Force Feedback on a Collective Stick

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

This is a question for developers. Does black shark support Force Feedback for a collective stick?

 

I got an old Saitek Cyborg Evo Force and would love to be able to use it as a Collective stick along with the Collective Brakes ("F" keyboard command).

[Krebs20]

Assign it in game and try it out. If you don't have BS, ill try tonight.

[dbw]

I flew civilian r/w for 17 years and on the aircraft I flew the controls were hydrolically boosted. There was no feedback normally......if any occured it was a hydrrolic system problem.

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

I plugged in my Cyborg Evo Force and tried to use it as a collective stick. Force Feedback did not work.

[Suchacz]

I think that there are no forces on collective in real-life...:music_whistling:

 

Edit: ...except constant mechanical friction, of course

[P1KW]

Well. It would be interesting pedals with FFB. I'm planning to scrap a wheel of TM.

 

At the moment I contain my limited tools and knowledge.

 

Greetings.

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

I think that there are no forces on collective in real-life...:music_whistling:

 

Edit: ...except constant mechanical friction, of course

Well, first of all there is a Collective brake. Force Feedback can (easily?) simulate the brake by locking the stick at the position where it is left at, after releasing the brake (the "F" keyboard command).

 

Next, take a look at the collective stick when you engage altitude hold autopilot. Specially if you select the radio altitude hold. That's a perfect application for a Force Feedback technology.

 

I wonder why ED did not implement this feature?

[CyBerkut]

IIRC, TriggerHappy experimented with having both a FFB Cyclic and FFB rudder pedals connected simultaneously for DCS: BS (version 1) and it did not work properly for trim (ie. holding both the stick and pedals in the trimmed position). He eventually went to a solenoid-based position locking solution, which really would be the way to go.

 

I had started moving toward making some FFB pedals (was going to cable link a Saitek FFB sterring wheel to my old TM RCS pedal mechanism), but abandoned the project once I saw what Triggerhappy had run into.

 

Anyways, the take-away from that is multiple FFB controllers (for different axis control) is not really feasible. Further support for that can be found in PeterP's observations during his dual Sidewinder FFB cyclic project. He found that with two Sidewinder FFB sticks connected, one tracked the other. He was able to capitalize upon that for his specific project, but it is unlikely that one could exploit that for separate axis (ie Cyclic - Rudder - Collective) controls.

 

While FFB controls would make these projects more accessible to us if they could work,... technically speaking the use of FFB for the purpose is not really efficient. Having constantly energized motors for the purpose of holding a control in a new "centered" position is not as efficient as having a solenoid system (which could be normally off to clamp the control, and energized to allow the control to move) for the Cyclic and Rudder pedals, and a mechanical system for the Collective brake.