BYOD

[Nightdare]

Welcome to: "Build Your Own Detent" 

 

I got the F-14 where the Orion 2 fingerlift kit works great

But I also got a Spitfire, A-10 and Av8 (A-10 and Av8 are in the fridge until I mastered the Tomcat, I got enough flying hours in the spit in 'other games')

For the Spiffy, I use left throttle for Prop pitch and neither the cutoff or the AB are practical there, the AB is somewhat useful for WEP on the right, but in combination with the F-14, screwing around with the 'movable' detent is a bugger (1 square nut already ended up inside the throttle) and there is a big difference between the 20% AB for the Tomcat and the 8-12lbs boost for the spit to map it in the DCS joystick curves

...Now, i could just remove the whole detent frame, and just keep the boost gauge visually in check, but where's the fun in that?

 

Took a look at the frame, wondering if I could make my own and I figured I do what I do best, "Eyeball and improvise"

I got some tools and materials at work to pull it off, and put in some "overtime" 

 

Tried it first in plastic, but that didn't give me the result I wanted, so I tried aluminum

 

First off, the 110mm length of the detent base in the WW manual is cutting it close with the mounting holes at the edges, if I'd do it again, I'd add another 5mm tot the length of the base

Also, the 15mm width in the manual is scuffing the levers (it already does with the WW frame), so I went with joining 2 3mm aluminum L-profiles and making the 'base' 14mm wide

this diminished the chance of scuffing the levers/frame AND gave me a 6mm wide right-side detent that would not scuff the left fingerlift OR right lever

Initial 'design' I kept the detent ridge high for the simple fact it's easier to remove material than add it back again (AKA starting over), so the first fitting back home was way to high, (also didn't wear my glasses, so the 102mm hole distance ended up wrong, simply slotted out the top hole)

I also kept the Cutoff peak, so I don't have to recalibrate the axis in WW software and because the Spit doesn't have chocks in game (Really Eagle Dynamics?????), so I can map the joystick to brakes all the way back

the WEP is now a slight 'feel' so I can vary boost at changing altitude without sliding 'just over the start hump' of the WW AB detent 

 

The result:

at first fit, I found the 'prop pitch' to hit the top mounting bolt of the frame, so I screwed in a small piece of aluminum plate to make a 'stop' (I also had to file down one of the bolts that keep the 2 profiles together, for the left finger lift 'nub' was scraping it)

I might make a similar stop from L profile to match the 'hook' of the WEP stop, as is, both levers max is now equal to each other, but the right actually stops, while the left has a bit of 'push-thru' and 'bounce-back'

 

Nope, it won't win any beauty contests, but it works!

Maybe I'll try a 2.0 in the future, but for some reason, my jury rigging temporary solutions always seem to end up better than 'improved' attempts  null 

Edited February 9, 2024 by Nightdare
Typo in the title "Doh!"