Joined: Apr 2022 Posts: 2TheHuskyNeko
Junior Member
TheHuskyNeko
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2022
Posts: 2
Turn your support density down to about 3-5% it really doesn't need to be any higher then that it really makes support remove a breeze. Might need to bring down the support top lay spacing as well. I'm not sure why when I was trying to print the right side of the AH-64 cyclic it would not lay flat on its side no matter what i did. Tried to print both sides a few times and just couldn't get them to line up properly but i made it work and the beauty of 5 walls is you have a lot of sanding headroom. Got the hats ready for wires, I went 5 way on all of them for more buttons while retaining the original look. Arduino's and teensy will be here friday. Have a FFP from ebay on its way I'm going to use with it. Becoming a fun project thank you for sharing your work Viper!
Yes, I know that some parts are not exactly aligned to the printbed in the slicer. This is because I exported them as they were aligned in TinkerCAD. Thereby the alignments regarding the angles are taken over. This was also intended to be able to reimport the parts at anytime correctly and align them to the rest of the 3D-model.
In Cura there is an option to automatically align parts with a surface on the print bed. Often this doesn't work on the first pass, but at the latest after two or three attempts in a row it will be perfectly aligned.
First roughly align with the side to the print bed that you want to have and then do the auto align. If everything fits, you can still correct the z-rotation as you want it.
If this doesn't work in any other slicer, you can download Cura for free, align the part there, export it again as STL and re-import it into the slicer you want to use.
Have just revised my small model milling machine. 😀 I wanted to do this a long time ago, but never had the time for it.
I have the dividing attachment now for some time, but never integrated it properly. Now I have cut threads in the milling base to attach it properly and the coordinate table is attached on top of the dividing head.
The dividing attachment is aligned exactly with the centering of the milling spindle and the coordinate table is aligned with the center of the dividing head. I can now mill precisely in all angle directions and even different circles are possible. This should also be sufficient enough for smaller parts made of aluminum, so it should be possible to make things like eg. a DIY gimbal system for a HOTAS or anything similar if needed.
The springs at the mill compansate the slackness in it's z-axis. It's not the finest and most precise tool made by Rotwerk. 😅
P.S:
Now I mill the notches in my spoil board to be able to use holders there again in the guides of the milling bed underneath.
I will only mill 1mm deep here to have an exact contour and then mill out the rest with the "big" mill.
The small China CNC works perfectly, but you have to choose very small cutting depths and also the feed rate is quite slow for large parts with a maximum of 160mm/min (that seems to me to be the still "healthy" maximum). Therefore, I do the rest manually on the other mill. It's a lot faster and less noisy! 😅
Overall, I'm really excited about the little CNC and can recommend it reservation los (or a 2418 or 3018 who has the space for it). If you're careful with it, don't push the machine to the limits and expect too much (it's actually an engraver and not a real mill), the tiny mill works perfectly.
I find it a great addition to the 3D printer for our hobby and those CNC's are not very expensive also.
Edit:
The spoil board is no spoil board anymore now. It's more a kind of leveling-board cause it's exactly parallel to the mill-head. I will use another smaller spoil board on top of that spoil board.
The printed AH-1F TOW-Cobra cyclic. It's a bit different in shape and the inputs are also different from the B8-two-button-version (this is a modified TM X-Fighter for the UH-60).
It has two "triggers" which are arranged on top of each other. Sadly I was not able to make the texture on the grip. Maybe I will do a new version somewhere in future, when I have learned to use a better, more professional CAD program. 😄
This is one of the photos from which I built my model (this is the gunner's cyclic, but the one from the pilot is identical): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JGSDF_AH-1S(73455)_cyclic_stick_%26_right_side_console(fwd)_at_Asia_and_The_Pacific_Ocean_Trade_Center_March_10,_2013.jpg
I'm now working at my cockpit's panel and console layout. As I want to be universal, my consoles and panels will be universal also. They are button boxes, which are 18,5x18,5x4cm in dimension each. There are two of these boxes on each of the plain surfaces of my side consoles, arranged in a row behind the throttle at the left and the sidestick place at the right console.
Another box is placed on each side, in front of the throttle left and in front of the sidestick right, angled up 45-60° (have still to look what fits best). Here will be placed such things like eg. the gear lever to the right or the arrestor hook in the left console and so on.
At the overhead there are placed three of this boxes also and the main front panel is changeable mounted and can be replaced regarding which kind of aircraft you are still flying. This panel is sitting in front of a TFT and so its possible to have real working instruments and MFD's. It will also contain a real working UFC/ICP.
The CDU/FMC will be made out of a new 7'' tablet and placed on the right sides first console box behind the sidestick. Here I will run Android programs, which connect to the PC, simulating a CDU or FMC in DCS or Prepar 3D.
The consoles lettering will be made with simple inkjet photo paper cardboard and can be dropped over the buttons and switches in the consoles, fixed to the boxes surface with the use of 5 neodym magnets. Those magnets will connect to five screws, screwed into the boxes surface at the corners and one in the center. Those little 6x3mm round magnets will be covered with a 3D printed fake panel screw hat.
This way it's possible to have always different lettering, exactly matching to the used aircraft with a clean shape look and at very cheap costs. Those different panel layouts can also be stored easily for a huge kind of differnt aircraft types in a box somewhere in the cabinet.
All my controls are also changeable and can be adjusted to the kind of aircraft you are just flying. There will never be unused HOTAS in the pit, means if you fly an aircraft with a center stick, there will be no sidestick in the pit and vice versa. Same goes for the different throttles, collectives or perhaps also for the yoke.
I've had bad experience with photo paper overlays in my cockpit. The black background gradually turned PURPLE despite having sprayed over the panel with clearcoat. That's why I'm re-making mine.
Could you not use thin white plastic sprayed with grey or black and then engrave through the paint ?
Just a suggestion and a lot more work ( like you need any !!!! )
I've thought about such things already and also a way to be able to backlight the panels, but finaly I decided to keep things as simple as possible. The problem with my pit is it's flexibility. If you are making a homepit for one type of aircraft only, things can be done much more complex, cause you only have to make them once.
You also do not have the problem to think about different types of aircraft and what could be neccesary to have relatively good fitting inputs for every type of them.
There for sure will be some things at first, which then turn out to be impractical, or even completely wrong, when used. If I make complex panel overlays, I have to do all those overlays again if anything is wrong. With the use of simple inkjet-photo-cardboard, I just print a new layout and it's done.
The DinA4 inkjet photo paper is really cheap (you can get 100 sheets of DinA4 for arround 10€ at ebay), looks relatively nice and clean, compared with 3D printed lettering you have to paint also and it can easily be done for multiple kind of aircraft within a realtively short time. There will be a 3D printed frame for those inkjet cardboards on top of the boxes in which the cardboards exactly fit. The cost of the ink are also not dramatical in my case, cause we own a Canon G3520 with refillable ink tanks.
If any of the overlays turned purple or does bleaching out, I just print a new one. For the "back-lightning" I want to use a mix of green-, white- and UV-LED stripes mounted in the cockpits sidewalls, which make the white lettering appear somewhat luminous.
Those sidewalls are the only problem I have no solution at the moment, cause I always want to be able to open the lids of my button-boxes to be able to reach the Pokeys cards inside of them and the rest of the electronics at anytime, without the need to dismount the sidewalls. This sounds easy, but it isn't so cause of the design of my pit at the moment.
P.S:
Engraving would be also more complex and with my little CNC1610 I'm not even able to do 185x185mm panels. It's much too small for this. The only real use for it is making PCB's.
AH-1F/W & UH-1H/N collective head also printed after 38 hours. 🙂 As said this is done after the collective of the UH-1N model and I added the NVG box that the AH-1W has at it's collective. The collective heads of the AH-1F, AH-1W and the UH-1N are very similar, so I decided to go this way and make a one fits all solution.
The UH-1H has a different head in shape, but most of the functions of the UH-1N are also relative similar, so I will use this collective for the H-model also.
Joined: Apr 2022 Posts: 2TheHuskyNeko
Junior Member
TheHuskyNeko
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2022
Posts: 2
So got all the buttons wired to the arduino and the sketch working, 5x5 matrix. Each hat is a row with 200mA switching diodes, the single buttons are the 5th row and column. Just waiting for my FFB pro to get here from ebay so i can get it all together. Im going to be making a second cyclic with 5 way hats and 24 awg wire to try and clean up the mess inside, but it is fully functioning as it sits 25 buttons recognized in windows and dcs.
Sadly I have not much time this week for HOTAS stuff, cause I have to print some other needed things for our flat at the moment.
But what would I do without a 3D-printer? I'm really printing everthing now, even simple fixing brackets, cause you always can make this exact thing you need.
I have already started to print the MV-22B Osprey controls now. After this the C-130 yoke will be the last part of the big parts which should be spray painted, I hope. 🤔
I have really no clue, it's just tto much to catch on. 😅
And the first experimental layout of the front button box of my left console. The backwards one has only template switches attached. I did this at the beginning, to see how much space is available in approx.
In the first box I want tho have the ext. lights, the autopilot, fuel & tank and the UHF panel. All is only rudimantary and should be as "universal" as possible in the end. All things that do not fit good enough for universal use with a specific module, will be controlled via the mouse inside the games cockpit, either in VR or in pancake mode with Track IR.
The smaller box in front will slightly angled up towards the front panel and will be the "gear-panel" with things like launch bar switch, horn silencer, taxi light etc. I must make it slightly smaller as the other boxes, cause there must be also enough room for the collective heads to bypass, if I use the pit in "helo-mode".
Nothing is ready yet and there will be different caps also added on top of the switches (the different parts of them can be seen in the picture also). The first box will be in front of the throttle, the other two behind.
​I just saw that the space for the wires going from the POV's and buttons in the head of the handle down into the body is too tight in some places.
This is the case with some grips. In 3D things sometimes look different as they are in reality. Especially the size is sometimes deceiving. The models in 3D seem to be bigger as they are when they are printed. I'll probably have to rework some of the triggers to make them smaller on the inside part, to have more room for the cables to pass. Or I just do it the hard way with a Dremel. 😬
At the handle of the MV-22B I have totally forgotten the feed-through. I've just seen that I had made a note about, that I have to make a passtrough, but then missed it in the following week during the further construction. What a fool I am! 🤬
But this will now definitely be done with the Dremel, cause I really have no desire to print this thing another over 30 hours again. ​
Just sliced all the rest of the parts I still have to print. The most time consuming part I ever will print (I hope so 😄) is the left, back chassis part of my C-130 yoke. It takes 51 hours and 11 minutes according to Cura. This is with 0.12mm layer height and 60% cubic infill as all my HOTAS parts are.
I just found a program that works offline and is very similar to TinkerCAD. It's actually a slicer, but can also do simple 3D design and is the closest alternative to TinkerCAD I've ever found. It's called MatterControl.
It is almost as simple to use as TC and can also import all my HOTAS parts without any problems. You can then edit or rebuild things without further ado.
It also doesn't seem to be as limited in polygon count as TC is. If you want to import an object into TinkerCAD to modify it, it must not have more than 300,000 polygons.
Even then, it will be simplified again during import, so that the previously smooth surface becomes uneven again. This means that you have to create a smooth surface again in Meshmixer after each change, which again is at the expense of the details. This can be very annoying sometimes, because you have to rework again and again.
MatterControl does not seem to have this disadvantage, because the STL's still look as smooth after a change and the subsequent export as before the change. Thus, subsequent changes such as adding missing breakthroughs, etc. are no longer such a big problem yet and the program is also suitable for CAD noobs like me. The interface is self-explanatory and there is even more is possible than in TC.
Since I want to use the TM TWCS electronics for my AV-8B, MV-22B and the F-16C throttle (Cougar standalone convertion) and there are more than enough axes available (including the ones of an attachable TFRP), but not enough button inputs, I was looking for a solution to turn axes into a 3way switch.
I know all could be done with other electronics, like Arduino, MMJoy or anything else, but I want to have all my HOTAS fully TARGET compatible. The TWCS has enough functions for the grips of all those controls, but not enough to make a few additional inputs in the base, like eg. the Warthog throttle has it.
My idea was to find a solution to use the unused axis for a 3way switch function to be able to add some base switches and program their "axis" with TARGET.
Now I find a solution for this, which someone in an RC forum has made to turn a pot into a 3way switch on his transmitter and it works very well. So it should also do the trick with the TWCS electronics. This would give me another three or four 3way switches (belongs to how many axis the control already needs) for each HOTAS using only the TWCS electronics and the rudder inputs (there is no electronic electronic in the TFRP - its only a wiring to the pots with a central PCB) directly connected. 🙂
The values of the potentiometers are of course not correct in the drawing and must be adjusted according to the TWCS. But since it is only a voltage divider, the TWCS does not really care whether a 5K or a 100K poti is connected. It can still be calibrated without problems, I have already tried it myself with other pots than the original.
Just ordered a new 7" tablet. It's a Lenovo M7 (3rd gen) and it fits perfectly at the first button box in my right console. I will run DCS UFC for use with DCS (A-10, F-16, F/A-18...) and FSRadioPanel Pro for use with P3D on this tablet. This makes a FMC much easier to do in my pit, without the need to built one. It can also be used for radios or moving map and so on.
There will be an universal UFC on the main panel also (a mix of the F/A-18C, F-16C, F-15E UFC/ICP's) which will have the most important inputs, but without functional segment displays. Only simple buttons, switches and encoders.
But the main panel will have fully functional MFD's and also a few small analog backup instruments (depending on what is possible with DCS in case of analog instruments on a second screen - in P3D I have special Software for this). At the jets-panel the MFD frames will be three Cougar MFD's and at the helos-panel it will be two old Quickshot Masterpilots, which have the back of the frame cutted out. They have 24 buttons arround the MFD and are still fully functional, even on modern PC, once they are programmed.
Since I have two Retro PCs anyway, programming the cartridges for the Masterpilots with the MP-Programmer is no problem. I still have more than enough of these cartridges to store different configurations for different modules.😅
At first I wanted to convert the MP's to a more modern electronic and have also started with it, but why doing extra work if they are still fully functional. So I decided to leave them as they are. They can be connected to my two computers in the pit via a PS/2 to USB active adapter and so I can switch them between the two machines with my USB-switchbox like all the other usb devices also.
The F-14D grip is ready printed. Here are some pics of the shells, as always only loose put together. I added the F-14B grip (modified - not ready Virpil VFX) as comparison.
