What to do....

[Jakemaster]

So guys, I finally got around to putting my yoke back on the desk, I gave it some good airblasts that seemed to have solved the problems I was having, even though I accidentally broke the throttle and prop levers (dropped it).

It still isnt as good as new, but it at least WORKS, and as far as the broken stuff i just switched around the assignments.  I fly jets mostly now, so I made themixture (which didnt break) into the throttle and then left the prop what it was and made the original throttle the mixture.

But now I have my sidewinder, which Ive had for a while, that works, and I keep thinking to myself that there must be SOMETHING I can do with it.  Poor' Mans foot pedals is the first thing that comes to mind, but I have foot pedals so thats not necessary.

SO...I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for what to use it for.  Ive got a week off of school to work on it, so send my some ideas!

[SilverFox441]

You say you fly jets mostly?

Make a throttle quadrant out of the Sidewinder then. The existing available axis (4) on the Sidewinder allows for independant throttles for each engine of a heavy.

A little bit of work and the switches can be used for whatever tasks you deem most neccessary.

[Jakemaster]

You say you fly jets mostly?

Make a throttle quadrant out of the Sidewinder then. The existing available axis (4) on the Sidewinder allows for independant throttles for each engine of a heavy.

A little bit of work and the switches can be used for whatever tasks you deem most neccessary.

How would I get it to operate for each engine independently?

BTW I expanded my cockpit today, took one of my old comps and hooked it up to a monitor to have internet and such availiable for use while I have the sim up.  Im thinking aobut possibly getting FSNavigator and using it on this comp, but I havent decided whether or not i should

[chuckcrc]

What type of Sidewinder is it ? If it is the very early basic model that is gameport only with no twist handle then it is an analog version and it will have standard pots in it that you could strip down (only 3 axis I think).

If it is a later version with a twist handle for rudder then you can't use it stripped down, this applies to either the USB or the Gameport models.

The reason is that the Sidewinder uses optical encoder devices instead of pots, this is a great way to make a control stick as the optical devices are non-contacting technology and therefore do not wear out.

However for us simpit builders the MS Sidewinder range of control stick products are a dead loss for trying to strip them down to reuse them for something else--  the optical devices are critical for alignment and the stick has a special carridge mounting system to make sure they stay in alignment.

I had some experience with these when my Sidewinder went faulty and I had to investigate how it worked so I could fix it.

cheers
chuck

[JBaymore]

[quote]

[Jakemaster]

The sidewinder is a Sidewinder 3, faily new, force feedback and all that.  I actually think Im gonna try and sell it, its in really good condition and could prolly sell for like 50 dollars or so.

John, Ill look into FSCommander.  My only problem is that the other computer is so old I think its ethernet card is just messed up.  I tried linking it wired to my fs comp and it didnt work.  However its on the wireless network and works fine networking wise, I even can play music thats on my FS comp on the other one while I am playing FS.

[JBaymore]

Jake,

A new wired-type ethernet card can be had for only about $8 - 10 these days brabnd new from the big box shops; lees from the tiny clone PC type stores.  Wirleless has driven the price WAY down.

You can still use it wireless too.

FSCommander has a free demo for download.  It will tell you what it is like.  The one issue with the test version is that the save function does not work across the network.

best,

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