quote:

Originally posted by Fehler:
but I seriously like your bike chain and gear idea!

Don't get too enthusiastic about it, the chain is kind of a weak spot in my design: somehow, the small radial travel of the chain segments between first contact with the gears and perfectly tangential gear position seems to be enough to make the pedal movement quite "steppy". These small gears have only 11 cogs each, so the effective geometry differs quite a bit from a perfect circle.

The chain is a used one (that has stretched nearly too much for bicycle use), so replacing it with a fresh chain might help a little. I'm just reluctant to try this because roughly the same money could buy me more teflon coated bowden wire, which does a great job at transmitting spring force to the stick (there's a small noticeable breaking force at big deflection angles when the springs are pulling strongly, but not half as bad as the chain "steppyness").

Hawg,

any chance of a brief guide how you made your switch panels please?

They look nice and the backlighting is fabulous.

I'm just getting down to creating my first panels.

FM

There are a few RAF throttle quadrants for sale on ebay at the moment:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/high-speed-jack

It should be fairly easy to adapt these for IL2 use without damaging them. I have my own home made throttle quad, so I'm not bidding (and by the way, I'm not high-speed-jack).

A curious project, convert old M$ Sidewinder 3D PRO to USB:

http://grendel.koolbear.com/3dpro.htm

Sokol1

OK, it's been a few weeks since I posted any pictures on my flight chair. So here it goes, let me know what you think and any suggestions.

This is a profile of the chair itself. I have it set on casters so it is easy to roll around (and hide in a closet if we have neighbors) This was one of the stipulations I had to agree with my wife about. Haha! The seat track is welded to the 1x1x1/8th boxed tubing so it is fully adjustable. I used a passenger seat from a Honda Accord to do this. (That way the recline lever is on the right hand side and doesnt interfere with the throttle box assembly)



This metal box houses the U-Joint joystick. (Many thanks again to Julian!) I made it large enough to put a nice car shifter boot on top and still leave room for some added switches like Chocks, Arrestor Hook, Nav Lights, Cockpit Lights, and Landing Lights. I also plan to use the area for radio controls (Teamspeak) with a rotary switch to choose channels.

Unfortunately, my friend made it for me out of industrial stainless steel. I have destroyed many drill bits trying to cut holes in it. I got a sheet of aluminum the other day and plan on re-making it in the softer metal... Although, neither materials interferes with the magnetic fields for the Hall sensors...



Just another picture of the stick and my ugly wiring...



This is a picture of one of the button boxes I plan to have for the chair. I used a thin (1 mm thick) sheet of plexiglass to cover the top of the Photoshopped labels. It gives it a nice clean look and protects the paper from sweaty air combat hands... haha! One hint on drilling the holes for this thin stuff however... Make sure you clamp the sheet between either two pieces of wood or the base metal and a piece of wood before you drill. Then, drill at slow speeds! If you don't do this, the edge of your drill bit will catch the glass and shatter it. I will try and remember to take some more pictures on this process when I start work on the center button box.



I have the throttle and prop pitch mechanisms done, but I want to incorporate another BU0836 to handle them. So, for now, I am using the X-45 throttle from my old setup. But I will also do a writeup on the throttle assembly. This was a pain in the buttocks Be Sure! But it is very sweet (Nearly as nice as the joystick)

Oh, one last thing.. I have said this on a few other threads. The long throw stick is Da Bomb! It is so much more instinctive. It was a little tricky setting it up with the sensitivity I wanted and all that, but I can't believe how much better it is from my old stick...

K, thats it for now... Back to work...

That's awesome Fehler!

It looks comfy and convenient - the whole lot mounted on one wheel-able frame is great.

I don't see any springs, so you've adaped to the friction-held stick then?

Green with envy

One question: when you sit comfortably, do you really reach the stick comfortably as well? Some cockpit photos show pilot seats with the possibility to pull themselves up close to the stick, that it's between their thighs. In this picture, I can see it will be between your knees, so I wonder that whether it would fit smaller guys like me?

quote:

Originally posted by julian265:
That's awesome Fehler!

It looks comfy and convenient - the whole lot mounted on one wheel-able frame is great.

I don't see any springs, so you've adaped to the friction-held stick then?

Julian: Yeah, for now at least, I have decided not to spend a great deal of time manufacturing a spring centering device.

rnzoli: As I sit, the maximum thow of the stick (All the way forward) is set to the same distance as my arm is completely extended. The picture is a little deceiving as the "center" of the stick actually sits just behind my knee. I have used DIView to set the "Throw" of the stick, so it never hits my knees when rolling. And this is with the narrow based CH peddals. When I make my new rudder pedals, I plan on making them a bit wider, allowing my to add more throw (side to side) on the stick. Again, I can do this with software, so I can set the parameters anywhere I please. Using DIView, the Windows calibration, and IL2.

one of the best most practical ideas i have seen for flight sim pit. I bought the pre asembled kwikpit that will be slowly but surely modified. I really want to make a cotrol box similar to yours

quote:

Originally posted by Pollock56th:
one of the best most practical ideas i have seen for flight sim pit. I bought the pre asembled kwikpit that will be slowly but surely modified. I really want to make a cotrol box similar to yours

I appreciate all the good comments! My wife keeps asking me when I am going to grow up...

Well, I finally sat her down in the chair and fired up IL2 for her. I turned on all the easy settings and told her to try it out.

After bouncing the plane off the ground a few times, she finally started getting the idea of turning, climbing, and rolling. The TIR gave her some problems because she was not used to the head movement. She was having such a good time with it I had to unplug her!

She is a little more understanding now. She still thinks I could be doing something more useful (Like fixing our fence) but at least she sort of "gets it" now. I just hope she doesnt "get it" too much or I may have to build a second pit for her!

quote:

Like fixing our fence)

If you live in a house, there is ALWAYS something to fix!

quote:

Originally posted by rnzoli:

quote:

Like fixing our fence)

If you live in a house, there is ALWAYS something to fix!

I knew that living in tents and caves also had its upsides (wait, what if the fence in front of the cave is hit by a rock?)

I posted a picture of my controls a while back. My switches was housed in a dog ugly cut down DVD player.

On my holidays I picked a plastic instument case and swapped them over. So heres a picture of the new box


I need to make up a decent facia for it and re position some of the switches to better locations. (too close to each other)

Cheers!

Looking good, Skoshi. Is the white box for trim? My control box is in pieces at the moment, I'm rebuilding it with a new throttle quadrant, but I'm not sure what to do with my rudder and aileron trim wheels. Some aircraft have the rudder trim wheel mounted horizontally and the aileron vertically, others have it the other way round. My instinct is to mount rudder trim vertically on the front of the box as I use rudder trim far more than aileron trim. Which is which on your control box, and why do you put them that way round?

Hi mmitch,

Yep the white box is for trim.

The way I've set it up is so the way you turn the dials reflects what you want aircraft to do.

The top surface is for Rudder trim, If I need to step one Left rudder to keep the ball centred, I turn the dial left.

The back dial is for aileron Trim. If I have to apply left aileron to stop the aircraft is rolling to the right, I turn the dial to the left.

The circular dial on the side is for elevator. It has a multiturn pot. I need to apply forward stick to keep the nose down, I move the dial to the to the front.

The main idea in their placement was to keep the motion of the dial in the same axis as the joystick/rudder control.

When I find some more multiturn pots, I'm going to relace the aileron trim first, It's way too sensitive at the moment and I'm constantly fiddling with it to get the trim right.

The rudder trim isn't that bad, I find it requires constant adjustment depending on changes in throttle etc.

Cheers!

Thanks, Skoshi, that seems pretty intuitive.

My trim pots are all 10-turn, which gives great trimming resolution. However, on my old control box (now in bits during the re-build) I didn't think about the design, and just had all three pots in a row on the top of the box

I'll post pics of control box v3.0 when it's ready (maybe take me a month).

My new modded Joys ........

CH Force FX converted to USB
Also called...The Franken Force




And...
A prolonged Microsoft FFB2 with CH Grip
















Once you try FFB you can't go back

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Buchon1974,

Wow, hows that extended MS stick work out for you?

First, I notice an increased precisions shooting from 6. The MS is a good choice to prolong because it has optical sensors (no Pots).
Its more comfortable and ergonomic (A little bit twisted to help handle).
I built the MS to use with Il2 and BlackShark and the CH with jets.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Buchon1974,

Just found an article about a new 7 inch touch sensitive display.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nanovision-mini-display-usb,6502.html

I wonder if this could be useful for a small multifunction display?