FIN_Centurion1

Thanks a bunch Stang! It would seem my basic sketch conforms nicely enough to your measurements/proportions. Since you have these blueprints any comment on how comfortable this setup is? Since simmers don't have to contend with G-forces or ejection lines we can design purely for comfort, but I figure a Hornet pit must be pretty comfortable and remember reading a Hornet pilot likening it with a Lexus, perfect for long trips. And the F-16 was the roadster in this analogy IIRC :)

There is many who would be interested in the stick to retrofit with an Arduino and new sensors and gimbal. I would be too but I presume you are in the US?

Ok; I dont have any MFD's and have been using a wireless keyboard in my lap as a stop-gap measure and using it without looking has proved to be doable. I plan on wiring up a simple switch box later to hopefully get rid of the keyboard. Attached a picture of how I envision my setup, minus the arm rests for throttle on the left side and mousepad on the left. I am also in the process of making/designing a new replacement gimbal for my existing X45 hotas, and it will have limited freedom of movement more like a real stick vs. extended normal joystick. Any hornet simpit builders that can vouch for the attached picture in the original post if it is accurate or not?

Hey guys, I am designing a more permanent solution for my sim gear and moving away from a desk type solution. I fly in VR 100% of the time and having controls fixed in 100% the same place every time you fly seems like a good idea. I have a sketch of how I intend to build the rig and already have a test rig out of leftover bits of wood at home, but while a great improvement I decided to try to make detailed plans that conforms to a real cockpit regarding geometry. I have the MIL-STD-1333B document and have seen various drawings online, but now I'd like to hear from other sim aviators. My drawing is based on a F/A-18 Hornet drawing I found on these forums, see attachment. On this layout the rudder pedals are almost at the height of your buttocks and that would be ideal to limit the height of my rig and make it easier to stow away, or possible to permanently use in a certain low ceiling closet/very small room out of sight of the wife :lol: The geometry also resembles the Bf-109 which is my choice mount for WW2 action. Regarding the seat it is reclined, I measured atleast 7,2 degrees of recline on the drawing and the MIL-STD-1333B guidelines for thigh tangent angle is between 5-20 degrees for fixed wing and 10-20 degrees for helicopter pilots. I was deciding to go for about 8 degrees of recline (ie angle of rig/floor and seat) But this is of course rather different from a traditional desk setup where you sit in a normal office chair and have your legs well below seat level - so I'd like to hear experiences from simmers who have this type of layout or has experienced both the more traditional desk chair as well as the legs in front of you layout. How is looking around, is it hard to lean forward (necessary for VR users still)? Thanks for your input!

Lovely video! Great work, whirlybirds are a ton of fun to fly and watch :)

Thanks mate, yeah I suspect this is a non-issue for the pilots, but it would make the AAR videos nicer to watch afterwards if the sides were more distinct. I use photoshop myself so I can't help you with GIMP, sorry. Swear I saw something when googling earlier though, i suppose you have tried "DCS skin tutorial" already? :)

No interest so far I see :) Good that I enjoy this. Started on the Mirage 2000 now, I think the Tropical camo is a good fit for it :) EDIT: The imgur album is updated with more shots

Hey I had the idea to make a thematically consistent serie of liveries for all the flyables, since a lot of squadrons use a mish-mash of plane types to fly with and against, and it looks a bit jarring to have USMC Harriers next to SweAF Viggens next to Serbian Mig-21s. Obviously those who only fly a certain air force are more or less set in the livery department, but I thought it would be cool to have a generic set to use in MP. I started by googling some inspiration, and one of the earliest ones I enjoyed was the Tropical MiG-21 camo. So I set out to adapt that to the Viggen. Once the camo is down it is easy to create variations. I think they will be without markings other than numbers, but any input on that would be welcome. Here is a link to some screenshots https://imgur.com/a/DbUNt Tell me what you think, waste of time? And what kind of color combos do you like?

Hey guys! Finally got all the parts and have assembled, I am still essentially prototyping the best setup of sensors and pedals. Mechanically they work good but I still need to tweak the cam profile. Of course I have discovered some issues too, and I had to rethink the pedal setup. Also, the machine shop only gave me two bearing holders for the pedals instead of the four on the drawing, don't know what's up with that. So temporarily I had to make some wooden ones. Here is a imgur gallery that I will be updating https://imgur.com/a/HZ2jx

Ok guys I sorted it out, turns out the breadboard wires are really worthless. Now I soldered everything it is really steady, I can turn down filtering to x2. Phew! Even with my sensor a bit farm from the magnet using a temporary taped (yes indeed) attachment to the bearing block it works quite nicely. Now I can confidently start figuring out more permanent arrangements. I also need to figure out if I want to keep using MMjoy and the ProMicro or use the Uno R3 and the ADS115 and get that sweet 16bit precision. I also have a 3d hall sensor I can potentially incorporate, but I think I will start simply. I still have some mechanical issues to sort out too. Anyways, major kudos to the makers of MMJoy!

Ok cool, that is good to know. I will try soldering wires and see. I still have a feeling that my sensors are not working though.

Hi all, I am now trying to integrate my really simple hall sensor setup. The problem is I get really "jittery" or noisy output, and moving magnets close to the sensors seems to do nothing. Are all my sensors duds or what? I am confident I have the sensors wired correctly and the mmjoy2 firmware in place. I have the 1302 straight wired to the ProMicro A0 pin.. EDIT: To clarify : I have A1302 sensors from Ebay, from two different sources. Both have the same kind of problem. I use neodymium magnets. I have tried both my Arduino UNO R3 w/ big joystick firmware and the ProMicro with MMJoy2 fimware - in neither they work properly. I get returns but it seems to be mostly garbage. Are all my sensors crap or is there something else. I use the kind of breadboard jumper wires to connect it now in the prototype version, to get a good alignment for magnets and sensors, and plan was to solder wires after that. any ideas?

Cool, working with metal is always tricky and require so many tools that are not readily found in every garage - that's why I initially was going to do wood. I hope the waterjet cutting won't be too expensive for my project or I will be looking at making my pedals out of plywood. Maybe in a couple of years 3d printing will spit out good enough composites as to make metal obsolete for such projects.

That's a very good solution - very easy to 3d print too. Too bad I dont have access to a 3d printer - but that can be fixed, of course.

Ah I see. The pedal springs will probably work great! As for the main axis, springs are certainly the easiest way, but a lot of the professional devices like Slaw's are incorporating both a cam and follower as well as a cheap hydraulic damper - so for me it made sense to emulate those design decisions. It might be a good idea to evaluate if it makes sense for your design to have these features before you take it to the machine shop. A hydraulic damper after all costs as little as 35USD on ebay. I am very interested in your project, what kind of material are you going to use, and what kind of equipment does your machine shop have access to?

For the main axis, I plan to have a nut with one or two neodymium magnets glued on (alternatively if the nut gives interference a piece of plywood with a hole in the middle) and the hall sensor in a shaft of sorts in the bottom of the wooden mounting plate. I might use a melexis 3d hall sensor instead of a regular A1302 sensor IF I can get it to work. The picture shows the idea I guess. As for the braxe axis the middle space between the two bearing holders would be the ideal place to mount a hall sensor. I will have to experiment with the setup to see what works best. I am still missing some electronics components I have ordered. Still haven't heard from the machining shop what the cutting of my parts would cost.

These will essentially be toes on pedal and heels on the ground, but one could substitute the pedal unit for a foot on pedal variant.

Cool, a lot more polished (pun intentended) design compared to mine. What are you using too center the pedals? No hydraulic damper?

Just sent out my drawing to request a quote for cutting up the parts - let's see. Attached a picture of the the pedals with both sides assembled. Not the most elegant nor compact design, but I think this ticks most boxes: cam centering, hydraulic damping, all axis of motion are supported by ball bearings, toe brakes.

Autodesk inventor has a mode for linear cam design. However, me being a decidedly non engineer I wasn't really sure how to fine tune the output, and it also hust output a one sided cam. For the other side I took note of the rotation values of the main arm rotation as well as the cam follower arm rotation in five degree increments and just drew the profile accordingly. For the pedal those are 8mm steel axles, I really doubt it will bend.

Aand last picture before the weekend, the cam profile looks pretty nuts but it gives the same rotation value for the follower arm on both sides = equal spring force on both sides??

Hi, yes I saw your pedals, good job and kudos for an excellent writeup on your method and parts used. I was going to use wood, but now that the possibility of having expertly machined parts are almost within reach is seems kinda cool to do that. Regardless, I will use bearings on all axis. I am struggling right now with my cam and follower design, unsure how to make it work best.

You know Huzar I initially resented your for your comment, but the more I thought about it the more I realized you were right - it will simply look clunky made out of wood and will probably lack the precision I need. So after some googling I found something that I knew existed but had no idea was so versatile - waterjet cutting. And, luckily, a local machine shop has a 3-axis cutter, so I went there today and asked, prices were pretty fair though I have not gotten an exact quote yet (starting cost 40€ + 1,8ish € per minute of cutting + the time it takes to insert my drawings into the machine). Cutting aluminium is pretty fast, even though twice as expensive as steel it will probably be my solution. The drawing shows 12mm material thickness but I will probably go with less, something like 10mm? Thick material does have it's advantages, I need to do some drilling to fasten the gas damper and the pedal ball bearing ears, so less is not always more. Anyways, here is my revised drawing. Looking forward for comments.

Yeah ok, good to know. I thought a lot about sensor placement in the brakes today, and thought about getting a spur gear setup that transfers the main pivot point in a 2 to 1 ratio to a second bearing with a bic pen hall pot inside. This way I get a larger usable movement. 3d printing said gears would be easy but I don't have access to a 3d printer right now.

I found some neodymium magnet rings with 16mm diameter, so if I place these outside of a 16mm plastic tube and the sensor inside the tube I will be good? Or is 16mm too much?