I am total naffed off  with most computer joysticks when it comes to using flight simulators, and considering that all that is needed is to connect poteniometers across the pins of a gameport I feel i should be able to construct something better.

this has particualary come to a head since buying a miniture electric RC helicopter - i want to practice flying a heli on the computer.  Now, as control of the tail rotor is critical on a helicopter i really want an independant chanel for this - ie. not some daft sidewinder style twist grip that then ****'s up you control in other directions.

whilst rudder peddals would be one solution, it would be nice to have something like the tx box for the model.

All this needs to be is two joystick style potentiometers (ie. 4 poteniometers in two joystick groups) - the interface is very simple to a games port (I have actually interfaced a poteniometer to games port once before when make a crude and nasy rudder pedal set up).

Only prob is - where can I get the joystick potentiometer units. I'm sure  these must be available andI think I saw them a few years ago in maplin. But I can't find them at the moment.

anyone any ideas??

BTW: i really hate my sidewinder force feedback. it models the gross forces but not the subtle force you actually use to fly a plane. not to mention the disasterous lags you sometimes get and sudden aplication/release of forces.

I say this as somone who has about 150 hours power and 30 in gliders.

And the concept of twisting the handle is truly awful as you then have to re-calibrate your hand as to what is forward.

Surely it makes more sense to take the rudder bar onto a seperate control. - RC fliers have used a two stick config for as long as four channel controls have existed.

I have two problems with the sidewinder:

1) as you twist the stick your reference for what constitutes forward/backwards and side-to-side planes shifts. I find I just end up mixing in roll with pitch once I have put rudder in.

i find aerobatics a particular pain with the constantly changing rudder inputs required.

2) the force feedback is awful - it seems to concentrate on fancy effect forces rather than subtle smooth forces we use for flying.  and they have a habit of suddenly introducing or removing a force.

but my main reason for wanting to build this controller is to try and get my brain used to using right thumb for cyclic and left thumb for power/yaw.

problem with buying an interface for the rc tx box is that i am morally opposed to paying GBP150 for the interface - the who RC heli only gost be GBP180!!! That just seems like rip off city.

and it is really a sledge hammer to crack a walnut  - all the gameport needs is the pots connecting across it. these interfaces are taking a 'coded' out put and then decoding to look like a potentiometer!!

I did manage to construct somethign this weekend - got some very small pot units from rs componenets GBP (4.50 each).  just need to extend the sticks and mount the units in  a case now. but it works with a certain degree of finger ache!!

when I was using windows 98 I often used to turn the joystick into simple spring mode - or often just turned the forces down.

That was in the control panel for the sidewinder.

since putting win 2k on my machine (I'm largely avoiding XP), I foundI coulden't install the drivers - but they were native in windows itself.

Problem with that is, thre is no setup page to let you set the forces like there was witht he old driver (am I missing something??)

congo - as a glider pilot I presume you  are used to spinning a lot (most power pilots I know seem to go white at the suggestion!!) . how do you find this in flight sim.

go to say, I am disapointed - although holding the rudder in durign a stall does cause the roll/yaw combination, autorotation doesn't seem to happen.

and trying to do a flick roll just produces a mushy lazy roll that stops the instant you stop abusing the rudder.

seems as though it doesn't model asymetric stall on the wing???

I only have 98 and 2002 -  one guy I know from the gliding club says he has got the planes on 2004 to spin nicely, so maybe they have refined in this version.