OH-58D Kiowa cyclic grip for DCS

[yogi149]

Hi,

 

not requiring any displacement or movement of your thumb.

:huh:

But for the "pressure" in the correct direction, you have to move your thumb.

It is still a joystick, where the deflection (10° for the OTTO J4 type) of the head determines the value you want. And if you release the force, it return to its center.

 

So you have to search the position again?

 

With a 4/5 way coolie I can trigger the wanted position which is hold until I change it triggering to the other direction.

 

For me this behaviour would easier to use while steering the cyclic.

 

I use a 4-way on my cyclic for my beep-trim system, a self-centering function would be counterproductive. :cry:

 

 

On a camera where the thumb can rest on the coolie, this function is really nice.

[Vladinsky]

Going from a 4 way switch to a force transducer for sensor control is the joystick equivalent of going from a monitor to VR, that's how big the difference is. It's specially noticeable in the Ka50, zero curves or saturation required.

 

As for having it on the cyclic, that's only an issue if there's very little resistance/no force trim system. The OH-58D takes it a step further and gives you the option to disengage the copilot cyclic from the control system. The copilot cyclic is also the only one with a transducer.

Its location instead holds the force trim release switch on the pilot side.

[yogi149]

Hi Vladinsky,

 

 

so it is only usefull with a multicrew version?

Or in position hold with autopilot, switching to the co-pilot position.

And the co-pilot can't do both at once too?:music_whistling:

 

 

So why is it on the cyclic stick? :pilotfly:

 

 

I agree, that modern sensoring and steering make some things "easier", but not everything does make sense to me. :(

[RabidRider]

Those military grade buttons, too costly or impossible to source for a grip, from say Microhelis or Komodo? I have no idea how these last ones feel like, but it would be nice to have an option like that, for a higher price.

[Vladinsky]

As a module in DCS without multicrew I imagine you would just cram everything you need onto your joystick/collective regardless of where it's actually located in the cockpit.

 

 

 

My transducer requires about 2lbs for maximum input, which is about the same force required to actuate the trim switch on the Lynx cyclic I use as a joystick, I think it would work ok.

 

 

As for why they did it, literally no idea. But if I were to speculate, perhaps the collective was too crowded with switches already, or perhaps it made more sense to disconnect the copilot stick rather than installing a separate sensor control grip due to space restrictions.

 

 

Those military grade buttons, too costly or impossible to source for a grip, from say Microhelis or Komodo? I have no idea how these last ones feel like, but it would be nice to have an option like that, for a higher price.

 

 

You can get them but they'll be very costly if you're buying them new from lets say, OTTO. You can however find good deals on ebay from time to time, search for otto pushbutton or otto switch. Typically the sellers are located in north america so you might get hit with import tax too.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Vladinsky

[RabidRider]

Ok thanks

[BaD CrC]

Yogi. The transducer basically doesn t move at all. It s just working like realsimulator’s fssb R3 force gauge.

Yes, trying to source military switches is really hard, and when you find them, they are very expensive. It won t make any sense to use them for controls aimed at flight simulations as it would make these controls cost several thousands of dollars.

[BronzeYardNo11]

lmao I offered the same seller $400 for this about 6 months ago!

I'm not too salty though, I recently got myself an AS350 grip. Similar style/button layout.

[69th_Zeb]

Those reference images were awesome. Thank you. Might be a fun project someday.

[Thick8]

I've built a collective with a hot swappable mount. I have the Huey head done and am working on the Kiowa. What I have now is extrapolated from some drawings and pictures. Does anyone have any dimensional drawings of the Kiowa head?

John

[nighthawk06]

Woah! Very impressive ;

[Mackenzie546]

On 11/25/2019 at 2:29 PM, yogi149 said:

Hi,

hm, we got pictures from the Austrian-Army (not Australian ) for the OH-58A cyclic grip.

Left in the double picture, that shows my WIP for the grips.

 

And we got a German-Army Huey grip.

 

 

BTW: for the A type, the collective seems to be the same as for the Bell 206 Jetranger.

But the D-Type did not look difficult

 

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, however I’ve been trying to create an oh58-uh60m cyclic grip, without much success. Do you have the CAD model shown in the images above that you would be able to provide me with? Willing to pay as well if needed

[Ernest]

On 11/24/2019 at 11:06 PM, BaD CrC said:

I came across a real OH-58D copilot cyclic on ebay. Price was crazy high but the seller, a retired Army veteran, kindly accepted to reduced his price by 50% which didn't make it cheap but at least a little bit more sane.

 

 

 

 

The grip was in perfect condition, all wired up and after an hour spent with a ohmmeter to look for what wire is doing what, it turned out that all the pushbuttons and other switches were perfectly working.

 

 

The thumb stick for the control of the mast sight though gave me a bit of a headache though. It was a motional transducer, not the usual 4 directions switch. It basically works like a mini joystick but the range of the resistance delivered was way too small to be measured like one. After thinking about this over and over, I had to make up my mind and replace it :cry::

 

 

 

Woah, why would you replace it. That is the best part of the stick. All you need is two amplifiers like AD8422 or a single THS4552 which then connects to your analog pins like usual. alternatively you can use two hx711 in 80hz mode. Anything you put needs to be as close as possible to the transducer. also being able to target with a transducer is way faster and easier then with the 4 switch joystick. Im curious how its made inside, maybe it's easy to replicate.