Homemade Throttle

[nrshida]

Right I've got the hang of it now. Thanks to JimmyD3 

Here is my throttle in the last instantiation before my most recent break from Aces High:-

No of course it's still not painted as is the nature of these projects. Although I've used it everytime I've flown AH for more than ten years, finished and functional are two different things. Especially if one keeps trying things out.

So the history of the throttle is I saw a picture of a P-38 throttle and coincidentally had a broken hard-drive which reminded me of that. Utilising a 12-bit Leo Bodnar controller (on my second one now) I have to say feel, precision and dynamic operation is really incomparible to standard, production, mass-produced throttles. However, it is based on a design which is pre-HOTAS in philosophy.

Really all my throttle can do is: throttle, engine on/off and WEP on/off for which I don't need to take my hand off the lever, and after all these years I know exactly where 50% power is by feel. Well it's easy, the ball is at its most upright position for that.

Those cherry-blossom computer keys are my attempt to add some 'fine-motor' controls to a device which is basically based around 'gross-motor' use. The classically-inspired ball throttle moves fore-and-aft without additional hat switches or buttons, which is a limitation!

[Shuffler]

Interesting indeed! I have to say that at first glimpse, I thought you cut yourself and there was blood on the white keys. 

[nrshida]

As you can see these are just keyboard buttons arranged such that the two long ones activate the same funcitonality in game. I have been trying to put a trigger on my throttle since the Microsoft Sidewinder I was last using did not have as many buttons as my old CH Fighterstick (which died) and I was using the actual trigger for 'up-view'.

Basically a sort of 'slap trigger', where rocking your hand clockwise caught either one of the long keys regardless of throtle position.

Maximum throttle:-

Minimum throttle:-

Sorry for the dirty thumb nail there. I've been fixing the intake system on our ancient car. No smoke. The fuel system is rotten. We have gasoline all over the place.
I literally can't get the parts 

That little red 'knob' which I cast from a pencil sharpener is my pitch control. The normal-sized key at the front of the throttle I've was using for clipboard / zoom.

[JimmyD3]

I am impressed Nrshida. I have replaced a few pots. and switches over the years, but have never gone so far as actually building a functional proto-type.

[SIK1]

Very cool. 

 
Sik

[nrshida]

Back to the point about why this is never finished / painted comes to a fine & vital point of prototyping. It is quite one thing to have an idea, envision a solution, source the parts, work out the technology etc. AND! To quite convince yourself that's the solution. Then you come to use it.

In this case I found using those triggers detracted enormously from the fidelity of control I had reached by this simply being engine control, even though that essentially takes up my whole left hand. Furthermore there's always the unexpected. I found I could catch them accidentally all too often while operating the keyboard, sometimes depleting quite a bit of your 30-mm ammo, say, when you were on your way to HO J0ker in a K-4 (say). Then because of that it cocked-up desk-position, compromised my engine control further etc so therefore:-

Ziiiiiiip!

Off it came:-

There. That's much better. Super-duper-high-precision electronic virtual piston-engine control restored. Sometimes simple is best. However I failed to solve the problem of additional controls. The 'pool-ball' is hollowed out for a momentary switch so I might revisit this. I didn't do that yet because the counterbalance I made wasn't quite enough to balance the weight of the ball on the end of a long lever.


Here's the counterbalance revealed underneath the cover. I appreciate the earlier pictures are gone I can't do anything about that I'm afraid. Many people who are apparently not AH players have PMed me through the years asking this or that. I can re-explain the mechanical operation if I have time and there's interest etc. It's much better being able to upload pictures here.

Again it was definitely worth it, it is basically made out of recycled crap and the odd eBay purchase / re-appropriated items. The Bodnar controller I can highly recommend. It's 12-bit, so as stated earlier 1024 (? I forget now) steps as opposed to 255. I've literally had to calibrate it once (per controller). I updated at some point to the more expensive version with the push-in connectors. They are a bit of a pain in the arse to use actually as the wires are close together and the angle awkward and sometimes you lose a control when you keep packing it away and unpacking it as I have done for long periods here and there, but very configurable of course.

All of this is leading into why my Homemade Joystick project became quite a mammoth, well, thing really. Since my right hand necessarily needed to absorb all of the 'fine-motor' control duty which my left hand is unable to help with. Pictures of that in a forthcoming thread (maybe). If you think this project is nuts wait until you see that 

Happy Friday 

[nrshida]

Interesting indeed! I have to say that at first glimpse, I thought you cut yourself and there was blood on the white keys. 

No blood left now Shuffler. Just crystals come out (Andromeda Strain?). I've been using Swann-Morton scalpals for projects now for about 35-years! You often don't even feel those cuts, the parts just get a bit sticky. Cutting yourself with razor saws brings tears to your eyes though.

I am impressed Nrshida. I have replaced a few pots. and switches over the years, but have never gone so far as actually building a functional proto-type.

Thank you. Perhaps I should explain I started with models pre-teen, and have been making things since then, moving first to scratch-building eventually leading me to a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Industrial Design with some emphasis on interaction design which is quite involved. I have toyed with producing flight controllers from time-to-time. I daresay I could show the real aircraft designers a thing or two if I applied myself 

[zack1234]

You have big hands

[Eagler]

$120 and you are golden

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1331331-REG/thrustmaster_2960754_twcs_throttle.html/?ap=y&gclid=CjwKCAjwrfCRBhAXEiwAnkmKmQFG3qy_AfNCTtjD-G8DePcQEhYuKIrgqkk2vgTGR3nzWhhbpLgTzxoCJUoQAvD_BwE&lsft=BI%3A514&smp=y

Betcha got at least that in time and materials in your homemade job

Eagler

[nrshida]

$120 and you are golden

Absolutely right, you can buy an off-the-shelf product and be in action as soon as UPS arrives. I've had a few production controllers. The difference that's hard to convey is in the feeling. This throttle has no friction, no stiction and is really precise without looking at it. Does WEP and Engine on/off with the single lever. No additional stages between thought and operation.

Actually why I've resumed my flight controller projects is I went to Assetto Corsa during my last break from AH. While I really liked it, controllers are a real limitation in driving sims, with some steering wheels North of $/£/€3k. And you have to spend the modey to do it to a high-standard. I've always been interested in the high-quality built-not-bought sort of thing.


Here's a couple of previews of my joystick project:-

In this picture you can see it's a bit Frankenstein's monster. It looks like it's been cut-and-shut and added to countless times and that's true. Just keep at it until the position of the controls are natural and can be accessed without thinking. The black and grey hat switches were made from molds of my old CH hat switch. Hopefully they'll absorb Combat Trim, Clipboard, all of that sort of administrative business. The dish-shaped disk is my hat switch. It's 9-position. Normal 8-position plus it depresses for UP-modification. I had a Track IR once but I got motion sickness very quickly. Anyone familiar with Tamiya military modelling should immediately see where I've sourced my primary raw material 

Because of the limitations of my left hand only being able to control the engine, the HOTAS load really has to get picked up by my right hand. This is about as wide as I can go. There will be some controls on an upper-level for some of the span. That alloy bar on the disk is not a control but an instrument.

Here's a little bit of the mechanism / electronics. The Lego gears drive a potentiometer. Flaps I think. Two-stage trigger to the left using roller microswitches. The grey and black hats drive PSP analogue inputs.