Extranajero

Thanks ;)

Does it have a function in the sim ? Might seem a silly question but I don't own the A-10C yet and won't until the new year when I can upgrade my PC to a point where it'll run with good FPS. In the meantime I am building my own HOTAS and for cost reasons I want to limit the number of hat switches I use. If the Mic switch doesn't do anything, or doesn't do anything important enough to be worth an extra hat switch then I won't implement it. Thanks :)

Do you really have to try and hijack every thread into a discussion about how marvellous the Oculus Rift is ? Many of us couldn't care less about that device.

I think that your hinged lever is very probably correct. I have seen similar designs in many aircraft maintenance manuals of all nationalities and types. But I don't have any specific information on the FW190 :( Have you a plan to make the throttle grip rotate for the gunsight ranging ?

I am going to use the ON\OFF\ON switch, but to control the potentiometer and indicator. Maybe I might use a servo instead - it will be easier but I already have a geared motor. I will fly a lot of other aircraft using the cockpit so it will be useful to have a mechanical indication of trim position - there is a working trim indicator in the IL2 FW190 virtual cockpit, but not in a lot of the other planes. I am going to build a replica of the FL32345 switch.

That is excellent - I see that the undercarriage indicator light unit is different from the DCS virtual cockpit. Will you share your reference material ? How will you implement the elevator trim ? I am going to use a geared motor which drives a potentiometer as well as the indicator. But my PC can't run DCS, my FW-190 is for IL-2. For now I am still only building the KG13 grip :)

I made a Freetrack setup. It works great, but I already owned a webcam I had modified for astronomy ( removed the IR block filter ) It cost me the price of 3 LED's and a little work to mount them on a baseball cap with current limiting resistors and a 9v battery. If you have even the most simple electronic and mechanical skills then it is a much better alternative than spending all that money. There is also FacetrackNoIR - but it is really fussy about lighting conditions and when it loses your face for whatever reason it takes a lot of CPU to re-acquire it, which has a huge impact on games if you haven't got a fast PC.

I think the 75 EU Simparts casting is suitable but it looks like it will need a lot of filler to correct the poor surface. But then you need four buttons at 50 EU each - the button clip is available from a company that makes parts for real warbirds, that is 37 EU I can't think of a cheap way to build a KG13 unless you can make parts yourself :(

I agree 100% I think boring a hole for the wiring would be a very, very difficult task on a solid grip. Just drilling a hole is easy if you have a drilling machine and a long drill, but to hold the grip at the correct angle on the machine would require making a special purpose jig. The 'ears' ( just my name for them ) which hold the trigger axis pin I think are a very weak point if the grip is resin.

I already feel like I have built the whole aircraft, not just half a control grip :D I did not mention that the budget I have set myself for this project is 0 Euro's - everything has to be made from materials I already have in my workshop. I am only allowed to buy epoxy putty, glue and paint. The next update will be the lower half of the grip, I guess I will have to make the box for the wiring connectors from copper sheet.

Thanks, your KG13 build was an inspiration to me ;)

It wasn't easy. There are resin replica grips available, some I have seen are awful but others look great. I think you could convert one of those. But what about an IAF Spitfire grip instead ? :smilewink: that would be very cool

I didn't take any photos of that stage, sorry. I can try to explain though. I used two pieces of mdf screwed together and cut the side profile of the grip with a jigsaw. I used a drawing from here - http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/technical-requests/kg13-dimensions-21987.html to make a template. Then I shaped the grip with a belt sander, files and a Dremel tool. After that I drilled the holes for the two pushbuttons ( the top one is difficult, it is at an angle ) and separated the two halves so I could hollow out the inside for the wiring. Then I glued them back together. The shape of the grip where the trigger mounts is thicker than it should be, I was worried about the strength of the mdf if I made it exactly to scale. After that I used home made epoxy putty to smooth the surface of the grip and glued mesh flyscreen material to it to make the checkered area. Edit - got the bomb release button trial fitted. Still need to make the pins which hold it in place look like the original screws.

I have thought about FFB, but for now my design intent is to keep things simple. I did design the gimbals to be easily adaptable to mount things like FFB motors, rotary dampers etc. I haven't used an FFB joystick before but I have flown light aircraft including practicing stalls and spins and I agree completely that spring centering isn't very realistic. It is cheap and easy though ;)

I made everything from scratch apart from the switch internals. The grip started out as two pieces of MDF carved to shape and then covered in epoxy putty. The trigger was hacked out of a piece of aluminium, the cannon button I turned on the lathe. I am building my own joystick base for it. This is the bomb release pushbutton which mounts to the side of the grip. I made the housing from copper sheet bent and hammered around an aluminium former I turned with the lathe. Took 3 days :D

I'm overwhelmed by the interest in my project :D

Hola Amigos, this is my KG13 stick project, for the FW-190

There are very few flight sims I haven't owned, or at least tried out. My favourite would be the Third Wire series, as they simulate the cold war jets I love the most. Having said that the flight models border on being arcade and there are plenty of other things which aren't quite right as well. Amazingly I found an ancient copy of LOMAC recently, one which I had installed on a previous machine and almost immediately given up on. I can't remember why I gave up on it, but after a second try ( with better hardware - that might have been the issue, my PC's are always years out of date ) it's not bad at all. FS has to have a special mention though, I think I've owned every version back from when the graphics were all jagged lines and triangles and it did help me when it came to learning to fly in the real world. It never holds my attention long enough to call it a favourite though, I like blowing stuff up and getting shot at too much :)

You have :D I've seen 'autopsy' photo's of a real world military aircraft illuminated switch panel and the way that it was done is VERY similar to the solution you have worked out here... Really nice job :thumbup:

Some of the Japanese custom bike builders are outstanding, I love their old school choppers and cafe racers.

Late 40's, married, no kids. Worked until recently as a gunsmith and as a much tamer version of Yuri Orlov. My nationality is Spanglish :) Biker, fascinated by anything mechanical, especially weapons. Military technology and history geek. Done some real world fixed wing flying but gave up as the cost\enjoyment ratio didn't work out for me. First flight sim I cannot remember, but it would have been on an 8-bit micro like so many others.

Anyone else find the altitude channel unreliable ? I don't trust it... Maybe I'm doing something wrong with the collective brake key

I'm pretty new to the KA-50 and still have issues flying it, but for what it's worth my autopilot useage goes like this :- Takeoff - 3 channels on, no waypoint selected En route - 3 channels on, waypoint selected, route mode active Stand off attacks - 3 channels on, no waypoint selected Maneuver ( evading fire, rocket runs ) - FD engaged I don't get too many " why the hell is it doing that ? " moments following the above routine, but the trimmer still seems to have a mind of it's own sometimes.

Does turn to target function correctly when FD is engaged ? I can't find out for myself right now as I'm in the middle of rebuilding my flight controls

Could it be something to do with the joysticks dead zone, or maybe it's not always centering in the same place ? Might that confuse the autopilot when the trim button is used ? I have similar issues to you, but they are intermittent - just when I think the autopilot is working OK it starts misbehaving again.