The new simpit is slowly progressing, but todays achievement was to build a collective using only things that I had kicking around in the garage.
I decided I really wanted a collective as I fly a lot of helos in Arma, but also would like to get into the DCS Huey at some point. I'll be getting a
HOTAS Warthog soon, so in the meantime I figured this could be a fun little build!
I needed to find a way to attach a lever to a potentiometer, which was going to be the hardest challenge. Luckily I remembered I had an old set of PS1 racing pedals in the loft, so they would be the first sacrifice in the process! I chopped them up to make a basic base, and found a garden rake with a snapped head on it. The head was threaded so it created a perfect adapter to mount the handle onto. I had to do some grinding and gluing to make it fit, but I used some cable ties to make it extra firm.
I screwed some small wooden batons up the inside of the plastic housing to add support for the added weight of the handle, as well as a small wooden block to create stop for the collective, because it fell too low by default.
A little bit of black tape and a new grip made it look the part!
Next it was time to make a button box to mount onto the handle. I found a small hobby box which would be a perfect solution.
I mounted some switches and a button from previous projects and wired them up using whatever wire I could find! Theres a chopped up AV cable and a run of speaker cable in there! Embarrassing. Ideally I'll hook up a removable connector and rewire it using proper wire in the future, but hey - It works, and no one can see it!
Complete! Hooked up to a Leo Bodnar BU0836X Joystick controller. Tested it in arma, but with no rudder pedals and a mouse for input right now, it's not ideal! The collective however works perfectly.
The only problem here is that it's only using about half of the potentiometers stroke, because it's lifted a bit from base position, and you have to lift it way too high to work comfortably. As a solution I simply added a large dead zone ingame and a slight curve to bias the collective lower in its range. Feels extremely natural now! The only flaw in this solution is that you lose a lot of the resolution you'd get from using the full range of the pot. I guess some reduction gearing on the shaft would work, but that's a lot more work for not a huge return IMO. I can fly accurately enough with it already so I'm not complaining! DCS might be another story in the future but if I really fall in love with helos, I'll just buy a Komodo Collective!
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!
Ragtop