Hi!
I've been designing my own stick, throttle and rudder set for about a year now. The past 4-5 months I've worked probably 16 hours a day on this.
I started with a simple desire to cut some MDF wood an make me a center stick, throttle and rudders. Simple DIY style.
But, as I added more and more detail I realized wood isn't going to cut it :)
So, I tried ABS plastic sheets, but again, after adding more and more details and functionality I realized metal is the only way to go.
Given that metal gives me endless possibilities, I decided to go all the way and design a control set with force feedback, force loading and hydraulic damping.
Also, to try and design the set in modules.
The main modules would be : stick base, rudder base and throttle base. And then stick and throttle grips, and rudder pedals that could attach to the main modules. So that if you wanted to fly an F-15 and a P-51, you wouldn't have to do it with a A-10 or F-15 sticks.
The brains would be opencockpit servo cards and teensy boards.
After 4-5 months of hard work and sleepless nights I have come to a working design. Bare in mind, that I had gone through many different designs and spent hundreds of hour scratching my head trying to solve problems.
The design has now become too complex and expensive to build just one unit. But also too important and simply awesome to leave it in the drawer. (not trying to tap myself on the back here)
Because this is what has been missing all along, in my opinion. I cannot believe we do not have working commercial FFB unit available! It's 2012 dammit! The end of the world and we don't have it ?! :D
This thing has up to 90 pound of force loading on elevators, up to 40 pounds on ailerons and up to 200 on rudders. With servo motors programmed to position the springs to increase/decrease the force loading according to speed, altitude and G outputs from the game.
It also features dynamic hydraulic dampers, more damping at low speed, less damping at high speed. So that when you're on the ground, the stick has no spring tension, but it still feels stiff. Just like in a real aircraft.
It also features a servo motor hidden in the "stick tube" that acts as a stall shaker, also dynamic. So that it increases shaking as stall approaches.
Small motors for gun firing effects are also hidden in there.
It's a little bulky at the moment:D But that's because I've designed it with WWII warbirds in mind. As per my research, 109 and P-51 have about 90 pounds of force at the stick for a 5G turn.
But smaller desktop design is possible, with lesser force loading.
I am also designing stick grips, throttles and rudder pedals. Replicas that would be casted out of alluminum most likely. I would make all the tools and molds needed, but again, not cost effective for one unit.
I also have the concept for helicopter controls, with force trim by magnetic clutches just like the real thing. Will post pictures when the prototype is ready.
What I would need to do is, make a kickstarter or indiegogo campaign to see if there is enough interest for something like this to be produced in some quantity. At least 50 units.
Minimum cost for tooling and some machines, is about 5.000$
For a small production run, I've estimated the costs to about 1.000$ per set. But if there's interest for a couple hundred units, that can come down to 500-600$ for a full set of force feedback controls, which I think would be a deal of a lifetime.
I would also look for interest on other forums, it wouldn't have to just be Ka-50, A-10 and P-51 players. Boeings, Cesnas and warbirds, they could all use this design.
So before I make this post into my first published novel, I'll show you some renderings of CAD models I have so far:
So basically, this wil be a build / interest gathering thread.
All questions and suggestions welcomed.