rudder. The donor devices were 2 joysticks, 2 game pads and 1 rumble pad which add up to about 150 euros. I paid about 160 euros for the yoke (a Cessna one would have been a lot cheaper). Electronics have a tendency to add up, between 2 and 5 euros for one switch. Encoders are not cheap either, 5 euros each, and another 5 for the knob. Using 14 of these will add up to €140. Not mentioning the IC's etc. Wood, aluminum, etc. are the cheapest parts. Nuts and bolts are not that expensive either. It does pay to shop around. The clamps I used to fix the yoke and throttle to my desk were available at two stores, where one was twice as expensive, the only difference was a brand name on the expensive ones. I just don't think about the time spent on the project otherwise it would seem unaffordable! The radio panel was built in my spare time wile I was a full time flight instructor. The yoke and throttle were built in about 2 months time during a period when I was partly unemployed. The rudder modification only took a couple of afternoons. About The Author I live in The Netherlands and I started with FS in 1989 using FS3 at the age of 13. I started glider flying at 16. Somewhere around that time I built my first FS hardware--rudder pedals. After school I got my written ATPL. I got my CPL and Instrument Rating in 1997. During that time I worked in a well known aviation shop in Aalsmeerderbrug as a flightsim specialist. After that I flew on the PA31 and worked on becoming a flight instructor. In 2000 I became a full time flight instructor. I even use FS during ground school to explain for instance VOR and ADF. Disclaimer The information provided may not be sold on. The use of the information provided is at your own risk. Damage to you or your property resulting from any of the things I wrote down is not my fault. Take proper precautions, and a lot of common sense! I know I hurt myself a few times during this project, but I survived with no permanent damage Ferry Herfst The Netherlands Navajo_ArcherII@hotmail.com Links To All Article Parts -
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 6
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 6 By Ferry Herfst The Finished Project The whole set-up can be seen here. The yoke now with extra switches to control all the lights, the flap switch is now on the throttle quadrant. The radio panel is in front of the second monitor where the radio stack is displayed. I put the GPS in a little space that is left. Sometimes I use the remaining space to display the throttle quadrant. The pedals on the floor are still the original Thrustmaster pedals. The metal pedals are my accelerator and brake pedal for use with my racing wheel. On the top right of the yoke box you can see a grey knob. This is a POV switch and there are two 2-way switches next to it (out of sight on the picture but visible on the next). I use the POV switch to control the point of view and this comes in handy when flying a visual circuit from the virtual cockpit. I use the switches to change views (e.g. back and forth between second and VC because I like to make the landing using the VC) and I can zoom in an out. I also like to fly in spot plane view. The picture above shows the friction knob on the throttle quadrant and the flap switch. The flap switch needs to have a small airfoil fitted and then I can add the placards. The view switches are on the top right of the yoke box. The shape of the power, prop and condition levers can be clearly seen here. Customising FS2004 To prevent having to set up your aircraft systems, views and additional windows you may want to customise FS a bit. Well, a bit? A lot! Starting FS2004 With The Right Windows In The Right Place This used to work flawlessly in FS2002. A saved flight would position all the windows in the right place. Now I found I had to switch to windowed mode, undock the applicable windows, move them to the second screen, go back to full screen on the first monitor, and then size and shape the windows on the second monitor. Saving a flight spared me the trouble of moving and sizing the windows on the secon monitor. I dug into the .FLT file which can be edited using Notepad. I found all the window settings, position, visible or not, etc. I noticed a parameter for undocking a panel. Simply changing a value from false to true seemed like the solution. Below is a part of a .FLT file. It stores all the variables for a saved flight. The FLT files are saved in "My documents\flight simulator files" [Panel.2] ScreenUniCoords=0, 1856, 8192, 4288 UndocCoords=0, 0, 0, 0 Visible=False Undocked=False HiddenOn=False ID=0 ViewsOn=1 [Panel.3] ScreenUniCoords=3080, 32, 5016, 5272 UndocCoords=1769, 134, 397, 635 Visible=True (an indication that this panel is visible on start up of this flight.) Undocked=True (I changed this value from False (default) to True to start with this window undocked.) HiddenOn=False ID=50 ViewsOn=1 Upon Starting FS The Panels Were Not Undocked, Now What? I fixed that by leaving FS while it was windowed, that way I would start up windowed. I found my extra windows on the second monitor when starting FS with this flight. After going back to full screen mode they were all in the right place. Now to find a nice way to let FS start windowed without having the need to put FS in a window each time I close it down. The FS9.cfg (where all FS settings are saved) is written on FS shutdown so I had to find a way to save my FS9.cfg and store it so it can't be changed. The FS9.cfg is in your personal folder in the "documents and settings folder". You will find if you search for FS9.CFG. I renamed it to FS9.Baron. I made a .BAT file with a copy command as well as a command to start FS2004. This copies and renames the FS9.baron to FS9.cfg an leaves my FS9.Baron intact. When finished it starts FS2004 with all my settings and of course in a window. This is the contents of the .BAT file (I call this one FSBARON.BAT) copy fs9.baron fs9.cfg d:\fs2004\fs9 exit This way after starting FS I only have to press alt-enter and I am good to go. You can make more of these .CFG files and .BAT files and start FS with the start-up situation, specific joystick assignments for jets or prop aircraft or an alternative way of programming your button/p> I made a combination of .FLT and .CFG file for use with the King Air, the Baron and one which lets me use my Suncom stick and throttle when I want to fool around with an F-16 or do aerobatics. Another reason for making saved flights is that you can make a flight that starts with all systems off. Start up FS with all the switches on your hardware in the off position and gear down. That way your hardware is in sync with FS. It can happen that a switch gets out of sync. I just flip the switch back and forth really quick and that usually does the trick. Or you can use the mouse or keyboard off course, but that's a last resort This is a snapshot of my King Air start-up situation. Realty XP As some may have noticed, I use the Reality XP EADI and EHSI. I installed them in the Baron as well. The flight director in the default King Air EADI in FS is very bad, unfortunately. The Baron's artificial horizon is also not so good because it looks like it sticks when the aircraft pitches. That's the most important reason I use the Reality XP Jetline2. It makes accurate instrument flying and use of the flight director a real treat. Panel Editing As you can see on the last picture I edited the radio panel of the King Air to incorporate the autopilot and altitude pre-select. I like to fly in virtual cockpit mode and the second monitor is a nice place to put these. That's were they are in the VC by the way. Especially if you use two monitors editing the panels a bit can add a lot to the overall realism. Changing FS to match your hardware is easier than the other way round. Especially if the hardware has already been built. Sound Of Multi Engine Aircraft It almost seems like FS is never good enough for me. Well for most advanced users (I do believe I can say I'm one of them) there is always something to bitch about. Let's bitch... When having a prop control for each engine I want to be able to synchronize the 2 engines. In a real twin this can be done by listening and you can hear a kind of pulsating sound when the engines do not run at the same RPM. It's almost like, I'm sorry, it is like tuning a guitar or other musical instrument. Adjusting one engine so it runs at the same speed as the other and the pulsating stops. But what have they done! MS coupled the most important engine sounds in FS to throttle position. Closing the throttle at 180 kts and the engines still running at 2300 rpm will produce an idling sound, yeelch In a real piston twin this does not happen! The sound barely changes when changing the throttle, as long as the RPM is the same. From 15" to 24" MAP does not change the sound, only when the governor can't keep up and the RPM changes a bit. The sound character may change a bit, sounding a bit heavier at high power. Enough of my bitching! I did something about it. I edited the sound.cfg of the Baron and the King Air. These can be downloaded here: modu.zip. It still surprises me no one wrote an op-ed on this subject. It also surprises me no add-on developer made a sound set to correct it (I could have missed it, and if I did please tell me!) The sound.cfg uses flags to assign a sound to a certain parameter. 2 and 4 are prop variables depending on blade angle. The combustion section is the most important sound. On the Baron I needed to double the combustion section (due to the blade angles; otherwise the sound would die under certain circumstances). I changed the flags on the combustion section to 2 and 4 and linked them to the already existing prop section in the .cfg file, effectively leaving no combustion section. I did have to leave 1 original combustion section to keep the start-up sound effect transition to idle sounding right. I had to edit the parameters in the .cfg file a bit to make a nice transition to the prop only part of the .cfg file. On the King Air I only needed to change the flags, and link the prop section to the old combustion section. Works like a charm, I just lose the heavy sound when I feather the prop. I could probably solve it, but I have not gotten around to it. Instructor Station One nice feature I hardly hear anybody talk about is the instructor station. With a set-up like the one I've got I would be able to let people train procedures or even some basic instrument flying, using the instructor station to track the flight. Also advanced training for FS fanatics would be a real possibility. Assessment of the approach flown is possible with the instructor station. It also provides a means for the instructor to act as ATC for a "student". Links To All Article Parts -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 5
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 5 By Ferry Herfst Rudder And Brakes My old Thrustmaster rudder control system had served me well for a lot of years but I decided to redesign them. This way I had a lot of prefab parts. I wanted the pedals to be suspended above the ground, just as in most aircraft. Having your heels on the ground and applying rudder with your toes. To use the brakes you have to place your feet a bit up the pedals and apply pressure to the top part to tilt the pedals. For instance the CH pedals are not correct in that sense. I used the original pedals but placed them on the opposite side from where they are originally. I put them almost vertically and up side down with the round part up. Pressing the top part would activate the brake. I also took part of the guidance out because it would interfere with my feet. I also placed the guidance more to the center for the same reason. To elevate the metal construction, the rudder was mounted on blocks which in turn were attached to a base plate. You guessed it; 9 mm plywood. You can use heavier thicker wood for an even more stable base. Using a large gear wheel on the pedal and a very small one on the potentiometer just gave me enough degrees of movement to be able to use it. I created two stops in the metal base where the pedals were mounted. One stop for no brakes, one for maximux brakes. A spring on each pedal pulled it back to release the brakes. I had two game pads in the yoke which both had a throttle function. These do not have a center position. The game pads are calibrated when they are connected. The software assumes the joysticks are in neutral position. A throttle can be anywhere so is calibrated according to its minimum and maximum values. So these can be used best for brake, since brakes do not need a center position. The rudder axis on the other hand does have a center position so this was connected to the x-axis of one of the rumble pad's joysticks. I used a 9 pin comm port like connector to connect the potentiometers of the rudder and brakes to the yoke box. FSUIPC can be used to adjust dead zones to make sure you are off the brakes when not touching the pedals. The pedals as seen from the front. The base plate is quite big and long to stop it from tipping over when using the brakes. I cut out corners of the base plate so your heels can stay on the floor without them going over the edge of the wooden plate when applying rudder. There are rubber blocks on the bottom of the plate to stop it from sliding. These came with the pedals so I took them off and glued them to my base plate. Detail of the potentiometer. (I still have to shorten the potentiometer axis.) The bottom of the pedals is 7 cm above the base plate. Total width is about 49 cm. Quite wide but the pedals are actually far apart in a King Air. Links To All Article Parts -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 4
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 4 By Ferry Herfst Throttle Quadrant You have probably forgotten that I started this project to build a throttle quadrant which ended up being the last thing I built. Due to a feature of FSUIPC which enabled me to alter the way FS responded to the different axes I did not need to build a complicated mechanical solution. I could use a direct drive between the levers and the potentiometers. Otherwise I had to think of a way to let the rotation of the potentiometer increase in the feather region of the prop lever? Why, you ask. That can be read in the additional info. I first tried to draw the PA31 quadrant from my memory. But I knew I also wanted to be able to use reverse with a detent or lock between throttle and reverse. I figured I was better off with a King Air throttle quadrant. Also because I chose the Beech style for the switch layout on the yoke. And the King Air has reverse. Also more realistic than adding reverse to a piston aircraft quadrant. I paid a visit to a company where I got my twin rating. They owned two King Airs. One was in maintenance and they let me spend some time in the cockpit. I used paper and pen to draw the outlines of the entire thing on a number of sheets. I copied the distance between the slots where the levers run through and the length of the slots. The way the levers diverged away from each other. I also drew the shape of the prop and condition knobs to be able to duplicate these. When I got home I worked out my drawings and chose exact measurements. The quadrant is actually part of a cylinder. I could make the round part out of sheet metal. The sides, back and bottom would be made of 9 mm plywood, the same as used for the yoke. I used 40 x 3 mm aluminium strips for the levers. In hindsight I might have opted to use 4 mm. The 3 mm ones are not very stiff. The King Air levers are nicely shaped. The throttles move away from the prop levers and change from broad to narrow near the knob, from 40 mm to 20 mm. The prop levers lean towards each other and are tapered the same way as the throttles. The mixture or condition levers move away from the prop levers. These are also tapered. While making them, I tapered the strips first and I marked where they had to be bent. I bent the levers after that. But before I was able to do all that I had to figure out how I would position this in the quadrant box. All levers would share one common axis. That way I could add a simple adjustable throttle friction by tightening a nut on one end of the axis. The awfully weak (non adjustable) friction of a brand new elite quadrant had wondered me some years before. I would use the same nylon gear wheels as I used in the yoke (I actually bought these with the throttles in mind) and I would use nylon rings on either side of each lever for smooth action. I would attach one gearwheel to the lower end of each lever with the common axis running trough the center of the gearwheel. The potentiometer will be driven by a smaller gear resulting in a greater angle of movement in the potentiometer compared to the 60 degrees of travel by the lever. The power lever has a greater travel and needed a smaller reduction. I had to experiment with the potentiometer travel needed by the joystick to be able to calibrate it. The Wingman Extreme Digital 3D was kind of specific in this respect. The game pads were not that critical. In the end I had to enlarge the prop and mixture travel just a bit to be able to calibrate them. I used the X and Y axes of one joystick for the prop axes. The X and Y of the other one were used for the condition levers. The throttle axes of both joysticks were used for the throttles. The Z (twist) axes were used for trim and spoiler. One set of levers looked like this. The blue lines are the nylon rings. The green lines are the gear wheels. There are in fact rings between the gear wheels and the levers to keep the gear wheels from being squeezed. The grey lines are aluminum. Both the levers and the L shaped mounts. The yellow bar is the copper alloy threaded rod used as a common axis. The red lines are the cross section of a copper alloy tube. It runs through the lever and gearwheel and keeps them together. They are not supposed to touch the mounts. The gears I had to use were a bit larger than I planned so I had to make a groove in the wood under the lever gear. The prop levers in detail. Because I wanted to be able to put this assembly under a little tension to increase friction or decrease friction I used a nut on both sides. Tightening the nut would increase friction of course. In the actual quadrant there are three of these lever sets. I used copper alloy tubes between the lever assemblies. The length of these tubes is very important. It took a couple of efforts to get it right. Otherwise the friction will vary a lot between the separate levers. The positioning of the L shaped mounts is a factor in this as well. On the actual quadrant I placed the friction nut on the outside of the quadrant. Enlarging the nut with a wooden disk. I did not place the potentiometers all in front of the axis. I wanted to but there was just not enough room so the staggered position was a necessity. One thing that you have to pay attention to is that the potentiometers of both the power, both the prop and both the mixture axes are in the same position when the lever is in halfway position. It will show when calibrating. If the potentiometers are offset, the line drawn in the calibration square in windows is not straight. It took some experimenting to get it right. It's no big deal but will result in the levers being offset with the flightisim values being equal. A certain degree of offset is acceptable since I have not seen an aircraft without offset levers during flight. Spoilers? I added a feature to this quadrant that can not be found on real King Airs--a spoiler lever. Because I want to be able to fly jets as well I added the spoiler lever right of the mixture. To accommodate this I made the box a little wider than the original quadrant. I tried to maintain the Beech appearance so it would not seem out of place. Reverse Reverse is another nice feature which is available in the King Air. The throttles are limited to idle by a detent. You have to lift the levers to be able to go into reverse, about 1.5 cm. The levers actually extend and stay in this extended position throughout the reverse range (or beta range). I had to think of a way to extend the throttle levers. I split the original lever a few centimetres above the gear wheel. I bolted a 3 mm aluminium strip to it which extends up. Using 3 bolts on this strip and 3 slots in the original lever I could slide the lever up and down. The 3 slots provide guidance and stops. I used locking nuts to be able to tighten them without leaving sideways play in the lever but not too tight. Otherwise pulling the levers out would be too hard. An additional bolt with a sunken head through the power lever would provide the stop for idle, and would move up with the lever and run along a guidance in beta range. The bolts of the two levers are close to one another. The power lever close up in beta range. The bolt running along the beta guidance can be seen. The lever stops when the bolt meets the stop. The trim gear wheel is held by a thick nylon ring. This provides a nice resistance but still runs smooth. The potentiometer gear is allowed to slip on its axis when the trim pot reaches maximum deflection. Elevator Trim The trim wheel is another real aircraft part. This one is from a Rallye, A French single engine aircraft. The gearwheel on the trim wheel was compatible with my gearwheels. A nice coincidence. About 2.5 revolutions of the trim wheel are needed from full up to full down trim. Mounting It The throttles need to be below desk level. Or just a little above. The throttle box can be linked to the same type of clamps used on the yoke. But this time I used strips to keep a distance between the box and the clamps. The lower part of the box is level with one of these strips which ends at the lower part of the clamp. The box will be in front of and below the desk. The throttle knobs are just a bit above desk level. This can be changed according to personal taste or the throttles can be incorporated into a permanent set-up. The clamps are very strong and the whole set-up is very stable. The finished quadrant. The power levers in idle position, props full fine and condition to cut-off. The spoilers are in retracted position. A nice view of the clamps as well. The depth of the box is 15.5 cm measured at the bottom (so actually a little more). Height at the back is 12.5 (greatest height is also a little more). The center of the axis is located 2.8 cm from the bottom and 5 cm from the back. Width is 23 cm. The throttles extend 14 cm, the prop levers 12 cm, and the condition levers 10 cm above the quadrant. Connecting It A 25 pin printer-port like connector was used to connect the throttle quadrant to the radio panel since the joysticks circuits were inside this box. A cable with 26 wires was used. That way I had some wires left to use for the flap switch, the planned aileron and rudder trim and a to/ga button. Finishing Touches I made all the placards that are on the real quadrant. I used a Dymo label printer with clear film and white text. I looks very professional, at least I think so The power, prop and mixture knobs were made out of a broomstick. The knobs, white lines and red feather area were painted using Humbrol model paint. I still want to make a nice spoiler knob on the handle. I added the trim switch to the quadrant just below the condition levers. All the knobs in the real King Air are actually black. But I liked them better in black, blue and red as on most piston aircraft. Links To All Article Parts -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 3
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 3 By Ferry Herfst Building The Yoke I developed the toggle to momentary circuit for use with a yoke I was building. I got a lot of inspiration for the yoke and electronics from this from this how to. I really want to thank Roland van Roy for giving me so many great ideas. I had several problems with commercially available yokes. The cheaper ones don't have the travel real yokes got, only about half. This applies to the pitch as well as the roll axis. 18 cm from full down to full up elevator. Aileron axis travel is 180 degrees from full left to full right, as measured in a Piper Archer. The expensive ones aren't much better. Exceptions are possible as I may have overlooked one or two. Usually the yoke is just that, and I wanted more features, more like some products which are becoming available nowadays. I wanted switches for battery, alternator, engine start, all the lights, gear, flaps trim, etc. I needed some donor hardware. I chose a game pad Yes indeed...Not the first thing you expect to be a donor game control especially for a yoke. But the Logitech rumble pad has 5 axes, on 2 joysticks and one throttle. Plus a lot of buttons, which I could use for a lot of functions. And I had already used other Logitech devices. I want to stick to one manufacturer to prevent problems with drivers, etc. The rumble pad gave me one other very interesting possible feature, a stick shaker! The game pad has 2 motors in it with off center weights on it. If I would be able to incorporate this in the yoke I would have several nice gear or stall effects. I first tested the rumble effects with the device intact. After disabling the control forces I had a very acceptable effect. A little rumble on takeoff roll or after landing, a nice gear up thump and subtle gear down click and the stick shaker worked well in the jets. But that would be the icing on the cake! Desk Layout I've got an IKEA desk named Jerker. Fortunately it's not as annoying as its name would make you think. It is very adaptable. Height of all the level surfaces can be chosen or changed. I did not stick to one of the standard IKEA set-ups but figured out my own. The desktop is rather large and deep as well. I've got 2 monitors on it, one 19" and a 17" as well as my speakers. And plenty of space in front of the monitors to put my hardware or do my taxes Figuring Out The Dimensions The idea is to build a box to house the yoke rod and the switches. The box has to be easily installable and removable as well. Typing your mail etc. around a yoke tends to increase the chance of RSI. So size does matter. With a forward travel of 18 cm the yoke needs a lot of depth. The total length of the yoke shaft is more than twice this value because you need to attach things to it and it has to be supported. Real yokes in planes are just supported where they enter the instrument panel and where they are held by the links to the controls. This would take up too much space. The bottom of my monitor was about 15 cm above my desk top. I did not want to build higher than that. The yoke needs springs to be centered and simulate control forces. In 2 directions. This was the hardest part. To figure out a way to have all this travel and still build a compact housing. 25 cm deep, 45 cm wide and 15 cm high. Those were the dimensions I chose. The width was chosen to accommodate all the planned switches and still have access to them around the yoke. The painted box with holes to mount the switches, etc. The wood used is 9 mm plywood. Pitch And Roll Centering Springs Roland van Roy had provided some nice solutions to connect the springs and potentiometers to a tube. A threaded rod is the heart of the yoke's rod. It provides a means to attach things like springs and the yoke off course by using nuts. On parts that need to be smooth a tube around the rod provides the answer. Pretty simple but you have to come up with it. Roland van Roy also had a pretty good spring solution but I did not have as much space so I needed to change the set-up somewhat. See his yoke here. To save height I wanted to position the roll spring horizontally instead of vertically. Which was not a problem after all. Depth on the other hand was. A spring takes up a lot of space when not stretched. Mine had to be about 10 cm long unstressed to be able to extend to up to 30 cm total. This is needed to accommodate the 18 cm travel and still be under a little tension in full up or down position. I attempted to position the springs from left to right inside the box and use a cable to connect them via rollers to the yoke rod. It did not work well, the rollers caused so much friction that this was not a viable option. I tried a different approach, to place the springs diagonally. That way when the spring is not under tension it is parallel to the front or rear of the housing. When fully extended it runs diagonally across the box. This diagonal spring set-up saved me a lot of space and I could get a travel of 18 cm in a box with outside depth of 25 cm (the wood is 9 mm thick). Also the spring was able to be extended in full up or down deflection without being over stretched while still being under a little tension in the other position. It did cause a bit more friction in the rod guidance, but I came up with a solution for that. More on that later. Roland used a threaded rod to attach everything to; this seemed like the way to go. Nuts can be modified and turned into mounts for all kinds of things. The pitch springs will be attached to a bolt in the middle of the yoke rod. This bolt serves more functions. It will also be used for the roll spring and the link for the pitch potentiometer. All this on one bolt? By soldering a plate to it you can enlarge its surface and provide a space for all kinds of things, and you can solder threaded rods to it as well. What's The Big Idea? The whole things comes down to this: The yoke rod consists of the threaded rod on the inside and an aluminum tube on the outside. (I am now thinking of replacing it with chromed steel for a smoother feel and less wear.) Nut 1 holds the tube in place as well as nut 2. Nut 2 also has a piece of threaded rod attached to it which in turn is connected to the roll spring. Nut 3 has been smoothed on the inside so the threaded rod can move freely in it. There are two pieces of rod attached to nut 3. One to connect the pitch springs and the other which runs along the guidance bar. The roll spring is attached to this bar as well. The guidance bar prevents the rod with the roll spring to turn but lets it move back and forth. The blue lines are nylon spacers to let nut 2 and 4 turn smoothly against nut 3. To let the yoke rod move smoothly I used nylon rings where the rod enters the box. These are mounted on the outside of the box. This is nut 2 with the roll spring. This is nut 4 with the plate and rods. The hole in the plate is where the roll potentiometer goes. The roll stops are also visible. These stop the rod on nut 3 from going too far. On the bottom you can see the connection and part of the pitch potentiometer strip. If you look close you might see that the inside of the nut is smooth. A Bit On Soldering I did not use copper or silver to solder these parts even though they will take some punishment during their lifetime. Don't work hard, work smart is the key here. I drilled holes in the nuts to fit the 8 mm rods. These are copper alloy ("Messing" in Dutch) which makes them relatively easy to work on and soldering it is pretty easy as well. I used a small blowtorch to heat the parts and regular soldering alloy. The biggest challenge was to solder the plate to nut 4 wile the rods were already soldered. Using just enough heat to solder the plate but not melt the soldering on the rods. But it worked. Before inserting the rods in the nut you have to make the end match the inside of the nut. The Result Here's a picture of the assembly. The gears are some kind of nylon-like plastic. I had to enlarge the holes in the gears, which is hard to do if you have to drill a 12 mm hole. The hole has to be in the middle otherwise the gears will wobble. I failed. So I had to fix it. I modified a washer to hold the gear on the yoke rod centered. The hole for the potentiometer axis was made just a little too small so it does not need additional fastening. This shows the gear wheel and the tapered washer to keep the gear wheel centered. This is the guidance bar. The notches are where the roll spring is attached. To let it run smoothly I used 3 small ball bearings (not visible). Two to prevent it from moving along with the roll of the yoke. These are adjusted so there is no play but no extra friction either. The guidance bar does not need lubrication but needs to be clean. The third ball bearing is used to counteract the pull of the pitch springs. That one is just visible on the far side. It can be adjusted by turning the bolts on either side of the aluminium plate. The guidance bar needs to be exactly parallel to the yoke rod for it to work. The completed yoke box. Rumble pad and toggle to momentary circuit board on the left. Game pad and a second toggle to momentary circuit board on the bottom on the right. The pitch spring set-up can be clearly seen. The pitch potentiometer sliding strip can also be seen. The Yoke The yoke has a nice story to it. I asked a guy with an aircraft parts shop if he had any yokes. Well he did but they were all Cessna. I wanted Beech or Piper because I am not a Cessna fan. I got my PPL and CPL and IR on Cessnas but I prefer Piper singles and I flew a lot on the PA31 Navajo. I do like the Cessna twins by the way. A few days later he came by at the flight school where I worked and held a Piper yoke in his hand. He told me it came from a Piper Navajo, one that had been damaged in a storm. I knew the plane because I had flown it. I had a model of it and a picture on my windows desktop, now I had the yoke! So to make a long story short I used a real Piper yoke for my project. It was the most expensive part but well worth it. It had a tube fixed to it which had to go. I made a round wooden block to fill the hole and made sure it was a perfect fit. Attaching the threaded rod was a bit harder. I needed heavy duty washers to keep the wood from being crushed. The whole thing needs to be firmly tightened so it does not give way when under stress from the roll spring. Shown here is the yoke with horn extension on the left horn. Also the telephone type cables which provide the connections for the buttons on the yoke are visible. An external solution may not seem very tidy but it can be found on most real GA aircraft with buttons in the yoke. Shown here is the other side of the yoke. The washer is clearly visible. The connector is still on the telephone wire; I use it for easy disassembly or maintenance. The female type is installed in the box. A/P And Trim I also wanted to have a pitch trim function, A/P disconnect, and f/d pitch sync on the yoke and I had to do something with the rumble feature...The buttons did not fit in the left horn of the yoke where they should be so I made an extension to the yoke's left horn. This was made from copper alloy sheet. I was kind of proud after finishing this. The hole in the front side is for the original push to talk button which I installed but it is not functional. On the top are holes for the a/p and f/d functions. The big hole is for the pitch trim. Rumble Feedback The hole in the yoke which is visible 2 pictures back seemed like the right place to put 1 of the 2 the rumble feedback motor from the rumble pad. This hole will be covered by the Piper logo. The motor had to be removable to have easy access to the nut inside the yoke for adjustment or tightening. I made a wooden block to hold the motor. The total assembly has a tight fit in the yoke and the Piper logo is taped on the yoke using thick double sided adhesive tape. It used to be glued. The wiring runs through one of the 2 telephone cables. The rumble pad had 2 motors, one with a heavy weight and one with a light weight. Because I only use the motor with the heavy weight I connected it to both of the motor outputs of the rumble pad. How To Keep It On Your Desk I never gave it much thought how I would mount it on my desktop and keep it from moving. Then I thought that clamps used to keep glued wood etc. together would be a good idea. I bought two of these. I flattened the top part of them so they could be bolted to the side of the yoke box. I shortened the clamps and the handles after the project was finished. They can handle very thick desks. Even the ones with those annoying steel beams under them. I added a wooden strip under the front side of the box to tilt it back a little. It's only fixed with double adhesive tape and can be removed when necessary. After I had painted it black it added a nice touch to the overall appearance. Monitor Mounts To allow for the long yoke rod I had to get rid of my original monitor mount. I built a very simple U shaped wooden one to replace it. This one leaves room for the yoke rod to move under the monitor. I glued felt to the bottom of the mount so it slides easily on my desk without scratching. I move my monitor forward against the back of the yoke box for a nice cockpit like feel. I made one of these mounts for my second monitor as well to be able to slide it with the same ease and keep the lower sides of the screens at the same height. Ready At Last The yoke after the completion, I would add the extra switches at a later stage. Links To All Article Parts -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 2
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 2 By Ferry Herfst How One IC Can Be Come A Lifesaver The 4066 deserves special mention. I talked earlier about using the POV for 8 functions. Most POV are actually 4 switches, one up, one right, one down, one left. Right up is done by shorting 2 switches at the same time, right and up. Simply connecting 3 switches to 2 will not work, any switch will short both. I needed some kind of isolation. The 4066 provided the answer. When power is supplied to one pin of the IC, it will make a contact elsewhere. E.g. power on pin 12 will make a contact between 10 and 11. Using power on 2 pins will make 2 contacts. So to use POV right up I connect power to 2 pins with one switch. The 4066 will close the up and right switch. But the 4066 will keep these switches closed until power is gone from the input pins. So the input pins (e.g. 12 and 13) are also connected to ground with a small capacitor. So upon release of the switch the 4066 will open the contacts that were previously closed. The grey bars are resistors. The rectangle is the 4066. Notice the notch which helps identify the pins. Power on pin 5 closes contact between 3 and 4 Power on pin 6 closes contact between 8 and 9 Power on pin 12 closes contact between 10 and 11 Power on pin 13 closes contact between 1 and 2 Red and green wires are used to connect pin 13 to pin 5 and pin 12 to pin 6. (this can also be done with solder on the board). We want to close 2 switches with one (b1) so we use pin 13 and 5 to close and to as well as 3 and 4. When pressed, b2 applies voltage to 12 and 6 which will make the 4066 close 9 and 8 + 10 and 11. 5 and 6 are connected to ground via a resistor so when the button b1 or b2 is released the contacts made by the 4066 will be opened again. The buttons used got 2 pins. One is connected to the power supply from the game pad (the same one as our 4066 uses) the other to pin 13 or 12 of the 4066. Toggle To Momentary The 4066 served another purpose as well. The 4066 came in handy to convert a toggle switch to a momentary button pres. So flipping a switch will press a button for a second. Flipping it back will press the same button again. A way to make this without the 4066 but with a relay is described in this how to. I've also seen people using optocouplers instead of the 4066 to connect to their keyboard. I did not use a keyboard so my requirements were different. I guess the keyboard responds a bit quicker than the joysticks and game pads. Using relays takes up a lot of space and I never got the optocouplers to do what I needed them to. The switches need double connections for this to work. The circuit is similar to the POV solution and it involves the charging of capacitors. Each time the switch is flipped one capacitor is charged and an other is discharged. When a capacitor is charged a current will flow until it is fully charged. Then the current stops. Now we need a means to turn these small current peaks into a switch. That's just what the 4066 does for us. The switches are shown with their power and ground circuit. The connections on the corners are all + or - and the ones in the middle are the output. Depending on the position of the switch one middle connector provides + and the other -. When we flip the switch, it will be the other way round. The 2 output wires will be connected to the capacitors. Circles are the capacitors and the bars are the resistors. The rectangle is the 4066. Notice the notch. The 2 outputs of one switch (S2) end up at pin 12 and 6, so when flipping the switch 11 and 10 are closed or 8 and 9. 8, 9, 11 and 12 are connected to one switch, you can use 3 wires to save some on wiring. 9 and 10 can share 1 wire. Or even try to combine 11 and 8 and just use 2 wires. We can connect 2 switches to one circuit. Again we use resistors which connect the capacitors to ground. So 1 4066, 4 capacitors and 4 resistors. The value of both determines the length of the pulse. I used 1000 uF capacitors and 220 ohm resistors which works well for me. Although FSUIPC sometimes misses a switch the joystick driver never misses one. So when using FSUIPC you may want a longer pulse. This is the actual circuit. On the lower left are a few 4066's to accommodate the POV circuit. Links To All Article Parts -
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How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls - Part 1
Nels_Anderson posted an article in Featured
How To...Build Your Own Modular Desktop Flight Controls By Ferry Herfst Let me start off by telling how the project started. A project which took over 3 years to complete, but I spent a lot of time just thinking about it. In 1997 I got my CPL and in 1998 I flew on the PA31 series, and I wanted to be able to practice engine failures in FS. I would need 2 throttles, 2 prop controls and 2 mixtures. FS2000 was just released when I realised that the possibility existed to use more than 4 joystick axes in FS. I went ahead an bought 2 USB 4 axes joysticks in addition to my Suncom stick and throttle combined with rudder. I configured FS to see if it all worked as I hoped, and it did...YES! Now to build the hardware. Easier said than done, a lot easier... I planned to take the joysticks apart and use the electronics and replace the potentiometers with standard ones (most joysticks use 100k Ohm). I bought the Logitech wingman extreme digital 3D which was a USB device with 4 axes. I knew Logitech used potentiometers because I already converted a Wing Extreme Digital into a steering wheel for car racing games. MS used some kind of optical technology which seemed a bit hard to modify. Now I just needed to built a throttle quadrant. But I still had to design it. I thought it would be easier to built a radio panel to use all those buttons on the joysticks that I had. Seven buttons on each stick plus using 8 different functions on each POV hat switch. (Some may remember an op-ed on this subject). 7+8=15 15*2=30. That equals an awful lot of functions. I would be able to make control com1, nav 1&2, ADF, as well as the A/P. Pete Dawson had published a list of FS controls which were not available in the assignments menu but could be added to the fs2000.cfg. That's how I would get it to work. Building The Radio Panel This is the layout I chose. The numbers indicate the button number. The v/s button was not installed. Most rotaries got 2 numbers, one button to increase and one to decrease. The ADF buttons only got one each cause I ran out of buttons. The rectangles represent push buttons and the circles represent rotary switches, or something, yes, or something. That's where the trouble started. The First Electronics Purchase I went to a kind of radio shack and asked for a rotary switch that would repeatedly short one contact when turning one way and vice versa. I picked up my order and got home and started to connect my switches to the joystick electronics. First I connected one to try. Well it didn't work. Only after I gave my rotary switch an aggressive spin did it seem to react, but with no regard for left or right. When I got back at the store for advice the guy uttered something about gray-codes and other stuff I did not quite understand. Lows, More Lows And A High My project was at a standstill. Even before it got a chance to take off. I spent some time on circuits to get it working because it needed something to interface between the rotary encoders (that's what these things turned out to be) and my joystick hardware. At one time I found some circuitry on an FS cockpit homebuilt site which I decided to try. I needed a certain IC but was unable to get it here in the Netherlands. I ordered it over the internet and was treated to an economically packed and delivered package including my IC. The IC was about the size of a your average domestic spider but it was delivered in a box large enough to ship the shoes of crusty the clown and it was weighed down with a 150 pages catalogue. IC costs 3 USD, Shipping 42 USD, Argh! Last time I did that... I got my soldering iron out, and carefully tried to reproduce the circuit. It did not, I say again, it did not work. Bummer... I was fortunate to accidentally meet with someone involved in homebuilt FS hardware and he presented me with the solution. I got a nice schematic via snail mail. Thanks to Ron Norp. The top part is of interest to this project. The middle part is just a way to connect micro switches to joystick or keyboard. The lower part are the mechanics to a mixture control using an encoder in lieu of a potentiometer. The switches provide a means of mix. Full rich or idle cutoff. The 4093 IC is drawn as separate components but the numbers indicate the pins on the IC. The 4093 also has 14 pins. From Turn To Push When I built this schematic, it worked like a charm. Depending on your own requirements you can change the value of the resistors which are connected to the capacitors. This will alter the duration of the contact made by the CD4066. I found that changing only the value of the resistors had quite a big influence. There is a balance between a short pulse where the joystick driver sometimes misses a "beat" and the maximum rate of the pulses. It's best to experiment with different values. The CD4013B, CD 4093 and CD4066 are shown as two devices which are actually one. The numbers indicate the numbers of the contacts on the IC. Reading datasheets usually clarifies these schematics. Datasheets are available on the websites of most semiconductor manufacturers. When using FSUIPC you can chose to fix control acceleration in FS. I did not use this. That way e.g. my heading bug starts to turn slowly at first but when I continue to turn the knob it speeds up. Saves a lot of time on large turns. This works well for altitude and speed selections. Just experiment and see what works best for you. The pictures show the actual circuit board with circuits for 6 encoders. On the edges of the board are the 4013B's. Working to the middle of the board are the 4093's with the capacitors (red and blue) Notice that there are only 6 4066's in the middle row of the encoder circuits. (there are 3 more for another purpose, more on that later) You can use 1 4066 to make 4 separate contacts. 1 encoders will control just 2. So, one 4066 per 2 encoders. I tried to make an economical arrangement on the board. I soldered strips on the board instead of using a lot of wires. These can be seen on the lower picture. They run across the board to provide +5V or ground. These soldered strips connect the +5V to the power connection of the IC (always pin 14 for + and 7 for - as indicated) Speaking of voltage, I draw power from the joystick USB connection which is 5V. Isn't that convenient? The encoders are connected to the 3 pin connectors. The 4 pin connectors next to the 4066's are used to connect the board to the joystick circuits. If you can count you've seen more than 6 encoders on the radio panel. That's why I made 2 of these boards. Each one draws power from its own joystick. So one circuit board is connected to one joystick. This also applies to the buttons. This prevents strange behaviour of the joystick software like not recognising it, etc. This is now not entirely true anymore because of additions I made to the panel. But you may need to connect your devices in a certain order to prevent trouble. I must say I have had little trouble in this respect. Speaking of which, I noticed accidentally that the USB port is relatively safe with respect to short circuiting. It happened to me several times without any damage. I got a good scare once when after experimenting a bit, my PC would not start. I turned out to be a disconnected power cable to my PC. Phew... So don't comma crying after blowing up your precious PC. Read the included disclaimer. These are the guts of the radio panel. Built into a project box without major alterations. Suction cups were donated by a 10 year old joystick (which had been turned in to rudder pedals during FS4). The ribbon cables which connect the encoder circuits to the joystick can be seen. Inside are 2 joysticks and one game pad, which was added for extra functions. I used this to be able to turn the AFD knobs both ways and add stby/use buttons to the radios. Also the flap switch which is on the throttle quadrant uses this game pad. Happy Happy Joy Joy My encoders worked after a few long hot nights sweating over a hot soldering iron. Nothing worked right away and I've spent quite some time troubleshooting all these circuits and finding the solution in a bad contact here and there. Some time after completion of the panel I ran into an other problem. With the arrival of FS2002 the POV was no longer usable for more functions than one. This presented a problem until Pete Dawson came up with a way of programming joystick buttons in FSUIPC. This is the final version of the radio panel. It features a few extra features compared to the original design. I used a Wingman Action Pad as a donor. The switches are spring centered and have to pay a little attention what the position of the FS switch is. Pushing the switch up or down will press just one game pad button. Sby/use buttons are normal buttons. To use the POV of the game pad for 8 different functions I used a circuit including the 4066. this circuit will be explained later on. Links To All Article Parts
