CH Yoke-How do I take it apart?

[Virtual_Pilot]

Hey,
I want to implant some switches into the CH Flight Sim Yoke, I have seen a picture of someone's yoke that had like 10 extra switches mounted on it, and I was looking at FlightSim.com's how to's and there's one guide on how to add add an elevator trim wheel to it, but that's not the point. It says how to take it apart. It says six screws are easy to locate and two are hidden under some rubber things. I took off the rubber things and unscrewed those two, unscrewed four others, which one was the one under the warranty void label, and I was left with two hex screws. I looked though my Dad's huge toolbox and stuff, but everyting was too wide too fit in the holes.
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/1958/yokelm6.th.jpg
The one's that are being pointed too are too skinny for anything to go in.

Then I found these
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3992/hexscrewdriverste4.th.jpg

Ignore the keyboard  :P. So each of those things have 7 hex screwdrivers that fold out. One's metric and one's american. I tried all of them, none worked. But at least they are skinny enough to fit. In that how-to, it says they are all phillips. Is there something wrong with it, or is everyone out there supposed to have the right tool?

When I shine a fliashlight down in the hole, then it looks just like what it looks like when I unscrew a screw out of a different hole. Does that mean the screws some how fell out?



Once I get the yoke apart, I will observe how the switches are wired up and maybe if it's as easy as I think, I will be able to add autopilot switches, light switches, and anything else onto the yoke after drilling holes into it!

If it's not that easy, (It's probably not easy, that's life) then can someone give me some sort of help on how to do that?




Now, about the elevator trim wheel. When I try to assign the elevator trim axis to the trim wheel in FSX, then it picks it up as the same thing as the elevator axis, like pulling back or pushing forward on the yoke. Does everyone else get that?  I looked at reviews for the yoke and everyone says that trim wheel is to hard to move, which it is. But how did they get it to work?

I am using FSX by the way.

Thanks,
Virtual_Pilot

[Brett_Henderson]

I'm going to steer away from telling you how to open up the yoke, other than to tell you, there are no hex, star or allen head hardware involved. It's just those screws (and some finesse)... because it's easy to break things, and not so easy to get it back together. you're on your own,,,

Now.. the trim wheel (as in the big thumb wheel on the left) is NOT a trim wheel. It's like a calibration adjustment. It mechanically changes the elevator's potentiometer position relative to the yoke... like a brute force way to make sure the neutral position of the yoke, is the neutral position for the elevator... OR

[Virtual_Pilot]

...Yeah, thanks for the help Brett...

Well if there's anyone else out there nice enough *Cough Cough Brett* then please help!

So there's no way to make the wheel on it's own axis?

All the screws are supposed to be phillips?

[Brett_Henderson]

The wheel can't be on it's own axis.. I tried to tell you that it's nothing but a method for adjusting the relative position of the potentiometer. THAT'S ALL IT DOES..

Geesh

[Virtual_Pilot]

Dude, I understand that, but maybe you can change up some wires and accomplish that?

Geesh

[Brett_Henderson]

No... there are no wires involved. That wheel is mechanically linked to the potentiometer. You say that you understand that, but keep asking  :o

Now.. if you want to literally break that linkage...and know how to mount two, momentary-contact micro-switches, in such a way that  they're activated by continuously spinning the wheel in the appropriate direction.. and.. know how to install the circuitry needed to convert those switches into digital data that you can then send to the computer via USB (or re-wire them to the rocker-switch's wires, rendering that rocker-switch useless), it can be done..

Lets see if you can take it apart (and put it back together) first........... dude

[Brett_Henderson]

Here's a good article on adding an external trim-wheel to the existing CH circuitry...

http://www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?$=main ... trimch.htm

[Virtual_Pilot]

Been there... Haven't done that yet