~S~ all,

A new project is taking shape in what's left of my head these days...  well, it's almost summer, eh?

I am interested in building my own long-shaft joystick that will more closely resemble the kind of 'throw' experienced with a real stick.

Simply putting a long shaft on an existing stick would be an obvious solution, but the extra leverage means that your control movements need also to be much bigger.

I've been thinking of ways of reducing these excessively large control movements  and have been experimenting with an old Mecanno set to produce a working gimbal that uses gears to go some of the way to achieving this.

I've had some success so far,  but the 'prototype' looks a bit Heath-Robinson to say the least... and of course the mechanical nature of the gimbal makes for a rather odd 'feel'.

Still, it provides me with something to experiment and think with while i get to grips with the issues.

If nothing else the mechanical, geared route may well present a starting point, but I'd be interested in any examples of different approaches others have taken and how they have sought to solve the issue of the excessive leverage caused by longer stick shafts.

All the best,

Pads

Quote:


This is starting to sound like a Fozzer posting 

best,

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

~S~

Have sourced a gameport CH Pro Fighterstick from e-bay so the game is on...

First job to USB-ify the stick (think I'll be using another of Leo's joystick controllers for this) and then to take another look at my marvellous mechanical meccano gimbal...

I'll be playing with this on and off through the summer as work and sunshine allow. Pics to follow.

Cheers,

Pads