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#2332037 - 09/05/07 10:35 PM My DIY rudder pedals  
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Brandano Offline
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Brandano  Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
They aren't quite finished yet (no toebrakes and the footrests are uncomfortable) but they work pretty well with my Cougar, and I thought I'd share the design. Who knows, maybe someone will find them interesting. I am open to suggestions for any reasonable improvement, btw.
here's the pedals:

This is a detail of the linkages and the centering system:

The footrests are sprung and tilt at about 1/3rd of their length from the base, but the spring isn't quite up to the task and I haven't yet put any potentiometers in. there's some more picture here: http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/Brandano/DIY%20Rudder%20Pedals/
The centering is very powerful and precise. The center portion is just pulled by a spring (two in my case) toward the central bar hub. I'll add a screw at the bottom of the centering system to allow me to regulate the tension. I used some springs from an old desktop lamp, but they can be probably replaced with elastic ties of the kind used to tie stuff on car rooftop racks I still need to put in rubber pads to limit the pedal's extension, but the geometry of the linkage already does a pretty good job there. The bar pivot runs on an old inline skate bearing, should take a pretty hefty load. The potentiometer is moved by a pushrod, which allows me to adjust the leverage ratio and keeps any load off the potentiometer shaft. This should also allow me to switch to a hall or optic sensor when I finally get tired with calibration drift.
You can tell I am quite proud of the design, huh? Oh, the ugly look is probably due to all the scraps of wood I have used to assemble these. I could paint it black, but I don't think I'll bother...

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#2332082 - 09/05/07 11:50 PM Re: My DIY rudder pedals [Re: Brandano]  
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531 Ghost Offline
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Nice work ther Brandano!


Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.


#2333746 - 09/08/07 12:40 PM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: 531 Ghost]  
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Brandano Offline
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Brandano  Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
Thanks Ghost. I have flown with them a few times in IL46, and compared to my older pedals they seem to make the difference between me running out of bullets mid-engagement and me getting two kills on the first head on pass. Also, it's nice to be able to recover from a spin for a change :).
I am working on DIY head tracking now. I have modified a Trust 120 Spacecam webcam to be an IR webcam, following the instructions from here: http://www.hoagieshouse.com/IR/ And tested it with the freetrack software ( http://freetrack.online.fr/english/ ) and a remote control. Seems to track really well so far. Working on a few more mods, will post in another thread


Last edited by Brandano; 09/08/07 12:48 PM.
#2333804 - 09/08/07 03:23 PM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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igorry Offline
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Hi Brandano

Can you take more photos or drawings of your pedal, especially the mechanism behind the foot pedal? Does your pedal self centered by the spring? I can't see how it is doing that. I am thinking building one too. Thanks.

Igorry

Last edited by igorry; 09/08/07 03:27 PM.
#2334637 - 09/10/07 09:34 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: igorry]  
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Brandano Offline
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Brandano  Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
There really isn't much behind the foot pedal right now. They are fixed to the two square wooden blocks with a brass hinge, the kind used for furniture doors. I have tapped out their pivots with a nail and a hammer, and replaced it with a piece of piano wire that I then bent in a Z shape. This acts as a torsion spring and pivot at the same time, but it's too soft and won't spring back far enough, so I have to redesign that part.
The linkage in front of the pedal slider is just another piece of 5x20 aluminium bar, drilled and fixed with 3 screws to the wood. It protrudes inward from the slider some 25mm, so that the links won't interfere. You can only see the bolts in the pivots, but actually there's some small brass bushings that I have cut from a 5mm outer diameter brass tube, so the links are free and have really little play. Here's a section drawing of the hinge design:

as you can see the bolt can be tightened as much as you want, the brass bushing will actually take the load as long as is slightly longer than the aluminium arm.
The centering works like this:
The central portion of the pedal slides on two bearings as well, and is pulled forward by the spring. This pushes it against the central bar, and forces the bar to the center position. The arrangement is such that the force required to push the rudder is exponential rather than linear, so you have finer control around the center position. That said, centering is not really essential, and the pedals can be used without it. there's a very definite central 'detent' with my pedals, but this can be reduced or removed by replacing the two small plastic pads in front of the centering unit with a longer single one with a curved shape.

#2335069 - 09/10/07 10:31 PM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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DanTheSasquatch Offline
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Illinois
Nicee pedals! Im really new to building things (as far as something that I will use like rudder pedals) but Ive got my planes ready, except one thing, the electronics. would you tell me how your electronics are setup, like what pots, and how do you get the computer to read it. If you could that would be great thanks!

Last edited by Head_Hunter; 09/10/07 10:31 PM.

Xbox Live Gamertag: DanTheSasquatch please add me!
#2335118 - 09/11/07 12:01 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: DanTheSasquatch]  
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Brandano Offline
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Brandano  Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
I have a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar, so I have them wired up as per this schematic
(please note that the image isn't mine, so it might disappear without notice)
but I have a single pot wired at the moment. Essentially it's aset up as a variable resistor between the Cougar "gameport" +5v (pin 9 and 1) and pin 11. I used a 220k potentiometer because I need 100k on around 90 degrees of swing, and because that's what I had handy at the time. A potentiometer usually has a range of 270 degrees, so to get 100k on only 90 degrees I need (100/90)*270 = 300k , but I didn't have a 300 k potentiometer handy. Doesn't matter though, the cougar seems plenty able to compensate. I THINK I can set up the pot as a voltage divider by tying the 3rd pin to ground (pins 4 and 5) because I suspect that the Cougar reads this channel as well as a voltage, by balancing it against an internal resistor, rather than as a current. I'd like confirmation on this, but since there's hall sensor mods for commercial pedals I think this to be true. in that case though I'll need to find a way to rotate the pot for the entire 270 degrees, or even better replace it with a hall sensor with a 90 degrees angle sensitivity

#2335185 - 09/11/07 02:01 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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DanTheSasquatch Offline
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Well, not what I was thinking of (didnt take electronics so ya lost me lol) BUT my friend who will be helping with the wiring did take it so he'll be able to figure all that out and make it work, I just started the blue prints for my pedals (just finished the top view) and with my dads help (hes a machinist) This should be pretty easy, + hes gonna get some real pedals from a plane (he used to manufactor (sp?) them, as well as part for the military flight simulators, and various other aviation parts) So In a few weeks (depending on everyones schedule it should be all done.

BTW I saved the pic just incase \:\) thanks for the help

EDIT: I looked at the pic again and figured out how your centering system worked, very clever thinking there.

Last edited by Head_Hunter; 09/11/07 02:02 AM.

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#2335303 - 09/11/07 06:31 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: DanTheSasquatch]  
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Brandano Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
If you have a Cougar it's really easy to get rudder pedals working with it. If you don't then you can get a cheap twist grip joystick and hack its electronics to replace its pots with those of the pedals. You could try even using a joypad and tapping the connections of the ministicks, but these seem to have only a few "steps" when compared to a real joystick. There's usb sticks that sell for little more than 10 US$, so destroying one shouldn't be much of a problem

#2335991 - 09/12/07 03:22 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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DanTheSasquatch Offline
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Ill keep that in mind, I think weve got a pretty awesome setup were gonna build, Ill post them when they're done.


Xbox Live Gamertag: DanTheSasquatch please add me!
#2380459 - 11/16/07 09:58 PM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: DanTheSasquatch]  
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BillChuck Offline
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BillChuck  Offline
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Very nicely done. I was just thinking about how to improve the centering on my own homebuilt pedals, and your pictures show me a good way to go about it.

#2380576 - 11/17/07 12:56 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: BillChuck]  
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BillChuck Offline
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Speaking of my rudder pedals, I went and took some photos of them.




In this shot, you can also see most of the PVC joystick stands I built for my x36.


The hinged parts of the pedals are toe brakes, but I removed the switches for them because the wires broke. I'll replace them with some short pieces of audio cable. More durable, and I'll use plugs and sockets so that if they wear out I can just plug a new one in rather than having to resolder wires again.

Last edited by BillChuck; 11/17/07 01:00 AM.
#2383330 - 11/21/07 01:35 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: BillChuck]  
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Brandano Offline
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Brandano  Offline
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Caput Mundi (well, it used to ...
Nice pedals, I used a higher value for the pot because I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to add gearing to the setup, but if you plan for gearing from the start it's another great way to take the load off the pot shaft. In my pedals the brakes are going to be fully proportional, since the joystick supports them. Can I hazard a suggestion? Instead of using plugs and sockets, why don't you use a connector block like you did for the joystick cable? Also, try tyeing the brake wiring to the pedal pushrods with cable ties, and add a small fixed support arm for them, above the red gear, so that they will only twist in that spot. The PVC joystick and throttle supports are a great idea that I think I'll copy in due time \:\)

#2383456 - 11/21/07 05:19 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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HitchHikingFlatlander Offline
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Thats some cool stuff you guys damn I need to get back to my own little project, too much work and its killing me!


I've got a bad feeling about this.....
#2383559 - 11/21/07 11:27 AM Re: My DIY rudder pedals (badly disguised bump :) ) [Re: Brandano]  
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BillChuck Offline
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BillChuck  Offline
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 Originally Posted By: Brandano
Nice pedals, I used a higher value for the pot because I didn't want to go through the hassle of having to add gearing to the setup, but if you plan for gearing from the start it's another great way to take the load off the pot shaft. In my pedals the brakes are going to be fully proportional, since the joystick supports them. Can I hazard a suggestion? Instead of using plugs and sockets, why don't you use a connector block like you did for the joystick cable? Also, try tyeing the brake wiring to the pedal pushrods with cable ties, and add a small fixed support arm for them, above the red gear, so that they will only twist in that spot. The PVC joystick and throttle supports are a great idea that I think I'll copy in due time \:\)


I had the wires zip-tied to the pushrods. The problem was that the wires were small solid-core (scavenged from a network cable, I think). Such wires break easily with repeated bending, which is exactly what happened.

I had some RCA cables lying around, and the sockets are cheap. The cables can handle the bending, and if they fail I can easily remove them and put new ones in. It's a bit overkill but it works.


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