Biggus Posted January 8 Posted January 8 I'm slowly building a left console and I'm hoping that I'll be able to make the throttle grips a bit taller. Has anyone else done this before? Are the connectors mini-DIN like the joystick? Any potential traps that might need to be considered?
Nightdare Posted January 8 Posted January 8 (edited) If you have the possibility to make your own extended mounting plates, you're halfway there (But you better make them tough, either high quality 3d print or CNC aluminum) The connectors would need to be extended and IIRC are different from MiniDIN (4-pin I believe), another pitfall is if you want fingerlifts, then you're going to have to rework the mechanism and detent for increased applied force and height, as well Edited January 8 by Nightdare 1 Intel I5 13600k / AsRock Z790 Steel Legend / MSI 4080s 16G Gaming X Slim / Kingston Fury DDR5 5600 64Gb / Adata 960 Max / HP Reverb G2 v2 Rhino FFB / Virpil MT50 Mongoost T50 Throttle, T50cm Grip, VFX Grip, ACE Rudder / WinWing Orion2 Navy, UFC&HUD, PTO2, 2x MFD1, PFP7 / Logitech Flight Panel / VKB SEM V / 2x DIY Bodnar Button Panels
Biggus Posted January 8 Author Posted January 8 I've worked out that they're GX12 connectors. I've found some on Aliexpress in a few lengths already assembled, so I ordered a pair of 100 mm extensions. Left throttle is six pin and right throttle is three pin. I'm working with an original Orion 1 without fingerlifts, so it's going to be less complicated for me on that front. Next step will be to design the plates. I'll start with PETG prints with six walls and a fair bit of infill. I've got a small CNC that might just be able to do some alloys, but it looks like it's 5.5mm thick which is probably outside the capability of my machine. MDF might be worth a try.
Nightdare Posted January 8 Posted January 8 There is a topic about someone 3-printing new WW grip mounts after his cracked, you might be able to modify the design for length Also, looking down the arms, the baseplates have a "2 offset plates sandwiched onto each other" form, you might get away with bolting 2 plates together for the same general form I really don't think MDF is the way to go, and you'd be better off finding some harder plastics to work with Intel I5 13600k / AsRock Z790 Steel Legend / MSI 4080s 16G Gaming X Slim / Kingston Fury DDR5 5600 64Gb / Adata 960 Max / HP Reverb G2 v2 Rhino FFB / Virpil MT50 Mongoost T50 Throttle, T50cm Grip, VFX Grip, ACE Rudder / WinWing Orion2 Navy, UFC&HUD, PTO2, 2x MFD1, PFP7 / Logitech Flight Panel / VKB SEM V / 2x DIY Bodnar Button Panels
Biggus Posted January 9 Author Posted January 9 I'm open to different materials. My plan at the moment is to mock up the arms and then have them made in alloy once I'm happy with the geometry. I did find the files for the 3d printed replacement arms and had a good look at them in Fusion, but STL files aren't particularly easy to work with when it comes to making changes. But I've been using them as a reference for the designs I'm working on. I was planning on doing very much like you're suggesting, sandwiching the base arms with the extension. I'll report back when I've got something useful to show. 1
Cgjunk2 Posted January 12 Posted January 12 On 1/7/2025 at 11:36 PM, Biggus said: I've worked out that they're GX12 connectors. I've found some on Aliexpress in a few lengths already assembled, so I ordered a pair of 100 mm extensions. Left throttle is six pin and right throttle is three pin. I'm working with an original Orion 1 without fingerlifts, so it's going to be less complicated for me on that front. Next step will be to design the plates. I'll start with PETG prints with six walls and a fair bit of infill. I've got a small CNC that might just be able to do some alloys, but it looks like it's 5.5mm thick which is probably outside the capability of my machine. MDF might be worth a try. For what it’s worth, I had an early version of the Orion 2 throttle base. Well, technically, I had two of them. Both bases developed dead axes within a month of receiving them. Based on my observations and diagnostic work at Winwings behest, I suspect both of them were very susceptible to stray static charge. Both of the based died in winter in the northern hemisphere, where walking around on carpet will build up static charge on your body due to the very dry air. Both of the faulty bases would get a static discharges on some occasions when I first touched them. Sometimes the shock was quite loud, and caused the computer screen to blink on-off briefly. I think the base’s design must have allowed the static discharge to make it’s way into the motherboard. I shared my suspicions with Win Wing support, but they didn’t confirm the cause of failures (not that I expected them to tell me what was wrong). The third base that they sent me took a while to get to me, but it had some changes that seemed to be visibly geared to improve electro-static isolation (plastic clamps over the axles instead of metal). I suspect they must have made other grounding changes as well. Thankfully, whatever they did nailed the problem, because my third throttle base unit has been running flawlessly for a year. The reason I mention all this, is that the mounts that hold the grip to the throttle lever may be part of the total system that isolates the grips electro-staticaly from the base. Making metal extension mounts may be risky depending on your climate and depending of how well the Orion 1 design isolates static discharges. 1
Biggus Posted January 19 Author Posted January 19 GX12 extensions have arrived. They work. Unfortunately I ordered the 100cm ones and not the 100mm ones. But that's not the end of the world and it probably gives me a little more flexibility with my console layout. The next question is going to be about how to tension the arms. I don't think it would be wise to rely on the tensioners within the base, so I'll need to do it externally.
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