Homemade Rudder Pedals (repost)

[JBaymore]

This is a starting point for moving prior postings from the "Homebrew Cockpits Survey" thread. Messages will likely get out of the original sequence.

[Smoke2much]

John,

Whilst I agree with many of the points that you have raised I still feel that Hardware is the most appropriate forum as the net result is a large piece of hardware.

[Scottler]

No pics showed up Will.  ;)

[Smoke2much]

Yeah I know.  I can't remember the names :-/

Will

[JBaymore]

Will,

Thanks for starting to move this thread you initiated.  I was hoping that you'd take the "hint" when I left it there with that title last night.  I didn't have time to send you a direct message about it...... had to be off early this AM.  Sorry.

When I moved the first one of mine, I went to the message in question, then hit "modify" and that brings up the posting editing part of the system.  Then a "select all" in the main window and the links and smileys and such just come along as part of the "copy".  Then go to the new location and hit "Reply" to the thread.  Then just "Paste" the copied part back into the body of the message..... and the pictures and all go right along.

It'll take a while to get this stuff moved around.  And a bit will "loose something in the translation" , I think.

best,

...................john

[JBaymore]

Will,

Thanks for the pictures.

That pedal arrangement is ingenious!  NEVER would have thought of doing it that way.  Pretty darn simple and straightforward.  And it wouldn't be that hard to adapt the basic idea to a "parallelegram" mount that would allow the perdals to slide forward and backward.

Hum...... ya' got me thinking here.  


Yesterday I had an "aha" moment about constructing and connecting pedals.

Instead of needing a whole extra usb input card into the computer and such for a separate joystick for the pedals....... if you ALREADY have a twist action joystick..... the rudder axis is already there.  So you just disconnect the potentiometer that runs that rudder axis in the joystick itself...... find the value of it...... and run a wire to a remote one mounted in your homebrew rudder pedals and hooking back to the point where the original pot was attached.  Pretty simple.

I also thought about trying to deactivate the spring centering in the little mini joysticks on the Axispad FX game controllers.  That would give you a couple of useful mini joysticks for something on an aircraft panel.  Like maybe mixture control.  In fact they sort of look like the mixture, prop, and throttle controls on the Cessna 172...... just smaller  ;).

I checked in the sim "Assignments: section this evening to see what functions are available to assign to "axis" (infinite variable potentiometer) control.  Besides the obvious ones........ you can also use pots to control the spoilers, propeller pitch (for each of up to 4 engines), mixture (for each of 4), right and left brakes (toe brakes!), flaps, and trim.

So if you can get two of the Axispad controllers onto the usb buss connection...... you can potentially control 8 separate axis functions....... in addition to the normal joystick ones.  So that would allow you to cover 8 of the 11 potential ones.  Three Axispads (total cost under $60.... plus the home-made stuff to run it) would let you control all of them for up to four engines.  Not to mention adding 36 momentary push buttons that you can assign to anything you want.  Not bad.

This is all interesting stuff.  And all this not getting anywhere NEAR stuff like EPIC cards.  


Best,

...................john

PS:  Changed the layout of my throttle quadrant this evening to include both spoiler and flap control levers.

[JBaymore]

Will,

Is that a USB joystick... or one connected to the game port?

Is your main joystick USB or game port?

What OS are you running?

Thanks.

best,

................john