Analogue Brake Lever Add-ON For Warthog Stick

[No1sonuk]

Right up front I will say this is not my idea, and is mostly the original poster's design.
I've made a few changes to the original design which I will detail below.

In response to questions about analogue braking on the Mosquito, someone (I can't remember who) posted a link to a thread on the IL-2 forums where a member posted his design for an analogue brake lever add-on for the Thrustmaster Warthog joystick.

This is the IL-2 forum post in question:
https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/13013-устройства-для-домашнего-кокпита/page/7/?tab=comments#comment-851708

It's in Russian, and to save you the hassle, Google translate came up with this:

Quote

 

https://a360.co/3ktVBpn

PETG material. After reaming the holes with a 3mm drill. M3 nuts (2 pcs) were sunk into the seats with a soldering iron at a temperature of 450 degrees Celsius.

Bearings:

6800-1pcs.
686 -1pcs.

I wound the spring myself on a tube with a diameter of 10 mm, on a cold one, from a spring the diameter of a wire is 1 mm. One turn.

Sensors that can be installed.
Analog potentiometer-V10K.
TLE-5010\11
AS-5600

 

The link there is to his Fusion360 model, which I downloaded.
That spring winding info is a bit vague, and he wasn't too forthcoming with more info, so I gave the parts to a friend who is a DCS pilot and R/C aeromodeller who made the spring for me (more on that later).

I didn't use heat to sink the nuts- I pulled them in with an M3 screw.

Here's the finished lever attached to my Warthog stick.  The black/red/white cable is (currently) attached to a Leo Bodnar board analogue channel, which is bound to the brake axis in DCS.

The lever end of that is one of the modifications I made:
The original design was for the lever to turn a potentiometer shaft.  That would give a small range of movement overall, and the parts the housing was designed for were not standard parts, so I opted for a Hall Effect sensor.
This required the side casing where the pot would go to be "hollowed-out".
In that casing, I fitted a SS49E linear Hall Effect sensor.
I then attached a magnet to the moving lever in such a way as to sweep the magnet end-to-end across the SS49E, giving nearly full 0 to 5V resolution across the lever full travel.

Then we come to the spring.
My aeromodeller friend made the spring using 1.2mm spring wire (probably an imperial size).
About 1.5 turns on a 9.6mm mandrel (see photos).
One end extends out straight. The other end is bent at 90 degrees and goes into a hole drilled in the lever (another of the design changes).

The spring with an M3 nut:

The mandrel for making the spring:

 

In position, but not under compression:

For my version, in addition to the bearings shown above, you need:
1x SS49E (or equivalent) Linear Hall Effect Sensor
1x 4mmx4mmx4mm magnet - I used a 4mmx4mm cylindrical magnet as I had some.
Some 1.2mm solid spring wire (also called piano wire).
The modified 3D printed parts.

I've included a .zip file with the Fusion360 model and a STEP file version.
I've not made STLs yet (I export direct from F360 to Cura).

For the computer interface electronics, I'm currently using a Leo Bodnar board.  The SS49E connects direct to one of the analogue channels.  The Windows calibration routine corrects for the slight lack of coverage range.  I couldn't make it sweep further without increasing the size of the housing, and that already "fouls" at full stick travel on the stock base.

This mod has GREATLY improved my ground handling of the Mosquito.

EDIT: #2 New version with parking brake lock added:

OLD files removed from this post.

Edited November 26, 2021 by No1sonuk
New version notice

[Terry Dactil]

Thank you!

That is something I really need. I made some RPM levers for the Mosquito and feel a bit ashamed for using only two of all the available inputs on the BU0836 board. This will be an easy drop-in connection to make.

 

[No1sonuk]

14 hours ago, Terry Dactil said:

Thank you!

That is something I really need. I made some RPM levers for the Mosquito and feel a bit ashamed for using only two of all the available inputs on the BU0836 board. This will be an easy drop-in connection to make.

 

I'm in the process of making a set of your levers, and already planned to feed my brake lever and home-made rudder pedals into it. 

There's enough room inside for another slide pot on the lid - I'm thinking the mixture control.
Then, maybe the supercharger switch on the side.

I may fit an Arduino Pro micro in mine, though.

[Terry Dactil]

Great design! Everyone with the Spitfire or Mosquito module should have one. 

Half a day's 3D printing produced this. 

Somme comments:

• I am impressed with the Hall sensor mechanism being so small. I'll be using that setup in future projects.
• The ball bearings are probably design overkill.  I did not have any of the specified size handy, so just printed and fitted the plastic bodies used in the design layout. Plastic bearing work fine for me and they should be quite adequate for the purpose here.
• To avoid using supports, I split the handle design in two so they could be printed  flat and then glued them together after printing.
• No problems making the spring.  I used 1mm piano wire wrapped around the 8mm diameter of an Exacto knife handle and it finished up at 10.5mm diameter and fitted perfectly.
• I'm thinking that version 2 should have a spring loaded pin to hold the parking brake on, as in the real thing.
• This is not an easy "just print and assemble" type project, but it is well worth the effort if you have the equipment available (drills and other stuff as well as knowing your way around in the Fusion360 and Cura programs) .

Edited November 13, 2021 by Terry Dactil

[No1sonuk]

1 hour ago, Terry Dactil said:

Somme comments:

• I am impressed with the Hall sensor mechanism being so small. I'll be using that setup in future projects.
• The ball bearings are probably design overkill.  I did not have any of the specified size handy, so just printed and fitted the plastic bodies used in the design layout. Plastic bearing work fine for me and they should be quite adequate for the purpose here.
• To avoid using supports, I split the handle design in two so they could be printed  flat and then glued them together after printing.
• No problems making the spring.  I used 1mm piano wire wrapped around the 8mm diameter of an Exacto knife handle and it finished up at 10.5mm diameter and fitted perfectly.
• I'm thinking that version 2 should have a spring loaded pin to hold the parking brake on, as in the real thing.
• This is not an easy "just print and assemble" type project, but it is well worth the effort if you have the equipment available (drills and other stuff as well as knowing your way around in the Fusion360 and Cura programs) .

 

It's good to see it works for someone else.
It really annoys me when people provide a model, or set of files with bits missing and no easy way to fill in the gaps.  I endeavoured to provide as complete information as I could.

I got the idea for the Hall sensor from Tom Stanton's video here:

He also has another scheme that uses 2 magnets with a gap for further travel, and I've seen another version elsewhere that used a few magnets in a string.
The specific implementation in this was my adaptation.

If you want to use the scheme yourself, the Hall Effect sensor component I made has a detection zone centre mark on the detecting face ( an engraved + ).
I made that model, so feel free to extract that component for yourself.
The model was made with straight pins, then I used the "sheet metal" environment so they could be bent.

I had thought of splitting the handle, and using separate pins to align the halves.

AND the idea of the physical lock had also occurred to me, right after I thought about putting a button on it to set/release the lock in DCS.  It was a DUH! moment. 
It would be useful in some aircraft that don't have an in-game parking brake.

It really could do with some optimisation -mine restricts the forward movement of the stick a bit.
If it becomes a problem, I'll rework the design more.

Edited November 14, 2021 by No1sonuk

[Terry Dactil]

20 hours ago, No1sonuk said:

It really annoys me when people provide a model, or set of files with bits missing and no easy way to fill in the gaps.

Me too!

Thanks for providing all the Fusion360 files so any changes or modifications can be made easily. 

[No1sonuk]

The Fouling at full stick travel has become a problem.
Mainly because it won't allow full stick travel.
This didn't come up when flying the Mosquito as the negative G engine cut-out means I generally don't nose-over much in that.
However, it IS a problem for the A-10...
I'm using a standard base on my stick, with no extension, meaning the lever won't allow full travel forward.
Slight redesign coming, I think...

[No1sonuk]

New version.
I've moved the position of the box up by 4mm.
This has greatly improved the forward travel.
I only modified the main body part with the large bearing and left side clamp half.  This means all the other parts are the same, so if you need to modify yours, you only need to print the one part.

Brake lever3.zip

[Terry Dactil]

Fortunately I don't have this problem as I am using a 10cm stick extension.

I also have an adapter plate that raised the palm rest 5cm so I can easily reach the trim/hat switch without moving my grip.

This causes an apparent problem in that now I can't apply full brake without moving my fingers out of the way as they obstruct the lever's full travel.

However, this is actually a great feature to have!  I can now land the Mosquito, squish the brake lever onto my fingers, decelerate without the risk of nosing over, and have good directional control using the rudder's differential braking effect.  Perfect.    

[Sokol1_br]

On 11/13/2021 at 8:40 PM, Terry Dactil said:

The ball bearings are probably design overkill.  I did not have any of the specified size handy, so just printed and fitted the plastic bodies used in the design layout. Plastic bearing work fine for me and they should be quite adequate for the purpose here.

 

 

The reason of use bearings is to avoid undesired movements in the magnet (eg. axial) what can create jumps in axis response.

[Terry Dactil]

Sorry, maybe I could have explained it better ...

On 11/14/2021 at 10:40 AM, Terry Dactil said:

so just printed and fitted the plastic bodies used in the design layout.

I replaced the metal ball bearings with the same size of plain bearings made of plastic. There is no axial movement possible.

Since there is little movement or loading here a plain bearing works fine.

[No1sonuk]

This has become a bit of a collaborative project with Terry Dactil.
He has come up with a mechanical parking brake modification to the design which works like the original in the Mosquito, and I've incorporated it in this latest version.

Terry's comments:

 

Quote

 

I have modified your Fusion360 files to accept the pin, but to see if it works I'll just drill holes into the original components I have. This will be a 3mm hole from the left side body through the main body, through the lever in the full on position, then 3mm into the right side body. Then increase the hole size to 6mm through the lever and 3mm into the body faces either side of the lever.

Requires:

• A pan head 3 x 40mm machine screw
• the spring from a click type biro pen.
• and print a knob to suit.

I printed only the modified side plates then ran a 3mm pilot hole through the main body and the lever. Then a 6mm drill to enlarge the hole in the lever and the recess on the main body. Not ideal as this was not solid but mainly infill. However, it worked, although it would be better reprinting all the parts.

 

Also attached is his photo.

Brake lever4.zip

[MyCyJIbMaHuH]

Приятно видеть что кому-то понравилась моя разработка модуля.

[Terry Dactil]

Спасибо. Ваша работа очень ценится.