Yes, you have to mod the rudder pedals.
Without the modification the pedals will not budge.
I will try to find pictures. Once you see it it's self explanatory.

Hi I also have a set of TM Elite rudder pedals, and was thinking of modding them. But If you can find those pictures I would really apreciate is so I can get some ideas to compare with mine.

I will try to find them. And if I cannot find them I will draw you a few sketches; that should give you an idea on how to approach the problem.

For toe brakes you could try contacting Cubpilot. He's working on a kit for the RCS pedals - maybe it could be adapted to the Elites as well. He's also working on a plug-in USB adapter.

I put brakes on my RCS pedals - if the Elites use a similar pedal mounting bracket, mine might give you some ideas.
To make the pedals pivot, I just reversed the mounting brackets so that the highest part was at the back, drilled holes and used a long 5/16" bolt as an "axle" to mount the pedal.
A small gas spring provides the brake resistance and pedal return, as well as limiting the pedal travel both fore and aft.
Cubpilot's versatile Hall sensors are mounted on the sides of the pedal brackets and the linkage is connected to the side of the pedal.

brake parts

toe brake

9T

I've modded my Thrustmaster Elite pedals to work through my BU0836 controller. (No toe brakes though- am waiting in interest to see the modification!)

Basically I replaced the cable for the pedals (I kept the old one intact in case I needed to undo the conversion) From memory there is just a three core cable comming up from the pot on the pedals that I put a connector on and slipped it onto one of the analogue inputs on the BU0836. It was fairly straight forward. While the pedals were open I cleaned the pot with contact spray and she's as good as new!

Cheers!

Awesome thread...
I bought the USB kit to convert one of my TM Rudder pedal sets (have Elite and RCS)
If someone could post some pictures of how they mounted the hardware to the pedals that be great.

SkoshiTiger,
Do you have pictures of your connections you just described?

Thank you for the infos.

Here is a photo of the pot in the base of my Thrustmaster Elite.



From memory the BU0836 requires three wires, One of the outer pins is a +5V, Center is neutral and the third is used as a reference voltage. (So it doesn't require calibration (?), the three wires go onto a minature 3 way header plug and goes straight onto one of the Bu0836s analogue inputs.

If you hook up the two outer wires opposite you just need to invert the axis of your controller when your assigning the axis. (or you can just swap over the wires. Too Easy)
Cheers!

OK, Sapper! I finally found them; those pictures and their links. Sorry it took so long.
I initially despaired that I could never find them again, and I made a drawing explaining what I intended for my RCS Elites - that I sold a while back!

Before we begin, here is the RCS Elite bracket for the pedals;


First here is my drawing (hey I didn't spend all that time on it for nothing! )


It is based on RAY's work
The bracket of the Elites and the RCS do not allow for movement, but that is easy to remedy.
If you check THIS PICTURE, Ray sawed off a section of the brackets of his pedals. In my drawing, the greenish part (again, based on Ray's mod!)

Another modification is the PEDAL PADS. Ray explains
If you decide to use this mod, there is no way around this. Unless, you sit in a chair, as it could prove to be difficult for you to activate the toe brakes. If you check other pedals - i.e. Simpeds, the F16 rudder pedals - they are almost vertical to the ground. That is needed if you are sitting closer to the ground, i.e. in a simpit.

Unlike the original design, I thought of using torsion springs instead of extension springs, or gas springs - these can be quite pricey for this mod, and the right resistance can be tricky to assess. I also thought of RC car springs, but the right ones are hard to find, and they aren't cheap either. So, I opted for torsion springs; these can be had at any hardware store from cheap SPRING CLAMP spring clamps. Plus, it's easy to check the tension at the store, and see if it fits your needs.

Another implementation for a toe brake mod I found is HANS KROHN's while searching for the initial idea, that can be 'easily' implemented without doing any extensive modifications to the pedals. No serious alterations of the pedals are needs, as far as cutting pieces of the original Elites.
MORE on Hans Krohns RCS toe brake mod.

And then of course, there is 9Thumbs implementation. The most ingenious toe brake mod, and IMO the easiest! Why? Well, first it solves the problem of the angle of the pedals, second, you don't have to make any major alterations, other then drilling a few additional holes. And you use the same pedals. How great is that.
The only thing I would change - for convenience! - would be the springs I would use; torsion springs.

With all this said, these are all mods performed to RCS rudders. But they can be easily implemented on the RCS Elite, with one major caveat; the brackets of the RCS Elite are made of ABS, and unless you reinforce them with steel brackets or additional reinforcement you will be limited as far as the tension of the springs you can use, goes.
Other than that, it should be possible mod to the RCS Elite in the same way.

Thanks,

Actually Ray's mod was exactly what I had in my own mind but 9thumbs defently presents an alternative to think about, and probably like you say, a lot easier to implement, have to give this some thought now.
Thanks a lot, this will help me greatly.

As chance would have it, I am modding my old TM Elites, and intergrating them into a multi-use desktop sim panel I am building. As for the pedals mod, I am adding toe brakes using hall effect sensors.

I am using the HE sensors because they are tiny and take up a lot less room than a pot. Plus dirt and dust will not be as much an issue as with a pot.

I will be posting a build log, with photos, of my build in the next few weeks. I am planning to do a lot more to it, but am working on fuctionality first, the bells, whistles, and lights to be added at a later date. It will be a "work in progress" for a while but I should be ready to post a working model in a couple of weeks.