Chronocidal

A small update to that lever design, this one should actually be physically printable and usable.. once I figure out the potentiometer linkage. Funny, I was busting my brains over how to fit two switches in the lever, when I realized the limit switches I have include both open and closed options, so I only need one to trigger both events (handle up and down).

Hope you're at least getting some flight time in with all of that work, it all looks gorgeous. I'm currently in the "how do I even want to do this" stage. I have a friend with a laser/cnc cutter, so if he can make time to help me out, I might get my panels all cut/etched that way, but so far, I've been printing everything with lettering engraved to fill in with paint. It's not terrible, but could be a lot cleaner. The filament tends to make layers around the letters that don't blend together well, but it was at least good to get a couple of test panels made. I can probably print them all, so I'm keeping everything in both cutting and printing formats for now. I'm in the middle of designing my mounting box though, and wondering whether it would be worth printing some of those dzus rails you made. Obviously they're all in sections, but how sturdy did they turn out? It would probably be easier to make the whole console from scratch instead of the modular design I'm trying to work with to let me swap Tomcat and Hornet panels, but I'm doing my best to keep the console box modular, and fit around the WinWing throttle. I've got about 1.5 inches of internal depth to work with, which should fit all of my components, but the margins are tight side-to-side, and I'm wondering if I can get 2 M5 bolts side-by-side in a 3/4 inch wooden rail. This is my current layout (with the throttle box slid in partway), and I'm liking the natural space for the two arduinos to fit, with the panel coming out to a nice round 1x2 foot total. I think my main concern with the design is whether arduinos actually need any air circulation, or cooling. I can cut some venting into the outboard side if needed, but the other option would be the build the panel box deeper, and rework my rough console box to mount it as a drop-in that sinks below the surface, and leaves the underside open like yours. And I'm just realizing how rough that console is, and in desperate need of a rework to actually fit.

One little update, I got a pile of knobs and things printed out, and decided to give a shot at printing whole panels on my printer. Laser-cut acrylic is still going to be more accurate, and I might redo these later if I get the option, but for now I decided to run a couple of trials. Results aren't too bad, but I don't know whether the back panels will survive drilling for mounting yet. Just the nature of printing them, the filament tends to shred. I can probably reprint the backplates with holes pre-cut, but I might need a new print bed surface before I do it, since it's getting difficult to keep big flat panels stuck down, and I'm not sure the biggest panels will work.

I don't believe there's a lock down, the spring in the bottom is in tension, pulling the handle down. The catch is to hold it in the extended position, until the button is pressed, releasing it back down. When I make the parts to print, I'll be adding a small detent with a switch to detect the lowered position, but the button is only to release it from being pulled up.

Without having the time to look through your folder of things, a couple of suggestions based on my recent DCS BIOS experiments. - The switch to stow the handle should be easy to achieve in terms of DCS code. It's a simple toggle, you'll just need contact switches for when the handle is extended and retracted. You can probably wire some very tiny contacts into the design I suggested. I was planning to cut small recesses in the sides of the handle with stoppers at the slide limits that would mount the contact switches. - The flap detents... don't make any sense. Unfortunately, they are not currently programmed correctly. I spent the past couple of days working out the DCS BIOS code to achieve a pushbutton flap axis, which just activates the individual detents. Well.. turns out the detents are not directly connected to the flap axis at all. There are four button mappings in the sim to give the flaps their four "positions".. but these do not correspond to the handle positions. I tested assigning them. "EMER UP" and "UP" both put the handle in the fully up position, "EMER DN" and "DN" both put the handle fully down. On the other hand, the flap axis has a full range of motion.. and so do the flaps, when you move the handle that way, which is not how they should work, as far as I understand. My "pushbutton axis" is programmed to manually set the flap axis at values of 0, 21,845, 43690, and 65535 (the full range of the axis). That does indeed move the handle to the visible marks on the flap control, but the outboard flaps move to match the handle position, while the inboard sections drop fully once I move from "EMER UP" to "UP." Obviously, not ideal. I don't think this is going to get fixed unless Heatblur modifies the model and animation routines in the cockpit. Until there's a better option, you really only need two flap detents, UP, and DN. The handle in the cockpit is not going to accurately represent that. My flap handle is going to just have to trigger full up on the top two detents, and full down on the bottom two. It'll feel right, it just won't look right if I glance at the lever in the virtual cockpit. - For the flap handle, I would definitely go with a cut/bent aluminum handle if you have the ability, with a 3D printed lever cap. The mechanism for the flaps (and throttles for that matter) dealt with shifting the handle sideways to move past detents. If you want that action represented, you'll need a flexible handle, and a printed lever probably isn't going to do well at that.

I'm surprised my 1am musings made that much sense, but I'm thinking I might try and make it now. The individual parts need fleshing out, and the tension spring can probably be attached anywhere inside the handle. I think my main concern is making sure that spring in the handle will give enough force to push the tooth out at the bottom. The shaft rotation will have to be pretty precise. Some kind of torsion spring on the shaft (possibly inside the tooth) might work better, but the upper handle has the most room for a spring, and using that see-saw action with the sideways spring is probably much simpler.

I've been messing with the idea of making something much less complicated (no motor drives, and a simple pot/hall effect for the wingsweep axis), and had the thought of printing the solid portion of the wingsweep cover with a hollow track, and then gluing a flexible piece of clear plastic into it. I think I have a small scrap of lexan that would probably do the trick, but I also make a habit of collecting large flat scraps of transparent plastic packages. Otherwise, my plan has been to print the entire wingsweep handle, and model in a spring-powered detent tooth that will lock into place in the lowered and raised positions, while activating a tiny pressure switch at each location. It'll be a simple slide.. but I think I can see how you could make the entire handle function. The lower handle has to just be a box for the upper handle to slide in, with built-in limits for the sliding motion. The upper handle needs to be hollow in the center, to make room for a rotating shaft attached to a tension spring, with a tooth on the lower half that will spring out and keep the handle extended when pulled out. The upper end of the shaft needs to be hidden in the yellow handle, with an angled T-shaped cap that will limit the rotation of the shaft in one direction, while letting you use the side button to press the other half of the T and rotate the shaft back so the tooth will disengage and allow the handle to collapse. Maybe a quick model will help. This doesn't have any of the part geometry worked out, just the basic concept. It'll need the interior of the handle designed with room to hold the springs, button and shaft, but that's the sort of mechanism that would do the trick. The one part of the handle I've never quite understood is what is going on with the odd angles. The handle cap seems to be tilted, and the entire lever doesn't actually appear aligned with the rotation axis, as if it's offset forwards, and then the entire lever is leaning backward. No one seems to have enough clear pictures of the handle itself to make that shape make sense.

Unfortunately, not really. I read through the entirety of this thread looking for more info, but there aren't any measurements taken of the actual handle and its extension, or the location of the pivot point relative to the arc it travels. I'm actually not terribly concerned with being accurate to the size and shape of the overall throttle assembly, because this isn't a replica. I'm building an F-14 conversion panel for the WinWing Super Taurus F-18 throttle assembly, which is quite a bit longer than the F-14's, so the arcs and pivots will all be different. I'm mostly concerned with building the wingsweep handle itself at the correct size, to make sure it's ergonomically functional. I was originally hoping to make 3D prints of the entire thing like I did the flap handle assembly, but this one is looking more like the housing would be easier to make with plywood or acrylic sheet, and wooden blocks for spacers. I still plan to print the handle itself, and the cover plate, since those are more complicated shapes. The handle will have a detented extension built in with a button, and the cover plate will activate a switch when opened. I'm still working on the geometry for how the handle will drive a potentiometer (or hall sensor), and where the cover plate's pivot needs to be located.

Did anyone have some rough measurements of the wingsweep lever, both the handle itself, and the housing? I saw someone making up a chart a while back, but never saw the end result. The thing that's throwing me off is what arc the handle actually travels. The top of the handle is tipped at an angle, but the lever doesn't even seem to be connected directly to the axis of rotation, as if it's offset. Might not be that big a thing in the end, I'm just trying to decide what makes sense in the space I have alongside my throttle.

Quite possible, though I'm not sure what arrangement the lever will be in yet. I'm just now designing the mount. Fortunately, the Super Taurus has a few mostly decorative bolts on the upper surface, and I think if I replace them with longer bolts of the same size, I can bolt down the wingsweep lever housing to the top of the throttle, and let it hang down the side. That mounting is pretty critical to my entire console design, because I need to make space for it on the inner sidewall. Otherwise though, had some pretty good success printing out the flap lever, and it's pretty much ready for the switches and wiring to be installed. c7se1wYBho.mp4 A little awkward to move with one hand, and no audio in the clip, but the handle clicks nicely into each of the detents, and slides very smoothly just on the printed plastic, since I aligned all of the print layers. I'm looking for ways to embed some bearings into the handle to roll along the tracks better, but there's very little room to spare. Small roller bearings on the top and bottom of the right-hand guide might do the trick, if there's room. Edit: I can't seem to remove this dead video embed, I think I clicked the embed button before the video uploaded, and it glitched out. c7se1wYBho.mp4

I'm slowly making progress planning out a replacement Tomcat console button box for the Super Taurus to mount in place of the stock Hornet panel, since I love the meaty feel of the metal construction. Panel materials are almost all acquired, and I just need to fire up my printer to start making some of the new components. The biggest headscratcher was how I was going to fit a flap handle on top of the Super Taurus box, since there's not much room on the outboard side. That all got very simple once I realized the flaps aren't an axis, and I can make the whole thing with a sliding handle and four limit switches. It's kind of a waste of switches, but I'd rather have more functional detents than less, in case I want them on another plane. I don't have anything printed yet, but the model is looking close to where I can hopefully print a prototype this weekend. Not sure there will be room for anything fancy like roller bearings for smooth motion, but we'll see how well it moves after I get the parts printed out. The slider is in two halves, with a spring-loaded tooth to engage the detents on the left half of the box, and a small angle bracket sandwiched in the middle to mount the lever cap. Wires will get routed out the left half of the box, and into the console box it will be mounted to. Current plan is to cut the main panel from acrylic sheet, and build a box under it to mount using the same bolts that the Hornet panel does (and probably other supports to keep it in place). Fortunately I can re-use most of the slider geometry for the wingsweep handle, once I get to it. That's going to get more complicated, due to the handle extension, and I might need to make it a bit wider, but there's plenty of room for a full lever on that side, so I can link it to pot.

That is truly a work of art, bravo! Glad the seat worked out so well, I reworked your older design a lot for mine, but the size and proportions feel perfect. Good deal with the DZUS rails, I think I'm going to wind up going with a more modular button box design to let me swap panels in and out for other aircraft, both on the consoles and front panels. I've currently got the left console designed around mounting a WinWing Super Taurus throttle, which I plan to just use for whatever I fly since it feels so solid. Since the F-18 left console panel is a separate USB device that mounts to the throttle box, my current plan is to build a dedicated F-14 console that I can swap in with the same mount. The switches should all be easy, but the tricky part will be building a flap and wingsweep handle into the box. They'll have to slide on curved tracks above the console, since the throttle box takes the space those levers would need to occupy. I'm undecided about the right console still, since I might keep it flat to support either a mouse or side-mounted stick. Flying primarily in VR means a lot of the less-used controls are easy to just click with a mouse. Congrats on the TPR though, I've been using those for a couple years and I don't think anything else comes close to that swinging motion they use. Had not heard of the FFB kit though, that sounds like it should be a nice upgrade to (what I assume is) the Warthog. I've been using an older Virpil CM2 base with a 30cm extension (20cm S-curve, and 10 cm straight), and it's just about the perfect proportions and travel for the seat, but building your own FFB should be a great experience.

So here's the crazy question.. how do you plan on installing instruments and components in the pit once it's complete? I'm assuming it'll involve pulling out the panel surfaces and building the switches and buttons into the back sides, but is that going to take a massive re-work of things to make room? Or did you build space for the instrumentation into the frames holding the panels? Looks amazing, and way too big for my cockpit room.

You can't get the whole image at once in high resolution without buying a print, I think, but the preview will let you zoom in pretty close for small bits at a time. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/ejection-seat-grumman-f-14b-tomcat-v2-john-straton.html First one gets cut off, but the second image looks like it covers the second half of the list pretty well (if you can read around the watermark).

I've seen a lot of people mentioning this issue, and I've experienced it off and on for a while on my own grip, so I decided to bite the bullet and disassemble the grip to see if I can find what actually causes it. Warning, it's not for the faint of heart, because that thumb hat is not meant to be removed, and there's a fair risk of breaking one or more wires while trying to get it out (more on that later). I followed this tutorial on replacing the switch to get a handle on how to remove it. After finally getting the switch loose from the unreachable clip, I made a point to file down the snap tabs at an angle so it'll only be a soft lock now, and the switch can be removed again easily with pressure from underneath. I'll probably post images of what I did once I get a replacement part in, but the short version of the story is that the thumb switch relies on a large central shaft for activation of all five buttons (directional, and center press). The center shaft is surrounded by a spring to make the hat spring back after pressing the center button. That spring-covered shaft moves back and forth to activate the directional buttons. For the TLDR: The problem is that the directional buttons use a small electrical pushbutton with a rubber nub covering it. Those rubber nubs happen to be the perfect size to get stuck between the coils of the spring TM used for the center press. I found a different spring with tighter coils that wouldn't let the buttons stick between them, and the hat switch immediately stopped sticking. Now the bad news is that I managed to rip out one of the soldered connections for the center press while getting the hat switch out. I can probably re-solder it, but I'm going to try ordering a replacement switch if I can. For the moment, the loss of that center press isn't a huge deal for me, since I'm mostly flying the F-14. The thing that finally pushed me over the edge to try and fix this was that my DLC kept sticking and dropping me into the stern of the carrier. If anyone associated with TM is reading this, either stop using the rubber-nubbed buttons, or find a more tightly-wound spring. I'm guessing that's probably what's causing people to send back so many of these grips for replacement.