Simviation Forum - homemade Rudder Peddals

Oct 18^th, 2004 at 3:23pm

huskertko Offline
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I read somewhere about building rudder pedals from an old joystick, without going into details of how to build it, how would I assign it as my rudder pedals? It is a USB device.

thanks

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Reply #1 - Oct 18^th, 2004 at 3:47pm

alrot Offline
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Quote:

I read somewhere about building rudder pedals from an old joystick, without going into details of how to build it, how would I assign it as my rudder pedals? It is a USB device.

thanks

Sure you can i did mine in a game port device interfase an 100k potenciometer, wood an couple springs.And also with it own wheel brakes as real

There ya go

URL. http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=homebuild;action=display;n...

« Last Edit: Oct 19^th, 2004 at 8:49am by alrot »

Venezuela

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Reply #2 - Oct 21^st, 2004 at 10:52pm

olendorf Offline
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I just finished my pedals tonight. I used an old Logitech Wingman USB joystick for the circuitry. Works GREAT. It could look a little better, but it is smooth and very robust. You can see I stuck the potentiometer in the end of the copper cap. I'm going to put a box over the circuit board to keep it protected.

You select the new joystick(rudder) from the assigments page in FS2004 and deselect all the assignments except the axis you want for the rudder. Then you go to your main joystick and unassign the rudder assignment.

A must for flying the Bell helicopter. Remember to set the sensivitity and null zone.

Scott Olendorf

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Reply #3 - Oct 23^rd, 2004 at 11:35am

JBaymore Offline
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olendorf,

Hey... thanks for posting the pix. Simple and straightforward setup. Keep us posted with any changes you make to them over time.

Interesting use of the copper pipe fittings, and the stright-line linkage idea to the pot is also interesting.

best,

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

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #4 - Oct 29^th, 2004 at 4:23pm

Skua Offline
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I REALLY like this design! Simple, robust and very utilitarian-looking!

I'm gonna build a set like this for use in CFS2, and I plan on adding some "toe-brakes". I'll let you know how it goes (but I gotta finish the floor in the kitchen first! sigh!)

Skua

P.S. Olendorf, can you provide us with some basic dimensions, and maybe a close-up pic of how the potentiometer is mounted to the tubing? Thanks!

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Reply #5 - Oct 31^st, 2004 at 8:13pm

olendorf Offline
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Yeah I know it's ugly but it works. It also is very similar to the actual rudder pedals in my Kolb Firestar ultralight. It was sort of a proof of concept. I'll make a nice wooden base next time. The pulley/bearing was a patio door roller.

I drilled a hole in the end of the copper end cap and filed it into a little half circle shape to match the end of the pot. Then I just had to tap the pot into the hole and didn't even have to glue it. Epoxy would work fine though.

Scott http://home.nycap.rr.com/firestar/

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Reply #6 - Nov 13^th, 2004 at 4:32am

TacitBlue Offline
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Awsome idea. I am building a set of pedals now, using your design with a cheapie wal-mart joystick. hopefully in the end it will come out to less money than the $70-$150 that retail rudder pedals cost.

A&P Mechanic, Rankin Aircraft 78Y

Aircraft are naturally beautiful because form follows function. -TB

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Reply #7 - Nov 16^th, 2004 at 2:59am

TacitBlue Offline
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well, it worked! but I did end up spending like $50. thanks for posting your pics, olendorf.

A&P Mechanic, Rankin Aircraft 78Y

Aircraft are naturally beautiful because form follows function. -TB

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Reply #8 - Nov 18^th, 2004 at 11:40pm

olendorf Offline
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I think I spent about $14 but I already had a joystick laying around. I'm glad you got them and still saved some money. I'm loving mine. I can land that Bell helicopter 9 out of 10 times now and the Robinson is a peice of cake.

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Reply #9 - Mar 9^th, 2005 at 6:36am

beaky Offline
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I've got plans for a real nice pair of pedals, and I'm going to hack my old Saitek 2.4 for a rudder pot , but I'm not 100% sure of the best way to extend the lines from the board so I can use 2 of the switch circuits for brakes. I'm pretty good with a soldering iron, but I'm leery of trying to desolder those little guys to get them off the board altogether, so I'm thinking of just wiring parallel off the pins on the back , with leads going to 2 switches I will purchase. Anybody think that'll work?
Also, what happens if I diisconnect any other switches or pots? Will the thing's "brain" freak out, or will it not notice the dead pins?

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Reply #10 - Mar 13^th, 2005 at 9:50pm

TacitBlue Offline
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Yes, you can solder new switches to the pins of the old ones, it dosnt matter as long your switches close the circuit. On the same note, it wont matter if you remove the old switches/buttons, because the circuit is open untill you activate them, so if they arent there, the circuit s always open. With the pots, it dosnt matter either but Im not sure why, I just know that it didnt make a difference with mine. Hope that helps. I built my pedals using this design so if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

A&P Mechanic, Rankin Aircraft 78Y

Aircraft are naturally beautiful because form follows function. -TB

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Reply #11 - Mar 14^th, 2005 at 6:47am

JBaymore Offline
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rottydaddy,

Removing the pots makes the circuit see "infinite impedance" which will be above the value that it's "max" was designed for....... so it just "thinks" the control is set at the max.

You could wire a gazillion momentary contact N.O. switches in parallel with the original ones. Then the ciscuit would "fire" when any one of them was pressed making it a closed circuit. So you could have a button serving the same function located in maultiple places in your simpit.

best,

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

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #12 - Mar 17^th, 2005 at 6:29am

beaky Offline
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That's what I figured... I'm good with a soldering pencil, but undoing a factory sloder is not my idea of a good time. Should be easy w/the switches in place, as they left long pins on the back of the board. Gonna start fabbing parts for my pedals this weekend- pretty excited! I've stolen a few sound ideas and come up with a few of my own; let's hope it works!

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Reply #13 - Mar 21^st, 2005 at 12:08am

JBaymore Offline
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rottydaddy,

Just got back from a week long business trip. Wink

For taking apart existing circuits get yourself a vacume solder sucker. You heat up the solder with the iron and then have the sloder sucker remove most of the liquid. Makes it much easier to unsolder stuff.

best,

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

Intel i7 960 quad 3.2G LGA 1366, Asus P6X58D Premium, 750W Corsair, 6 gig 1600 DDR3, Spinpoint 1TB 7200 HD, Caviar 500G 7200 HD, GTX275 1280M, Logitec Z640, Win7 Pro 64b, CH Products yoke, pedals + throttle quad, simpit

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Reply #14 - Mar 21^st, 2005 at 6:59am

beaky Offline
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Quote:

rottydaddy,

Just got back from a week long business trip. Wink

For taking apart existing circuits get yourself a vacume solder sucker. You heat up the solder with the iron and then have the sloder sucker remove most of the liquid. Makes it much easier to unsolder stuff.

best,

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

Thanks. Yup, I use a solder-sucker all the time at work (A/V installs tech)... but I'm very leery of undoing factory-soldered boards, especially the tiny cheap ones in this joystick. Too easy to overheat it and have the board delaminate, etc. I'll most likely just gingerly tack my extension leads on the pins on the backside of the board...
We'll see, though- just getting started fabbing the mechanical parts (out of wood).

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