hegykc

On a stock warthog if you pull full pitch up you need 2lb of force to hold it there. I you now add full right roll there is no extra force needed, still 2lb of force, the 1 spring is already engaged no matter where you pull the stick, hence the axis are 100% blended. With this mod, if you pull full pitch up you need 2lb of force to hold it. But if you now try to add full right roll you will need extra force, be it 2.5lb, 3lb or what ever, you get a certain amount of feedback, hence the axis are not completely blended. Whether this separation is 10%, 50% or 80% I still don't know. But the fact is, if you pull second axis, you engage a second set of springs. (Yes, along with extra engagement of the 1 set, but that extra force goes into roll feedback, not pitch feedback since pitch is already fully engaged) Not easily explained by words. But the fact is stock warthog has 1 spring. If you pull only pitch up to 100%, both pitch and roll are engaged 100%. This mod has 2 sets of springs, if you only pull pitch up, you engage 100% of pitch up spring, and also about 20% roll springs. Now if you want to add full roll along with that pitch up, you engage the additional 80% of one of the roll springs. Hence the axis are separated, but to a degree. Not fully.

True. But a much bigger issue is that Warthog costs around 600$ (I paid 760$ for it) for non US customers, and the vast majority of those that bought it aren't so keen on just replacing the stick for another 300-400$ minimum for a VKB base. Axis separation is 0% on stock warthog, this mod brings it up to 50%+, maybe way more maybe way less, I'll measure, but it's definitely there. Hard center goes from 100% to 0%. So that's a 50% improvement on one issue and a 100% improvement on the other. For a 30$, 2 minute fix it's a no-brainer. Anyone who wants and can afford a perfect solution, sure it's VKB, if you can find one in EU.

You are right, the internal mechanism remains original. But the way the grip feels is completely different now. The axis are separated in the way of how they feel, or give physical feedback to your hand. On the original Warthog, if you pull right roll you have to put, let's say 2lb of force. Now if you add full pitch up along with the initial roll, this requires no extra force. This is not how a real aircraft stick operates, and for a reason too. You can constantly pull unwanted pitch with roll, or unwanted roll with pitch, or you're constantly over-correcting, because the axis feedback is not separated. It doesn't matter what kind of mechanism is under the hood, or what type of hall sensor. But you absolutely need separate force loading for each of the axis, pitch and roll. Without that, any kind of precision flying is heavily hindered, or in my personal opinion, not possible. This spring mod is not perfect, but it does introduce separate loading for each axis. Not 100% separate, but better then before. The horrible hard center is 100% removed.

Ok let's call it "Warthog spring mod". For anyone flying with a stock Warthog and no extension, it will be night and day difference. You'll be able to choose the centering strength you like but the hard mechanical center detent will be completely removed, and the two axis will be almost completely separated. That should give you a much better control and feedback from the stick. For anyone flying with an extension, the change won't be so drastic, but still a major improvement, and your grip won't fall down under it's own weight. I hope to send testing samples for evaluation next week, so you can hear what others think of it.

Don't even be tempted. I have 4 of those rc dampers on my warthog spring testing rig, and they can't hold the grip upright without custom springs. If anyone can make cheaper but better pedals of this design, or at least close to the original quality, more power to them. But these are not it. They're a 175$ cheaper because they're a 175$ worse. I guarantee you'll be dumping $$ into them to make them usable.

There's nothing to patent here regarding mechanical parts, and there's no point in patenting design as they only need a minuscule change to avoid it. On top of that, patents mean s**t in China. I mean they're copying Mercedes and Rolls Royce and they can't do anything about it. Same goes for anything I make too. It's all just a bunch of mechanical linkages and machined parts. Nothing ground braking or patent-able. I would love nothing more to be protected like that, but I cannot patent any of this. Unless you protect actual drawings and design, but as I said, a couple of mm here and there and they avoid it. You only give them access to make the copy faster by publishing the design patents. If you think this should be patent-able, then MFG should sue Slew device and Baur, who first made the cam design, and double cam design should sue everyone, including VKB. Unfortunately for us, all these mechanical linkages and joints exists from before and is nothing ground braking nor patent-able. It might be ground braking to us simmers, who have not had a good product since forever, but in the engineering world it's all common knowledge and anyone with the ability can give it a try. Having said that, this has to be the worst Chinese copy I've ever seen There's better looking stuff people make by hand in their garage. Why are the foot rests anodized neon blue?? The only thing that's actually covered by your feet and cannot even be seen While the rest of it is ugly, bare aluminum grey :) Why are the rod linkages not directly on the pedal arms? Instead they're on some kind of plastic sheet? Yeah that will feel real sturdy under your feet :) I wouldn't touch this over VKB's professional look and sturdy build. Those rc dampers can't hold a Warthog grip in place, I can only imagine how these would feel on your foot. What's inside, a potentiometer? I'm all about lower prices, but stay away from this flimsy garbage and support VKB. Save

P-51 and all other panels, and basicly everything I design is 1:1 scale, most of it is designed after a blueprint drawing. The whole P-51 cockpit is designed after NAA drawings. Maybe it wasn't clear, but I designed the cockpits in 3 modules, left/right/front, and each one is a complete replica of that part of the cockpit. All the elements and all the placements. And all 3 modules are clamped to a desktop in 2 minutes (can't see that on the renders), plus a chair mounted, central stick. So it should be a pretty realistic setup: Now, yes I do plan cockpit shells, but that's for the 1% of those that can afford it and even more important have enough room for it. These modules give you a complete cockpit experience, no hassle and no broken wallet. You can pretty much set them up in your office, and hang them on a wall when you're done, and they'll be something you'll display proudly not some toy joystick you have to hide when someone's coming. Save

Immediately after August spring mod sales start, it's head tracker time. I am only squeezing in a panel or two with these spring mods because it's all laser cut. With head tracker it's cnc machining, and so are the mfcd's and cdu's, so I'll squeeze in a few of those to go along, just for proof of concept. But priority is: Warthog spring mod, Head tracker, FC3 generic panel. Anything else I squeeze in, is just because I already have the CAD files done, and it's made on the same machine as the ones from priority list.

Did a lot of gimbal/spring testing this week. Many things became apparent that were not obvious when designing. Like the size of the attachment holes for springs, making them squeak or not depending on the radius. The angle of springs, making them not effective or too effective, or just right. Springs jerking/twitching if attachment points are not just right, and increasing sticktion instead of eliminating it etc... For such a simple part I was surprised by the amount of tweaks I had to do to get everything working just right. But the testing rig is now quiet, smooth and working as intended. That is, the one with just regular extension springs. The shock damper one, with compression springs, needs further tweaks, and I'm still waiting on some parts for those. But even the basic one with regular springs is so effective and super simple, both for me to manufacture and for you to install, that I wonder if anything more complicated/expensive will be needed, or if it can even be any better. Next week I get to pick a few sets of final springs to be shipped with the unit, so you can choose the centering strength to your liking, and they should definitely be ready for sale in August. The regular spring version, for no-extension warthog, and one for extended warthog. I'll open a dedicated thread with final pictures and videos as soon as the springs arrive, and keep you updated on testing the shock damper version. Regarding cdu and mfcd's, yes I'll start prototyping them first because they can be sold as standalone units, unlike the rest of the A-10 panels. Much of the testing is already being done with my P-51 panels, because it's all just setting up the machines to work with this type of material and finding out what works and what doesn't. All of this will also be used to build my 3d printing farm. There is a big electrical control panel in each 3d printer, several of them. The chassis is made up in a same way I designed the left/right P-51 module mounts and joystick mounts, 3d printer covers are same bent/formed sheet material, same switches and buttons. So you can start to see how this is all connected, uses the same components and leads back to replacement grips. It's just that I tried to start form the top, with the fairly complex grips, but you can't build a house from the roof, gotta lay the ground work first.

Stick around, everything I make will be for sale. And I'd love nothing more then to have a flight of P-51's flying on full simpits. And against a flight of Germans on the same full blown simpit configuration, now that would be something! Fw-190 and Bf-109 are way simpler in number of cockpit elements, so I'll probably prototype them both in half the time it takes me to do the P-51. But that's why I chose it, P-51 cockpit has every kind of lever/switch you can think of, it's great practice for the rest of the lineup.

Next week I have custom made springs coming in, a week after that I'll probably get the first anodized aluminum pieces and different type shocks. In the meantime I did some more panel prototyping: P-51 front switch box I think I might try the mfcd and cdu next week, I have all the lcd's and components ready. Save

Hvala! You can count on testing the very first Mig-21 left/right/front modules. I just need a simple WWII prop simpit first, to test some code and switches myself. They'll be for sale as soon as they get machined and tested. New prototype for today, P-51 front switch box. Missing the red sticker where the emergency text is, and missing "RX to be fired wheel": Save

Creators of quality DCS content, especially free ones like your sound mod, will never have to worry about paying for my products, your money is no good here. Once I start turning out dozens of these, you'll be able to pick and choose whatever you like. I will have many sponsorships like this.

If you're interested in how panel prototyping and the rest of the simpit is going, check out the P-51 thread: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=170737 P-51 Engine control panel (with some engraving errors to fix) It will be made out of aluminum extrusions and a couple of clamps. basically choose your own lengths so you can assemble the one you need. Save

Thanks, yes I can't wait to have it machined. It has all the throttle and mixture detents, functional and separate friction knobs for throttle and prop pitch, working twist grip for gun sight reticule control. All the axis on top of the line 12-bit 3d hall sensors etc... Fixed the white color lettering, and went for the black toggle cover for the supercharger switch, but will still increase engraving depth some: Save

I will also offer cheap mounts, just waiting on the parts to arrive so I can take pictures.

Yes. I'll be ordering one to see the bolt placements. Or you can measure it, warthog has 8 bolts in a 72mm diameter. Also what is the extension thickness?

You have a point, but to be fair this completely changes the hart/soul of the mechanism, so to speak. A completely different way it functions, although it has the same mount and pivot point. It would be like putting a Ferrari engine and chassis in a old beat up 2 cylinder car and saying, "yeah but the engine mounts are still the same". Sure, but it is a major improvement. Not only improvement but a change that completely changes the way it works, so I stuck with gimbal replacement. P.S. Not that this is a Ferrari or anything :) just making a point.

Well I guess it's time I start building a simpit myself. This is stuff I manage to squeeze in along with warthog replacement gimbals and other stuff with more priority than this. But in a couple of months the pace will explode. It's designed in 3 modules, to be clamped to a working desktop. Left module, right module and front module with instruments. Every switch/button/lever/instrument will be functional and will include features found on the real thing: if it clicks, has a detent on a certain position, needs a push through or pull up, it will have it. Like the oxygen regulator for example, both the turning knob and the flip-up lever are fully functional as in the real thing. So is the canopy eject and open/close. You just can't see the internal mechanisms on the renders, and they are 90% of the work. First prototype, engine control panel: computer render first prototype Final version will have much more pronounced white lettering and rounded edges. This also goes to show that all my "renders" and "pretty pictures" are really cad designed, manufacturing ready files. All I did was press start on the machine and 5min later I had a finished product. That's why my "renders" took a couple of years to do. They're screenshots that show at best 5% of the actual cad design work behind the picture. This is not only about a P-51 simpit, it's about developing tools, techniques and processes to manufacture hundreds of these at 1/10 the cost they are now, even less. Save

I would say definitely get the warthog and upgrade later if you can afford. No, just normal with regular springs. There is just no room for shocks when there's no extension, and they wouldn't provide much of an effect on such a small lever anyway. It still provides you with basically a new joystick. When that hard center and the ridiculous original spring mechanism is removed it's really something, smooth as butter!

This only improves the Warthog, eliminating the ridiculous center detent and reducing stiction. There is axis separation but not all the way. The no-extension design will be the cheapest option, so for around $30 I think it will be a great value improvement.

Actually yes, i do have a design for a stock warthog without an extension and that's where you'll get the most improvement because for me at least, the original gimbal without and extension makes the warthog unusable, with it's hard center detent and stiction.

The grips will come after these gimbals and ir tracking unit. Money from these sales will help me make grips much quicker, therefore cheaper and more time for me to bring other products to market too.

I will be selling them directly. I mentioned a phrase "my own kicstarter" in a way that this will financially kickstart everything else I have prepared for manufacturing, but lack the funds to do all at once, or a bigger part of it. This will get the financial burden of my back as I've been putting all my savings in component testing and development for the last couple of years. Save

It gets darkest just before sunrise :D Sure that would be great cause that's what I'll need help with. Spreading the word. This is designed as a simple kit, so I can manufacture as much as needed, quickly with no waiting lists, without the fear of getting swamped by assembling processes due to too many orders. I would of course return the favor in any way I can. Save