molevitch

Thanks Stang, Its an amateur build really, and I don't have tools and workshop to consider production for sale. I hope other builders here will get some tips and inspiration for their own pits. :) Mole

Hey Hannibal, Dust off your collectives and come fly choppers with us over at BSD and 229th 1stAirCav. May be no 2-seaters yet, but we do have a great time! Mole

WOW, that's amazing! Great looking result. How are you damping the collective axis? Will you do the cyclic as well? I look forward to seeing the next stage. :thumbup:

Last night (20.00 GMT) I joined a structured mission for the first time on the 229th server and flew with Flubber, Blade, Guinness, Stingray and Gizzy. Finally, I think I am getting the full benefit of this wonderful sim! I have been engaged in some intensive training at the Black Shark Den group under the tutelage of Gizzy, and have reached a level now where I feel I can be a reliable squad member, and not: Crash into the ground repeatedly Crash into my team mate frequently Forget what I am doing Lose myself on the map Miss the target LZ/Enemy Be a nuisance to other players around me This is transformative! The Black Shark Den and 229th are just such enjoyable places to fly! The in-house expertise, the generosity of advanced instructors, the camaraderie and humour, and the sheer desire to be better and better pilots is infectious. I highly recommend the experience to other DCS chopper enthusiasts, whether just starting out or old-timers. Flying SP is fine, playing PvP is fine, but when you are engaged in a structured mission with a purpose and a role, this sim really shines. :D Thank you BSD, thank you 229th, and especially thank you Gizzy! :thumbup:

Thanks Hannibal, I too cannot wait for the Mi-24, don't mind which version really. I do hope that the multicrew system really comes together this year! M

Hi Viktor, Thanks for the kind words. I am currently working out how to make a video with 3 or more simultaneous views, including one of the actual stick and collective in use. In fact, I have now worked out how to do that, so will soon be making the actual video. The trimmer button releases the magnets so the stick goes loose. I have to centre it manually, there is no spring to bring it back to centre. I use the red diamond instrument indicator to check for true centre and keep it on most of the time. So without pressing the trimmer the cyclic is in a fixed position, held by the force of the springs in the force gradients. I can make miniscule adjustments by pushing the stick against the springs resistance. But I can press the trim button and keep it pressed and simply move the stick all over as I please. Or I can do a momentary press to trim and release. This means that I can actually set the cyclic trim, set the collective brake, and hover, hands free. I can make a cruise turn, hands free. I can have fine control in the hover, once trimmed and move back, forwards, sideways, turn etc, all with hardly moving from the hover spot. Great for slingloading, embarking, disembarking troops etc. But also when set up as a gunship, I can hover and snipe! I am trying to see if I can land hands free! Only as a proof of concept of course. So yes, in answer to your question, it does do what it says in the manual. Now, I must get that video made! Oh, please give me some rep!:music_whistling::joystick: M

For choppers, you will never go back once you have tried the extended stick....

Oh, I just like it that way. Its a very gentle spring...

Final results My Mi-24 Cyclic and Collective Pit is pretty much finished, in as much as it is now flyable with great results. The handbrake works. Pull the lever and the cable pulls a spring loaded lever onto a PTM momentary button. I built a small box containing all the parts and the cable goes into that. The box is strapped to the base of the stick and concealed by the leather boot. I will make a drawing of the box interior and post it later. The mechanics of the mag-brakes etc are now covered from the front and top. The leather boot is made from an old scrap of leather, eyeletted and laced up. It protects all the Hall sensors and cables from accidental contact from anything falling in or brushing against them. Hall sensors mounted into aluminium channels and attached to the gimbal for the pitch axis and to the roll axis mount for the roll axis. 5mm neodymium magnets are set into small blocks of black ABS plastic, glued onto the base of the cyclic stick for pitch and the back wall of the gimbal box for roll. So there we are. I cannot quite believe how sensitive the controls are. Even the twitchy Gazelle is relatively easy to fly now. The Huey and the Mi-8 are a real joy. The trimming is excellent, allowing almost hands-off cruising, and certainly allows for other cockpit activities, switch use etc. Very happy, and very smug!

Edtracker is good. I used one for my cyclic for about a month. However, I did not discover until too late that the mini-usb connector on the pcb is very weakly connected and needs to be really beefed up. Mine snapped clean off after a inking move of the stick. I was going to replace it, but decided on Hall sensors instead. If you are using Edtrackers, they are great technologically, but weak structurally. You need to add a dollop of epoxy over that connector, without getting any in the connector itself.

Guillemot

Hi FIN_Centurion1, Thanks for the words, give me some rep why dont you? :):music_whistling: I can explain the mag brakes better if you want. I have been really busy with work for 2-3 weeks, long days and deadlines. I had planned to do a proper explanation when I realised how many were interested, but had no time and was mostly interested in getting it to work for flying! Basically I was looking for a relatively easy build as I don't have access to light industrial machinery! I found inspiration from a couple of other builders and figured out some ways to incorporate some of their methods. In a couple of weeks I will have time to put a better build description together with drawings and pics etc, though not blueprints by any stretch! I tend to work on a "found this spring, make it fit, will it work, yes, no, keep hunting" basis, though I do make little non-scale plans in sketch-books. Basically, the electro-mags hold the cyclic stick in position, and the springs on the "force-gradients" allow for some play. It gives very fine control in a chopper sim. So you can centre the stick and it stays there, a bit like any spring loaded self centring stick. But with the mags, I can reposition that centre offset by degrees in any direction. So it is trimmed. I can literally set it, and even hover in one place, HANDS OFF! (no wind obviously). If I knew how to, I would make one of those PIP videos showing it all together, the mechanics, the controller (me) and the results on screen. But I have not yet learned how to do that....

Well, we would need a collective noun to describe a group of collective enthusiasts.... collectively.

Do you wear glasses for long sight or short sight? I got lenses made for my Rift, best thing I did! When I try it without now, its all a blur.

Hey Mr_Mojo97, You, Fragbum, HansangB and I should start a squad. The Collective Collective....:lol: FlamingSquirrel, even a bit of handiness can get you a great useful collective. I built my first one using an aluminium crutch I found at the side of the road, some plumbing compression joints and copper pipe, a bit of old wood, couple of Hall sensors and some magnets robbed from my son's old toybox. The key here is the Bodnar board.... that makes communication with Windows a doddle.

Hey Mr_Mojo97, You, Fragbum, HansangB and I should start a squad. The Collective Collective....:lol:

:thumbup: :thumbup: my point too....

Hi Mr_Mojo97, The relay should work with 5v I think. The 12v in my system is for the electro-mags to be powered. The relay is there to turn off the 12v supply to the mags when the PTB switch is activated, but the 12v continues to run through the relay so it works. Maybe it's your electro-mag not working with 5v. You may not need a damper, so long as the brake works. But it feels better. I would worry if every time I pulled up, the collective base moved! Think how heavy is the TM throttle, plus it has screw holes for mounting. A house brick might be the perfect solution to your building. (see what I did there...)

Just in case you want it, the circuit for an independent 12v mag brake. For when you want to swap out for TM throttle, just turn it off. No need to unplug anything. I am running 2 of these, one for the cyclic with 2 magnets and one for the collective with one magnet. I just turn off the power to them both when not in use... And I know what you mean about getting back to flying! That's where I am right now. Few tweaks and amendments, but it all works a treat! Best controls I ever had since I started some 30 years ago....:noexpression:

Looking very good! I like your switchboard in the background. I suggest it will be best to put the PTB brake release on a separate circuit with the 12v supply. It does not need to communicate with DCS, there is no real collective brake button in DCS that is worth worrying about. You just need it to work mechanically. No need to go through the bodnar board in my opinion. Works like that for me. While I put my collective lever read on to a couple of pots, I have just put my cyclic on to Halls. I have one magnet that rotates towards the face of the Halls. I get a good read that way. I may put my collective to Halls eventuyally, but for now, I just want to fly!

You're on the right track, and keep practicing. If you find yourself in VRS and not too low, you can recover by dropping collective, pitching nose down, to enter forward movement again, pull collective and move out of the dead air. You can do it sideways too. You just gotta get out of the downwash which is killing your lift. You are dropping faster than your rotor can lift in turbulent air. Try not to get instrument fixated, you need to use them all. And feel it too. Audio cues as mentioned are part of that, look for a certain cockpit shake too, and the sudden loss of control and lift beyond that shake. Hold your nerve, and ride the shake into a landing. It will come, and it sounds like you are getting there. Come fly with us over at BlackSharkDen, get some in flight instruction too. :helpsmilie: is at hand!:thumbup:

When heavily loaded you have to use translational lift to take off. Travelling forward generates lift in the rotor, becoming like a disk shaped wing.

Mi-8 Dials Hi Rge75, Thanks. Also, the other dial to keep an eye on is the engine power dial, mid left side of pilot dashboard. Gizzy taught me about this one recently. If the power indicator drops below 90%, then things soon start to go wrong. This is caused by applying too much torque/collective too quickly, stressing the engines, causing rotor droop, loss of lift and this is when the generators fail, temporarily albeit. The Mi-8 has a ton of power. But one has to allow for it to build up. So I have been being taught by Gizzy some great lessons on managing these aspects. The key is smooth and gentle, but decisive.... And learn instrument scanning. ASI, VSI, Torque, Power, Pitch... ASI, VSI, Torque, Power, Pitch... ASI, VSI, Torque, Power, Pitch... There are several various versions of instrument scanning. See here, http://www.flightlearnings.com/2015/02/12/instrument-flight/ Changed the way I fly in DCS. But I am just a student, sharing what I am learning. There are some real pilots out here who will tell you better than I.

Take it easy! Descent must be slow... You are entering VRS or dropping to tarmac too hard. There is a dial top right of commander pilot dash which is for use when hovering or at very slow speeds. 20 kph or so. It shows your drift/speed forward backward, left and right. On the left of that dial is a better VSI which is much more accurate, and responsive to your real Vertical speed. But it only works at slow speeds. It is designed for landing, hovering, sling loading, troop pick-ups/drop-offs without full landing, etc. So make sure your VSI reads less than 5 metres per second, better at about 3. Be patient.... When the fuselage starts to shake, then you are in the right state, but keep it slow. Remember, this chopper is a big bus, not a sports car or even an estate car. It is heavy, and has momentum. You must bring it to a gentle hover to land it, but you can also make a running landing on the wheels. Just not too fast!

Just ordered a bunch of A1324 Halls as I am not happy with the Edtracker.... Its USB plug socket just failed! Gonna reconfigure my cyclic with a pair of Halls using slide past sensing. And I can add all that without a major rebuild. In fact, they can be easily surface mounted onto the existing gimbal structure. Also reducing the strength of the springs in my force gradients, as the current ones are just to much hard work.... Pics will follow in a few days.