Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Mister Fork on January 05, 2021, 01:37:23 PM

Title: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Mister Fork on January 05, 2021, 01:37:23 PM
Around 20+ years ago, I had a homemade setup that held my joystick, CH pedals, and throttle HOTAS - I purchased it for around $90. It was made of wood and fit under my computer desk and had two arms that came out like pedestals to hold my three devices and a small platform in the middle to put my pedals. 

Does anyone have a diagram to build your own? I now have the woodworking equipment to make my own (and the wood) and was hoping I would make one.
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Drano on January 05, 2021, 07:02:11 PM
Funny I was just tweaking my home built stick stand. I used to have a CH Fighterstick. Years ago I was trying to come up with some sort of a stand so I could use it as a side stick at my L-shaped desk. One day at work I'm looking at a bunch of junk pipe being demo'd at one of our buildings. I see this 12" steam flange with a piece of 2" pipe sticking out of a dumpster. Hey! It's a plumbing thing! That oughta work! Grabbed it up. Heavy as hell! It won't move around as all the weight was in the base. Cleaned it up and painted it blue. Cool. So now how to attach the stick?

I took it to one of the machine shops on campus and the guys there made up a nice aluminum box the stick base fit into perfectly. Then machined a 1"coupling and screwed it onto the bottom. I put a 2x1 reducer on the stand and adjusted the height with nipples. Super bullet proof.

It's worked perfectly for years. When I got a VKB Gunfighter I made up a new bottom plate for it so it'd fit in the stand. Just yesterday I got an extension for it so I had to shorten the base. Wanted to move it to the center in front of me. Just put that together today.

Of course I could pay a ton of bucks for a monster tech mount but this thing would crush that. Literally!

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: FLS on January 05, 2021, 08:59:01 PM
Seems like it would be easy enough to make a simple stand.

Measure the desk space and your height and foot position sitting in the chair for your dimensions.

Use a square or rectangular base to put the pedals on. If your chair has wheels make two holes in the base to drop the wheels in so it won't slide back.

You need 4 legs to hold the stands.

Make a U shaped piece for the top. That's your stick/throttle shelves connected for stability. Make sure your knees have enough room when you use the pedals.

Add lateral support to the stand legs on 3 sides.

That should give you something like an open box you can put under your desk.

Of course I haven't seen your desk.  :D

My old desk was a wood slab so it was easy to attach two shelves below it, offset with dowels, to mount a stick and throttle on either side of the chair.
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Pudgie on January 06, 2021, 01:26:45 PM
Around 20+ years ago, I had a homemade setup that held my joystick, CH pedals, and throttle HOTAS - I purchased it for around $90. It was made of wood and fit under my computer desk and had two arms that came out like pedestals to hold my three devices and a small platform in the middle to put my pedals. 

Does anyone have a diagram to build your own? I now have the woodworking equipment to make my own (and the wood) and was hoping I would make one.

Hhhmmm..............

Would it be like the 20+yr old FighterSystems H.O.T.A.S. stand that is in my avatar?

 :D
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Mister Fork on January 06, 2021, 01:48:16 PM
Hhhmmm..............

Would it be like the 20+yr old FighterSystems H.O.T.A.S. stand that is in my avatar?

 :D
OMFG. It's the same one! Where did you find yours?
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Pudgie on January 06, 2021, 03:16:28 PM
OMFG. It's the same one! Where did you find yours?

I bought it brand new from FighterSystems.com back in the day (circa 2000) before they went out of business so she's a 1 owner part. I also have the 3rd leg as well for a center stick mount. She still has the 2 FighterSystems HOTASS stickers on each end of the floor section to boot.

I've had her ever since & am still using it to this day.....have wore out 2 CH 568 CombatSticks & 1 set of CH Pro Pedals on it but am still rocking the original set's CH Pro Throttle (which is as old as the stand....). My avatar picture is circa 2008........

There was a pattern out some years ago of this very setup on the web if someone wanted to build 1. I'll see if I can find it for you.

 :salute

Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Mister Fork on January 07, 2021, 07:11:07 PM
I bought it brand new from FighterSystems.com back in the day (circa 2000) before they went out of business so she's a 1 owner part. I also have the 3rd leg as well for a center stick mount. She still has the 2 FighterSystems HOTASS stickers on each end of the floor section to boot.

I've had her ever since & am still using it to this day.....have wore out 2 CH 568 CombatSticks & 1 set of CH Pro Pedals on it but am still rocking the original set's CH Pro Throttle (which is as old as the stand....). My avatar picture is circa 2008........

There was a pattern out some years ago of this very setup on the web if someone wanted to build 1. I'll see if I can find it for you.

 :salute


Thanks Pudgie. Would appreciate anything you can find...
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: Pollock on January 09, 2021, 07:49:21 AM
I also have the HOTASS from fightersystems.com  It could not withstand the weight of the thrustmaster warthog after almost 20 years of use it started to fall apart.  I just started back into aces high after almost 2 year break. I picked up this on amazon and it works great.    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KJCC4Q7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Title: Re: Homemade HOTAS holder?
Post by: HL117 on February 09, 2021, 08:03:45 AM
https://i.imgur.com/8XZTHoE.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/8XZTHoE.jpg)

Used 1" inch pine boards (cheap) figured angles for my sitting position, screwed them together, filled with quikcrete, let sit for a day or 2 used wifee approved color, put a layer of rubber Matt on the bottom so as not to scratch the floor.

They are pretty heavy and won't move around easily, those rubber cargo straps hold the sticks down well, only real issue is sometimes the chair legs that stick out interfere with them and I have to maneuver these beast into a better position.   

I had built a custom low sitting chair for use with a large screen TV that sat on a stand but that is not the right height for the desk I use, it sits in the garage looking pathetic <grin>