Universal military aircraft homecockpit project

[Viper1970]

The new whole sets of the Kiowa and the Apache. In TinkerCAD they aren't really great looking and these are also only the "work-sets". If things are completely ready I always rework them with Meshmixer to make all the faces of the parts smoother and cleaner (TC is very poly limited) before printing them (like the ones shown before). There are also a lot of switches and hats missing. The ones shown here are only prototypes used for adusting the holes etc.

 

All the POV's, buttons and switches will also get the right hats like the original controls have. Only exception is my cyclic for the Kiowa. This is a hybrid of the pilot and the gunner grip (and also adjusted for my center extension and its connector system), combining all the functions of both places in one grip (including a transducer/thumbstick). Not real but better working for my needs, as I wanted to fly mostly in single player. At those positions the pilot grip only has a button, my universal cyclic has a 5way or a 3way POV with push function to mimic the button if you are flying as pilot and same goes for the gunner funtions vice versa.

 

The collective head of the Kiowa will be used with my universal twist throttle collective, at which I can change the heads proper to the type of helo I fly. The Apache and the Blackhawk don't use this twist throttle of course. Their collectives will be directly mounted without this twist throttle part and will have a seperate spilt throttle on the left in case of the Apache or overhead turbine levers in case of the Blackhawk.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

And just startetd the UH-1N Twin Huey collective head . It's also intended to be used with the universal twist throttle collective. Not an exact replica, but good enough for my needs.

 

 

 

Its's mostly based on this one here: UH-1N Cockpit

 

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

First three finished collective systems. The Apache, the Kiowa and the Huey. The Huey collective is for a single (UH-1H) or a twin engined (UH-1N) version and has also some extras for use with a Tow or a Whiskey Cobra. As said before, my controls aren't exact replicas, but as close as I can do them while still fitting my universal needs.

 

The Kiowa has also no twin throttle in real life, but I use my twin twist trottle for all kind of twist throttle helos. While flying the Kiowa only one twist throttle will be active.

 

Two further collective systems will follow. A Blackhawk grip mounted the same way as the one of the Apache, and third head for the twist grip, which will be a copy oft the AH-1Z/UH-1Y collective head.

 

 

[Viper1970]

I'm very excited about the Apache and the Kiowa. But I also hope we will get the years ago already rumored AH-1F/S TOW Cobra some day in DCS, too. It is and always was my favorite attack chooper, since my childhood. In the meantime I started to build the cyclic for it.

 

For the collective I will use my Franken-UH-1N head with the twist grip. Not exactly the right thing, but I have to make some compromises here. It's not possible to do all the things as exact replicas, cause all HOTAS should be interchangeable and also printable with my simple 3D printers.

 

For the Cobra cyclic, I took a Cobra stick I was able to find on Thingiverse reworked and streched the shape a bit and now I'm starting to add some new shapes to it, to make it more looking like the AH-1F/S cyclic.

 

After adding those shapes in TinkerCAD, a lot of rework in Meshmixer is necessary again to adjust and smooth the overall shape again. Not the cleverest solution for building things in 3D, but the only one that works for me without first learning a complex CAD software. I will do this a later time, after the pit is finished. For me at the moment only the results count, not the way I did them .

 

Edit:

 

Reworked the whole grip again in MM, smoothed things out, streched and angeled the POV-hat location (only one side of the upper part cause it's nearly impossible to get the shape symetrical this way), imported it to TC and seperated the "head" from the body. After this I splittet the head half into two pieces, dropped one piece, cloned the remaining one and added it mirrored to the other part.

 

Now it's a bit more looking like this one: AH-1F/S Cyclic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

And some steps further...

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Viper1970

[sirrah]

Very impressive stuff @Viper1970

 

Will you be using available stick, throttle and collective bases? (TM, Virpil, VKB, etc.)

Or will you actually custom build your own bases?

 

I assume you're designing these grips in such a way to be able to quickly swap them, right?

 

 

[Viper1970]

Hi Sirrah,

 

yes I will use a TM Warthog base for the sidestick controls and a modified Cougar base with a changed spring-system (little bit like the old Evenstrain mod) and an additional selfmade extension. The Cougar get's also the Warthog Mainboard and the Hallsensor attached from my second Warthog base, instead of it's own electronics. I use the Cougar base only because of it's better gimbal mechanics which I also rework. All bases should be compatible with TM TARGET at the end, that's why I only use TM parts (electronics) for my mods.

 

The grip PCB's are now swaped out in my latest revision, so that the grips only use the buttons and switches and no other electronics inside (same as the real grips). The advantage of this is that you never need an additional grip PCB anymore to built another grip if you want to do so and you are much more flexible with the placing of the buttons and switches cause there doesn't need to be a space for an additional electronics board anymore. The drawback ist that the cables diameter which gets out of the grip is nearly 8-9mm and you have to use a big plug (SUB-D 25 pol.) at the base for connecting the grip to it. You also have to place this cable outside the extension (I will use quick fasteners at the extension for this), cause you aren't able to get this large plug through a hole in the extension. On the other side I can print my extensions as full material, what makes them much stronger.

 

My grip-electronic-cables get out of the front of a special socket I made, which is placed between each grip and the extension or the adapter plate between the base and its TM-connector system in case of the sidestick. I use two 6mm screw bolts with knurled nuts to attach the grips socket to the mounting plate on the extensions. The cable is very flexible (LIYY control cabels) and plugged with the SUB-D into the bases, where all the electronics are placed including the grip PCB. So I seperate the buttons and switches from the grip PCB instead of separate the grip PCB from the base. There are much more nifty plugs you can get for this, but I used the common-or-garden SUB-D plugs cause they are very inexpensive. Other solutions cost much more.

 

For the collective electronics I use the old Cougar electronics including the functions of the throttle and the pedals (eg. those additional pedal axis for the changeable twist throttle collective lever or something else) and for the monster collectives, like the one of the Apache, one of the grips is also connected to the sidestick electronics (second Warthog base), which are unused in case of flying a helo with the centerstick base. So I have 23 additional functions for one part of the grip I can use plus the 22 of the Cougar stick and the functions, axis and the microstick of the Cougar throttle. The old Cougar throttle get's TWCS electronics to be a seperate TM TARGET compatible device and so the Cougar electronics are not needed anymore and available for my collective systems.

 

For the whole pit and it's function I use Pokeys57U boards to make all the switches dials and buttons functional and also programable if needed.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Viper1970

[sirrah]

5 hours ago, Viper1970 said:

Hi Sirrah,

 

yes I will use a TM Warthog base for the sidestick controls and a modified Cougar base with a changed spring-system (little bit like the old Evenstrain mod) and an additional selfmade extension. The Cougar get's also the Warthog Mainboard and the Hallsensor attached from my second Warthog base, instead of it's own electronics. I use the Cougar base only because of it's better gimbal mechanics which I also rework. All bases should be compatible with TM TARGET at the end, that's why I only use TM parts (electronics) for my mods.

 

The grip PCB's are now swaped out in my latest revision, so that the grips only use the buttons and switches and no other electronics inside (same as the real grips). The advantage of this is that you never need an additional grip PCB anymore to built another grip if you want to do so and you are much more flexible with the placing of the buttons and switches cause there doesn't need to be a space for an additional electronics board anymore. The drawback ist that the cables diameter which gets out of the grip is nearly 8-9mm and you have two use a big plug (SUB-D 25 pol.) at the base for connecting the grip to it. You also have to place this cable outside the extension (I will use quick fasteners at the extension for this), cause you aren't able to get this large plug through a hole in the extension. On the other side I can print my extensions as full material, what makes them much stronger.

 

My grip-electronic-cables get out of the front of a special socket I made, which is placed between each grip and the extension or the adapter plate between the base and its TM-connector system in case of the sidestick. I use two 6mm screw bolts with knurled nuts to attach the grips socket to the mounting plate on the extensions. The cable is very flexible (LIYY control cabels) and plugged with the SUB-D into the bases, where all the electronics are placed including the grip PCB. So I seperate the buttons and switches from the grip PCB instead of separate the grip PCB from the base. There are much more nifty plugs you can get for this, but I used the common-or-garden SUB-D plugs cause they are very inexpensive. Other solutions cost much more.

 

For the collective electronics I use the old Cougar electronics including the functions of the throttle and the pedals (eg. those additional pedal axis for the changeable twist throttle collective lever or something else) and for the monster collectives, like the one of the Apache, one of the grips is also connected to the sidestick electronics (second Warthog base), which are unused in case of flying a helo with the centerstick base. So I have 23 additional functions for one part of the grip I can use plus the 22 of the Cougar stick and the functions, axis and the microstick of the Cougar throttle. The old Cougar throttle get's TWCS electronics to be a seperate TM TARGET compatible device and so the Cougar electronics are not needed anymore and available for my collective systems.

 

For the whole pit and it's function I use Pokeys57U boards to make all the switches dials and buttons functional and also programable if needed.

 

It's most probably not why you are doing this, but you could make a lot of money selling these replica grips.

 

I mean most if not all available products either have a TM connection, or they have a TM adapter.

 

I'm positive that about all Virpil collective owners would want to purchase that Apache collective grip you are making. I know I would 

[DudleyAz]

That's impressive work. I'd love to see pics of the printed items!  

 

What make/model of switches are you planning on using for all the hats?

[Viper1970]

15 hours ago, sirrah said:

It's most probably not why you are doing this, but you could make a lot of money selling these replica grips.

 

I mean most if not all available products either have a TM connection, or they have a TM adapter.

 

I'm positive that about all Virpil collective owners would want to purchase that Apache collective grip you are making. I know I would 

 

 

I don't think that I could make a lot of money selling those grips. They are far from perfect. I mostly use photos to build those "replicas". I also have the dimensions of some of them, but I'm no 3D/CAD professional and only use simple tools like TinkerCAD and Meshmixer to make them.

 

For my own needs they are ok, but for the requirements most simmers have, they won't be good enough. There are some companies out there doing much better parts as I'm able to do and if I had enough money to buy their equipment, of course I would either do so .

 

This project is only a poor man's dream of having a pit for all the birds he ever dreamed to fly in a simulator with the proper controls, since his childhood (I already started simming with classics like Microprose in the mid 80's). The only way to make this dream come true, was to built most of the parts by my own.

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

1 hour ago, DudleyAz said:

That's impressive work. I'd love to see pics of the printed items!  

 

What make/model of switches are you planning on using for all the hats?

 

I will post photos of the printed parts if I made them, of course. At the moment I'm busy with the constructions and only made some test prints of the first parts I made of the F/A-18 throttle and the F-14 throttle. Those parts were also the older unsmoothed versions of my first try without optimations. Since those first attempts I learned a lot more in using Meshmixer for making all the faces of the parts a bit cleaner.

 

I printed those parts on my Creality Ender 3 Pro, which I have a little bit modified. It has a second additional Z-axis spindel to be a bit more precise. For the small parts like POV's and switch caps I will use my Anycubic Photon SLA printer. Sadly it's construction space is too small for the grip parts.

 

The hats will also be printed. There are some good POV's available on Thingiverse, which I modded a little bit to fit my personal needs. I also started to test the use of some cheap chinese 5 direction switches to make the POV's mechanics a little smaller, but they tend to let you accidently press the push-function if you only want to use one of the direction functions.

 

You also have to mod them if you only need a 4way POV and you don't want to have this annoying fifth click of the push function. Originally they were meant to be placed in things like tablets or smartphones, where no big hat is needed to be placed on them, like you do it if you want to make a POV out of them. Under this originale condition they work perfectly, but things change to the bad if you plave a bigger hat on them.

 

 

Here are some pics of my first printing attempts I made. Those first throttle parts weren't really smoothed out with the use of Meshmixer, like I do it with my newer constructions. They are just the way like they came out of the printer. Only the F-14D throttle gots a little bit of sanding to see if it's possible to do a rework of them after printing. I used a layer high of 0.1mm plus an infill of 60% here and printed very slowly to be more precise (40mm/s), but this takes very, very long for printing. Even the small parts of the F-14 throttle took about 18 hours to print. One part of the right throttle handle of the F/A-18 is still missing, cause I reworked those models again and will start a complete new print session if all the other parts are print ready too.

 

P.S:

 

Those recess at the screwings were meant for centering bolts, to keep the parts at level. I dropped this idea in my newer versions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The AH-1F cyclic is also done. I will use this setup with the AH-1F cyclic or an old modified TM X-Fighter (B8 Standard Grip) and the UH-1N "Franken-Collective" for all older Cobras (F and W Models) and the older Hueys (H and N Models). Maybe some day I will also make a Huey H-model collective but meanwhile it's enough. The rest of my controls are modified TM, old Suncom and Virpil grips, so no need to built own grips here.

 

Now I will start finishing the AH-1Z/UH-1Y controls, I already made the shapes for. After that the Blackhawk collective (no extra cyclic here - I will use the one of the Kiowa) and the MV-22B throttle will follow. The last things are the AV-8B throttle and the C-130 Yoke (generic 4 engine quadrant is already made). If those things are done, most of my HOTAS/HOCAS systems are finished for printing. Some also already startet small parts like the F-16 AB-Idle-mechanics for the Cougar throttle, the wing sweep lever for the F-14 and the nozzle lever for the AV-8B will finish the whole project.

 

During the big printing session of all the HOTAS parts I will go back to work at the pit itself and my seperate command unit (which I built for other simulations like fleet-, tank-, or any other military non-aircraft simulation).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

The beginning of the AH-1Z/UH-1Y (Viper/Venom) controls. The shapes are already roughly done. Now I have to integrate all the positions for hats, buttons, switches and the trigger, make those parts hollow, split them into screwable pieces and another time making all the screw connectors (a work I really hate ).

 

Sadly we have no Cobra, or even a Viper, or a Venom in DCS. But I hope some day....

 

In the meanwhile I have to use other simulators for flying those birds. An AH-1F Tow Cobra was already rumored and I hope it will come true some day! I would also prefer the TOW Cobra a lot more over the Whiskey Cobra, cause it would be a perfect fit for the UH-1H Huey we already have for a Cold War scenario.

 

I've seen this birds flying arround here in Germany in my childhood. Since those days the AH-1F was always my favorite attack helicopter and I was a little dissapointed as the Apache took it's place . Of course I also love the Apache, but personally I think the TOW-Cobra with it's flat canopy glasses and the 20mm barrelled rotary cannon looked a bit more agressive. I loved it!

 

 

[Viper1970]

Little further...

 

Placed the trigger, the action switch, some buttons and the POV holes. Reworked some shapes again, cause they will loose detail during the whole hollowing and smoothing process with Meshmixer again.

 

 

 

 

The AH-1Z/UH-1Y Viper/Venom grip is relatively close to the ones used in the F-16 or the A-10, execpt a few details. At the end it should look mostly like this one:

 

 

and short before the splitting:

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

All twist-throttle-collective heads are mostly done now. The Viper/Venom Collective will now also be smoothed out with Meshmixer and then I'm finaly finished with all my changeable heads.

 

Next parts will be the F-14D grip (for the B model I use a moded Virpil VFX) and the Blackhawk collective, cause I have already done all the connectors I need during the making of the other parts.

 

The Harrier and the Osprey throttle need to have another mounting system on top of the TWCS bases I use for them, to be linear types of throttles, so I will do them later.

 

P.S:

 

All the heads share the same twist grip and also the same collective lever (Fanatec handbrake). The picture with the three layouts is only for demonstration how the heads fit.

 

They are mounted on a connector at the twist-collective, which has a single 6mm hole and three pins to keep them in place. The heads only have one single 6mm screw bolt and will be fixed using a knurled nut. The cables will go out of the heads and connected to a box near the base, where all the collective electronics for all the different collectives will be placed.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Just started the work on the F-14D stick and also reworking my F-14B Virpil VFX grip. I will remove all the electronic PCB's inside the grip and I'm also trying to make the bottom of the grip more compatible to my own connection system.

 

Some extra printed parts will be necessary for this and in addition I will also remove this unrealistic paddle switch. The F-14B grip has no paddle mounted to the grip. But for this I have to rework the whole bottom of the grip using some printed parts and doing a lot of manual finishing.

 

Same goes for the TM Hornet and Warthog grips. There will be a paddle switch box at the extension, like the real planes have. Only at one Viper (Warthog) grip the paddle switch will remain for use with the sidestick base flying the F-16.

 

 

Edit:

 

The "evolution" of the F-14D grip . My overall goal is to have most of the controls of my favorite aircraft as realistic as it is possible with my limited skills and also keep them relatively easy printable and affordable. I also wanted to have an easy printable and strong connection system between the extensions/bases and the grips. That's why I use an own system for this.

 

The electronics parts should also be affordable and most of the parts should be standard and easy to get, so that it is always possible to add additional controls in future. I also don't have the demand to make exact replicas, they should only look as close as possible to the real thing without being to complex to create.

 

That's also the reason why I now decided to swap the grip pcb's out of the grips and place them in the bases. The connectors and the outside cables aren't very nice looking, but I prefer this over a more complex and harder to print connection system and the need to equipt every grip with it's own electronics. For sure not everyones cup of tea.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Starting with the UH-60 collective. I had already done the rough shape some months ago. Now I will finish it.

 

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

 

Edited September 10, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Closer to the finish of my HOTAS project. All sticks are done and the collectives are also complete now.

 

Most of the throttles are done, respectively the convertion grips for my Warthog throttles (F/A-18C and F-14D grips). I have also made a convertion "kit" for the warthog to make a F-15E throttle out of the A-10 style. A new right throttle face-plate on the outside for the different switches and their positions is needed and an additional radar elevation wheel on the left throttle grip, which will use the friction poti to be functional.

 

All throttles will get new base face-plates with proper as real as possible layouts. This also means there will be no more back-lightning in the warthog throttle bases, but I can live with that. The consoles will get an additonal lightning with green and white LED-chains and additional UV-LED's to make the lettering a bit more  illuminated. This should be mounted at the planned sidewalls of the consoles.

 

The F-14 throttle convertion is still missing the manual wing sweep. A thing I will do next and this should also use the Warthog's friction pot input. The AV-8B throttle will use a modified TWCS base and the Osprey throttle also. The last TWCS base respectively it's electronics, is used for the standalone Cougar convertion. A nozzle control for the AV-8B throttle is also under construction.

 

A real headache makes the yoke. I will use a third (one curved is for helos and a second is for the jets with an extra paddle lever) extra extension for this, which is locked in it's roll-axis. The roll axis will then positioned at the top of the extension with a pot connected to the yoke which will be guided with a ball bearing. All those different extension should be mountable on my moded Cougar base (with Warthog electronics and sensors, rework gimbal and spring system) at the center position.

 

I'm also looking for a better solution for the side stick. At the moment a mostly standard Warthog base, only exception is my own grip connection system, is planned here, but I really don't like the piston gimbal system of those TM bases. A FSSB system would be a dream, but it's much too expensive at the moment. So I have to find another solution here, which is more smooth around the center. I really hate the behavior of the stock WH bases.

[Viper1970]

Helo and Jet extensions. The bottom part until the four knurled nuts is always the same. The white part is my connector for the four diagonal attached springs I use for the centering mechanism (similar principle like the Evenstrain mod in the old Cougar, but on top).

 

The modded Cougar base will function as the center base and is mounted at the center console 15cm above the ground and angled 15° towards the seat. That's why my sticks here are 15° angled forward. They are also twisted 15° ccw.

 

The hole in the socket is for the cable that will be connected to the base. That's also the reason for the notch  left besides the paddle switch in the jet-extension.

 

The original Viper, Hornet and Virpil VFX grips will get the paddle switches and their mounts mostly removed and will get and extra socket with the same connetion system. There will also be no more electronics in those grips. All will be in the bases including the grip pcb's.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

Back on the F-16C (Cougar standalone) throttle AB/idle mechanics.

 

 

 

 

also finished my templates for the HOTAS Cougar. The throttle was already done, but not smoothed and now I also made the Cougars stick base. I need those parts as dimension-templates for my own addons. They aren't 150% exact, but good enough for my needs.

 

Sadly there aren't good 3D models anywhere for free or you have to pay a lot only to have some constrution-templates. So I took what I can get for free on Thingiverse, adjust those parts and make the rest, like eg. the throttle arm and the housings, by myself.

 

A Warthog base has also to be done, but thats relatively easy. The Warthog throttle could also be needful for adjusting my addon-switch-hats arround the F-14 and F/A-18 grips or things like the F-14 wing sweep, but doing this throttle is a lot of work. Maybe I will look for a reasonable purchasable 3D-model here.

 

 

and the first extensions (yoke extension will follow) mounted on the Cougar base. The four diagonal springs are still missing here (original cougar springs are removed - Warthog boards and sensors will be integrated in the base). They will be connected at the white ring (just a simple zip tie fixed in that notch here - always repairable - no printed lugs) and also at the four corners of the base. I'm thinking about an adjustable srew-mount where the springs are fixed at the corners, to be able to adjust the tension of the springs. But at the moment I have no clue how to do this in a relatively smart way?

 

 

Edited September 13, 2021 by Viper1970

[Viper1970]

For the spring connections to the base I will now use simple eye bolts. I considered some adjustable solutions, but at the end all of this is much to complex. I ordered a bunch of springs now and will take a look which of them will do the best job. Frankly speaking, I'm slowly a bit tired of 3D constructions and want to come to an end .

 

Not all will be perfect and many things will also need some post processing or even a complete overhaul, but I'm quiet happy that I was able to find many useful solutions for my universal cockpit concept. I hope most of them will work.

 

The last three big parts now, besides the nozzle lever for the Harrier and the manual wing sweep for the F-14 throttle, are the Osprey throttle, the Harrier throttle and the Yoke. The Osprey and Harrier throttles will simply be mounted on top of TWCS bases and their electronics will be interfaced with the grips. At the Harrier the nozzle lever will be a seperate part, mounted to the base. This shouldn't be such a big problem, but the yoke on top of my center Cougar base with the locked roll axis is much more a problem as I thought before.

 

I didn't respected some details, which makes the locking more complex as I have thought first. I hope I can find a solution for this, cause I don't want to use a seperate base for it. Only the extensions and the grips should be easy changeable and nothing more. This was the idea behind this whole system.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Viper1970