Hi guys,

I would like to share my work on building my own HOTAS. I've been playing Elite Dangerous with my first version of the rig and now I am stepping up towards a better and stronger design.

The 3 biggest changes from the previous design:
- swap the shaft for a steel pipe instead of a 3D-printed plastic one
- proper bearings
- the use of A1302 Hall Effect sensors

Below are some images of the design and the assembly. Much work in progress. The centering of the stick is done with a centering spring-and-disc setup (not shown)







If you want to read more on the build, I invite you to browse the Elite Dangerous topic here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=171495

Neat, what type of centering mechanism do you plan on using? I find it to be one of the defining parameters of a joystick but there are many approaches of varying levels of complexity and performance.

Very cool. That rig you've got attached to the desk in the photos in the E:D thread doesn't look half bad! I'm working on a few gimbal designs of my own and using a printer as well, so it's neat to see what others come up with. I can't believe more people aren't doing this type of stuff. You can get a full 3d printer setup and all the hardware and electronics for multiple projects for less than the price of a warthog these days.

Are you using skate bearings at the moment? I'm curious what a smaller alternative to 608s is that's still cheap. Also, is that a teensy or what type of arduino are you building this project on?

Looking forward to more progress pics

The joysticks were only screwed to the table as a test setup! In no way was that ever a target solution. If you browse my pictures you will see that i've actually built and entire gaming chair around them.

I am using a variety of flanged ball bearings, these are the F604zz 4x12x4mm. They come with a flange to stop them from comping out of the sockets. Source: http://nl.aliexpress.com/item/40pcs-flange-bushing-ball-bearings-F604ZZ-4-12-4-mm/2009085309.html The ball bearings with M4 bolts and locknuts should provide a solid, service-free assembly.

For the firmware I based my joystick project around a AtMega 32u4 Pro Micro clone, which allows native USB HID support, so I've written my own HID device. I'm not using MMJoy or anything like that, although I've copied some of the work of NicoHood (https://github.com/NicoHood/HID)

I saw your chair in the cockpits thread. I guess I meant the sticks themselves look a lot better than my first test gear. Thanks for the bearing tip. Native usb is the way to go for sure. What kind of axis resolution are you getting with that board/sensor setup?

The resolution is a bit of an issue. The AD converters on the Arduino are 10 bi (0...1023)t, but i'm not using the full range, so i get about 340 levels. Now personally i am not a pilot where i actually notice the difference between 43 and 44 throttle, which is less than 0.5%, so it isn't really a big problem. The sensors themselves are pretty accurate so with a slightly more expensive AD chip i could boost that if necessary.

Are the red bits the holders for the Halls? If so, I'd be interested in seeing how they turn out, could be something worth paying for

I had to re-engineer the design a little to include a support for the wires. The pins of the hall effect sensor were to delicate to be soldered to the wires unsupported. With this new design i heat-shrink the wiring to the bracket. Also i've added a tie-wrap just to be on the safe side.

In comparison to the box of tictacs, you can see the sensor is really really small, 4.1 x 3.0 x 1.2mm