Hi everyone.

After seeing some of the other builds on the site I decided to give it a go myself. I was greatly inspired by the other excellent uni-joint builds. My goal was to do the build using only materials that I could find at your local hardware store so I went with a universal joint adapter for a socket wrench set. I also used some picture hangar hooks to mount my magnets. Here are a few pics to show you my progress/methods.


Here is the type of picture hanging hook i used. I then bent it into shape to hold my magnets and prevent any binding in the uni-joint. like so:


Here is a shot of it put together (only one axis installed).


I originally thought about installing my hall effect sensors on smaller picture hooks but i was worried about a potential short. I ended up using some drinking straws I had around the house to mount them. It acts as a good guide for the wires, keeps everything separated, and should prevent any shorts:



When soldering my halls sensors I found it easiest if you bend the wires as follows to allow easier access and prevent accidentally soldering two of the very closely spaced wires together.



Here is a shot that shows how the picture hangar magnet holder wraps around the center of the uni-joint, I then super glued it in place.




Here is a tight shot of the hall sensor mounted between the magnets.



This is the final product with the second sensor installed.


I will post more pictures of the rest of the stick mounted to the base at a later time. I'm looking forward to your feedback. Thanks.

That's just nuts.

I love it!

Great job beagleboy03!

g.

Looking forward for the progress!!

Nice work!

Thats hardcore!

Here is the second half of my DIY joystick build. I picked up an actual ww2 NAF 1173-2 control grip on etsy.com for $60+$12S&H. Originally
I wanted a B-5 grip (the type typically used on the P-51 and other USAAF figthers but the cheapest I have found those is $350+) so I went with the navy style grip.
The stick tube is one inch copper pipe. The diameter of the hole on the bottom of the grip is 1 1/8 inches but since plumbing pipe is
measured from the inside diameter the wall thickness makes it fit perfectly.

Here is a shot of the assembly:


Here is a close up of the stick, clearly marked NAF 1173-2 on the side. It is in remarkably good, almost like new, condition:


The top button is marked with a large B, I assume it is for bomb:


While the grip does fit snuggly on the copper pipe it is attached through the grip with a bolt. The bolt is 5/16 in. diameter at the rear
and then steps down to 3/16 in. at the front. Here is a shot of the stick at the front and back. The seam that runs up and down the grip
must be left over from the molding process, the grip does not split in half left-to-right:



The pull of the trigger and push of the bomb button are much stiffer than what you find on a commercial joystick. It is consistent with the
high quality component feel of real aviation components, once you get used to it the $30 off the shelf product just won't cut it anymore.
I'm not sure how it would feel compared to a more expensive stick like a G940 or warthog HOTAS as I have never used a really expensive stick.

Here is a shot of the internal make up of the switches:




When you depress the trigger it pushes two contacts towards the outside of the switch. Here are two shots that show the circuit opened and closed respectfully:



Here is a shot of the top of the grip in both the open and closed position. It is a little harder to see because in the closed position the top
B button swings the contact arm to the right. It does not, however, make contact with another part of the top portion of the grip. Instead it
makes contact with a portion of the trigger grip (the part that sticks out to the right in the photo, which would be to the top when the switch is
installed in the grip):




From this I deduced that the top contact of the trigger assembly, which completes the circuit for both the trigger and the bomb button must be the ground.
So that is how I connected it to my BU0836X card and low and behold it worked! I bought a 19mm socket which fits snuggly into the bottom or my 1 inch copper
pipe and that snaps into the top of my joystick base assembly. Preliminary testing is good though I think I will need to shorten the length of the pipe from
24 inches to a more realistic 18 inches or so in order to make it more user friendly. 18 inches is about what the stick grip length is from the blue prints I
have on the P-51, but i figured it is easier to cut the pipe later than it would be to make it longer if I cut it too short.

Very cool looking build and the pictures of the progress are very informative. Thanks!

Small question; with such a long support for your control grip the degrees of movement in the uni-joint will be relatively small (or smaller than a shorter stick at least) so are the paired magnets meant to compensate for this by creating a strong and stable magnetic field for the Hall sensor? That is, a small movement of the sensor would register just as well as a larger movement with smaller (or single) magnets.
I have a basic understanding of hall-effect sensors but most of what I know I've picked up from folks here and I'm always looking for a little more education.
Derek

This is brilliant!
I have a motorcycle U-joint sitting in a box on my desk as I type... it's been sitting there for two years now wondering if I will ever learn how to weld and put it into action. o_0

Conga Rats on this build, I eagerly await the outcome and may just get rid of my u-joint and go with your socket idea.

MudPuppy, that is pretty much the gist of it. I got the idea from Mike Powell's excellent book [/i]Building Recreational Flight Simulators[i] in it he talks about how using two magnets strengthens the flux in the gap as well as reduces extraneous flux. I probably will still shorten the length of the stick a few inches to make it a little more manageable.

Also, I have noticed that as I move the stick I have a small amount of play in my drinking straw mounted hall sensors. I'm currently planning a fix to reduce the play. I will probably use something a little stiffer than drinking straws, we have a few popsicle sticks laying around the house that I think should do the trick. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Chshrkt, I know how you feel. I figure that one of the big barriers to entering the hobby of simpit building is the cost of tools and equipment to work on the project. While I'm sure that welding would offer excellent results, for me its not really worth the extra effort as I don't have the equipment and I have minimal experience (a high-school shop class and a few mechanical engineering labs at college).

if you want something stronger than drinking straw i would suggest you the plastic part that hold the cartridge of the felt tip pens in place or a depleted ink cartridge of a Gel pen.

WOW!! What an excellent guide. One question, what about the programing needed for the joystick to interface with the computer?

The Leo Bodnar BU0836X usb joystick controller he is going to wire it up to has its own programming interface. So basically you just plug it into the computer and it detects it as a usb game controller, similar to store bought equipment. Set the controls via the games input settings and you are good to go.