molevitch

I got my wiring wrong.... Took me a year to figure it out though! Just didnt trim.

Hi Clyber, I was having this problem. I tried simffb, which is okay, but then I thought, hang on, I didn't go to all this trouble to have take do.... So I went back to my wiring of the bottom ffb unit. And guess what, I had made a mistake. I had reversed the wires on the motors, but had not swapped the motors. I found a diagram of PeterP's which illustrate it in his long version How to. So check that, it's an easy mistake to fix.

I have tried all kinds of permutations, but I finally found a fix.... I am using the Simffb app by Average Pilot and finally worked out I have to turn off ffb in DCS. Hurrah!

I am having this same problem! I have tried every which way I can think to fix it, but not been able to work it out.... Now, I just don't use trim. I would be very happy if anyone knows how to sort this. I am using a PeterP style 2xmsffb2 cyclic mod,which is great, but I just cannot figure the settings out to sort this. I thought it was just me. HELP! Please....

Thank you, I have greatly admired your projects! My wife actually approves of the Man-Cave! Now if I can just persuade my son of the pleasures of flight simming....

Aston Martin, eh? Very nice! I may upgrade mine at some point to Halls, or I might just build a whole other one. This was always intended to be a prototype. Then if I put another cyclic together with the spare FFB sticks I acquired over zealously bidding on ebay, I can have 2 pits in the Man-Cave! Build some pedals too? Why not!:P

Thank you again. Well I am a clothing designer & pattern cutter. All about measurements and aesthetics. Solutions really. I love making things, and in my work I make quite unusual products.... I wish I had a lathe and a CnC machine though. And a 3d printer maybe.... And a laser cutter... And a workshop....

If I can do it, so can you! It's worth it

Thank you. I have posted finished item pics. I will take some pics of it in-pit later this week.

Thank you, I really enjoyed doing this too. I want to make the switch boxes interchangeable, so I can have a different one for each machine. Or just better ones. I have seen lots of different versions on the net....

Molevitch Collective Hi MHE, To be honest, it took a few weeks, of evenings and weekends. I think I started it around 7th Feb, when I found the crutches for the aly tubing. I had already bought some switches and cable, etc when I was building my MSFFB2 combined cyclic, based on PeterP's method. I have been planning it since then, sketching, researching etc. but yes, I suppose the build was quite quick! I had to learn soldering better for all the wiring, and read up on how switches work. I never thought I would be out buying diodes!:music_whistling: I hope you all can take a bit of inspiration from me. You have to dare, to win! Just believe you can do it, and do it. But make a plan first.... Thanks for the compliments, I like " dirty minimalist hack"! And the flying is so much better! I took the Huey out for a jaunt, it was like flying a winged colt, but I still crash landed after taking out all targets in the easy ground attack mission, instant action. Laziness....:cry:

And here is the final object! Except the green light up switch is not wired in properly, and I have one button conflict to fix.... But I have been in the KA-50 for 2 hours since I finished it. WOW what controls I now got!! I just cleared the entire practice field of targets in about 30 minutes. Stable hovers, switches for slewing shkval smoothly, thumb button to lock target, switches to change TV scale, target box size etc. I have really impressed myself today! And I made a plaster cast of the Flightstick hats, and pushed epoxy putty into the moulds to make my own hats for the 2 joysticks. Could be a bit cleaner, but it worked....

My Collective Build continued... Hi all, thanks for the comments. Here are some more pix of the build stages. I struggled a bit to find a piece of tubing to fit over the aluminium tubing to form the throttle handle. Finally I discovered that a cut down vitamin container served very well, and I stiffened that with a copper 25mm connector. Drilled through and screwed to the internal turning tube. Disassembled to redirect the wiring for the 2 pots, one from the lever axis via the base and up through the tubing, through the rotating mechanism, and out to the top, and the same with the throttle pot wiring. The throttle handle tubing then covered with thin foam. I am going to cover it with the kind of adhesive grip tape used on tennis rackets/bicycle handlebars. I then set about building the switch box. I bought some black styrene plasticard from a model making shop, along with some styrene tubing. A razor saw and Plasweld also. I bought some toggle switches and momentary switches, but planned to use some boards recovered from old joysticks. (That plan went out the window once I looked at the complications of rewiring and fitting them in.) I used my sketch and worked out a size to suit switches, and hand size. I wanted to keep the switch box small and neat, but not too fiddly. I cut and bent the plasticard into shape, and cut the switch plate and back plate to form according to my sketch. Drilled the switch-plate for the switches, and for the Xbox style controller board of 2 pot based joysticks I planned to use. I made a kind of clamp-jig to hold it all in shape as it was gluing. I really enjoyed working with the plasticard, took me back to my youth, and Tamiya memories (sigh).... After trying to work with a mixture of MS joystick and an Xbox controller parts, I began to scratch my head about wiring and USB connections.... I had planned to use the pcb's from the joystick in the lever base, using the USB connection built into that. At which point I caved, and ordered a Leo Bodnar BU0836A. What a relief! The Bodnar board would fit behind the main switch box, in a secondary box below the base plate. So suddenly I am soldering and wiring, and having control over design decisions, rather than following someone else's board layouts. So I built a new box for the Bodnar, and cut through the base plate to open up the whole inside of the switch box for wiring and ease (relative) of access. I did a quick test with the board and a few switches, and used the Xbox joysticks. Because these joysticks are analogue, they used 4 of the analogue connections on the Bodnar board. Didn't like the xbox joysticks.... So they came out and I ordered some 8 way joystick style switches from RS Components. 6 x 516-306 Joystick switches arrived the next day. These look to be the exact same switches used on a pcb by Bodnar, but which are out of stock there. Took me a while to work out how to wire them up without a pcb.... And I realised that I would need a lot more switches than 12 to have everything connected. So now I had to get my head around wiring a Matrix! Took me 2 days just to understand it. I put the mini joystick switches in instead of the pot based ones. After each wiring attempt, I tested with a connection to the PC. After a few mistakes, and corrections, it seemed to be all working. I soldered on the analogue connection blocks to the lever pots cables and threaded them through into the switch box. Attached the box, connected the pots to the Bodnar board, closed it all up. I added a tube under the lever to house the USB cable from the Bodnar board to the lever base, and then cut the end off a spare USB cable and threaded it through. I then used a USB cable from one of the scrapped joysticks to extend the cable, and joined the 2 inside the lever base. I now need to make some hat switch caps. I plan to take a cast of ones on my CH Flightstick using a kids casting kit, which uses dental alginate and plaster. Then I can make a mould which can be used again and again to make a few for future projects! Finishing later today I hope!

Hi All, Thought I would share my Helo Collective build with you. Acknowledgements to PeterP and Bignewy in particular for inspirations. Having built a FrankenCyclic based on the MSFFB2 method of PeterP I have planning ever since to do the collective to go with. I have all 3 Chopper modules for DCS, and I love all of them. So I could not decide which collective to go for. In the end I have decided to build several over time. I want to make a set of swappable control boxes to go on the head of the collective lever. The lever itself will be common to all 3, and have a twist throttle too. To start with, however, I have gone for a generic, non specific switch-box. On my way home one night I found a pair of crutches in some junk, so I took one. I then hacked it up, and am using the adjustable inner tube as a rotating attachment to a potentiometer. At this stage it was my plan to use a load of scavenged parts from some old joysticks, like the FFB mod. I cut a slot in the outer tube, and then need to find a third tube to wrap around and connect to the inner tube through the slot. This will give me a 180 degree turn of the pot. The lever was going to be mounted on the side of an existing box I had built to support my WH throttle. Instead, I have now made a pivot bracket which will attach to the left side of my seat. Of course, I need 2 pots, one for the throttle and one for the collective itself. These both came from the cannibalised FFBs and the Flightstick. The smaller MSFFB one fits inside the tubes, just, and the wires trail through the tubes. Since I started this build, that configuration has changed a coupla times. In my next post, I will show how the switch-box comes together.... Hope you enjoy my work

Looking GOOD, Whiplash! How do you find the controls now? I am still planning a collective build when I get some free time. But just bought a bucket seat from an old MG sportscar on eBay for £40, much better than my old office chair. Comfy and lower, and it slides!

Hi Msalama, I am both a lzy bastard and a very busy person. Nor am I into electronics. But I took the bull by the horns when I saw Peterp's videos and explanations of how to extend the MSFFB2 stick. It was loads of fun planning it all on the way to work, buying the components, and then one saturday I just did it all. Results? Brilliant! Way better control, especially for choppers, and also gives a better immersion feeling, not gripping a stick on your desktop.... I recommend the journey. Have fun! M

Hi PeterP, Thanks for this. In fact, I did not have any options set for the lower FFB unit. I will try that and see what happens. I am pretty sure my wiring is correct for the lower unit, I was very careful and slow with assembly. lxsapper, see my efforts in my earlier posts. I highly recommend the results. Very satisfying, and far better control. Did you make the mod too? And Peter, I will bother you for some ideas on Softth later on in the weekend! I cannot get my centre viewport on my central monitor. Have tried all sorts of solutions, but no, it centres on the right side monitor.... Have a great weekend guys! M

Hi PeterP, been a while, but I have been very busy with real life work. I still am struggling to understand what is happening when I trim my modded MSFFB2 set. I trim the stick for example in the front right quadrant, and the stick immediately jumps to a new position, not staying where I have put it. (Which was the whole point of trimming). It must be a FFB issue, but I cannot work out what. I would appreciate any suggestions. I have checked the settings under options. Hope you're well, Molevitch

Hi PeterP, I have been having a ball with the Huey and my new cyclic. Planning to build a collective with the leftovers and an aluminium walking stick.... BUT, I went back to the KA-50 and I cannot get the cyclic to behave. It will not let me trim properly. If I trim the stick should stay in its new position, yes? But as soon as I release it, it jumps to a different quarter. Say I trim it at forward left, it jumps to forward right, etc. But all the FFB settings are the same as I have been using for the Huey. Can you help me? Best regards, Molevitch

HEAR, HEAR! I spend probably more time reading PeterP's superbly detailed posts of advice than I do flying....! Very helpful and fun too.

I have found that the FFB2 shows up regularly on ebay. In fact recently I bid on and won 3 for this ffb hack of PeterP's. What you pay can vary a lot, but they are certainly available. Where are you based?

Thank you, it makes me proud to be able to show you! I have been simming since the sinclair spectrum! so it is amazing to see how far this has all come. But I never thought I would have the confidence to build my own stick from cannibalized parts.... By the way, I also just got a Crossover screen to replace my multi-monitor setup. It looks almost 3D in 2560 x 1600. Highly recommend if you can afford it. From Korea, free shipping (!) and cost about £360. Stunning. With TrackIR its brilliant.

AAAAAAAhhhh, I get it now. Brilliant, thank you. Now the UH1 flies like a chopper! no juddering stick. I will secure the screws once everything is tested and tidied. I plan to add a separate button box from all the buttons left over on the FFB boards, but one that can be plugged in to an external socket , and removed or moved about. Here are some pics below. I made a floor plate to hold the various box elements in place, and also to secure the rolling chair. The 2 holes each side of the cyclic box take the castors of the chair. The box on the left is just a support for the TM Warthog throttle, and I plan to make it pivot to open like a door. All boxes etc made from 9mm MDF board. The cyclic stick is hand bent aluminium tubing, 16mm ext dia. The counter weight on the lower FFB is a brass plumbing fitting filled with melted lead solder. Needs to be heavier though, so will add to the outside. I used 2 MS FFB2b and a CH Fighterstick sticks from eBay. I followed Peter P's instructions carefully, and once I got the hang of it I started to improvise a bit. I used the screw hole tubes from the inside of the FFB housing to fix the PCBs to the cut out parts of the FFB base plate. Base plates hotglued into position inside the box. Please ask if you want to know more. Just going for a quick flight before my wife gets home!

Hallo Peter P! I have been so impressed with your FFB2 mod, that I have done one myself. It is almost working brilliantly. I have 2 FFB2s configured your way, and a CH Fighterstick on a long throw cyclic. I will post pics of it all setup when I have time. I have encountered one problem, on which you might be able to advise me. When I am in cockpit, with both FFB2's running, the graphic on screen shows the cyclic shaking, and when I push the cyclic left or right, forward or back it sort of cant make up its mind where it is going. On the Rctrl-Enter red square showing the diamond indicating the cyclic position, the diamoind keeps flicking about.... Any ideas? The lower FFB has the pots and cables reversed, and everything else seems correct. Thank you, and keep up the inspiring help and mods!

Get a MS FFB2 off ebay. I just got 2 recently and a CH Fighterstick. Now I have modded the whole lot together asa PeterP Frankencyclic. Its looking good, just have to tweak the settings and stuff to get it all good. The level of control compared to a regular stick is far better. Pics soon.