Ohhh, I'm not sure there's anything so original to warrant patenting is there? Well, if anyone amongst the Aces High community wishes to copy elements of the design for their own use, that's alright with me. Help yourself.
The only real brain teaser was really how to make the throttle hit a stop, but then still allow it to go a smidgen further to activate the microswitch, WITHOUT moving the potentiometer any further. Obviously two separate stops were needed.
I prefer to keep the moving parts to a minimum in my designs for longevity and ease of maintenance, so I rejected springs and mechanisms and decided to take a risk on an unknown, and employ tiny Neodymium magnets to act as springs instead:-
In this shot you can see the silver coloured throttle lever coming up to the left of the frame (that has the number 13 knob on the end of it). behind it going up and right is a sort of green A-shaped thing. This is attached to the ring which has the black gear on it (that drives the pot). To the bottom right and horribly out of focus is the rear stop for this A-shaped finger. Both the throttle lever (silver) and the A-shaped finger thing (green) hold a cylindrical Neodymium magnet which normally hold these parts in station together. The magnetic field is the only thing that keeps these two parts moving together when the throttle is operated. I've simply pulled them apart for the photo.
In the next three photos you can see what happens as I approach full throttle and then activate WEP (these are perhaps clearer if you download them and view them as a slideshow).
The potentiometer drive stops before the lever does. The green thing at 45 degrees in the top left of frame with the silver shaft through it is the full-power setting stop, here you can see the little rocker arm moving. This lever pushes on the microswitch (you can see this on the other side, as shown in one of my earlier photos). Thus when the A-finger hits the stop, further pressure separates the magnets slightly to allow the silver lever to press on the rocker arm to operate the microswitch on the other side of the body, then the magnets pull themselves back together when you release. Phew, I think it was easier to make it than explain it.
The fan shaped green plate which moves with the lever is the carrier for the counterbalance. Just work in progress at the moment.
I'd never used these little magnets before in a project and they really work great! I like to keep some spares in Mrs Shida's purse, right next to her credit card. That way I can always find them.
Zack, much as I'd love to score some Sunny Delight (can't buy it here), do you see in the fourth of my original photographs, the black aluminium body has a big 5 mm hole in the bottom left of shot? That's where the potentiometer shaft passes through the body.
The material there was 6 mm thick, and my drills ran out at 3 mm diameter. The only way I could make that hole was to drill it to 3 mm, with a pinvice holding the drill, then spend the next 3 days working at it with Emery paper wrapped around the tail of one of my files whilst watching endless films on television. After that I didn't have any fingerprints nor the will to live for three weeks so no, it's not for sale for any money, lol.
