Yogi8

I’m completely new to 3d printing. This is my first go at it. I bought a K1 Max about 3 weeks ago, and I kinda just mess with the slicer until I see something that makes sense. I do a test print and keep an eye on it. If it isn’t printing the way I like, I’ll kill the print and try something else. That’s really for the bigger prints though. Small stuff like this I just let run. I’m running the stock 0.4mm nozzle at 20% infill. I’m sorry if that isn’t much help. Here’s a quick build video of the Emergency Wing Sweep Handle. I hope this helps. I’d run the video at 2x the speed, I couldn’t figure out how to do that in the editor and I don’t care enough to figure it out.

Prototype works. That’s exciting. IMG_1603.mov

I did. I mulled it over for a month and went back and forth on how to squeeze another stepper motor or two into the tight space and ultimately it came down to making the throttle quadrant taller. That wouldn't be an issue if I had a simpit and could hide half of the throttles below the rails. I may design an attachment that the throttle quadrant can sit on and will house the spur gears and stepper motors... or maybe I'll redesign the whole thing when I have a room dedicated to this. I really wanted to make that work but just couldn't figure out a way. Lol nope, I sell windows..

Gentlemen, I am seriously jealous of the your pit Mumbles! That beast is absolutely beautiful. I'm trying to talk my wife into letting me do that but she wants children... I don't think she understands... this is my baby! This forum keeps me motivated and I really love seeing the photos of everyone's work. Anyways. I know from the photos that it doesn’t look like much has changed but pretty much everything is different. I made it to v25 before I realized a mistake that pushed me back to v3. Derp. Anyways, I’ve hit roughly a 95% solution in modeling. At some point I’ll model the “REMOVE COVER FOR SWITCH ACCESS” cover, throttle position covers, flaps and friction position cover, but not any time soon. This has been a lot of work. I’m leaning towards not modeling the lettering on any of the handles (ie flaps and throttles) because I’d like to laser engrave those instead of 3d printing them. I modeled brackets for the Dzus rail because I want to build a sim pit and sliding this bad boy in there would be the crown jewel. That means I’ll be modeling the throttle arms with an angle offset at some point in the future. That shouldn’t be too much work (haha). Some changes have been made. The friction brake… it actually works.. finally.. The last photo is a little shot of the friction brake and all its bits and pieces. However, due to the friction brake being a dick, and the circumference of its parts being too large.. the flaps, right throttle and left throttle bearings have been changed from 603 2RS ball bearings to 6203. The 6203 has a larger center hole, which accommodates the size of the friction brake assembly. The emergency wing sweep bearing is still a 603 2RS. The emergency wing sweep arm articulates up and down and locks into place and the push button actually acts as a release! It has a tiny litlte spring inside and fiddly bits that are probably going to drive me bonkers during the assembly but at least it looks nice! That ended up being a lot of work but a very cool exercise in how parts move in relation to one another. I moved the Arduino. It can fit inside the throttle quadrant but because I’m in the process of sourcing/modeling/building rudder pedals and a stick, I’m considering having a stand alone box and wiring everything there with mini din connectors from each of the 3 devices so I can do a quick disconnect. I’d be happy to model mounts and holes inside the box if anyone needs. The stepper motor that drives the emergency wing sweep has been upgraded to a Nema 17. All told there are roughly 60 screws, 10+ buttons and switches of various forms, 4 hall effect sensors, washers, nuts and well over 200 parts. I think I’m going to take a few weeks off from this before I start 3d printing. This has been a lot of fun to do and I’m excited to bring this baby to life! Let me know if you guys have any questions!

Yep. Plan is to make all of the files available when I get to about a 90% solution. I'm guessing that will be sometime in early November. That will include a bill of materials for screws, buttons, switches, etc., etc. However, the files may or may not include the code for the Arduino. I haven't spent much time looking at how to make DCS BIOS work. I probably should have mentioned that this is all being done via photos I've found on the internet. The photos are resized in Fusion 360 (the canvas tool is incredibly helpful with that), but I'm expecting some measurements and sizes to be off by as much as a 4 or 5mm or 3/4's of an inch.

A threaded rod runs through the center of the throttle quadrant. The flaps, throttles and EWS have 608 2RS skateboard bearings to help with smooth operation.

So, The pictures posted but not what I wrote, which is a bummer, but I'll try to summarize. Just wanted to do a quick update. I'm pretty much done with the interior mechanics of the throttle quadrant. I kicked around using potentiometers but decided on hall sensors for the flaps and throttles. This is mostly because of what I’ve read in this thread about the “potential” problems with the Throttletek. Hall sensors are a hell’va lot more expensive but if I’m putting this much effort into design and building, I might as well try to do it right. Micro switches have been modeled into the interior panels to act as engine cutoff switches. A 28BY J-48 stepper motor will power the emergency wing sweep handle so that it will move on it’s own in real life. I’ve kicked around using a servo motor instead. If anyone has any suggestions about stepper motor versus a servo motor, I’m open to them. As of right now I’ve modeled an Ardunio Uno to wire everything to. The emergency wing-sweep cover has a micro switch modeled to register when the wings are in the oversweep position. I’m still working on the emergency wing sweep handle and trying to decide how I want it work. Do I want it to be a simple push/pull for the up and down motion or do I want to try and model something that looks right, and functions? Either way, there is a microswitch modeled at the base of the arm that will sense the up/down position of the handle. The friction handle works and you will be able to adjust the amount of force required to operate the throttles. According to the NATOPS, minimum friction is 2-3lbs of force and the friction handle can adjust that to require more force. There's still lots left to do. The emergency wing-sweep guard needs to be modeled along with screw holes, brass inserts, buttons, switches, stepper motor driver board, top hats! Bloody hell. Some of the spur gears fail, which will require some minor resizing as well. But all in all, I'm pretty happy with how far this thing has come along. One important thing to note is... I’ve never programmed an Arduino. Progress is going to stall a bit as I’ll be out of town for about a week but if you guys have any questions or suggestions please let me know!

Pretty dope to see different people working towards the throttle quadrant goal. This has me excited!

I absolutely love this thread. I'm kicking around and working on the throttle quadrant and plan to make it available for everyone. I haven't quite figured out how to make the emergency wing sweep work correctly, but that's for another time. There are some things I like, some things I love, somethings I hate... but I'm open to any constructive criticism. I plan on tackling the base of the quadrant next. As an aside, I'm incredibly slow with Fusion360, so this is going to go slowly, but I want it to work right and print nicely. Honestly, this is mostly a labor of fun/love. I grew up watching the F14 being tested at the Calverton facility. Along with the e2 hawkeye, and the a6 intruder/prowler, the F14 would fly over the house I grew up in daily.. cars would line up on rte 25 along the back gate and almost everyday was an airshow... until they closed the facility in the early 90’s. Much love to the community that keeps the the memory of the Tomcat alive. Again, I love this thread and I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!