I'm just making the AH-64D controls for use with my universal pit project. I've also made the throttle-grips of the F-14D, the F/A-18C and a convertion kit for the WH-throttle to add missing things and replace the outer switches of the right grip to be compatible with the F-15E throttle.
All throttle grips will be placed on top of WH-throttles removing the original grips. Only one will remain in its original state for use with the A-10. The F-14D version will also get a functional manual wing sweep, the F-15 and the F/A-18 throttles mechanical Idle/AB detents with fingerlifts.
Here are some pics of my full printable collection (state at the moment) for use with my "universal" pit (with the selfmade AH-64D cyclic/collective during the construction process in early stage - and the final cyclic without any holes for buttons and POV's still not splitted and no screwings). Just now I'm working on the Apache collective double grip and after this a real AB/Idle- mechanics for my Cougar standalone F-16 throttle and an AV-8B throttle with a nozzle lever. The last of the HOTAS will be a F-14D stick and a V22A throttle. A yoke and a throttle quadrant will follow next year
The goal is to be able to fly any kind of military aircraft with the right HOTAS/HOCAS used in this type of aircraft. The pit itself has a triple view system and also a VR headset.. There will be a changeable generic frontpanels with functional MFD's, one for use with fighters and one for attack helos, maybe a third one for the big birds like the C-130 or the C-17.
The side consoles and the overhead have also an generic layout and will be useable with all kind of aircraft. All special systems will be operated in VR or with the use of TrackIR in the virtual pits and two identical trackballs, one left- and one right handed, placed slightly over and beyond the controls.
At the end I would like to be able to fly and control the following types of military aircraft (most of them with the right controls):
A-10A/C Thunderbolt II, AV-8B Harrier II, F-14B/D Tomcat, F-15C/E Eagle/Strike Eagle, F-16C Falcon, F/A-18C/E Hornet/Super Hornet, AH-64D Apache Longbow, OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, AH-1F TOW Cobra, UH-1H Huey, C-130H/J Hercules, C-17A Clobemaster, V-22A/B Osprey, CH-53E Super Stallion, CH-47D Chinook.
It's a long time project and not all will be ready if the pit itself is finished, but I will add the controls one after the other. Its's not easy and I had a lot of brainstorming to do to find a layout which really fits for every type of aircraft and also be able to make all controls relatively easy interchangeable. There are three places for controls at which you can change the inputs to every kind you wish, like eg. change the sidestick of an F-16C to a four engine throttle quadrant for use with a C-130 as captain. Use the place of the jet throttles with a side stick controller of the type Airbus has. Change the center stick of an F/A-18 with the cyclic of an Apache or the control bar of a C-130 and so on.
The collective lever is fixed between the seat and the left console, but the heads could be disconnected to stay of the way if you use a throttle. In case of the Apache the throttle place will be used for it's turbine RPM controller. The other helos use a twist grip for the RPM control or levers in the overhead depentend on which type of helo you fly.
All stick/cyclic-grips and also the heads of the collectives and the twist grips could be seperatly connected to the bases and are interchangeable. The extensions for the centerbase (cyclic, centerstick, controlbar with yoke) are also interchangeable.
For the control grips I use a mix of bought grips, like the Viper and Hornet grips from TM or the Virpil VFX grip, some bought and adjusted STL's, some completely self constructed controls like the one of the Apache or some made after 3D scans and stuff I was able to get on the web from places like thingiverse etc. and adjusted them to my needs. I also have a lot of old gameport joysticks from Thrustmaster and Suncom which I use for the replicas of the B8 standard grips or the F-15C/E Eagle flight stick.
All of the inputs should be compatible with TM's TARGET at the end (I use cannibialized electronics of older FLCS TM sticks for the grip pcb's) and I also make all of them compatible with their grip mounting system. Only the grips of the hrottles I make, are'nt changeable. I use four WH-throttles at all, three will be used for the F-14, F-15 and F/A-18 convertion and one will stay original. The AV-8B throttle, the V-22A throttle will be made with the use of two TWCS throttles, cause they are also linear throttles in reality. The Cougar stand alone F-16 throttle is also getting TWCS electronics to be a seperate throttle unit without stick.
The left Cougar electronics, I will use for my collective systems with the changeable grips and heads. The centerstick base is the old Cougar base modified with the a kind of external "evenstrain mod" to be more powerful and without a center notch, but with WH-base electronics to be more precise. The side stick base is a slightly modified WH-base to run a bit smoother. The collective lever is made out of a Fanatec handbrake, fixed mounted and with a washing mashine damper for the friction. For the rudder and torque pedals I will use modified TPR pedals also with dampers.
Little further with the Apache collective, but still far, far away from finish. Only the raw shape, nothing smoothed and many things are'nt in the right shape at the moment.
Still a lot of work to do, but as you know such a project is a never ending story and a lifetime-project
At the moment I'm doing a throttle quadrant for the big birds, which has the reverser systems of Boeing and Airbus between which can be switched. Not an exact replica, it's only generic. I want to use it with aircraft like the C-130 Hercules, the C-5 Galaxy, the C-17 Globemaster or some miltary Airbus Versions.
For Boeing you use the white locks, so that the levers will stop at this point and the reversers are free to adjust the reverse thrust. There is an additional poti in the reverser axis.
For Airbus you choose the grey blocks and also have to pull the reversers, but only a few to be able to get across the lock in the top covers and the reverse thrust is controled with the negative range f the throttle pot itself (you have to calibrate this before).
The blocks will get the engine-numbers printed at the face.
And the yoke for the big birds. It's also only a generic one made out of an 737 yoke from thingiverse I used as a template for the beginning. I did a lot of rework on the shape itself at first, and then finally added this button/POV-donut which the C-130J yoke has, cause I like this idea very much.
Most of the HOTAS parts aren't finished yet, cause I do all the shapes at first and after all the HOTAS are made as pure shapes, I will do the splitting in printable, screwable parts and fit all the holes for buttons and POV's in.
The building shell of the pit is mostly done and I will return to this, after most of the HOTAS are done, cause you must have the different controllers to adapt the place and the connection for all this differnt inputs in detail, that's also the reason Idecided to do the quadrant and the yoke also right now and not next year.
For the Airbus like sidestick I will simply use a TM 320 stick and not built an extra device. After the yoke only a dual-twist-grip for the collective will follow, which you can then use with the different heads I made (not the Apache, the Blackhawk and other helos that do not use this system of course). For now its enough
Back at the AH-64D collective again. Just made the connection part to my Fanatec handbrake, which I use as the collective lever.
An old Suncom throttle will be modified to USB and is getting the right handles to have the turbine RPM levers also (will be placed at the same aerea where the Warthog is on the photo). There will also be other grips connectable, like the OH-58D collective, the UH-60M/L collective and the UH-1N collective (also useable with the normal Huey).
I have a full range of Hat switches and hats in .STL files that I downloaded from somewhere. You can make your own Hats with tactile switches (I did that on my collective and they do work).
If you want a copy of them then PM me your email address and I'll send them.
I've attached the PDF file from them that show how they go together.
Ok, really ready 😄 Added the missing button and trigger guards.
It's not 100% scale, cause I had to do some compromise to make it printable and fit it in my universal pit.
Some of the POV's missing here. I have only the ones in the pictures I needed for adjusting the chassis. The POV's I use have the same size as the one of TM, but they are a little less in their depth. I also print them all by myself. I use the same POV-base for every POV regardless how many functions he has. There are locks on the hats to avoid the functions that aren't used and of course the microswitches are also not installed.
The grey round frame at the middle of the top grip is a mount frame for a standard thumbstick to imitate the transducer here. It fits also in the standard TM-POV holes.
The whole shape of the collective and also the cyclic of my Apache Longbow controls was done from scratch after photos I was able to find at the web.
The universal twin twist throttle grip for the helos and the different Layouts of collectives I wanted to use in my pit. The twist throttle grip will be used for all single and twin engine helos with a twist throttle. Only the heads will be changed. Nothing is really finished yet.
The metall piece under the twist grips is a seat post of a mountain bike I had lying arround and which is a perfect base for building the exchangeable twist grip with a connection for the different heads 😅.
Ok, 24 hours for one half piece of one of the collective double-grips of the Apache 🤔.
I used a layer high of 0.125mm instead of 0.1mm and set the speed to 70mm/s. At first I wanted to use the same parameters I used for my F-14 and F/A-18 throttles (0.1mm layer height & 30mm/s print speed) to get really good results but one half grip cost nearly 48 hours printing time 😬.
And I'm already using a 0.5 nozzle instead of a 0.4er. Makes not much difference in detail but speeds up printing time a lot. I did this also with the throttles.
Yes, the Apache double grip looks really strange and it also was very hard to do. In comparison the rest will be much more easy to do. I'm really glad that this monster is finished At the moment only the 3D part is done. If I have printed it, I will show the results.
Did a rework of my Kiowa collective head and adjusted it for my universal twist grip (only the frontparts here). The idle release is still missing and I have to find a solution for it. Maybe I will only make an electronical solution and not mechanical one. This is much easier to do for my changeable collective heads. The Twin-Huey head and the AH-1Z/UH-1Y (Viper/Venom) head will follow.
At the moment I'm reworking a lot of the already finished controls to make them much smoother and cleaner, cause I wasn't really satisfied with the results I had before
AH-1F/W and UH-1N controls. Not exact as in real life, cause I only modelled the UH-1N collective and added some "extras" like the NVG box for use with the Cobras. POV's and some buttons still missing. They will be modelled and added after the all my grip shells are ready.
And the the collective head for the Viper and the Venom.
Those heads (OH-58D, UH-1N and AH-1Z/UH-1Y) are changeable at my twist-throttle collective grip and will be mounted with one 6mm screwbolt, which will be fixed in the heads and a knurled nut at the bottom.
I love how smooth everything seems in 3D modeling software. From my own experience, when you 3D print it you need to spend ages sanding, filling, sanding, filling and then paint to get a good finish.
Even at 0.12 layer height I still need to sand and fill.
Still better than having to glue bits of plastic sheet together !!!!!!!!!
Yes, putting sheet of plastic or parts of other joysticks together was he old way I did it
It was really hard work to get anything useable this way, so yes things changed a lot since 3D printing is possible. But also yes, even with the 0.1mm layer high I use at the moment (what really takes ages to finish just one part ) the prints aren't very smooth, especially on curved faces.
This is a test print I made with the 0.1mm layer high. It's a part of my first version of the F/A-18 throttle. As long as there are no curved faces, the result is relatively clean and smooth, but curved faces don't look very nice. A lot of of filling and sanding will be necessary again.
P.S:
And we need much faster and still more precise printers in the future. The time it takes to print complex parts is one of the most annoying things on 3d printing.
The next one is the F-14D grip. After this there is still a lot to do and nowhere near the end. But I'm getting better and faster now. I learned a lot from my first mistakes I made. But there are some challenging things that still have to be made like the C-130 yoke. I will safe this until the end
Helo and Jet extensions. The bottom part until the four knurled nuts is always the same. The white part is my connector for the four diagonal attached springs I use for the centering mechanism (similar principle like the Evenstrain mod in the old Cougar, but on top).
The modded Cougar base will function as the center base and is mounted at the center console 15cm above the ground and angled 15° towards the seat. That's why my sticks here are 15° angled forward. They are also twisted 15° ccw.
The hole in the socket is for the cable that will be connected to the base. That's also the reason for the notch left besides the paddle switch in the jet-extension.
The original Viper, Hornet and Virpil VFX grips will get the paddle switches and their mounts mostly removed and will get and extra socket with the same connetion system. There will also be no more electronics in those grips. All will be in the bases including the grip pcb's.
Back on the F-16C (Cougar standalone) throttle AB/idle mechanics.
Edit:
and also finished my templates for the HOTAS Cougar. The throttle was already done, but not smoothed and now I also made the Cougars stick base. I need those parts as dimension-templates for my own addons. They aren't 150% exact, but good enough for my needs.
Sadly there aren't good 3D models anywhere for free or you have to pay a lot only to have some constrution-templates. So I took what I can get for free on Thingiverse, adjust those parts and make the rest, like eg. the throttle arm and the housings, by myself.
A Warthog base has also to be done, but thats relatively easy. The Warthog throttle could also be needful for adjusting my addon-switch-hats arround the F-14 and F/A-18 grips or things like the F-14 wing sweep, but doing this throttle is a lot of work. Maybe I will look for a reasonable purchasable 3D-model here.
Edit 2:
and the first extensions (yoke extension will follow) mounted on the Cougar base. The four diagonal springs are still missing here (original cougar springs are removed - Warthog boards and sensors will be integrated in the base).
They will be connected at the white ring (just a simple zip tie fixed in that notch here - always repairable - no printed lugs) and also at the four corners of the base. I'm thinking about an adjustable srew-mount where the springs are fixed at the corners, to be able to adjust the tension of the springs. But at the moment I have no clue how to do this in a relatively smart way?
For the spring connections to the base I will now use simple eye bolts. I considered some adjustable solutions, but at the end all of this is much to complex. I ordered a bunch of springs now and will take a look which of them will do the best job. Frankly speaking, I'm slowly a bit tired of 3D constructions and want to come to an end 😅.
Not all will be perfect and many things will also need some post processing or even a complete overhaul, but I'm quiet happy that I was able to find many useful solutions for my universal cockpit concept. I hope most of them will work.
The last three big parts now, besides the nozzle lever for the Harrier and the manual wing sweep for the F-14 throttle, are the Osprey throttle, the Harrier throttle and the Yoke. The Osprey and Harrier throttles will simply be mounted on top of TWCS bases and their electronics will be interfaced with the grips. At the Harrier the nozzle lever will be a seperate part, mounted to the base. This shouldn't be such a big problem, but the yoke on top of my center Cougar base with the locked roll axis is much more a problem as I thought before.
I didn't respected some details, which makes the locking more complex as I have thought first. I hope I can find a solution for this, cause I don't want to use a seperate base for it. Only the extensions and the grips should be easy changeable and nothing more. This was the idea behind this whole system.
Just creating the frame arround my center base and also found a solution for the yoke problem. Nothing is ready yet, there is still a lot missing. The frame will be mainly out of sheets of MDF. Only the connection parts will be printed.
On top of this box (on top of the top with the rounded corners) there should be positioing devices mountable. One or the normal grips and one for the yoke which blocks the roll axis.
The white block is the beginning of the yoke extension. I always use already done parts and adapt them for the new needs 😄.
Made some positioing devices for the extension box. I made two different scopes for every sort of the patterns. One with a smaller and one with a little wider area of movement. The slotted ones are for the yoke, which will get an additional roll axis with a ball bearing. They all will hold in place in the frame on top of the box with 4 neodym magnets.
The yoke will also be using different sensors which will be connected to another board, not the Warthog board that I use in the Cougar base for the other systems.
One of the remaining original pots of the Cougar will be used for pitch and one in the ball bearing connection on top of the extension where the yoke itself is be connected, will be used for roll. The axis will go to an MMJoy2 Board (Pro Micro). The quadrant uses also a MMJoy Board for the axis. The Cougar base has two different types of sensors at all, one Cougar pot and the Warthog sensor. Maybe I will add hall sensors for the yoke in future but at the moment I will use the pots.
The buttons and hats etc. of the yoke will go through the Warthog electronics. I made it like this, cause the Warthog is using a special kind of sensor, not compatible with standard hall sensors, so you could not simply add an additional input like a standard hall sensor or pot for the roll axis sensor on top and switch between the different roll axis sensors.
The electronics of the Warthog fit in the Cougar base and do work perfectly also with the Cougar gimbal. I already tested this, but I have to print special mounts. For testing I simply glued the magnet and the sensor in position.
There are other unofficial options if you want to use TARGET with anything else like a TM device of course, but none of them really worked for me. I heard it should be possible, but my results weren't really satisfying. But I'm also no electronic technician or a programmer, so maybe there is a solution, but I have to do it the hard way 😅.
The place where all this HOTAS should work somewhere in future 😅.
The desk in the foreground is my "command unit" where I will play tank/naval/infantry and tactical simulations or even my still beloved old retro sims like the Jane's series etc.
It has four different PC systems with different OS, which all can be switched between the inputs, the sound system and the monitors. The retro rigs are one AMD K6 400 with a Geforce 256 DDR and a Voodoo I. The second retro machine is a Dual Core AMD Athlon 3Ghz with a Geforce 5950 Ultra and two Voodoo II in SLI, which can run Windows ME or Windows XP in dual boot.
The third machine is a Phenom II X6 with a Geforce 1650 (W7) and the last is a Ryzen 7 2700X with a Geforce RTX 2060 (W7/W10 Dual Boot). The Panel can be folded down and pushed beyond the desk. For flying retro sims I have modded a Hori HOTAS (cause I wanted to have something neutral looking at the command unit) which now uses Pokeys cards as electronics and also attached TM TFRP rudders. The Pokeys cards are fully programable and also useable with W98/XP/W7/W10. The panel of the command unit also gets some small consoles and a "universal" UFC (already printed).
The pit will get all kind of interchangeable HOTAS systems and also some functional consoles and an overhead panel. The main panels will also be interchangeable and placed in front of the old TFT (which will display MFD's and instruments) on top of my center console, where the modified Cougar base will be placed. They are still in early production 😅. At the moment three versions are planned. One for helos, one for fighters and one for the big birds.
No doubled controls will remain in the pit while flying, only the bases will stay in place. It should always be the right control layout for the kind of aircraft you just flying. There is also an option to remove the panel-TFT, which then can be placed at the wall with a wall mount and the mount for the FFB-wheel can be folded out and up after removing the center console, to place the wheel on top of it. The TPR rudders will then be changed against racing pedals.
The little wood boxes will be my console boxes. They fit perfectly, have enough room to place switches, dials etc. on top of them and you can put the Pokeys boards inside of them. So you always can reach all the electronics very easily.
The pit has one W10 machine with an Ryzen 9 3900XT and a RTX 3090 and the second W7 system for older sims like Strike Fighters 2 or anything else like this is a Phenom II X6 with two Geforce GTX 660 in SLI.
Just experementing with the construction for the yoke. I must use two dampers, one at the left and one at the right side, connected to my center base. Only one in the middle isn't possible. Nothing is near finish yet and maybe a lot will also change again during the brainstorming 🤔
The dampers should be connected to the yoke extension, an mounted at the console over to bolts, saved only with a split pin. The whole yoke-extension should easily be exchangeable.
The room for the legs is a bit tight if the yoke is mounted but for me it is ok. I'm not the tallest guy. 😅
Some constructions don't look very nice (in fact they are ugly as hell 😂), but I have to make a lot of compromises to be able to adapt the universal aim of my pit. It's really difficult to get all under the hood and also in an ergonomic position, so that you are able to operate all the different layouts without any contorted movements.
EDIT:
Reworked a lot! I've also integrated the panel's TFT (the one behind the main panel, which will be used for instrument and MFD display) in the construction to have a better overview of all the dimensions. The yoke itself is scaled down to 90% now, cause in my pit there isn't enough room for full scale. But it's still 4cm more in width and 2cm more in height as my old CH Flightsim Yoke USB. It's still not ready yet, cause some minor details are still missing.
After some experiments with the old equipment from my preceding pit, I found out that the weight of it is much too heavy that maybe even with the dampers (which aren't really strong to prevent too much force to operate it) it tends to run slowly out of center towards the seat if you realease the controls. Maybe I must add a fifth adjustable spring facing in the direction of the panel, to compensate this.
The roll axis mechanism is also not an easy task. I don't want to use torsion springs here, cause they also have a relatively hard center and aren't very precise in centering. But there is not much space for any other system here. I hope I can place a tension spring mechanism, equal ore close to the one in the old CH yoke, for the roll axis.
I angeled the base, cause I don't want to cut out a piece of the bucket seat of this new bought race-rig. So this angeled construction was the only way to get the sticks closer to you, the way they are positioned in the real aircraft, without making a large L-shaped extension.
Some progress with the roll axis at the yoke. I still have to match many details and also the whole extension support has to be adjusted for the new mechanics. I use two 55mm ball bearings for the mounting of the yoke.
Only one relatively strong tension spring is used now and connected to a steel pin inside the shape of the spring-mount in the gimbal. I will connect the other side to the support and maybe make some different screwings, or something similar, to be able to adjust it's tension. The "gravity" problem, caused by the angled base, that maybe will move the yoke out of center towards the seat, still remains. I also have to find a solution for this problem.
Probably I will really use a fifth tension spring mounted to the center console, exactly strong enough to balance the force of gravity with the additional help of the dampers and the springs inside the base. I want to stay the yoke in exact position if you leave it. Two adjustable friction plates, mounted on the yokes pattern on top of the base, could also be a solution for this problem.
Maybe I will use all solutions together and also adapt the additional spring to the sticks, but in this case anytime removeable. This could be useful for aerobatic flying. The Blue Angles also use an additional spring system which pushes the stick forward, so you have a constant force to pull. This is better for very precise formation maneuvers.
Splitting in printable and screwable parts will be the last thing that is also needed.
The yoke extension is ready now. I added also some adjustable friction plates to the base plate. I hope this will do the job for holding the yoke in position. I will use a grease, similar to nyogel 767A, for all my inputs. This will add very smooth motion even with the use of many printed parts.
I don't want to make the things to complex, although I could do more things with aluminum using my little mill or the lathe. At the beginning I thought about doing it this way, but it's a lot easier to print the parts.
I don't want to have top notch equipment like many others, I'm ok with plastics and also simple buttons, switches and POV-electronics you can get in nearly every electronic shop, but I want to have the right control for mostly every aircraft I planed to fly in the pit.
All this stuff should be affordable. It was still a lot of money (at least for me - never spent so much in this hobby the last decades), but even with all the TM equipment I use for my modding, it's nowhere near the costs that some top notch HOTAS reach. If something breaks, ok, I simply will print a spare part and maybe add some improvements to it.
The yoke itself is slowly growing. It's not an exact replica, more a universal one. But it's mostly based on the C-130J yoke.
Edit:
A little further now. The orange markings are for 4way POV's and the red are for normal buttons. There will also be two momentary toggle switches (based on normal momentary I-O-I switches with a cap) at the left grip. The black round plate is already a part of the extension and will be mounted at the ball bearing axis. The yoke fits with a square fiiting in this part and will be fixed with two screws to the left and the right, so it is possible to make further yokes in future for this system.
and also the quadrant I already made a while ago. It has a changeable thrust reverse system, which could be changed between Airbus and Boeing style reversers. For Boeing the big white parts are snapped in and the throttles do not go further as to this parts. For reverse you have to use the reverser levers with the extra potis connected to them.
For the Airbus system the orange parts will be snapped in and the throttles will could be only pushed back as far as with the Boeing system, but will aim at a notch in the top cover intead of the stops used for the Boeing system. To pass this notch you have also to pull the reversers, but this time the negative range of the throttle levers is the reverser area.
There is also a possibility to lock all four throttle levers together, to be able to move them more comfortable, especially if someone has such small hands like me 😅. At the left side there is a trimwheel and the quadrant has also 6 additional linear and two rotary pots, which could be used for the prop pitch, the mixture, trimming or anything else. There are two I-O-I momentary switches for the speed brake and the flaps.
The Yoke is done. Not smoothed yet, but the rest is finished. Now the last two bigger parts have to be finished, the Harrier and the Osprey throttle. After this the Cougar handles AB/idle detend has to be finished, the Nozzle lever for the AV-8B and the wing sweep for the F-14 throttle have to be done and then I really finished all I ever want. Slowly the end comes closer 🙂.
I wanted to have all the 3D parts done first, cause who knows how long things work like they do at the moment. It's always only a matter of time until programs you have to use online did not work anymore as they did before or even will be shut down by the company. Sadly there is no real offline-alternative for TinkerCAD and learning anything else to be able to do such things I've done so far, would take much longer as it took to make all my HOTAS. That's the reason I construct them non-stop at the moment.
All other less complex parts for the pit can be done with any other 3D software at pinch or even the traditional way using handcraft tools, but making those grips another way would take ages if I would be able to do them at all.
So the last parts are going to be started. The AV-8B+ linear throttle with nozzle lever and the MV-22A/B TCL linear throttle. I use two TWCS throttles for the electronics and the mechanics to make them.
After a while of brainstorming, I decided to make a complete new base for the AV-8B+ linear throttle and I also will do this for the following MV-22A/B linear throttle. The base of the TWCS has not much space to place electronics inside and the original grip pcb's do not fit inside the AV-8B+ grip. Also the TWCS base is a real ugly box and I wanted to have all my throttles looking the same way (the bases should all be simple square boxes), so I decided to buy some small wooden boxes.
I already used some similar boxes for my consoles in the pit where I can put the electronics inside and the switches, buttons and knobs on top with a printed faceplate. The one for the consoles have 18.5x18.5x5.5cm and there are more of them arranged in row. If you want to reach the electronics inside of them, you simply open up the lid. Now I ordered two 22.0x13.5x6.0cm boxes to be able to get the TWCS linear throttle mechanics inside those wodden boxes. Originally the "pit boxes" are designed as napkin boxes and the new ones are originally knitting needle boxes 😅.
It's really easy to drill holes in them or to do some cutouts with my model-jigsaw. You can place a printed face plate on them an paint the boxes themselves with gray paint. With that printed faceplate they are really very stable and you have not to print a big case on your own, using a lot of fillament and time to print for it.
P.S:
To get the right weight for the throttle-bases, I will use adhesive weights for aluminium rims from a car components shop. You can glue them inside (I use hot glue here), wherever enough space is left.
The intial stage, so far 😄: (Added a third rail with brass friction bearings, I had lying arround from an old printer. The two rails at the bottom and the sliding bed are the original parts of the TWCS. The mounting is a new construction - not finished yet)
Edit:
I'm just trying to get the switches and buttons which are originaly directly integrated in the throttle parts of the panels of the F-16C and the AV-8B also integrated in my bases. The problem is to get all the functions working with the limited number of available button-functions the TWCS offers. For the F-16C with the GE F110 engine it's possible, cause the max power switch is not functional with this engine.
For the AV-8B throttle it's a lot more tricky. I have also to rework the design a bit again, to have the switches placed a little bit more like they are placed originaly. I will also integrate an idle detend here, you have to pull. I hope I can find a good solution with the limited number of inputs, but I want to avoid to use some additional electronics here. Those bases should only be one single device, the same way like the ones which are based on the Warthog bases (F-14, F-15, F/A-18) are. In this case it is a lot easier for sure, cause the Warthog throttles offer a lot of panel switches, but the F-16 and also the AV-8B on the other side, do not have so much switches placed directly arround there throttles.
And a little further with the base and the nozzle lever. Still many things missing 😄.
In the end the wooden box will only be the place for the electronics and I still have to print a lot. But not all must be printed and the inside is still better reachable if you open up the lid with the added parts (I don't want to admit that the boxes maybe weren't the best idea) 😗😅.
Did the last rework. The wooden box is now upside down. The lid will be screwed now, no more hinge here. I know that in the end the box wasn't a big idea, but it helps to stint some fillament and printing time 😅.
Under the big black plate is enough room for placing some switches. I also reworked the nozzle lever a bit and added an idle detend on the throttle, which must be pulled to reach the idle state. It must also be pulled to get out of idle. It's just a simple cabinet door lock I used (same thing I also use for the fingerlifts of my F-15 and F/A-18 throttles), which will do it's work only with the help of gravity, stopping at a nose in the bottom plate. No springs used here.
I did this also in my old pit at those HOTAS and it really worked fine. The locks are out of metall and they will never break. Only thing to do before you can use them is to remove the spring plate, so that they can fall down without any friction. I like simple things if possible.
The holes for the STO stop lever are very close together, although I will only use a 2mm steel needle with a rounded hat in the lever mechanics. This is something I'm not very happy with, but I wanted to have 5° steps like in the real Harrier and also all steps from 35° up to 75°. Since there isn't enough space for long levers in such a desk-throttle (mine are 100mm from the bottom pivot point to the top of the scalar) the radius of the lever console is not as big as in the original.
I divided the distance the nozzle lever could be moved in equal sections from 0°-110° and then added the STO stop point from 35° to 75°. The hover stop will be adjustable from arround 80° to 87° with a srew in a slot that holds the stop in place. The piece with the STO stop holes is seperat to be able to renew it anytime it's worn out. The throttle lever will get some Nyogel 767A at all three rails to prevent the sticktion the original TWCS is also known for.
Now I have to split some parts to make them better printable, do all the screwings to connect the pieces together after printing and also the whole grip itself has to be done (making it hollow - integrating holes for POV's & buttons etc.)
it's really not that complex to built those things, as it seems. I'm also no 3D modeler, I have learned this with the trial and error method and I use simple to learn programs like TinkerCAD and Meshmixer.
My parts are also no exact replicas. Mostly I only use photos of them to rebuilt them. For a few of them I had the dimensions but not for all. In this case I used dimensions from grips which are very similar in shape. Maybe the original will deviate in many details, but I'm ok with this as long as the result will be useable at the end.
I thought about making a TEDAC for the Apache and also some WSO/RIO controls for the F-14B/D or the F-15E, but at the moment I only want to finish the pilot controls. After this I will work on the pit itself again to finish it. If most of it is ready and running, maybe I will start to built some gunner or WSO controls. But at the moment there are still so many things to do, so this could really take a while
Just ordered 10Kg PLA and 4L waterwashable resin to be prepaired for all the parts 😅. The AV-8B throttle is near finish now. Will show some pics when done. The last two parts will be the Osprey throttle and the manual wing sweep for the F-14 throttle.
There will still be some smaller, less complex things to do, like some button caps, rotary caps or even some panel parts, but nothing what takes this much time to model it.
Can't believe it, but I really was able to model all the HOTAS I wanted to have. At the beginning I was very, very skeptical about it.
The additional parts I use for this project:
- A TM TPR rudder system for all aircraft and helos - 4 Warthog throttle systems (one remains original for the A-10, one converted to F/A-18, one converted to F-15, one converted to F-14) - 3 TWCS throttles (one for the Cougar F-16 standalone mod, one for the AV-8B throttle and one for the Osprey TCL) - 1 HOTAS Cougar (throttle will be moded with TWCS, the electronics of the stick and the throttle will be reused for all the collective electronics, the stick base housing will be moded and used as gimbal system for the center stick including Warthog pcb and sensors) - 2 Warthog stick bases (one for the sidestick base and one for the electronics of the Cougar mod center base) - 4 Viper grips (one will remain original, but the paddle switch will be removed, for the A-10 / one will be pimped to match more the F-16C grip, two will spent their electronics for the external grip electronic-box and their POV's and buttons for other grips) - 2 Hornet grips (one will be converted to an AV-8B grip, changing the trim and the castle hats, one will remain original for the F/A-18 / both will be canabilzed of their electronics) - One Virpil VFX grip (also canabalized and the paddle switch removed / the bottom part of the grips shell will be modified and complemented with printed parts to remove the mounting shape of the paddle-switch) - 3 TM XFighter grips (one remains mostly original as standard B8 grip, one will be slightly modified to match the F-5E grip, one will be modified to match the UH-1N Twin Huey cyclic) - One Suncom Talon grip for the F-15 (with Viper grip POV mechanics & buttons) - 4 Cougar MFD's (three or the fighter panel, one remains for further projects / 2 old modified Quickshot Masterpilot MFD's for the helo panel cause the MP have 24 buttons arround the display) - A Fanatec handbrake for the collective lever - one modified TM TCA sidestick as a side stick for Airbus based aircraft - 13 Pokeys 57U boards for all the cockpit and panel electronics - 2 Arduino Pro Micro with MMJoy2 for the 4-engine-quadrant for the big birds (the only control which will not be TM TARGET compatible)
it's really not that complex to built those things, as it seems. I'm also no 3D modeler, I have learned this with the trial and error method and I use simple to learn programs like TinkerCAD and Meshmixer.
I've dabbed around in TinkerCAD but only done some very simple stuff, will check out Meshmixer. Guess I need to find some tutorials on YT and gain some skill.
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My parts are also no exact replicas. Mostly I only use photos of them to rebuilt them. For a few of them I had the dimensions but not for all. In this case I used dimensions from grips which are very similar in shape. Maybe the original will deviate in many details, but I'm ok with this as long as the result will be useable at the end.
I'm not to concerned about 100% exat replicas either. Functionality and simplicity comes way befor that.
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I thought about making a TEDAC for the Apache and also some WSO/RIO controls for the F-14B/D or the F-15E, but at the moment I only want to finish the pilot controls. After this I will work on the pit itself again to finish it. If most of it is ready and running, maybe I will start to built some gunner or WSO controls. But at the moment there are still so many things to do, so this could really take a while
Fully understand your position and will follow your projects with great interest!
Still a lot missing at the grip itself and I also have to spilt the shell of the grip. The colors aren't the ones used at the printed and finished HOTAS, like with all my 3D models. They are only for a better overview of the layout. It's the second complex thing I made so far, after the AH-64D collective.
Most of the work are the whole screwings at the end of the modeling. It looks like not much happened, but that's really the hardest work. I hate it 😅. Maybe I will post an exploded view when I'm finished.
Not the nicest one, but if all things will work like the way I've planed it, I'm happy with it 😀.
Just fiddling around with the COMM knobs and the speed brake 🤔. The antenna elevation is a simple thumbstick-mechanic but only one axis is used. The second will not be connected and is also mechanically blocked. The transducer on top is also a thumbstick.
The hole beside the thumbstick is for a 4way POV. The rest are simple small and medium buttons. One of the medium buttons has a hemisphere on top with a small gap to fit the knobs button. I will simply glue it on top.
The small buttons have a hemisphere-frame arround them. I also use this at the Kiowa cyclic and anywhere else, where such kind of buttons are used. Not perfect, but those buttons are easy to get in every electronic shop.
The frame for the speed brake is also still missing here. I had to model a new switch here, cause it has an oval shape and there isn't an already done hat available anywhere. It should use the same mechanics as the Cougar uses for it's speed brake, with a switch inside which is momentary at one side.
For the COMM functions I also have to make switches and maybe a frame or some gaps in the handle itself. At the moment I'm only testing the space I have to get all under the hood.
it's really not that complex to built those things, as it seems. I'm also no 3D modeler, I have learned this with the trial and error method and I use simple to learn programs like TinkerCAD and Meshmixer.
I've dabbed around in TinkerCAD but only done some very simple stuff, will check out Meshmixer. Guess I need to find some tutorials on YT and gain some skill.
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My parts are also no exact replicas. Mostly I only use photos of them to rebuilt them. For a few of them I had the dimensions but not for all. In this case I used dimensions from grips which are very similar in shape. Maybe the original will deviate in many details, but I'm ok with this as long as the result will be useable at the end.
I'm not to concerned about 100% exat replicas either. Functionality and simplicity comes way befor that.
Quote
I thought about making a TEDAC for the Apache and also some WSO/RIO controls for the F-14B/D or the F-15E, but at the moment I only want to finish the pilot controls. After this I will work on the pit itself again to finish it. If most of it is ready and running, maybe I will start to built some gunner or WSO controls. But at the moment there are still so many things to do, so this could really take a while
Fully understand your position and will follow your projects with great interest!
/KC
Hi KeyCat,
I read your post in the other forum also about the MMJoy2. I would still prefer the Pokeys57U for a TEDAC unit. It's a lot easier to do (ok you also have to use a matrix for so many functions like the TEDAC has, but this isn't so complex) and the Pokeys cards aren't so expensive. There are two versions, one with terminals and one without. I always use the one without, cause they are cheaper and I like to have things soldered .
You have much more flexibility and even much more functions with this card. Don't get me wrong, I like the MMJoy2 project very much, but for such a complex thing like the TEDAC, I'm personally would go with a Pokeys or an Arcaze module. You can use DX functions or keyboard macros here (Pokeys - can't speak exactly about the Arcaze cause I do not own one), or even mixed if you like. Press and release functions are also possible and many, many more options.
And although I know that keyboard macros are out of fashion those days, they give you much, much more flexibility as simple DX functions do. Never understood why people hate it now. I hate it to be dependent of the simulators config menu, to configure my HOTAS the way I would like to use it. Sometimes this is the only way to get things working relatively realistic.
And using programs like joystick gremlin or something else, to program simple DX-devices with macros, you always have to use a filter driver to get rid of the disturbing DX functions which will stay in parallel.
So, one step further. Tomorrow I will model the cap for the transducer and the POV beside it. After that the grip has to be splittet into halfs and the whole screwings must be done. It is already hollow.
Actually the throttle of the MV-22B should be the last HOTAS part for now (I wanted to use it with any of the other sticks), but I just found some more detailed photos of the flightstick and a small datasheet of both, the stick and the throttle. So I will do the stick also now, to complete the MV-22B HOTAS 😅.
This is really the last control I will do before the rest of the pit is finished. As I have now more detailed photos of the Osprey controls, how could I leave it incomplete? 😂
This is the rest of the parts I made. Haven't posted pictures yet.
Those are the grips for the Warthog convertion to F/A-18C and F-14D (I made a D-Version throttle). The last is the "convertion kit" to make one Warhog to a F-15 throttle.
I will add the switches in the base at a later time, when I'm really knowing what I would like to have there and what I'm integrating in my side consoles.
And starting with the Osprey controls. I already made the shape for the throttle a while ago, but maybe I have to adjust some things, as I have some better photos now. The stick (cyclic) must be done from scratch.
And the beginning of the stick. I took my Viper (AH-1Z) cyclic as a start. Looks really 🤮 at the moment (but that's mostly the fact if I'm starting something new 🤣).
Meshmixer will do a lot of voodoo magic here 😂.
I hope I can come relatively close to the shape, but it won't be perfect in any way. I also have not all views from all sides.
Edit:
Created some more details at the head and placed POV's and buttons. I will add two additional buttons to the stick the original hasn't, at the empty space in the head top left and the unused button at the back.
I also will add a thumb-POV at the throttle, I've only seen on the bugeye tech replica until now. All other throttles have left this clean or only have a button at this place.
There are still many things missing like the trigger, POV caps do not match the original and so on...
Edit 2:
The Osprey HOTAS will be more "Franken"-controls but I'm ok with it. I have to make a lot of assumptions here cause I have no pictures eg. of the back of the stick. I will model it a bit like my Apache cyclic here.
I started to think about the construction of the manual wing sweep for the F-14 throttle also. At first I wanted to use the friction lever of the Warthog as base for the wing sweep, but I don't know if it's possible. Maybe I will model something additional, replacing the friction lever with a linear poti. Also not very realistic but easier to do as a convertion of the friction lever.
The MV-22B stick is near finish. I will post pics if it's ready.
The throttle will take a little longer, cause I have to integrate a similar pot-mechanics I also did for my Hornet throttle, which is springloaded and self returning to center. This is for the Ospreys nacelle control.
At the moment TinkerCAD runs really bad for me and all the modeling needs much longer as before. I hope this will change soon. Never had so much trouble with it before.
I also started with the handles for the Apaches TEDAC. I will do them in parallel to the rest of my parts. Some other guys have also started to work at the TEDAC and have made a fantastic work. I hope we can get this "beast" done in teamwork
Quite often i get models in stl format that i'd like to alter to better suit what i want to do with them. but when I import them in to Ansys Spaceclaim they are made up of lots of triangles and are not solids. I haven't found a way to convert them in to solids that work. There are online converters that change them from STL to OBJ files but they are still all triangles.
my work is always in STL-file-format from the beginning and I also never change this, cause I always start with TinkerCAD (never used its OBJ export function). Besides this I only use Meshmixer to do all the sculpting, smoothing and hollowing. Sometimes I use Meshlab also if a mesh is damaged, to repair it.
I haven't tried any other software until now, cause as said I'm really a noob in 3D modeling or CAD. I go a very, very unconventional way here to be able to get my models done. Most real 3D designers will shake their heads, if they could see how I'm working , but I'm able to do my parts and that's all I want.
I will do a deeper step into CAD when my pit is done and for sure will then try to learn a "real" 3D software (cause it makes me fun and I wanted to learn it the right way in future), but at the moment I only want my parts for the pit finished to be able to work on it again. The time it would cost me to learn an advanced 3D program would take more then it cost me to do all those HOTAS, that's why I still do this "noob-way"
So I'm not a big help when it comes to problems in 3D. The only thing I use always for repairing things is Meshlab, which is already very complex for me. I always use guidance here to repair things, cause I have to admit that I really don't have any clue what I'm doing if I use Meshlab to repair things. But I was very often able to get messed up meshes repaired the way I could reimport them to MM and do the rest here. It also has a function to convert a body to a solid but I don't know if this could help.
Made some progress at the MV-22B controls. The stick is ready now. It's a little bit a "Franken-Stick", cause I don't have a picture of the backside and also added two bottons the original doesn't have (I could also put bezels over the button holes, in case I want to have it more like the original).
Also the bottom part isn't like the original is, as with all my grips, cause I use a special system to connect them and therefor all grips have to be adjusted in this section, to be interchangeable. I'm ok with it, cause as said before, I don't have the intention to make exact replicas. They should work mostly like the original and be as close as I can do it, considering the changebility my contols should have and also respecting my possibilities. So they do not have to look like the originals to the last screw and bolt 😅.
I know for some guys this would be an absolutely "no go", but for many years we just only had things like the TM FLCS or TQS and similar, which were also far from exact replicas and even the most buyable HOTAS today aren't exact replicas.
The throttle is still in the "production-phase" and that's the reason why the nacelle-wheel-mechanics are still looking out of the grip's body 😄. I have to arrange some things and after this will make the thing hollow and integrate the parts. I did a complete rework of the shape of the throttle based on the one you can see at Bugeye Tech's site.
I did a simplification arround the backside-buttons and some other areas, to have all of one piece. I like things simple to get them easier printed.
Edit:
Throttle hollowed and splitted into five pieces. Doing all the screwings will be a nightmare. 😏
MV-22B throttle is mostly done. Not my nicest work, but sometimes you have just to come to a finish. Some things at the base itself, respectively at the plate on top, are still missing, but I don't have any desire to do this at the moment. I will now start with the Apache turbine levers and the manual wing sweep for the Tomcat throttle to come to an end.
As much as I enjoyed the making of all of those 3D models, I'm really looking forward to do some manual working at the pit at least. After 10 months of continuous 3D building it's enough now. I had to do all the 3d models and also will print them now, cause it's better to have all the shapes of the grips IRL for fine adjusting things related to the changeability of the different controls, as just fiddeling arround with theoretical dimensions. What you get is what you see is a lot better.
For sure I will not complete all of them to be functional during the next time, this will take quite a longer while. I just want to have the shells printed for being able to plan all the things very exactly, that are related to the mounting or other details.
Starting with the Apache's throttle in the left console. The grips will be completely printed including the levers. Handles and levers will be one part.
The rest is the base of an old Suncom SFS throttle. Some buttons and switches arround the throttle will also be added.
The Apaches throttle is mostly done. Here I have only to smooth out the levers a bit. The rest will be manual drilling work at the base for putting some of the engine-function switches/dials to it.
But I've seen that I totally missed all the screwings at my 4 engine throttle quadrant 😬. This must also be done before printing and is a lot of work at this part 🤢.
On the other side I was just able to get two used Logitech quadrants for the helicopter overhead controls, which saves me a lot of 3D modeling to get the fuel levers and the engine levers for those kind of helos done. Also something I had planned from the beginning and totally missed at all this workload.
I will use 3 axis for the fuel system and three additional axis for the engine levers here, to be able to to control the system of a CH-53E also. For other twin or single engine helos with overhead controls I will simply use less of those controls. Here I have only to model a fitting frame for the quadrants and of course also suitable grips.
For F-14 wing sweep, I will look if I could make a mechanical system fitting on top oft the original friction lever of the Warthog throttle.
The panel for the jets needs an universal useable UFC also, but this will come at a later time. I will try to make a hybrid between the F/A-18 UFC and the F-16 ICP with some additional functions and have also made some plans for it a while ago. A much simpler version is already printed for my command unit.
The goal is to be able to do all more basic stuff with the pit itself and for all the special systems using the virtual pit. Some kind of mixed universal input system, like a very big button box. Most of this will only be useable in pancake mode while flying with TIR and the monitors, cause in VR this wouldn't make much sense.
As I started this new project I wanted to use VR only, but then quickly decided to have real switches also and the possibility to fly in both worlds, VR or 2D. I love to have real switches and functions since I made my first pit and also wanted to have a little of this again in my new project. Thats why my project is a hybrid.
Ok, found another old broken SFS throttle in my parts-box I really don't now that I had it. So a total of two broken SFS bases are available for building anything throttle related. As said before I had missed to do all the screwing at my previous 4 engine quadrant and also was not so satisfied with the bunch of big parts that I had to print for this input device to make it come true. Also the mechanics were relatively complex and every single part had to be printed.
So I thought, why not make a new version with the use of those two SFS bases, respectively only their mechanics and one of those wooden boxes I also have. This would save a lot of fillament and printing time and also has the advantage of better mechanics. So I started to rebuilt the quadrant. It's an very, very early state at the moment. At the end it should have the same possibilities as the first one, including to be able to change between Airbus and Boeing thrust reverse system, having additional axis for propeller pitch for the Herc and all the first version also offered.
I also started with the overhead controls for the helos, which are based on two Saitek/ Logitech quadrants I was able to get used very cheap. One will be for the fuel control and one for engine starting and similar depending on what which helo uses. I choose to have three axis for every system, cause I want to be able to fly the CH-53E with this controls also. It does not replicate any existing helo overhead system, but I designed the levers a bit after the BK117, cause I like this design.
The end goal of my pit is to be able to fly the following aircraft of this simulations with the right HOTAS, as far as possible:
DCS (Jets): F-14A/B, F-15C/E, F-16C, F/A-18C, AV-8B, A-10A/C (Mudhen still missing but in the works) DCS (Helos): AH-64D, OH-58D, UH-1H and maybe the UH-60 Mod (if finished)
The quadrant with all the levers in different positions to be sure that the levers could pass each other, especially arround the reversers.
Now additional things like the TOGA buttons with housing and other detail like cable channels could be added. The throttle will again function in two different configurations. One like Airbus (negative gate for reverse) and one like Boeing (thrust reverser handles). To be able to reach the reverse gate of the Airbus system it will also be necessary to pull the levers, but only to be able to come across the stop-notch in the panel.
When the Boeing system is used, there will be an additional bezel at the end of the lever-slots, which will stop the arm exactly a small amount before the stop-notch. So the reversers can be pulled without any blocking.
To switch between the two systems a an electrical switch must be changed. In the Airbus position the middle pin of the pot will directly connected to the PCB-board, in the Boeing position there will be the lever pots of each axis connected serial to the thrust-axis. To reach full minimum of the thrust-axis you have two push the thrust lever fully back until it reaches the Boeing-stop-bezel and also pull the reverser fully.
Each system must be calibrated seperatly, but I wanted two have the option to use both systems, cause those two basic principle thrust reverse systems are often used in many different aircraft.
AND my two Logitech /Saitek quadrants for the overhead have arrived just at the moment. They are really in new, mint condition, completely original boxed. They were bought in June and never used and I was able to get them at a lower price one unit normally would cost 👍😄. This was such a joy and I'm so happy, cause I only thought about the idea of making the overhead system for the helicopters with such quadrants instead of printing all parts on my own, but was very sceptical what it what cost, especially at the moment with the high hardware prices. So I only wanted to look for the prices of those units and came across the offer of this guy. This saves me a lot of printing 👍.
Most work at the quadrant is finished. Nothing what makes a great difference in optics, but some work had to be done to be able to fit all the cables and the springs for the reversers.
The two left console levers (red and blue one) will also change at the next step and then the splitting of the throttle levers and some missing screwings have to be done. The colors are a bit more now as it should look like if its finished.
After this I go back to the helicopter overhead levers and the last part will be the wing sweep for the F-14 throttle on my Warthog convertion. I hope I'll be ready for start printing all my parts until end of October or at least early in November.
Completely done! Only the splitting of the levers them selves for easier printing is still to do, but they aren't hollow (they have a seperate port with a screwable plate at the back for the wiring) and so this isn't a big problem. The halfs of each lever (splited vertically) will be simply clued together. I just have to find the best point for splitting.
I will integrate some holes for small 2mm diameter steel needles in the 3D-lever-halfs, which later will be made out of cutted nails, when I'm sure how to split them. This will position the halfs of each lever exactly before sticking them together, the same way screws are normally used, but the nails are much smaller and could be easier placed on those small lever arms. It's not necessary to be able to split them anymore after printing and so they really could be glued together and perfectly matched with those small connectors.
The levers including the knobs on top and also the reversers will be one single part (levers seperated in two halfs) and only painted like they look in the pics. For the reversers a lot of supports will be needed for printing, but due to the layout of the Suncom throttle bases and their throttle guides, no other solution was possible to get the reversers and also the throttle levers near together. I wanted to be able to control all levers comfortably with only one hand (and I have very small hands 😅).
I also integrated a lock to be able to connect the two left and the two right levers together for better dual engine use. In single engine only the inner double lever will be used and for three engine aircraft the outer right will stay unused.
The quadrant has a total of 13 analog axis (every thrust levers pot and the matching reverser pots are one axis with serial wired pots) and 8 button functions. I will use two Arduino Pro Micro here and make two MMJoy2 devices out of the quadrant. One with the four throttle and the condition lever axis and one with the elevator-, aileron-, rudder-, mixture- and the additional prop-pitch axis for smaller aircraft.
Ok, the work at my helicopter overhead controls can go on now. I use two Logitech quadrants here and only will make some additional grips for the one in front. The backwards one will get the original knobs, but I will shorten the levers a little bit at this one.
The wooden boxes at the left and right of the levers, are those boxes I use for my overhead "button-boxes" and also for my side consoles (here mounted on top of old big tower cases with removed face plates lying on their fronts, having a board on the back). They have a hinge and can be opened, so you could pack the electronics inside and put a little printed panel on top which fits all the switches, knobs etc. and the cables just go to the inside electronics. I hope those hinges and the latch are strong enough to resist the operating on the panels. If not, I have to make the lids screwable.
The overhead will also get two further analog levers at the left and the right. One will be used as an APU lever and the second is a backup for other functions, which needs a lever. Main goal is to be able to control the CH-53E somehow realistic, which is my absolutely favorite big helo 😀. As it is one of the helos with the most turbines, it should also work for other overhead contolled helos. This shouldn't be a replica of any real thing, just a universal useable overhead control for helicopters.
Still very, very early at the beginning 😁
P.S: There aren't two sets of levers on every quadrant. This is only for planing, to see where they will stay at the end-positions.
"Is there any body out there" - who is also making a universal pit? (some Pink Floyd )
As far as I know, I'm sadly the only one with such a concept. I also did hear a lot of "this isn't possible", or "this is neither fish or fowl" comments the last years, even as I started the project before this one, but it's possible.
It's not realistic and of course it shouldn't and couldn't be, but it's in no way more unrealistic as if someone is flying with it's standard HOTAS and some button boxes. But you have the right controls in your hands and you could also implement basic functions which nearly every cockpit has, such as battery, generators, gear & hook levers, radios and so on in the consoles and panels.
The panels and the consoles are also not meant to be used in VR, only the HOTAS, but I want to do flying in pancake mode also and here it's nice to have some functional consoles and panels, even if they don't represent anything real (same like any button box).
So if there is anyone out there with something similar, it would be nice to share some experiences!
The overhead how it should be mounted correctly. I added two additional levers and will take the remaing knobs of the Logitech quadrant (colors of the original knobs will all change).
For the buttons in the back engine levers, I will use 3 functions of the Logitech quadrant (each unit has 6 seperate button functions - the ones of the axis in the reverser segment are only simulated button functions) and fix the wires with cable ties at the levers front. This leaves a rest of nine functions I will also add to the console.
Maybe the original 2way buttons on the front console will stay original and the other three I will integrate at another place of the unit. The wires on the front face of the engine levers will also reduce the useable way of the axis a little bit, as they will be installed through the guidance-slot, but thats not a real big deal.
P.S:
There are three zones for each lever you can program also with button or macro functions, which makes it easy to use it with simulations which aren't use axis for the helicopter throttle controls.
The reverser is also programable which gives you four functions on each axis in different positions. The two outside levers will be connected to an analog input of the Pokeys boards each in the overhead (placed in the boxes to the left and right), which is also programable in a very similar way to the Logitech quadrants in case of emulating button functions or keypress.
The gap between the quadrants will be filled with a housing. The gap is necessary for the cables, which came out of each quadrant on the backside and it's also better having a little more space between the front and the rear levers.
Just thinking about the placement of the helicopter unit in the overhead. Realistically it should be in the left side of the overhead cause the pilot is mostly sitting on the right side.
At first I want to place it in the middle to be able to reach it better with both hands, but now I think a placement which is more realistic should be better. For this I have to redo my unit, cause it's to wide to fit at the left side of the overhead. 😏
I also have made the still missing "Boeing Clips" for the 4 engine quadrant, that will prevent the levers to go into the "Airbus reverse" if the Boeing system is used.
Now my last HOTAS part has to be made, the manual wing sweep for the F-14 throttle and the 11 months of construction adventure is finished. Some things still have to be smoothed, especially the last parts I did, but this I will do while I'm already starting to print the first parts. The printing will also take a while 😄.
So, starting my last part for now, the manual wing sweep override for the F-14.
As I put my F-14 handles on top of an original Warthog throttle (cutting off the A-10 handles and do some preparation - same goes for the F/A-18 throttle on another Warthog) I will simply use the friction lever and put a knob on top which looks a bit like the original one. I will also try to make the frame arround, but this all will be far away from the original in case of appearance, cause of the size and other restrictions.
I will also make an original looking flaps lever for it, which I want to have springloaded (return to center) to be able to mimic more then three positions. Not realistic, but a workaround. I try to use the original switch for this and make a mechanical solution to do this, cause I don't want to desolder the switches of the Warthog throttle bases and change them to anything other if its possible in any way to keep the original ones. The F-14 and F/A-18 handles are more then enough work to do on my Warthog throttles.
I will also change the face plates with printed ones at a later time to make the throttles more individual, but for this I have to start with my side consoles first, to see what functions will be in the consoles and what I will put individually on every throttle. A printed face plate will of course remove the backlit from the WH throttles, but I've planed to do the cockpit illumination with external LED stripes in sidewalls beside the consoles. In every wall there should be a white, a green and one UV LED stripe. The UV stripe should illuminate the white letters on the consoles and panels a bit more intensive. That's the plan, I hope it will also work 😁
The UFC and the different panels have also still to be modelled, but for this I have also to start with the all the functions for the pit first, to see what can be done in which way and where it's placed. I will use the layout-blueprint of my predecessor pit for this, because I had already done endless planning to get all under one hood some years ago. This time I will do much less functions, so it shouldn't be that complex.
Started with the manual wing sweep. The face plate template could be found at Thingiverse.
I think I will make the wing sweep's frame a fixed part of the face plate.
The friction lever was made within 5-10 minutes. It's not an 100% precise copy of the original, but good enough as a template for modelling the wing sweep. That's why I love TinkerCAD. Combine some very simple shapes and you have very quick a useable result.
P.S:
A little further. Not the nicest part 😆, but there is not much room to place anything big and I also have no desire to make a whole extra part only for the wing sweep.
Does anybody know of a mod for the Warthogs flaps switch, which makes it return to center? I want to have a (I)|0|(I) momentary function at the flaps switches of my Warthog throttles.
I know it's not realistic with some aircraft in DCS, but I want to be able to use my throttles also with other aircraft in other simulators. Here it would be nice to have a momentary flaps switch, which could mimic more steps in both directions up and own. Never understood why Thrustmaster made it working like this. It's ok for the A-10 in DCS, but if you use the throttle for other aircraft in other sims also, what a lot of people do, you can only configure three flaps positions.
Fore sure I could solder the original one out and replace it with a momentary one, but I don't want to solder at the throttles mainboards if possible. The handles are enough work to do and to change this single switch at every throttle I have, is a real bunch of work.
P.S:
I know you could program everthing with TARGET related to this switch and make it also do only one step for the up and down positions, then return to center and do the whole thing again, but this isn't a good solution for the handling. If the switch does not self return to center you have to fiddle arround many times between up and center or down and center to mimic a flaps mechanism which has more steps for up and down. A simple momentary function would be a lot nicer, also it's not realistic for some other planes. And I think you could also do the eg. the A-10 flaps with a momentary solution much easier as other planes with a stationary switch.
For sure I can make an additional lever for this in my consoles or in the panel and will also do so for other aircraft which have them in the panel, but I want to have the switch at the right position in case of VR use for those aircraft which have it besides the throttle. The function it self isn't that important, so a mometary switch is ok for me, but it's a bit weird in VR to reach to eg the panel to set the flaps if the switch in the virtual plane is beside the throttle.
I had lying arround some strong "rubber-foam" from an old cardboard box inlay (I think it was from my Ender 3 Pro delivery box). I stick two small squares of it in front and at the back of the flaps-switch under the square face plate. Violla it perfectly did function the same way like a momentary switch.
I will do a little printed frame for this, to prevent the rubber-foam from sliding out, making an extra flap handle glued on top of the original switch and that's it. If it will wear out over the time, I have still enough of this foam lying arround here to make a spare part. It's always good to keep parts like this and do not throw them to the trash. 😁
I have an extra drawer for things like that in my workshop. Those are the "mmhm, could it be useful at anytime? Don't know, but I will keep it"-parts. 😅 P.S:
I will also do my own faceplates for the WH throttle now, using a scanner lying the plates on top of the bed an scanning them in 2D. After this I will extrude them to 3D. The one from Thingiverse are meant for lying them on top of the original ones, but mine should be a replacement for the original ones. So I must have all holes and especially the holes for the srews at the exact positions. I will maybe also add frames or special other things arround some of the switches, what I will do as a fixed part of the faceplate, printed as one single part.
After some measurement I think I can make the whole sweep mechanism a bit bigger, cause the F-14 handles are very small compared to the original A-10 ones of the WH (They are also very small in RL - I used the original dimensions of the F-14D throttle grips).
This could give me enough space to integrate the L/G WRN Silence button into the mechanism of the wing sweeps cover and also use the APU start switch as a kind of lock mechanism for this cover, to hold down the Silence button, which it should press. I thought about making the functions of opening the cover and pull out the sweep handle programable with those two inputs via TARGET.
The plan is to bind the virtual opening of the cover to the Warthogs APU start switch (which also holds the printed cover down and locked - special hat for the switch needed) and while opening the cover the silencer button depresses and this should be binded to virtually pull out the wing sweep handle. The axis will be used (programed) to control the sweep. That's the plan, if it is feasible is another thing 😅.
The throttle arm (lever mechanics) of the WH isn't like the original 😅 - it's only a measurement-template for the length and the rotation of the grips.
I will also limit the rotation travel of all my WH forward a bit, cause I personaly think that the angle at full forward is a bit too much. I would also like to have an option to set the idle position a little bit more forward so the grip isn't angled that much, but sadly the idle detent can't be adjusted. For the AB detend I will print my own inlay and make a stop limiter at fully forward.
For the F-14 grips and also he F/A-18 grips in idle, the space between the grips and the back console switches is very narrow if not too narrow at all. Maybe I have to rework the grips throttle-arm-connectors a bit to make them longer and the handles higher. I already did some measurement, but things in 3D always show the truth a bit better 🤔.
P.S:
Just tested this a bit and I can also make a limiter for the max idle position. The levers will not go full back but this is ok for me. You just loose a bit of resistance to put them out of idle. The rest could be calibrated with TARGET, .... I hope 🤔😆. I really don't have the desire to rework the already fully done and smoothed grips again 😜.
Edit:
Just did a test with the throttle calibration software 1.07 and the Idle button functions can easily be adjusted slightly forward, if the idle is limited before the original full back. This is arround 1.5 to 1.0cm before the slots end and this gives me enough room for the handles not to collide with the switches in forward position if they are in idle.
The F-14 (although they are overall much smaller) and also the F/A-18 grips need more space in length as the A-10 grips. If that all doesn't help, I will make a small extension, which could be set between the handles and the cutted off levers (the rest without the A-10 grips). That's not a big problem at all. Really less work as to rework the handles again.
I also made completely new faceplates on my own. I did this with the use of an simple office scanner. Just scan the plates of the Warthog greyscaled. Convert the black and white JPG (after some fixing/adjusting in the graphic software - eg. remove the lettering) to an SVG-Image (there are some free online converters out there). The black part should be the model you want to make and white is the background.
After importing them to TC you can export it again to Cura and adjust it proportional to the correct size. Maybe a mirroring is also needed. Then import back to TC for the further work you want to make.
Those are the results I was getting after using this technique (the grey ones in the foreground - I left the holes for the 5 LED open, but don't know if I really will use this - I only wanted to have it for the templates)
I rethought the idea and came to the conclusion that only one function should be enough to program the whole procedure for activating the manual wing sweep with a macro.
Now the toogle switch has to be switched back to be able to open the guard, which does the appropriate macro. After the guard is opened you can reach the inside lever of the manual wing sweep. This axis can also be programed in any way to make the function work like it should.
This works not exactly like the real thing, but can emulate it good enough.
🙂🙃 Most of the complex 3D modeling is done now! I still have to smooth out some of the HOTAS parts, but the parts themselves are done now.
I will also do this or that small part like some special switch caps (already done a lot of them, but some still missing) for the consoles and the panels.
The two main panels with their UFC/ICP still have to be made. At the moment only two frames exist, one for the fighters and one for the helos.
The one for the fighters gets three Cougar MFD's and "universal" UFC/ICP hybrid. That's one of the challenges that still had to be done. It's not so complex in building, but the best arrangement of the functions to cover different aircraft is not easy. I will be plan this UFC while building the pit, cause there is too much you must consider, that the chances are high you miss something if you do it before.
Same goes for the helo panel. At the moment I do not know if I will use my old Quickshot Masterpilots for it, which still do function very well even in Windows 10, once they are programmed, or if I will build completely new 3D printed MFD's. The Masterpilot's could also do the job, if I add some additional buttons and encoders to them which are connected to a Pokeys in the panel. The Masterpilot MFD's have 24 buttons arround the MFD and there is also enough space to intergrate some more functions in the corners. I already cutted the display area out, so that they also could be mounted on top of an TFT.
They are fully programable via macros. OK, no DX-function here but keyboard emulation should also do the job very well and it would be much easier to use them and modify them a litte bit with aditional functions connected to a Pokeys, as to make complete new MFD's from scratch. To convert them to another electronic isn't that easy, I had tried this while I'm working at my predecessor pit and it's a lot of soldering and following the circuits at the PCB's. There is also a matrix or shiftregister used in the button-electronics arround the frame which reduces the needed wires.
So converting them isn't simply just some soldering and doing new buttons and complete new electronics part also, does not make much difference to make completely new MFD's from scratch. It also doesn't make sense if you still have retro machines which are able to program the changeable cardriges (and I have a lot of cartdriges and also still four programming units) with the programmer unit and once they are programmed they really run without any problems from W98 up to W10.
The pit will have a left and a right side console which has two of those little wooden boxes on top of them each. Each of this boxes has an area of 185x185mm what makes a total of 370x185mm for placing switches, encoders and buttons on top of them in an printed panel. The electronics (Pokeys cards) will be inside those boxes directly under the switches and the lid with the switches can be simply folded open.
The overhead panel will get three of this boxes, also equipped with printed panels on top of the lid for the switches and buttons. In the overhead there will also be the throttle control for the helos at the left side, for those type of helos which have this unit in the overhead.
The different throttles could be changed at the left console and will be placed before the switch-boxes. Between the seat and the left console there is the collective base mounted on which you can connect the different kind of collective-grips. If a collective is mounted, no throttle will be used or mounted at the console or the other way arround. Only exception ist the Apache, which will have it's own throttle there for the turbine control.
At the right console there will be the sidestick mounted at a special printed mount, which is fixed to the inner sidewall. This way there is enough space on top of the console and in front of the switch-boxes to be able to place the throttle quadrant for the big birds there, if needed.
At the center place there will be all kind of inputs connectable , like cyclics, sticks or even my yoke. If I fly an Airbus like aircraft I can also place the AXX sidestick on the left console at the throttles place, cause the quadrant is placed at the right console and there is no need for a standard throttle. There are only the controls that are used with an aircraft mounted at the same time, so no doubled controls at any time. Only exception is the overhead throttle control for the helos, which will always remain in the pit.
The different front panels can be replaced in front of the panel-TFT an will only be connected via USB (even the Masterpilots which work with a DIN/PS2 to USB keyboard converter). There will be only one USB cable for the connection and the rest connected to a hub placed in the panel. If a panel isn't needed it could be placed on a wall mount in the room.
That's the whole systematics of my universal pit 🙂
Just doing the whole research of all the functions for the consoles and panels with the use of my old cockpit plan, many manuals from DCS and also other simulators, or even real manuals. This will take a while 😄.
Things like: What is in every kind of aircraft, what has nearly the same function but is designated differently, how does it work and how is the right way to make it useable with every aircraft, how should be the designation in my pit, what should be left for use with Track IR or VR in the virtual pit only, cause it's too special for the universal pit and ...
Still fiddeling around with the layout and the way to arrange all the electronics to get all working. It's not that easy cause all of the HOTAS should be interchangeable and this makes the electric part of the project at terms like which plugs are needed and at which place they will serve best, a bit complex.
The overall plan how it should work was already done months ago, but the fine details are the things that makes the trouble in the end 😄. But I think I can get it working like I want it. Still a lot to do, but I have also still the hope that I will be able to do my first flights until spring to summer next year (hopefully 😏😅).
If first parts are done and there is something that is worth showing, I will do so.
Sadly at the moment I have not much time for my hobby, but I hope that I'm able to work on my pit and the HOTAS again arround end of February this year. There is still so much work to be done and at the moment only a very little time left. When I'm back on the track again and there is some more progress, I will post the results.
The first printed parts are ready and painted, the extensions for jets (with paddle switch) and helos All originally paddle switches on the bought sticks will be removed (like on the Virpil VFX, TM Warthog and Hornet) and my printed sticks do not have them. I wanted it a bit more like it is in most real aircrafts. The gap beside the paddle is for the cables that come out of the sockets of my grips and are connected with a plug in the base. I only have the switches and buttons in the grips (no shift register) and the grip PCB is also in the base.
I only painted them with a brush, cause of the bad weather at the moment. The HOTAS parts will be spray painted and also have a much more thin layer height.
The other parts are for my command unit. The stick, the throttle and the UFC. Stick and throttle are made out of an used Hori HOTAS. Grips are spray painted, for the rest I used also a brush, cause spray painting during wet, cold weather on the balcony isn't so much fun. You always have to spray a thin layer and immediately put the parts back in the flat for drying.
I will print as much pit and HOTAS parts as possible now, to be able to do all the paint work during the warm spring and summer time. Spray painted parts are looking a lot better as you can do it with a brush.
But I want to get further with the project, so I decided to brush paint the parts which aren't necessarily have to look that perfect, like eg. the extensions or some of the parts for the command unit. The structure at the surface of the UFC comes from my magnetic overlay of my heatbed and doesn't look that bad in reality as it looks on the photo with the reflection
The little side consoles for my command unit with the gear lever at the left and the arrestor hook at the right are still under construction.
The parts at my command unit are only loosely put in place for testing. The complete panel can be folded down and pushed under the desk for naval fleet simulations or tank sims. For those simulations there is a fully programable keyboard on top, where you can program macros. The caps will be occupied with printed symbols for those shortcuts.
The extensions are for my sim rig, the Hori HOTAS and the little UFC with the mini-consoles are for the other place, my so called "command-unit". The sim rig is placed next to this unit. Here all parts will be much more detailed, but still universal. Those extensions are for my grips at the sim rig and will be mounted at an old Cougar which is modified and has Warthog electronic and sensors.
Removed the shape part of the Virpil VFX F-14 grip for the paddle and aligned it for the socket. Only first half is done, second half of the socket is still printing 🙂.
At the front (the rest of the shape where the paddle was placed) I will use epoxy and do some sanding to have a nice transition to the socket. One half of the socket and one half of the grip will be one joint part at the end.
I also put all parts loosely to the extension to see how it will fit later.
The old Cougar base with the jet extension and the parts between. The first from the bottom is the nut-part. Inside is a steel nut. The second is just an adapter to get some more lenght and a transition to the third part. Here the springs to the four corners on top of the Cougar base will be connected (original torsion springs inside will be removed). The fourth part gets four screw bolts and there will be all extensions with knurled nuts connected.
The whole mechanics up to the extension will be cased by a big housing, which is just in the work. At this housing you can integrate different guide-plates for the travel of the stick. One with normal rounded square hole for normal use. One with a slot only, to prevent x-axis movement for the yoke (I had the idea of a pendular yoke for the big birds before TM came arround with the Boeing Yoke 😁) and one with a round hole to limit the x/y diagonal movement.
Inside the mechanics there will be a 10mm bolt, which also fits with a small part of it's lenght inside any extension. So the whole thing is really stable.
The Cougar base will also get grey paint, but if the housing is mounted to it you didn't see it anyway 😅.
At the photo the part where the spring will be conneted is in a wrong direction. The slots for the springs should point to the four corners of the Cougar base for sure, but this was only a test wtih still loose parts. The springs will be holded at this part by a simple cable tie, which fits in the notch arround the part. I did this, cause it's much more stable as printed pins with a srew or a bolt to connect the springs. And if it's worn out you simple replace the cable tie. There is nothing which could brake of.
And the center console with the housing for the Cougar base and it's mechanics (it's seperate and will be screwed to the console). All is only just painted with filler at the moment. The guide-plate will be fixed with four neodym magnets inside the frame and the plate itself has four little srews inside that vouch on these magnets. If you want to change the guide, just pop it out and take another one.
On top of the console the panel, respectively the TFT for the MFD's and the instruments is connected at the rig (on the place a wheel is mounted originaly). The panel is attached to this TFT and can be changed for jets or helicopters and maybe also one for the big birds in future.
I still can drive racing cars in the rig, cause all can be removed and a steering wheel with gearshift, handbrake and car pedals etc. can be mounted. As said this thing is "universal". 😅.
The spring mechanics on top of the Cougar. And also with housing mounted. Still a test nothing is fixed with screws in the "grip shaft" and the original torsion springs inside the cougar are still mounted.
I will remove them and do a greasing with NyoGel later.
Just removed the original springs inside, used micro washers to remove every little play inside the axis mechanism and greased the whole mechanics with a grease similar to NyoGel 767A.
Magic! 🤩😅
It is so smooth, there is not a single bumb, clonk, detend or anything that you could feel while moving the stick. It returns absolute precisely to center and there is no extra resistance you have overcome to leave the stick out of it's center position. It's really a dream and so simple, no cams, piston spring mechanics or anything other complex rocket science, just four diagonal tension springs. 😂 Stiffness can be adjusted with different springs mounted, but for me it feels just as good as it is and I can always mount another set of springs if needed.
Now I have to integrate the Warthogs "hall-sensor" and the magnet at the end of the axis (essentially the same way like in the Warthog itself - will print some small parts for this)
For the TM Viper and Hornet grips I will need stiffer springs or a fifth adjustable spring at the front to compensate their weight. Cause of my towards to the seat angled base and the upside down L-shape of the extensions (I made this to have the stick more near towards me and also to have more travel to push without getting problems with the main panel) they tend to move towards the seat out of center
I just testet it with the TM grips and they are heavy as hell 😅. But I think I will make the idea with the fifth adjustable spring, that can then regulate the "counterweight" to the grip, cause I don't want much stiffer springs. They are just right now, except for the TM grips.
The extension parts that are on top of the Cougar base.
The knurled nut is freely rotatable from the rest, which is srewed to one part together. This first extension can be slipped over the M10 srewbolt, and srewed to the base like an original grip. The rest of the screw bolt on top slips inside the bottom of my other extensions and is an additional stabilization.
On top of this base-extension my other special extensions are mounted (helo, jet, yoke) with four small knurled nuts that are screwed to four M6 bolts which will be inserted on top of the first extension and superglued. Threads are already cutted, but I have to saw four bolts from a large thread bar and then do some rework with my lathe.
The Cougar base has two holes that run through the whole base including the bottom plate in which to long srew bolts fit. This will fix the Cougar base at my center console. Over this all the housing with the extension guidance plate is mounted.
I have also constructed a mount for the fifth spring at the front, which will act as a "counterweight" for the heavy TM metal grips. This one will be adjustable in strenght and can also be completely removed. The parts are still printing.
The Cougar base has also still to be painted in grey 😅.
All of this was possible, cause my cables to the base are transfered outside of the extensions. It's a bit like WinWing does it with their cables at their throttles.
Just finished the "counter-weight mechanics" for my center base. 🙂
The spring can be adjusted with the knurled nut. This spring has not much strenght, just enough to keep the TM metal grips balanced in the center if the base is angled mounted on my center console. It's so smooth that it will even not affect the movement of the stick anyway noticeable.
At the moment the four spring inside the housing on top of the Cougar aren't connected, so I had to hold down the extension for a better understanding of how it works. 😅
I had to remove the springs again for the paint-work that follows on the Cougar base. The counter-weight mechanics has also to be fillered and painted in grey.
... and just mounted the inside springs for a better test and also put the Warthog stick on it. Sadly I have not printed the sockets for the TM-grips right now, to be able to mount them correctly, but the weight is the important thing to see if all is balanced. Works like a charm. Just enough space to let the spring completely remove it's tension when in the up position without being loose. You did not notice the fifth spring at all. For lighter grips I can remove the spring completely or, what I will prever, add some weight to the plastic grips also, using some balancing weight for aluminium rims glued inside the grips.
Just sanded it a bit an after this I will adapt it to one of my Warthog bases.
I hope for a bit better weather the next time to be able to spray filler and paint it.
I used 0.12mm layer height here (0.12 fits better to the ender z-axis stepper as 0.10), a 0.5 nozzle, a speed of 0.55mm/s and an infill of 60% (bed temp is 55°). I always print with a relatively high temperatur for PLA (original Creality PLA) of 228° which turn out perfect in my case.
The surface is smooth directly after printing and what is much more important, it's really tough so you can do a sanding very well. I also tried PETG, but it makes not much difference. If you print PLA relatively hot it's also very, very stable and can be sanded good enough. And although PETG is also nice to print, I prefer PLA over it. It has much less stringing during the print.
Small panels painted first time (only with a brush, cause of the weather/temerature) and mounting the switch caps.
I have printed them with FDM/PLA and after the print I drilled out the hole a bit, plugged them again on a drill in the lathe and did a bit of sanding. You could also do such caps with a resin printer (I own an Anycubic Photon too), but I'm a lazy guy and hate the cleaning of the SLA-printer after the print job. So I try to do as most as possible with FDM.
The only thing I will use the SLA-printer, is for complex gears or POV-Hat mechanics and even in this case I will try to do as most as possible with FDM if realizable. The FDM is simply so much more convenient to use and if the print job is finished, just switch it off and you are done. No cleaning or anything else.
For the landing lights switch I have to construct a little very small guide to prevent it from rotating. I wanted to do this before mounting but I've totally missed it. Sadly most switches you can buy have a freely rotatable lever. Sometimes you can get some with a bolt instead of the normal mechanics, but you never find a note on what is used in the catalog. So it's hard to order exact the needed ones.
Before mounting the caps I sand them down a bit with a Dremel to have a more cylindrical switch lever, which makes it easier to put the cap over. I glue them on top with super glue, but you have to be carefully that no glue gets in the switch mechanics. If a switch gets damaged during use, I simple cut the cap of with the Dremel and after this you can normaly remove the switch and change it with a new one. You have to print a new cap after this of course. 😄
To color them I use simple revel email model color (not the water based). When the lettering is done and the weather is fine I will coat all the Inputs I made with a thin layer of satin clear coat, to protect them from broaching of. But the email color already is very strong if it's fully dried out. The shaft of the caps I also coat with super glue before painting. This makes them much more stronger. I always use glues with a brush, which makes such works more easily.
The lettering will be done with a special ink jet paper and a normal ink jet printer. At first I wanted to make the whole surface a complete print, but after a while of rethinking I decided to make only labels for it. I do this, because in the planning some things look other than in reality and if you want to use a switch for a better fitted function after you have finished the panel, it's much easier to remove only a label. Drawback is that it is not so nice looking, but I can live with that.
Edit:
and the very tiny "rotate lock" for the landing light switch. A second one will be mouted at the launch bar switch. All printed with FDM at a temp of 228° with very low speed and a layer height of 0.12mm. I had to split those here, cause I missed to integrate the parts before I glued the caps to the switches. I don't want to remove them again so I did this trick. At all other switches that should be locked in the axis rotation I will use non splitted parts and fit them before I glue the cap at the switch 🙂
The panel plates will be painted once more and all the rest have also to be painted now.
All lettering has still to be done, also at the HOTAS and the UFC of my com-unit. Will do this the next days and hope that the weather is fine enough to do the final coating with satin clear coat also.
I have not fillered these parts, cause they are only for the com-unit and I want to get them ready as soon as possible. So not the nicest work here. But if coated satin clear they will look much better anyway. All is simply brush painted.
And all loose put together at the command unit for a quick view 🙂.
There are still many things that will change. As said the lettering is still totally missing, the panel surface will also be painted in grey, the frame arround it with satin black, small TFT's will be mounted at the back of the MFD's and an the MFD's themselves the buttons arround the displays will be light grey and the other buttons also color coded related to there functions.
The TM TFRP pedals, respectively the base will also painted in the same grey as the HOTAS.
The bottom line of switches in my console panels is not perfectly arranged, cause it's not the best way to reach the switches, but there is no other way to mount the consoles, cause of the electronics at the back. Putting the HOTAS more downwards respectively there plates isn't good for the ergonomics. And overall it's in any case only for retro flying and a bit of flying in modern simulations, if I'm not in the mute for starting up the cockpit just to test something like a plane, feature or what ever.
Edit:
and these are the TFT's that should be mounted behind the MFD frames. I still have them lying arround. They were used for FPV RC flying in the past. As I sold most of my RC equipment to be able to finally fulfill my dream of the past 24 years, my homepit, there is no use for them anymore. So I can use them as MFD displays. They have a HDMI input and can be connected to the PC as well.
I will use them with my modern tank and naval simulations (if there is a way to use a second and a third display) or will put some static pictures on them with the layout for the retro sim I'm just playing. For DCS etc. I will also try to get them fully funtional. Could be nice if a second guy can play as RIO/WSO/gunner while the other one is flying in the pit.
The whole panel can of course also be folded down and slipped under the desk, if not needed.
The command unit parts are all ready and painted now (with excepition of the rudder pedals), so I can integrate the electronics.
Meanwhile my printer runs 24/7 to print all my HOTAS parts for the pit. I will finish all the bases at first (center base with the different extensions and the collective base) and after those parts are done and adjusted, I will begin to print all the HOTAS grips. I hope I can get most of this finished until the end of April to be able to start with the spray filler and spray painting.
I'm not so excited of some of the resiults with the brush painting I did at my com-unit parts, but I want to have them ready at least so I can do a bit of gaming in the meanwhile. The pit will take a longer time to get finished.
At the moment the first part of the yoke-extension is printing. It takes 29 hours and 330g of filament. I print all parts very strong. At the end the yoke extension alone will weight arround 1Kg (4 parts and two big ball bearings).
Print in work 🙂. I use a 0.2mm layer height here, cause it's only an extension (don't want to know how long this would take with 0.1mm 😅). The infill is set to 50% and I use a cubic infill, that makes it very strong at these settings. The wall thickness and the bottom and the top are set to 2mm. Bad photo, but the printer is moving 😄.
While the second part of my yoke extension is printing, I did a closer look at the F-14B grip again.
I removed all original electronics and changed the ugly buttons with some more real looking ones. Their mounting nut fits perfectly in the original holes of the Virpil buttons. I only sanded the friction noses on them down, to have a plain surface. This mounting ring/nut will be glued to the grip-shell.
I did also remove the pot at the thumb wheel and changed it with a rotatable, springloaded microswitch, I printed my own cap for.
Nothing is ready yet and the whole grip, with exception of the weapon selector part, will also be spray painted in satin black. The lower buttons themselves will be dark grey and the weapon release button red painted again. I also have to glue the socket parts to the grip shells, drill the right holes in them and fill the gap where the paddle switch was placed with epoxy and sand this part to be one shape.
The painting of the buttons is easy, cause I can remove the cap of the button, do a little sanding with use of my lathe and after this can spray paint all the button-caps with matching colors. There is also the option with those buttons to print own special caps if needed.
Edit:
and some more detail. The mounting-rings/nuts of the buttons are fully glued in and a part of the shell now. You can always solder the button off and scew it out. The microswitch with the thump wheel button is also integrated now. Hat to dremel the square-hole a bit bigger.
I know that some guys here use original OTTO-buttons and switches, but I want all my stuff affordable. The buttons not top notch, but far better as the original ones. They do not wobble arround and have the same size as the one TM used for their Viper and Hornet grips.
The thumb-wheel-switch makes no sense as an axis if you use TM electronics, so I also changed this one. For me it also feels a lot better this way and it's a bit bigger as the original.
I will do a dual stage trigger as well, but have to construct a mount for the switches before I can integrate it again, cause the original PCB's did also serve as an attachment for some of the mechanics.
End the bottom part of my Yoke extension. The second piece just finished printing. I only put them loose together with a small stripe of doublesided duct tape to see if they fit together. Nothing reworked here and also not did the deburring yet.
If finished, this all should look like at the 3D picture. I will mount additional dampers at the yoke wich can be quickly removed with knurled nuts from the rotation-point at the base.
While printing the large parts of the yoke extension, I take a look at the TM TFRP pedals, which I planed to use with the rest of my command unit HOTAS. I never had any kind of joystick, rudder or anything else which was screwed together with such a mass of screws. It's really crazy! 😅.
I will cannibailze it's "electronics" (just a simple PCB with cables to the axis connected) and maybe reuse them for any of my selfmade HOTAS at which I use the TWCS electronics, to have three additional axis available.
I also think about customizing it a bit and maybe looking for a way to get the pedals a bit wider. There is a mod on Thingiverse, but thats to complex in my opinion. If I do it I, only want to print something "small", to get the pedals a few centimeter apart from each other in wide, but I don't know at the moment if there is an "easy" solution to do this.
Finaly it will also be painted grey. If this is is done, all the whole parts of the command unit are completely ready for their mechanical side and also painted. Only the lettering and the satin clear coat must be attached finaly. But this I won't do before the electronics are integrated and fully functional, to still be able to adapt any identification if something must be changed other than the way I planned it until now.
I will use only one Pokeys57U card here to make the whole HOTAS functional, including the rudder axis, the stick, the throttle and all the buttons and switches directly on the HOTAS. The whole thing must be one device in the end, so that it can work also with older OS like Windows 98 with my retro simulations.
Edit:
I rethought the idea of using the TFRP pedals and instead I will use my old modified TM Elite rudder pedals. I have also upgraded them with toe-brakes and a better spring mechanism back those days. The plastics are much more stable as the one of the TFRP and the spring mechanism I made has no center bump. It's absolutely smooth, but also returns very precise back to center.
I also had a set of F-16 pedals lying arround, that I now will mount on top of the old pedals and do a bit of dremel work to make them perfectly match in shape. After all the whole thing will be painted in "cockpit-grey". The foot-rests I made cause I have a disease and can not hold my arms or legs levitating for a longer time, even if they are slightly rested on something. I must also make a solution for my sidestick in the pit for this reason. Maybe something similar to the arm-rests like the real aircraft have. The TPR I can use leaving my heels on the cockpit floor and only put them up for braking.
The remaining TFRP will serve for my little HOTAS I use at my HTPC in the living room for funny things like playing SCI-FI simulations or more arcadish stuff 😄.
For the com-unit, this is ok. The TFRP and my firts HOTAS I made also a while back for my command unit (similar like the HORI HOTAS I made, but with the use of an old Attack throttle and stick, also with a bunch of programable buttons and switches) I will gift to my son, that he is also able to fly DCS a bit finaly. 🥰
I have enough equipment for flying and do not need an extra HOTAS for the HTPC, I think. He will have more fun with it.
So, all parts for the yoke-extension are printed finally! 🙂
The bearings fit perfectly (second bearing is missing here, cause it's still integrated in the old yoke I've built for my predecessor pit - I have still to umount this).
Nothing is deburred or sanded yet, only the brim and the support is removed. It's just like it is out of the printer. I only used 0.2mm layer height here to save some printing time. The walls, the botton and the top are printed 2mm in width. The infill is cubic and set to 50%. Print-speed was set to 55mm/s (30mm/s for walls).
The bed temp was 55° and the nozzle temp 224° (this turn out to be the optimal temp for the PLA that I use at the moment to have a strong layer-adhesion). I have used a 0.5mm nozzle instead of the 0.4mm. This makes not a real difference in detail, but is saving some additional printing time. There aren't any walls on my parts that are more thin than 1-2mm.
I will do the same for the HOTAS parts but will use a slower print-speed and a 0.12mm or even a 0.08mm layer height (0.04mm steps are the best fitting for the Ender 3 Pro z-axis stepper).
Those parts are very, very strong and have also a nice massive feeling. The forthcoming grip shells will not feel like the metal grips from TM, but for sure better as the most plastic grips do.
I also use an Ender 3 (Pro). I have done some modifications on it, like a dual z-axis (both axis are connected over a toothed belt on the top of the frame), made my own airflow chassis for the extruder and I'm using a glas bed with a magnetic build tec on top (the glas only to get a more stable and real plain bed surface), but the rest is more or less original.
I'm still using the old original 8bit board with the loud A4988 stepper drivers and only have TL-smoothers integrated. I want to change this somewhere in future to a silent board with the TMC2208 drivers, but at the moment the little Ender does a perfect job and we both know the good old maxim: "never touch a running system" .
The only reason what makes me think about changing the board is the loudness of the printer, cause many of my prints I'm doing just now, take a lot of time and so the printer has to run during the night also.
I use the original Creality PLA. I have started printing with it as I got the Ender two or three years ago and have then tested a few cheaper ones to save some money, but the results were really bad, so I changed back to it. I never have tested any other PLA, cause I'm really satisfied with it and it is also relatively cheap to get.
The temperature can vary a bit even with the same kind of filament, but I use mostly between 218-226° for the nozzle. You can see the right temperature at the print, when it changes from a more satin look to a more glossy one. The trick is to get it hot enough that the layers are really melted together, but still cold enough so that it does not run out of the nozzle during longer travels (sometimes it still can happen, but those PLA noses are easy to remove). The difference in temperature to achieve this can only be 2-4 degrees.
I'm not playing a lot with the retraction to prevent the filament of droping out of the nozzle, cause I made the experience that this can cause an underextrusion after a travel and starting the print on another place of the part. I have set the z-weld at the walls to random to get a better surface here.
I use Cura 4.13.1 at the moment and have not changed much of the original settings, but I have installed some plugins and one that is really good is "arc welder", which reduces the number of g-commands for curves.
If you don't print very fine walls, the 0.5 nozzle makes really no difference in the result, but you can save some printing time and it looks like the whole print runs a bit more stable and fluid with a slightly bigger nozzle.
P.S:
What I forgot to mention is, I have added four springs over the nuts in the middle of the heat bed's mounting frame, cause even with the glas bed on it my heat bed tends to have this "bowl-effect" where the middle part of the bed is slightly lower as the outside section. This trick helped me a lot to have a plain bed surface.
Just started with the electronic part for the UFC and the consoles of the command-unit 🙂.
Partially a matrix circuit is used here. I do the circuit directly at the console panels and do not use an extra PCB here. In the unit are frames for those side front-consoles in which they can be screwed into and the back is completely closed. All will be connected with plugable cables to the UFC, which has the Pokeys 57U integrated, that controls the UFC and the also side front-consoles. Only the keyboard part of the UFC is using the electronics of a programable Cherry numpad.
Likr you I've modded my Ender 3 quite a bit: Dual Z-axis (made myself) with toothed belt at top. X-axis and Y-axis belt tention adjusters BLtouch leveling sensor.. Stronger bed springs. Mirror for bed (perfectly flat according to dial guage . . .). Filament run out sensor. Filament oiler. Side spool holder. Capricorn PTFE tube. Seperate controller housing. Moved PSU to uder desktop.
I did also upgrade to the board with the silent drivers and it does make a big difference. I'd recommend it.
I'll get some of the Creality PLA and give it a try.
The filament run out sensor is on my to do list, but this really makes only sense with a new board.
The X-axis and Y-axis belt tention adjusters are also a long time at my to do list. I really have to print them somewhere in the next time.
My PSU is also removed from the printer, cause I have my two printers integrated in a cabinet. There is not much space in my workshop
It was also necesarry, because of the dual z-axis.
This is my little print workspace in my 10m² workshop. The second printer is an Anycubic Photon resin printer, I also modded a bit to be able to remove the lid completely. This was necesarry cause of the cabinet I put it in, but I have to admit I rarely use it. I hate the cleaning after printing and do what I can with FDM.
I wish I had more space in my workshop. There are so many things I'd like to have, like a little china CNC for PCB making, a place for my big table saw and, and, and ... but sadly
I'm just thinking about upgrading to a 32bit silent board and as the printer had to be unplugged, moved out of the cabinet and partially dissamled for this, I'm also thinking about switching to direct drive.
There are some mods on Thingiverse to do this with stock parts. But I don't want to lose built space, cause of limiting the x-axis to prevent the stepper from crashing into the left and right frame. On the other side mounting the stepper on front or sideways isn't the optimal solution.
I don't want to buy a ready directdrive, cause I think the good ones that are also compatible with the Ender 3 Pro are a little overpriced for what they offer. What would be a dream, if buying something, is the Creality Sprite Extruder Pro, but it isn't compatible with the Ender 3 (Pro). Seems that is has other cables and plugs which only fit at the Ender 3 S1and CR10 Smart Pro.
P.S: And I had to print and mount those damned belt tensioners finally
Who needs an SLA printer if you can get things like this with an FDM 😂.
As said I'm a lazy guy and dont want to clean my SLA after printing only some few hat caps for a throttle, so I tried it with the FDM and nearly perfect.
This is a very small version of a slew hat (most others a bigger). It's used at the F-15E throttle I will convert out of the A-10 throttle (TM Warthog original throttle).
I printed with a speed of 25mm/s here, used a temp of only 216° (cause of the slow speed) and used 100% infill. Layer height was set to 0.08mm. Removing the supports isn't easy and you have to do it very carefully. After the removal of the support I used an emery board for fingernails to do the sanding at the remaining asperities.
I made the experience that it can vary even with the same type of filament. Sometimes arround 15° from one to another spool.
I always start arround 215° and look if its still satin. It must be glossy to have a good adhesion, but still chewy enough to not run out of the nozzle at longer travels.
For smaller parts with a slower printing speed, like the cap id did, lower the temperature, cause the fillament gets more heated due to the smaller amount of material running through the nozzle.
I really do adjust the temperature for any spool and make some small testprints after a change. I made a special illumination with two bright white LED's sitting in my airflow nozzles and shining directly at the bottom of the nozzle. This makes it possible to see clearly what happens directly at the nozzle during the print.
Sounds funny, but that was one of the best ideas for a mod on my printer I ever had. It helped a lot with getting the perfect print adjustments.
Here is a photo of it just in action. Sorry for the bad quality, but the hat is moving to fast to get a sharp photo of it.
I did have a chinese endoscope fitted at one point. It had it's own built in light and it was great. I could see up close what the filament was doing.
Unfortunately, because it had to sit down almost as low as the nozzle tip it kept bumping in to things (bed clips, prints) and knocking the print off, so I removed it.
Just opened another spool of fillament. Also Creality and also black, but a slightly different spool-barrel in a slightly different box. The old box was black, the new now is grey. And no more meter-markers on the spool-barrel, only transparent with some strange holes at the side that show nothing about the remaining filament.
And things got even worse. No chance to print with 224° here. I had to adjust the temp down to 205° and it still is to fluid!
Looks like they have changed their vendor. I hope this is not the standard now. Now I have to adjust all my settings again.
Edit:
All clear!
Just printed a little gear and it seems like you can get the same good results as with the other type, only the temp is 15-20 degree less, but the rest of the settings I have not touched for now. The layers look also good and have a good adhesiveness. I will post some results at the weekend.
Not much happening at the moment. I still have to print a lot of parts and in the meanwhile I started with the electronics of the command units consoles and the UFC.
I wanted to do the connections from the main electronics, which are based inside the UFC, to the little consoles with the use of ribbon cables and matching plugs and sockets (same type as used in computers for eg. the old PATA cables but a little smaller), but the cables I bought do not fit exactly in the cutting clamp of the plugs. I tried it a several times now and I'm always getting a short between some pins.
At first I thought I've made mistakes in my matrix circuit, cause there were ghostings while pressing a switch or button, so I resoldered anything and started once again. I also checked all diodes I used to be sure that they are working correctly. It took me hours to identify that the fault is inside the ribbon cable plugs 😡🤬🤮.
Although the cables and the plugs are bought together and were sold as compatible, they do not fit exactly inside the cutting clamps. It's so fractional, you didn't even notice it, but it makes a short between some of the wires. I tried it a few times to get the cable exactly matching and 100% retangular inside the plug to prevent a short, but the cables respectively there wires aren't matching exactly to the gaps inside the cutting clamps. After pressing it together there are a few places where the wires have a short.
I could buy other cables for sure, but I have not the desire to have the same trouble and must buy new cables over and over again to get really matching ones. The ones I bought are the right ones matching the plug system I use, but either the plugs or the cables are a little bit out of tolerance. So I will use normal cables now and simple SUB-D 15pol connectors. The connecting isn't used much, it's only there to be able to easily dismount the seperate parts from the command unit if something breaks.
Just started with the wiring of the matrix part once again 🤪:
I worked in the electronics industry for a lot of years and I assume you are using what are called "IDC" connectors.
The plug has two rows of small "V" shaped pins which push in to the ribbon cable when the top is forced down on ti it.
I have seen a lot of shorting on these connectors when a jig is not used to fit the cable.
If the ribbon cable is slightly smaller than the space for it in the plug body the pins can insert between two cables and short them.
We used to heat the cable up with a heat gun and stretch it across it's width, then let it cool down. That would normally make the pins line up with individual cables in the ribbon.
You can use the ridges in the cap to check if the cable has stretched enough.
yes those are exactly the ones I wanted to use. I have bought a whole bunch of plugs and sockets and also cable, back the days. I will try what you told on future projects, cause I don't want to throw all this stuff away and it would also be a good solution at some parts of the pit "IF" it works.
Ok, did some adjustments to be able to print the new filament with high temperature again (235°).
I have increased my e-steps on my ender from 95.5 what was the exact steps to feed 100mm if 100mm extrude was set, to a 120 steps now. I don't have made the whole calibration process now again, cause I was to lazy to do so, but the line width looks ok and holes are also in the tolerance.
Looks like the new filament is really a lot different. I prever to adjust the settings in my Ender instead of adjusting the settings in Cura for every new filament. Mostly only the temperature, the e-steps and the printing speed in percentage have to be adjusted to get perfect results. This can also vary depending which parts you want to print. Do they have a lot of cantilevered parts or are they massive and should be strong etc. I always try to have the temp as high as possible to have real strong layer adhesion.
I just start to print and look at the results for a while. I do all those adjustments during the test print directly at the machine and so I can see at what settings the print is optimal. If those settings are reached I just store the new e-steps in the printers memory and note down the speed and the temperature.
Then I start again, set the right temp and speed (e-steps already stored in memory) and let the printer do his job. If I have a lot of similar parts nothings has to be adjusted again, if the parts are very different, for example they have a lot of cantilevered structure in them, I lower the temp as long as those parts are printed well, but the temp is still high enough to have a better adhesion.
I always prefer a massive, strong printed part over a more precise one, cause of the better ability to rework it after the print with my lathe, or redrill the holes if the aren't exact in measurement. That's not such a big task, but a hot printed PLA is much better to rework as one you printed with lower temperature.
This applies also to the ability to sand the part after printing (if even needed). But I also made the experience that hot printed parts are even mostly a lot better in matching the dimensions and you have less to rework. Not always but at a lot of the prints. This also depents on the type of parts you print. For most of the cockpit parts I've done the high temps are an advantage.
My goal is always to have a relatively high temp, a low layer height (not over 0.2mm) and a print speeds arround 50mm/s. Parts printed with this settings are mostly perfect out of the printer and do not need a lot of rework. Redrill some holes, remove the structure and the burrings, spray filler it a bit and its perfectly plain.
Here are some photos of my print just in work, to prove I'm talking no BS
I really print PLA with 235° and have even used higher temps at some parts. It's also a lot easier for me to adjust the settings directly at the printer instead of the slicer every time I switch the filament. My printer is not connected directly to my computer via USB, cause the old laptop I use in my workshop is much to slow for a direct connection while printing.So if I make adjustments in the slicer I can't do them in real time.
Drawback of my method is that you have some waste of filament for the test-print (you don't have to print the full part, only that much until you finished with the setup), but in the end I very rarely have prints that aren't perfect with this method. Before I did this I had a lot more failed prints, which did cost me much more wasted filament.
This is the first twist grip of my collective lever I use for the OH-58D, the UH-1H/N, the AH-1Z/F and the UH-1Y (the twist throttle part is always the same I will only switch the heads of the collective for the different types of helos - the Apache and the Blackhawk will not use this twist-throttle section). It has a corrugated surface, which is absolutely clear and detailed, as you can see on the photo.
Edit:
I added a photo of the exact PLA I use for the print right now. It looks like Creality has changed the PLA a bit, cause it has slightly other characteristics as the one I was familiar with, but in the end I was able to print it again with high temps. The spool itself isn't as good as the old one, cause there are no more markers for the remaining meters.
It fits perfectly over the tube from a bike saddle, that I use for my twist-collective and the heads as a base for the mounting. How this should look like if all parts are printed and installed can be seen as 3D models in my thread. I will use nyogel to dampen the twist-grips in the rotation. The gear segment is for a matching gear at the pots I use for the throttles input.
Twist grips and the little spacer between them are done.
The spacer will be simply hold with two little screws in place if the rest of the parts is adjusted and I know where to put the holes exactly.
The spacer I had to rework a bit with my lathe to get it rotateable fitting inside the gaps of the grips.
Now I will switch back to my electronics of the command unit and also have totally forgotten that I still have to print some parts for my F-14, F-15 and F/A-18 throttles. That's the crux if you work at many building sites in parallel, to get things finished 😅.
Doing further at the electronics of the command unit. Soldered all wires to the buttons, switches and encoder. The subd-cables for the matrix conneting the consoles are also done and soldered. Now I have to bring a little of system in that chaos and solder the wires to the matching inputs on my Pokeys board 😄.
I mainly used already used parts from my old pit, that I had totally dissambled last year, for the command unit electronics. The new unused parts I want to store for the real pit.
Now I have to make a new usb-cable for the programable cherry numpad and solder the subd- sockets at my console parts to be able to connect them with the main electronics in the UFC again.
The UFC has the fully programable cherry numpad with 21 functions, 24 button functions, 1 switch, an analog ministick and 7 encoders available (the 24 buttons are incl. the push functions of the mini stick and the encoders).
At the consoles there are 12 functions at the left one (3 push buttons / 9 switch functions) and 15 functions at the right one (15 switch functions / 3 rotary functions). 3way swtiches or rotaries only use two real functions, the middle position will be programed to a release function. This makes 3 position switches or rotaries fully useable with only 2 digital inputs.
With the Pokeys cards I can program every input as a DX-button or a keyboard macro. Even the analog axis are programable with DX-button presses or keyboard inputs. This can also be done to individual sections of the axis. The complete config can be saved as file and uploaded to the Pokeys card within a second. So it's possible to have different configurations depending on what you like to simulate.
Cable break at the heat-bed sensor! Fortunately I did a last look at the print before I went in the living room for TV watching. If I wouldn't have noticed it, the heat bed would have overheated, cause the sensor always detects 0° and so the printer will permanently heat the bed.
All of this must also happening in the middle of the biggest part of my F/A-18 throttle 😡.
I will let it finish this print and will repair the printer for the third time in the last weeks now . I hope that I get no warping at this part, cause this already happened once, as i thought that I can shut down the heat-bed after the first layers, because I'm only printing PLA.
Although the results of the prints are really good, those little hobby machines aren't made for permanent use.
Here are the parts for my Warthog throttle convertions to F-14, F-15 and F/A-18 I already made so far. The last big part for the F/A-18 throttle is printing right now at the moment.
There are still many small parts missing like hats, switch-caps etc., but I want to print all the grip-shell parts first, to be able to do the spray filler and paint work as soon as the weather is warm enough. If I'm not able to finish those parts this year, I have to wait another year to be able to spray paint them.
That's the reason I do all the grip parts at the moment and let the printer run nearly 24/7, instead of finishing one HOTAS after another. If all grip-parts are ready and painted, things will slow down and I will mainly work only at one control at once, until it's finished. But it's important to have all the shells finished so that the work is not depending on the weather if you just need a finished grip-shell to get further, or in the worst case have to wait a few months to continue the work on it.
All the small parts like hats or similar things can also painted with a brush or even with a spray can if the weather is not perfect, but this is not possible for the larger parts. Here I need perfect conditions to get good results.
Some parts on the photo are already roughly sanded, while others are still in the condition like they came out of the printer and not even correctly deburred yet.
Edit:
and the F/A-18 throttle parts put loosely together for a quick view. Nothing is deburred yet.
Now I have another problem 😒. The matrix I want to use for my consoles in my com-unit is not working correctly. At first I thought I made a mistake somewhere in my "high-tech" circuits I made at the backside of my console panels 😄, but it looks like it is the Pokeys itself.
It works with the first part of the splittet matrix (the panel with the gear lever) without any problems or ghosting even with multiple switches activated, but when I connect both parts or even only the second one, I have multiple keypresses with flickering.
The diodes are working correctly and the "circuit" on the second console is also ok. So I did a test at the Pokeys directly with a simple short between the column and row pins and left both SUBD connections to my consoles unpluged, but still the same, The SUBD cables are also ok, I already measured them twice, to be sure they have no short.
All is working until I connect row 5 & 6. Don't know whats happening here. I already used splitted matrix in my old cockpit to be able to control different panel parts at different locations with only one matrix. Have I made a mistake this time?
Here is the schematic I used. Column 1-5 of both panels are connected to the column 1-5 pins on the pokeys. This is done with an "Y-wiring" where eg. the column A from the left panel is soldered to the column pin A at the Pokeys card and the Column A from the right panel is also soldered on that same pin.
The rows are splitted into 1-3 for the left panel and 4-6 on the right panel. This makes an overall matrix of 5x6. Some functions aren't used, but the next smaller matrix (5x5) would have not enough functions available. The UFC is missing here in the schematic, but this part is working correctly and also did not use a matrix. I need the matrix for the consoles to have enough functions available for all the parts together with the use of only one Pokeys card. The colored functions are the different 3way functions, of which the middle position will be programed with the use of release actions.
So, I found out what's the problem and what I did find is real BS 🤬. It seems that the Pokeys doesn't like longer wires if you connect a matrix to it.
I tried to find a solution for this some hours now, but the only circumstance which makes it fully funtional is to go not further as arround 50cm with the wires connected to the matrix. This is a real problem cause I need arround 1m for the side consoles and also 1,5m for my connection between the throttle of my modded HORI HOTAS and the stick. For the stick I had planned to use a 5x5 matrix, which had given me 25 functions for the buttons and hats. With the additional 4 wires for the pots I had needed 14 wires and so only a sub-d gameport-cable to the stick would have been required.
Now it looks like I can use the matrix functions only directly in the proximity of the Pokeys card. I never had such problems in the past, cause I never had the need to use longer wires in my old pit. Although I have a lot of the Pokeys cards, cause I was able to get 10 Pokeys56U for low in an ebay auction some years ago and additionally bought 5 Pokeys57U, 13 of them are already reserved for my pit.
The remaining two I want to use with the command units HOTAS and the panels. I also need something like a Pokeys or an Arcaze, to be able to program the devices with keyboard macros to have them fully functional under an old OS like Win98 too, in case of my retro simulations. Here the HOTAS (the stick, the throttle and the rudders) must also be one device to use it with older simulations in older operating systems. So my first thought to buy two additional 57U cards for the pit and transfer two of the old 56U to the com-unit instead is also no solution. I have a real problem now! 😠
But there is also some pleasant. I have printed the first part of my AH-64D Apache HOCAS (the right grip shell of the cyclic) and it looks really nice. I haven't done a lot of rework yet, cause I was fiddling arround with the matrix problem, but I'm very satisfied with the result at the moment. It was a bit of pain to get the supports out of the print, but with a little patience, the help of a cutter knife, a nail scissors and a little screwdriver it is possible 🙂.
Maybe there is a solution for the additional input problem with my Pokeys boards. I will try to look if I can get 74HC595 shift registers modules and put four of them in serial to have 32 additional inputs available. I hope that it's not the same sh.. with shift registers as with the use of a matrix relating to the wire length. 🤔
If this is also not working, I have to redo the complete electronics and make a new plan for making my HOTAS and the panels working in my command unit 😒.
Could you use twisted pair wires and use one of the pairs as a ground (Cat 5 cable). Is it maybe that the length of wire is allowing it to pickup (acting as an aerial) from other wires ?
At the moment I'm also thinking about a shift register solution, cause the Pokeys is beside the matrix additionally able to use 74HC595 register and a very nice guy from the ED forum had made me an offer for two shift registers he has lying arround. One of them has 24 inputs. This could be at least a solution for the HOTAS.
For the the panels that need 27 inputs in total I can really try your suggestion or must reconfigurate the whole inputs to be able to get along with the 24 inputs of the second register also at my side consoles.
I'm not sure I have the correct mental image of how you are doing things, but I'm guessing you had your matrices close to the input devices (joysticks, button panels, etc.), and a longer wire run to your Pokeys board(s),
I can imagine it would be a gigantic pain, but could you use longer wire runs from your input devices to the matrix circuits in order to get your matrix circuits closer to the Pokey board(s)?
Are there any impedance matching or voltage adjustments available to you that could overcome your existing design problem?
If you think there is a chance you are picking up radio frequency interferences (seems unlikely, but I don;t know what you have there), ferrite bead chokes might be worth a try.
yes the matrix is very far away from the pokeys board (wires are arround (1.0-1.5m long) and it could also be a matter of the electrical resistance of the wires, I think.
I never used longer wires before to connect a matrix in all my old projects, and now I have learned it the hard way that this isn't a good idea .
I also thought about changing things the other way arround and use the matrix inside the UFC directly at the pokeys and the normal pin connections at the consoles. Drawback is the amount of wires I have to transfer to the console panels, respectively the thickness of the cable and the plug, which needs much more pins. And I have to do all once again from scratch, but if it works that doesn't matter.
It sounds like lower resistance wiring is worth a try, if that is feasable. I don't know what you have been using, so I don't know if that is possible.
If you do move the matrices closer to the pokeys, could you divide the increased number of conductors between multiple smaller connectors? Might be easier than trying to cram a bunch into fewer connectors.
That's a great idea! I can split the wires and the connectors equivalent to the sections of each panel.
I already used sub-d cables with isolated wires and copper core with 0.5mm diameter. There is not much more I can do here.
The only thing I can do is get the matrix closer near to the Pokeys to get shorter wires. I wish I could use the ribbon cable system with its plugs and sockets for the consoles now, but here I had the problem with the multipoint connector cutting the wires not exactly and making shorts.
So, part number 2 of the cyclic is done and the last big part is in print 🙂.
The parts are really more smooth as I thought. At first I really considered to print them with 0.08mm layer height, but after giving 0.12mm a try I'm totally satisfied with the results. 0.08 would be a little bit nicer directly out of the printer, but it would also cost a lot of additional print time.
The parts are smoother as they seem at the photos, cause the reflection of the light let the layers seem much more noticeable as they are. There is not much sanding needed before coating them with the filler. Mostly only a quick pass to remove rests of the brim or other small residues of the print is needed and finally make a good adhesion for the filler.
The biggest part of the cyclic I'm printing right now, the left grip shell, will take arround 24 hours with 0.12mm layer height, a cubic infill set to 60%, supports set to 55° and a print speed of 50mm/s (10-15mm at the first layers). Wall thickness is set to 1.5mm and top and bottom are set to 1.56mm, the nozzle size is 0.5mm. The nozzle temp is 224° and the bed temp is 55°. As slicer I used Cura 4.13.1.
It's at 16:49 hours at the moment and there is still a lot of the grip missing 🤪
Reducing the time for a print arround the half would really be a great advantage, but this means printing with 100 to 120mm/s with the same quality. I have already thought about a second printer, an Ender 7 with a core x-y head system to achieve this, but reviews were not so promising in case of quality with higher speeds. Even arround 120-150mm/s the prints aren't very good, not to mention the quality at the ridiculous reachable speed of 250mm/s, Creality advertises it.
All the reviews I read reported that you have to reduce the speed most of the time to below 100mm/s to acheive good results and that isn't also the doubled speed to 50mm/s, cause at very fine details and a lot of short travels the printer does not reach this speed most of the time. To have an advantage here, you need big parts with wide surfaces at which the print-head really can reach those speeds. My HOTAS parts are mostly the opposite things in this case and the machine costs also still arround 700€. Cause of this circumstances I quickly dropped the idea again.
Another solution could be a bigger SLA-printer, but here you have the problem of cleaning and hardening the print with an UV-cabin after the print, which also takes a lot of time if you do more parts, even with a wash & cure system. And there is one problem the FDM doesn't have and that's the problem of the resin which must be able to run out of your parts during the print to avoid cured rests inside the cavities of the print. For this you must set additional holes during the planning in the slicer or even during the 3D construction. For HOTAS parts this isn't a nice solution and this prevents me from buying a bigger SLA printer on the other side.
In terms of quality the results are really adequate at the moment. Overall shorter print times are not really reachable, if you consider all steps for a print until it's really finished and ready for the filler, so I will still stay with my little brave Ender 3 Pro and hope that no more bigger failures appear until the mega print session is done 🤔.
If I really purchase a second printer somewhere in future (this is also a problem about a space for mounting it anywhere - only the pit-room would remain to do this), I would go for an Ender 3 S1. In my opinion it's one of the best solutions at the moment. It's based on the proven design of the Ender 3 series, has all the advantages I did on my own, like dual z-axis, a better print bed and so on, but it has the advantage of a double geared direct drive print head of better quality, a better firmware and a modern touch-screen system. For prints with SLA or PETG you don't need a closed building space and if the prints aren't extremly big and heavy a printer with a moving bed is still adequate enough, but mostly they are much cheaper as other system and also much easier to repair if something happens.
I'm just experimenting with additional pull-up resistors connected to each column and 3.3V. At the moment it looks like it did work, but I have to solder the whole circuit again to be sure it's really functional as it should.
Just a quick test how it looks if putting all parts together. I only used double sided tape to "mount" it.
Nothing sanded, not really deburred and also a lot of the support material is remaining.
All the small parts like hats, triggers, parts of the sockets etc. are also still missing at all my HOTAS parts.
I'm only printing the big grip parts at the moment, nothing else.
P.S:
My cyclic is the one the newer E-models now use, which has a momentary three way CMS switch (similar to the one in shape that is used for mode setting at the F-16 TQS) at the place the flare button is placed in the D-model. There is for sure also the option to use the button only, but I want to have as much functions as possible and always design my HOTAS/HOCAS after the one the latest models have. That's also the reason I did an F-14D throttle instead of the B version (and also made an extra additional D-model flight-grip). You can do all the functions of the earlier models, but there is still the option to use the controls with later models also, if they should be available somewhere in future.
The matrix I want to use for the electronics of my side/front panels at my command unit are running!!! 😃
I have really tried everything! The last step was to solder pull-up resistors from each column to 3.3V. I got the tip with the pull-up resistors from rel4y at the ED-Forum (many, many thanks for this! - without you I never would have been able to get all running 👍) and it worked as long as I tested it at the plug itself which connects to the socket of the side-panels. But as soon as I connected the side-panel, things got worse again.
I measured my circuit at the panels again and again, changed the diodes to be sure there isn't a fault in them, measured the cables to exclude any sort of short and .... Nothing helped.
Than after endless hours of brooding and changing things, I decided to put the resistors to the 5V lane instead of the 3.3V. I had the fear to fry something on the board, cause the old manual of the similar Pokeys55U boards advises to use only 3.3V for pull-up resistors if even needed. For Pokeys56U and 57U there isn't such an advise anymore in their manual at all. All pull-ups are integrated, but it seems that this isn't enough.
So I soldered them to 5V and 🤩 all is running perfectly how it should!!! No ghostings no strange behavior, even if all of the buttons and switches are closed at the same time. WHAT A NICE DAY!
First Apache collective part is printed right now. Cause not much filament is remaining on the spool, I will now print some smaller parts of my twist-throttle collective. As soon as the new spool is attached I will print the remaining parts of the Apache collective.
The electronics of the UFC and the console panels look really ugly now, after desolder and resolder everything a lot of times. 🤢. Not a work you have to be proud of, BUT it works, so who cares 😂. And you could not see it, once it is built-in the command unit, so 🤫!
I will get such a little china CNC as a birthday-gift this month from my wife. So in the future I can produce simple PCB's for such applications. 😃 I have an etching machine also, but it's not so comfortable to use and you have always the problem with the acid etc.
For the simple PCB's I want to make such a small CNC is ok and much more practical.
Glad you got the bottom of your problem. It's often the least likely thing you could think of that causes a problem.
I can only assume that, as the pull ups were going to 3.3v, the voltages at the inputs they were connected to were low enough to be in an indeterminate state. When you connected them to 5v that allowed the voltage at the inputs to increase to what it saw as a "logic 1".
Always the strangest things in electronics . . . .
yes, I'm really very pleased that I found a solution for this problem. I could have done another solution for the panels and add a second Pokeys only for the side console functions, and use both Pokeys, the one for the consoles and the one in the UFC without a matrix. But to do this I also had to buy another Pokeys first. For the consoles this solution would have been possible, cause all the functions could have been programmed with keyboard emulation to still be compatible with older simulations.
The bigger problem was, that without the matrix it wouldn't be possible to do the modified HORI HOTAS as a single device, which is needed for my old OS like W98, I use with my retro-sims. There was no possibility to use different seperate devices in flight simulations back those days. All has to be a single device with a max of 6 analog axis (8 axis where possible for the first time with the appearance of Windows 2000 ).
This was also the reason you had to plug the rudders and the stick inside the throttle of such older HOTAS (eg. HOTAS Cougar) and this throttle was connected to the PC, for which all devices together appeared as one single device. So if I hadn't found this solution, the whole retro thing simply wouldn't have been possible anymore.
Not much happend here. I have some small troubles with my printer, if I print parts at which the head has to make longer travels between the sections to print. This is no problem with lower temps, but as I print with relatively high temps I got a lot of stringing at such sections.
Increasing the retraction helps, but this leads to underextrusion at the beginning of the next section sometimes. There is to much play in the bowden-system. Now I will upgrade to an direct-drive extruder with a dual gear. First I wanted to do this and some other additional modifications on my Ender 3 Pro after all HOTAS parts are finished, but the stringing makes me crazy.
So I will do the modifications now. Just have ordered the needed parts. Most will be done with stock parts, cause I'm a little bit low on money at the moment. The whole TM stuff has made a hole in my poket, which want heal very soon 😂. I also wanted to upgrade to a silent board cause I'm still using the original old mainboard with the A4988 stepper drivers, which make an awful sound, especially during night-time prints. But cause of the financial situation this has to wait till the next money is available 😅.
Edit:
And the first parts for the upcoming printer-upgrade. The missing belt tensioners I never did (the tensioners can be found at Thingiverse)
I will also have to change my spool holder inside the cabinet, to have a better feeding for the direct drive and do some other changes to the guidance of the eletrical cables going to the print-head.
I will do all these prints now, as long as the printer is still useable, so no more HOTAS parts until the conversion is done.
Y-Puller screw already broken as I wanted to strain the belt. 🤬
I had the fear that this would happen, cause printed parts are not so good at tensile strength. Printing the part horizontal to have the layers angled 90° to the tensile what impacts to the thread isn't possible with a 0.5er nozzle, cause the thread won't be exactly printed (and I have no desire at the moment to change it to a different size and adjust the whole printer configs again 😄). Now I do a very high temperature print with 245°, a layer height of only 0.08mm and an 100° infill. 😈 Looks really good and smooth until now.
This would also be perfect for the HOTAS parts, but this little tensioner-part did already cost 4 hours of printing time. A grip shell, which now takes already arround 24 hours, would be arround 35 hours if I change to 0.08 LH and 100% infill. But it would really be cool, cause I think the difference between such a printed part and a mold wouldn't be big after all. Maybe I'll try this at one of the grips 🤔, but first I want to have most of them finished.
Edit:
and the second puller got broken just during the print of the new Y-puller 🤬. I will switch back to the original belt system without tensioners. I rarely adjusted the tension in the past and never had any problems. As useful as it could be if it would work, I think those parts should not be printed. Maybe PETG or ABS is more resistant, but I will try to do a metal or alumium solution for this somewhere later.
My birthday gift from my wife arrived 😍. One week to early, but I couldn't withstand to open and begin to assemble it 😅.
It's the smallest of those little china CNC's, it's only a 1610, but sadly even the 2418 is to big to fit at the place in my workshop, not to mention the 3018. I will use it for making some simple PCB's most of the time, so the 1610 should be enough, I hope.
I will 3D-print a few parts for it like a case for the controller-board, cause I did not like the idea of an unprotected mainboard at the back of the frame of a mill. I also will try to add end position switches for each axis if possible.
The printer makes big troubles at the moment and I hope that it will work flawlessly after the convertion to direct drive again. I think the extruder gear-box is damaged (spring and gear-wheel worn out), so I ordered a new metal dual-gear extruder. Cause there are some other things, like the convertion to direct drive, I already wanted to change, I will do it also just now. I have already started to make a 3D construction for my own type of a direct drive. I hope the printer will keep up long enough to print it's own repair and upgrade parts somewhat useable.
I also ordered a set of metal belt tensioners for the 3D-printer. They are so cheap, that doing them self makes no real sense at all. 😅
If all those things are done, I'm back on the track with full steam ahead to get my HOTAS parts done until the "painting-weather" appears, I hope.
Edit:
And the new direct drive extruder in theory, the way I would like to have it 😅 I used some things from Thingiverse here and adjusted them for my needs. Screwings still missing. The head is very similar in shape like the old one was.
Still working on the modification kit for the direct drive at my printer. Had some trouble with it, which prevents me from printing the needed parts for the convertion.
I want to do this convertion, because I want to be able to print flexible filament and it's also better for high temp prints. The flexible filament could be nice for textured grip inlays, like eg. the original Thrustmaster X-Fighter B8 style grip had (or even the smaller Top Gun version).
First parts of the convertion kit for my printer and the new version of it as 3D-model. I want to have the bowden guided to the back of the printer, cause I can not put the spool on top of it without a bowden. That's the problem with my printer in the cabinet.
I have to put the spool beside the printer mounted at the cabinets wall. I have constructed some parts to be able to do this, including a new adjustable spool holder with bearings and a guide for the bowden with an integrated filament filter.
Not a coventional direct drive layout 😅 and I will also loose a lot in height. But I never used nearly the full height of my printer (I always try to arrange things horizontal if possible), so that's no big deal.
I know it's not directly related with the HOTAS, but without a good working printer those parts are also worth nothing. So I try do get the best out of it and here it is necessary to get the most precise retraction process to prevent filament flowing out of the nozzle and making the parts ugly and inaccurately.
I hope it is worth it, cause the printer was working fine before (before the trouble with the new Creality filament), but only at prints without detached parts, like screwing bolts etc. At such sections I always had the tendency to get stringing or filament noses, especially with the high temps I use to get real strong parts. Increasing the retraction to prevent this also had the side effect to have underextrusion at the beginning of the print on next section the head traveled to. I hope the direct drive is the solution to this problem.
I don't want to use very high speeds, so the weight of the head shouldn't be a problem and as the Ender 3 Pro is already a "bed mover" , that has a lot of weight on the y-axis in original state, so the added weight at the head should not be a big deal also. The speed limits of this system are already set in it's original conditions, equal if the head is light or not. For higher speeds a core x-y is needed. That's my opinion here, I know there are others out there.
For sure higher speeds would be nice to cut down the endless HOTAS prints in time, but a difference between 50mm/s or 65mm/s is not a big deal here. The head does not reach full speed most of the time at such prints to have a real benefit of such an increasement in speed and this is also the reason I personlly see no disadvantage to change to a direct drive on an Ender 3 Pro in this case.
The only drawback in my case (cause the printer is mounted in a cabinet shelf) is the limitation in the z-height which is the fact that prevents me from mounting the spool on top of the printer and being able to guide the filament in front of the frame instead of through the frame (another solution from the side, but in front of the frame is sadly also not possible cause of the space I have). So I will only have arround 200mm instead of the real useable 235-240mm in original state (250mm is a naive statement from Creality, which stresses the bowden a little bit on top of the frame 😄 in my opinion), cause I already made an 30mm z-axis extension which is also used as bearing-mount for the dual axis system I constructed two years ago. This graduates the loss in height with my direct drive head a bit.
Here are some photos of the convertion work at the moment. The head is printed up side down with support blockers, beginning at 15mm height of the part to keep the cooling ducts open, but even though support the first part of it, where the component fan is integrated. Those small supports can be easily removed this way and the rest does not need any support.
All parts can be easily disambled with screws to be able to dismount the dual gear drive and the stepper in case of any failure. Only thing what could still be a problem is the connection of the extruder knurled wheel to the steppers axis, cause the dual drive makes the remaining part of the axis very short to fit this wheel on it. I hope I'm able to get this done. At the moment I could not test it, because the stepper motor is still in use to print the parts for the convertion.
Printed the spool holder with bearings for the cabinet. Only some minor parts and the filament guide with the filter are missing. After those parts are printed I'm ready for the conversion to direct drive. I hope that this is working like a charm, so that I'm back on the track again and can print all the HOTAS parts for the next months.
They used a fully threated screw for the bearings 😠. Had to make an own screw for it with a 3mm diameter and an 3mm long M3 tread at the end. I used a very long partially threated 4mm cylinder head screw for this and made the rest with my lathe. I also had put some small washers to the top and the bottom of the gear, to prevent the mechanics from abrasion.
Additionally I made an extension fitting inside the 608 bearing on top of the second gear and is pressed with super glue to this gear. On this extension I will put my extruder-wheel.
The filament holder and the guide with the intergrated filter is already mounted in the cabinet. The bowden is in a very adverse position at the moment, cause it's not meant for the old system, but I still have to print some parts for the convertion to direct drive.
And think what? After I planned, constructed and made all those parts, Creality has anounced the direct drive they use at their Ender 3 S1 as a electrical compatible Sprite Extruder Pro Upgrade Kit for the older Ender 3 versions also. I just have seen it and it will be available for order at 06.05 🤬.
Maybe I will use this later, cause it doesn't cut the z-heigth as much as my own construction. But first I will take a look at my own special system. I rarely used more than 150mm in height and I still have arround 200mm.
PS:
At the photo the dual gear is mounted with a nut for testing, cause the stepper is still in use at the moment 😅.
Years ago I purchased a dual drive kit for my Ender 3. It worked fine for about 4 months and then I started getting problems. When I checked it out, the bottom of the gear had ground a groove in to the aluminium base and there was aluminium powder everywhere.
The screw down through the gear was the same as yours and was threaded all the way down as well.
When I bought a new one I did exactly the same mods to it as you have and it's been working fine for over a year now. I don't print as much as you do, but generally a couple of things a week.
I think they are all made like that from what I could see. Really bad engineering design.
yes it seems they all have this full threated screw now, but at my research on the web I found a couple of lucky guys who got this exact same extruder fitted with the right screw. Looks like they have changed it, to spare a few cent for this special screw and no one cares that this way a failure is absolutely preprogramed.
Don't know what businessman sometimes have in their mind? A damaged part and maybe also a few hours of printing-time for nothing cause of such a decision they made, will prevent me from buying further parts from this company in the future.
So what's better? Sparing a few cent on a screw and loosing customers or supply the things how they were constructed in the classical meaning. But this extruder isn't the only technical thing that changed from something good to crap only because some very clever businessman without any technical knowledge want to safe production costs.
So, all parts for the direct drive convertion are ready now. I hope I can get this damned thing running like I would over the weekend. After the printer is ready again, I will only do the HOTAS prints the next weeks/month. I must step on it now to get all printed until the summer arrives, to be able to do the paintworks then.
I still have to attach a plug to its cable at the end, to be able to easy remove it at anytime if something goes wrong with the head. I don't want to dissamble the whole printer every time to remove the plug from the mainboard if I want to work at the head.
The bottom design with the fan ducts is nearly the same as my old head had. It worked for over two years and never anything melted, although I had the fear that this could happen with PLA and the hotend nearby. So I used hot temperature paint (car exhaust paint) and brushed it. I did the same with the new head and this works 😅.
The printer is up and running again and the results look very good, although I had not done any fine tuning yet. I only adjusted the e-steps in the machine settings and the retraction in Cura. I also have to use a bit different flow rate now. Before it was set to 95% and now I have to use 85%. But it looks like the prints are a little bit better as before at sharp corners. Overall I'm very satisfied with the results.
But there are still some things that aren't perfect and I have to adjust or even completely rework. That's nothing what has to do with the direct drive directly, but the filament guide respectively the positioning of the filament-spool isn't optimal and also is the cable management to the head. Things look sometimes good during the planing and are truely a kind of BS if it comes to the reality 😅.
Edit:
Here is a pic of it just printing an calibrition cube. Don't look at the filament guide and the cable management ☺️. It's just provisional arrangement. The position of the spool will surely change again and the cables will also be better placed. I have a little space problem, cause the printer is in that cabinet. That's also the reason I rather had prefered that compact Creality extruder if it was available sooner, so that I'm not loosing as much z-height as now (Only 195mm are possible at the moment). But tfrom the functional aspect and the print quality I'm really satisfied with the mod I did.
What a f..... day! 🤬 No one would believe what happened today. A typical Viper-day.
As I still have the old mainboard version 1.1.4 in my Ender, I wanted to upgrade the firmware to the last available 1.9.X version at least, to be able to have more options for fine-tuning in the config of the machine. So I fiddeled arround with getting a bootloader installed and flashing the FW nearly the whole day, because I only have Arduino Megas here and not a single UNO which is used in all those Youtube videos descriping how the bootloader should be installed. So it took a bit longer 😅.
While fiddeling arround with the two boards at the keyboard of my laptop in the workshop, suddenly a loud bang appeared and I found my self sitting on the floor. The lawn chair I was sitting at had broken. As I do not have much space in my workshop and this is a very special small lawn chair, I did a quick repair. While repairing the chair my phone was ringing. It was my dad, telling me that he just had a crash with my car, I borrowed him 😒. It's not dramatic, but this will be a lot of additional things to manage instead of working on my pit. Could it get even more worse? Oh, yes it can!
After successfully installing the FW at least and doing an also successful short test with the board still not screwed in the printer, I wanted to put all together again. So I screwed the board inside the printer not knowing that something was wrong. I switched the printer on again to start a test print and suddenly it began to smell a bit strong. Guess what! The main ground-cable was jammed between the board and the case and a solderpoint of the Y-axis stepper driver directly gouged into that cable, making a short.
So the Y-axis was toast. 🤬 The rest of the board does still work very well with the new firmware, but that does not help much. Now I have ordered a new "silent-board" with the TMC2225 drivers at Amazon. I hope it will be delivered tomorrow, so I can start printing my HOTAS.
P.S: The board now. I removed the all the heatsinks, cause maybe I can use them later at another project. The rest will travel inside the trash 😅.
You're not having a lot of luck there (except the bad stuff) are you.
Some days are like that, just one thing after another.
On the plus side, you will now have a silent driver board in your printer. You probably wouldn't have purchased one just now if you hadn't blown the old board.
Yes thats true! And this board was really worth it!!!
Printer is up again and running. The new board is amazing! 🤩 You really didn't notice that the printer is running. The only sound you can hear now, comes from the fans. I have compiled a special firmware which exactly meets the requirements of my printer, based on the latest of TH3D Marlin 2.X Fork. Now it's really perfect.
I will add a filament sensor and an automated bed leveling, too at a later time. First I want to do some HOTAS prints to get further with the project.
The first layer! This thing runs so smooth it's really so amazing. The prints were never bad, but now I love it!
So, doing the first big parts with the revised version of the printer. Until now I have only done some smaller prints, but the quality improved a lot with the direct drive and maybe also a bit with the new board.
This print is a 33 hours print now with a 0.12mm layer height. Those parts are for my little 1610 CNC, I also want to mod a bit to be more precise and fixing some design flaws, like missing adjustment wheels for all axis, a box for the circuit, endstop switches and so on.
If this print runs absolutely flawless and the parts are looking equal or better as my other HOTAS parts, I will start to print all the still missing parts in one go. There is a thermal runaway protection activated now, so that nothing speaks against 24/7 printing, if the results are good. I have 10kg filament here now 😂.
The only little thing still missing is the filament sensor. I will add this after the CNC parts are printed. Those parts I want to have before starting with the HOTAS, so I can assemble the CNC while all the grips are printing. Maybe I will also need this little mill very soon at my project.
Edit:
Just perfect, even in the infill. Nozzle is still a 0.5er. I set it to LH 0.12mm, speed is 55mm/s (but adjusted to 125% on the machine at the moment - to save some time 😅), temp is 205° (since the change to a new 40W hotend I can set all temps a good bit lower now), infill is 60° (cubic), and I adjusted the fill rate in Cura to 98% for all print sections, with exception of the infill, which is set to 95%.
The first layer and the brim is printed only with 80% fillrate. I also set combing inside the infill and added a z-hop of 0.16mm. Those settings prevent the nozzle from scratching the surface while travels. This is the only thing which is a bit tricky with the new dual drive head, cause of it's weight. You notice immediately when a little overextrusion takes place, cause you can clearly hear it 😅.
Update:
Not a single string between the different parts! 😃 Stringing was always a problem with the bowden drive, if I've printed more parts together or parts with many detached section. Now I can print one complete grip with two half-shells and the back-shell in one session, without loosing quality, if all parts fit the print-bed. 🙂
The little CNC is also a bit further now. I use some oddments of Plexiglas I had lying arround to make a protection against spills flying arround and also extended the range of the z-axis a bit.
In its original state even the half of the z-axis movement wasn't useable. I also made my own mounts for the homing-switches, cause I couldn't find anything fitting my needs on Thingiverse. There will be still changed some further things to make a real useable machine out of it. 😅
Looking good. I take it you realsie that you can make a 3D printed adapter for the motor holder and drop a small laser module in it. That would let you do some engraving as well.
yes that's a good idea. I also thought about this. But first the damned thing has to run .
I realized there are no heat sinks at the stepper modules of my mainboard, so I wanted to add the ones I had remaining from the toasted board of my printer. During adding those heat sinks I also realized that on one of the stepper modules a smd capacitor was broken off. I looked in the antistatic bag and there it was. So I tried to solder it back.
Oh man, I'm too old for such a kind of work and also my neuropathy makes this a real pain! I have accomplished it after endless tries and violent swearing and even it seems to be electrical ok, the soldering looks like BS
I think I will buy a new set of stepper drivers at Amazon. They cost only a few bucks.
The last free space in my small 10m² workshop is reserved for the little chinese CNC if it's finished 😁. Now there is really no more place for anything else 🤔.
Not much happened today. I made a case for the display unit of the CNC and printed it. It's screwed with M3 screws into the Plexiglas. I have cutted four threads into it for the mount. I also screwed all the Plexiglas parts to the machine using very tiny Spax drilled into the printed inlays of the aluminium profiles.
There is still alot missing I'm just printing, like a drag chain for the mills head, an LED lightning also at the head, the rear wall with the power unit and so on.
The small CNC is again such an eternal construction site that keeps me from the actual project. But without suitable tools or machines, such a project is also difficult to realize, unless you can just buy everything.
But I don't have the financial means for that and even my newer machines (the two 3D-printers and the CNC - the mill and the lathe I've bought many years ago) didn't cost half of an Apache HOCAS, if you would buy it.
But I hope that part is finished soon now and things are running, so I can use them for the real project. But who knows what will happen again. Those cheap machines have always their little problems and professional tools do cost so much, that you can really buy already finished HOTAS systems.
I mounted two printed turbine wheels on the motor to cool the engine better and to blow away the chips from the milling process. I reworked the turbines a bit on my lathe to have a clean rotation without any vibrations. There will also be added a turbine shell at the bottom one.
Had some trouble with the 3D-printer, respectively with broken cables again. Now I've had enough and changed every single wire, even the ones for the sensor and the stepper, to 230V flexible electric wires 😅.
There are 12 wire which go to my head, and as 1.5mm² wires are a bit bigger as the original ones, I splitted them in three sets of four wires each at the bend radius. Now I hope the constant cable breaks are history.
I also added a 12pol plug a while ago to be able to easily remove the head from the printer. I did the same for the print bed cables with a 4pol plug.
Now the work at the little CNC continues. I'm just making the housing for the mill-bed with an closable lid. This should prevent all those chips from flying arround all over my workspace while milling PCB's. After this the drag-chain system has to be done. Then the mill is also ready and I can finally do my HOTAS parts, I hope 🤔.
While the HOTAS parts are printing, I will do some learning in CNC milling and how to use the software for it. I want to make all my further circuits for the HOTAS with "self-milled" PCB's 😁.
P.S:
I'm also able to print with my favorite high temperatures for PLA again. I had to adjust many settings to be able to get good results after I switched to a new hotend and the direct drive. But now everything works fine again with the high temperature. I'm printing ordinary PLA with a temp of 235°. This way the parts, respectively their layers look much cleaner and the parts are also much stronger. The first layer is also much better to do with 235° nozzle temp and a bed temp of 60°, cause the filament applicates perfect to the print bed.
yes that's the model with the better frame. Mine has only those aluminium profile parts, but it was the only version of the 1610 that also had the offline controller. A 3018 would be a dream, cause you really can cut panels with it. The 1610 is much too small for that, but I have no more room in my workshop for a bigger one.
It looks like the CNC also uses g-code, but in another way as the 3D-printer. I'm still looking for a good alternative program to use with CNC. The one that comes with our machines should not be the best, as far as I have read on the web. But until now I had not much time to test it, so who knows.
Take a look at the Z-axis. On mine I wasn't able to reach the full 40mm in height if a cutter is attached. That was the reason I changed some things on my machine with selfprinted parts. I will rarely use this, but who knows. So I wanted to correct it before I have a need for it.
One thing that makes me sceptical is the PSU which is delivered with our machines. Maybe I will change this somewhere in future to a Mean Well PSU, like the ones that is used at our printers.
P.S:
And check your mainboard and your stepper drivers. On mine there was one smd capacitator broken off at one of the stepper drivers. I have ordered a new set with five drivers for only 9,99€. Haven't tested my own repair until now, although I have soldered the smd capacitor back, but tomorrow the new stepper drivers will arrive so I don't want to risk anything.
And I'm just thinking about a way to level the mills bed. I think that it has also to be as exact as on a 3D-printer. For sure this can also be done the hard machanical way while putting the CNC together, but thats not a lot of fun to do with those chevrons and the screws.
The work on the CNC continues after my project for it on TinkerCAD get lost 🤬.
It was the first time a project was really completely lost. Never had that before. It was still in my catalog of projects, but if I want to open it nothing happens, but an endless loading screen. As it's only the CNC I did not made a backup of all the parts before, like I did for all my HOTAS parts. And bingo, the most worst case happened. I should have known it 😅.
I was able to restore some earlier designs out of my recycler and with a programm that searches the HD for deleted files, so that I don't have to do all the work from scratch again. Now all needed parts are back again and the last missing ones I'm still printing. After this I will print all my HOTAS parts finally and nothing else!
Have already lost a lot of time with all those troubles with my printer and now this BS again. I hope I'm able to print all HOTAS until the summer arrives, so I can do the paintwork.
All parts for the little CNC are done now. I added a holding device for a "victim plate", which then gets holes for the profile nuts and bolts to clamp things on the bed. I made it to the sides of the bed to be able to really use the full size of the bed for working and not to waste space for holding down this "victim plate". The nuts are made in a way that they could put from the top inside the furrow, so there is no need to slip them in from the sides. I will also make some holding frames which can be screwed to this side mounts for fixing the blank pcb's I want to use.
I also added an extra frame arround the original motor mount which my fan duct with the two super white LED's is mounted to. I wanted to have something similar at my mill as I have it on my printers head to be able to exactly see what happend at the cutters head. If all works like it should the second fan in the duct blows away the chips from the milling process and you can exactly see the progress in the process, cause of those two LED's.
All parts except the drag chain itself are constructed by myself with the use of TinkerCAD. 😄 The big front-lid which should prevent chips from blowing out to the front is still missing and I'm not sure if I will mount it, cause it's a nother big part for printing and I want to see if it's necesarry at all. There is also a second fan inside the upper duct on top of the motor. Both fans should cool down the motor sucking air through it.
The cable that goes from the front mounted display is misplaced inside the right frame on top of the Plexiglas plate. It has a special tunnel for this. To prevent the cable from slipping out, I put ducted tape on it an painted it black. To have both sides similar and let the hole machine look a bit better I made the same at the other side and on the cable chain guide also. The back plate of the machine ( a rest piece of a cabinet back wall I had lying arround) has still to be painted in satin black.
The complete electrical parts has still to be done, but I can now use my printer to start printing all my HOTAS parts. 🙂
Second part of my Apache top grip of the collective. The first part I did back a few weeks with the old bowden system. This time I need no more brim arround, thanks to my convertion to direct drive and a few other optimations I have made. This saves the annoying remove of a brim and the deburring of the parts after the print. Since my rework I never had to use a brim anymore, even at larger parts, cause I can use higher nozzle temps as with the normal drive without drops or any kind of stringing, also if a part has very long travels at some points of the print.
Nonetheless I think about buying a bigger resin printer. I really prever FDM, cause of the greater effort printing with resin makes and the horrible smell it produces, but the print-times with FDM are sometimes ridiculous for the HOTAS parts. This part alone needs 26 hours to get finished with a 0.12mm layer heigth and the quality settings I want to have.
Only thing that keeps me away from it at the moment is the cost of a new resin printer (my original Anycubic Photon is much too small for this) and the cost of resin compared to FDM filament. The results aren't bad with my FDM now and I want to have all my HOTAS spraypainted anyway, so after printing with 0.12mm layer height and the paintwork there isn't anything to see of the FDM production process the parts was made with, but the time is really a big deal for so much parts I want to make.
With resin this part would only take 12 hours and I even could do two parts at once without expanding the printing time, cause for a resin printer it makes no difference how wide or deep the part you print is, only thing that really counts is the z-height (ok not quite but almost). I could for sure print also a second part with my FDM in parallel but this nearly doubles the time as oppossed to the same if you do it on a resin printer. That's really the only reason I want to have a second resin printer now. The quality resin is nicer, but if you rework a FDM part and paint the part after the print anyway it makes no more difference.
Edit: I already increased the print speed to 125% on my Ender now. But this is really the max speed I can run. Must be arround 70mm/s.
Pic-1: First Layers Pic-2: 3 hours later Pic-3: 6 hours later Pic-4: 16 hours later
The work on the Apache parts is progressing, at least as far as printing is concerned. In about an hour I can start to print the last part. After that I will print the Kiowa HOCAS and the collective of the Blackhawk. For the Blackhawk, I'm using a modified Thrustmaster X-Fighter grip from my inventory as the cyclic.
At the CNC there is also further work to do, because I still have to make all the wiring and all my stock solid cables are of course a bit too short, because of the used drag chain. Therefore, I have to extend some, which I really hate.
Soldering without being able to rest my arms somewhere has become a real torture due to my health restrictions and as much as I used to like doing this fine work, it's even harder for me now. Unfortunately the table is full when the CNC is on it and so I can put my arms nowhere. Working lying on the floor is probably also not a solution. The workshop is simply too small for an old, battered man 😂.
Small update for anyone who prints my Apache collective. I've made a construction mistake at the bottom trigger section! This is really not good for FDM printing, cause it's a pain to remove the support at this particular place of the part. I used a Dremel and did some "corrections" to it 😂. Sorry for this!
Maybe block supports at this little section (the hole is small enough to print it without support or reconstruct this part a bit. I will make an update to my parts at this section at a later time, cause I have still so much other work to do, but as strong as the whole print is, I think it will never break and it's very unlikely to need a spare part somewhwere in future. 😅
My new little love is ready now 😍. Ok, just seen I still missed some small screws to fix the frame arround the motor mount and two at the drag chain holder 😬. But's that's done within minutes, the holes are already there. The ER11 milling chuck can still easily be removed. I only must unscrew the frame arround the motor mount to do this. But I will very rarely have a reason to do this an change this chuck with anything else, cause this machine is mainly meant for PCB making. I also corrected the z-height 25mm up, to be able to use the full z-travel. Don't now if I ever need it, but I want to have it 😅. I used a printed frame part for this.
Now I have to construct a small housing for the PSU with a lighted 230V main switch on it. I don't want to have the PSU always attached to the 230V power network. The little microswitch on the mainboard will always stay in the on-position and the CNC 's power will only be switched with a big switch on the PSU, which is placed to the right side of the mill then.
The first picture is what i got and the rest what i made from it 😄:
Good luck with the CNC , I started years ago with a CNC for hobby parts.. and it's been an addiction ever since. I think i've build 4 now, working on my 5th the story never ends.
Found your thread while searching the web for a DIY AH-64 Collective. Ever since the early acces release of DCS AH-64D I've been thinking about getting a collective or making one. Not sure yet which route to take, I've been thinking about using an existing base to start with like the one from Virpil. But on the other hand.. If I'm going to build the grip myself, why not also spend time on the base.
I found an AH-64 collective handle on Grabcad, but it's not really to my liking. I'll be keeping my eye on your thread!
thanks! If you like you can have my STL's as a start. They aren't perfect, cause this was my first HOTAS project and I also made some mistakes, especially in case of the removability of the support after the print, but maybe it's easier to have something to start with as to build from scratch.
The new little love is on it's place and working 😍! Homing also works like a charme with the three endstop switches, even with the offline controller only. The projects will saved to an SD-card and then transfered to the CNC, which runs independently from a PC. I wanted to have it this way (and make it the same with all my 3d-printers), because i didn't want the computer to have to run all the time when producing a part.
I made some addons for the power supply with a lighted power switch, an external reset button and integrated an cinch-plug for a removeable probe system.
Now the work at some PCB's for my HOTAS could also begin, provided I learn the creation of circuits and how to mill them properly, also. 😅
The print of the Apache collective is finished (some of the supports where really hard to remove - sorry again to all others that made it also - but those are my first selfconstructed HOTAS 😬) and I've started with the first part of my OH-58D Kiowa cyclic.
I would love to give your grip a try! Maybe it's a good start, it sure looks better then the design I have now. Just let me know how I can get the files. It sure is handy to have the grip on order to see what to do with the collective base. When I look at the Virpil base and read some of the user feedback I'm afraid the handle is too long to mount an AH-64 collective on it. I have some ideas for a collective base, and it's not that difficult to machine one I guess.. better to give that a try then to spend so much money on a collective...
At the moment only the 3D part is done. If I have printed it, I will show the results. 
![[Linked Image]](https://forums.eagle.ru/uploads/monthly_2021_06/IMG_20210622_071315.jpg.601c260986079c6ab84e48af4585d0f8.jpg)
![[Linked Image]]( https://forums.eagle.ru/uploads/monthly_2021_06/IMG_20210622_071333.jpg.4605ce9b3781915b78ba62f846e14beb.jpg)
Worth a try.
![[Linked Image]](http://www.simhq.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/SimHQ1.png)
and even it seems to be electrical ok, the soldering looks like BS 
, I started years ago with a CNC for hobby parts.. and it's been an addiction ever since. I think i've build 4 now, working on my 5th