OH-58D Kiowa: Fully functional USB collective!

[BaD CrC]

Hi guys,

 

This has been a 6 months long project that I wouldn't have been able to complete without the amazing talent of some pilots of my squadron here (@Zeb thanks! You are a champ!) and some help from Polychop for the dimensions.(thanks guys!)

 

 

Getting your hands on a real OH-58D cyclic grip is already quite a challenge but not impossible (see my post here). But getting your hands on a OH-58D Collective is apparently mission impossible. After months trying to find something on Ebay, I decided, like many other here, to try and build my own and not wait for Virpil to have one finally ready.

 

 

I was facing several challenges (taking into account I have close to no talent to build stuff):

 

- get the proper "collective head" done.

- have the throttle twist grip and the idle release button functional

- get hat switches that don't cost hundreds of dollars each (Otto)

- make the wiring as compact as possible.

 

The collective head was out of reach for me. Thankfully, Zeb, one of our pilots at BSD who is also working on his own collective (it will just be much better than mine!) took the challenge to model and 3D print this part for me. The result blew my mind. Top quality!

 

The collective stick itself was found on ebay from a real Bell 206. So the whole mechanism for the throttle twist grip was already in place. Zeb found a way to mechanically couple the twist grip with a pot as well as a micro switch when the twist grip is in full idle position (once the idle rel button is pressed).

 

For the hat switches, 3 of them were provided (not free) by Thrustmaster customer service. They are the ones you can find on the Warthog grip. The 4th one (lights control) as well as the RPM one are 2nd hand Otto switches also found on ebay. Some hat switches on the real collective are keyed 45/135/225/315 instead of 0/90/180/270. This is useful to feel the different hat switches without looking down. But I haven'e been able to source those specific hat switches and you cant rotate the hat the way you want on TM ones or even the Otto ones.

 

 

I didn't find a cheap way to laser etch the front panel so I used dry decals + matt varnish. Not as clean as laser but I like the weathered effect it gives. Of course, I lost the possibility to backlight it.

 

I know there is no RMT ICS switch normally on the 58D (it's been removed years ago), but I added one ON/ON one nonetheless that I can use to flip from one configuration to another (like left seat to right seat for example, or one chopper to another).

 

 

For the USB interface, I was looking for something that actually fits INSIDE the collective head so I don't have to route dozens of wires (total of 29 wires!) through the two very narrow holes left inside the stick. I found this DSD Micro 32 buttons controller that not only fits, but also it recognized by DCS.

 

 

Now, you STILL have to route almost 30 wires but inside the collective head, and it is really tight!!

 

 

What's left is a USB plug and 3 wires for the pot of the twist grip. I connected the pot on the Leo Bodnard card that I am already using to interface the 58D cyclic + the collective Hall Effect Sensor of my collective base (a microhelis.de one)

 

 

Luckily, the diameter of the microhelis.de base closely match the diameter of the real B206 collective.

 

 

Rudder is not 58D's obviously but it is modded with the centering springs removed and the hydraulic damper installed (see

). Sensation is amazing when flying rotaries.

 

Should be good now, Waiting for the DCS module to be available!

Edited September 3, 2020 by BaD CrC

[Kayos]

Wow, nice work

[shu77]

Hey much tidier inside, Very nice effort!

[Fusedspine33]

Any chance you guys are going to share/sell the .stl files for the collective head?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BaD CrC]

Hi Fusedspine33. As I said, I don't own the stl files. No way I could have done this quality of work.

[Fusedspine33]

Any chance you could ask Zeb? Would be great if he posted it on Shapeways to recoup some of his development time.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BaD CrC]

Yes, I will ask him. Good suggestion.

[Drahkken]

This looks amazing. I'm working on my own and trying to figure out how to do the throttle grip. I see the Pot sticking into the top, but I'm struggling to understand how it's connected to the cork handle. Any chance you could break that open and upload some closer pics of how that attaches and works?

Awesome work, BTW.

[BaD CrC]

Hello Drahkken.

As long as it works I will probably not open it again. Now the grip is connected to a small tube centered inside the handle, then this tube is connected to a pot. Note that the power handle is only supposed to rotate like maybe 30 deg. It's not a full rotation.