F-18 grip, WARTHOG compatible

[kolga]

It's all good! Hegy for president when he starts selling products!

 

Sent while I should be working instead.

 

Make Simpits Great again! :D

[hegykc]

Just one question Hegy ...

When can we buy the head tracker and the springbals ...its mid-Aug already ...:noexpression:

 

The spring mod, very soon. It's just a matter of picking out the spring sets that will come along with it. It's vacation season over here, many of my suppliers are not working, plus we had a couple of national holidays this month so I lost some time. Still, it's just around the corner.

 

Head tracker goes into prototyping the moment spring mod goes into sales. All the cutting, bending/forming, engraving and milling I do on these panels will be used on the head tracker too, so all the manufacturing will already be setup.

 

Today's prototypes:

Engraved brushed aluminum name plates (not printed stickers)

I will use these a lot, both in replica cockpits and on my generic panels/throttles/joysticks. They are not stickers, but 1mm thick, matt black plastic with brushed aluminum finish and will be secured with screws just like the real things.

 

And they're all designed in parametric cad, no corel/photoshop eyeballing stuff, everything according to NAA blueprints:

Save

Edited August 16, 2016 by hegykc

[RAZBAM_ELMO]

They look really nice hegy but would resources and time not be better spend on your spring mod and stick grips. Not to mention warthog slew? I mean if someone were to buy a panel or a stick you could offer a free placard of choice for free as a bundle.

 

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[hegykc]

They look really nice hegy but would resources and time not be better spend on your spring mod and stick grips. Not to mention warthog slew?

 

Warthog slew replacement is out for now. Can't connect it to the throttle pcb so you would need to route the wires out and make an enclosure for an arduino etc... It would be simpler to make a whole new throttle unit.

 

I didn't get the custom springs for the spring mod last week because of the vacation season and holidays, so while I wait, I prototype panel related things. Grips need a whole bunch of stuff first: pcb's, custom push buttons, more 3d printers etc. So this takes priority because I need something simple that will sell while I spend a few months prototyping the grips.

[mr_mojo97]

I'm sure he's mentioned on a few occasions now but you've probably missed that he's fine tuning his procedures for manufacturing the more complex stuff by doing his simple products first. Doing it the other way round just to please a few people will inevitably lead to longer processing times and higher prices.

I'm sorry but I just don't get why people keep suggesting to him the way he should do it. He's been think about his business for 3 years plus and he's obviously thought about everything that's been asked here- why not this way?, why not that way? He's doing it his way to make it better/cheaper for us. Was Rome built in a day?

[hansangb]

--snippage--

 

Was Rome built in a day?

 

In minecraft it was! :D

 

Speaking of which I'll have to download it and give it a shot again. Last time was with DK1 and hacked version of Minecraft.

[mr_mojo97]

Speaking of which, it popped up in my rift as a beta. Anyways back on topic......

[hegykc]

Still waiting on the springs for the spring mod, due to the vacation season.

 

And by "waiting" I mean working. Today's prototype:

 

UH-1 Huey collective enclosure (missing some details). This is a perfect example of why I prioritized this type of manufacturing. It took me 2 hours to design it, along with the tools and jigs needed for bending and forming, and I'm getting better and faster each day. This unit is manufactured in 5 minutes, and assembled in another 5. That's 10 minutes, from zero to what you see in the picture. So I can design all the DCS collective enclosures in a day, manufacture a few hundred of each in another day, in advance on my own dime, and box them up and stock them for immediate shipping upon purchase. No matter how rare the DCS module is and how low the sales will be. That means it doesn't have to cost a few hundred dollars per unit, this could be a $30 part in my shop, once everything is setup and there's a 100 other products in the shop . I'm not stopping here though, it will have a base (with replaceable collective grips) and working force trim system.

 

So that's what I'm all about. Not selling things cheap, but making them cheap. And fast. Drive that development and manufacturing cost into the god damn ground.

 

 

 

In case anyone needs a huey, gazelle, Black Shark or Mi-8 standalone collective grip for their DIY project right now, let me know, email is in my profile. I will be prototyping all of them next week.

Save

Edited August 19, 2016 by hegykc

[RAZBAM_ELMO]

Making good progress. Good job. Try reaching out to some of the guys building shark or huey pits. I know reaper6 has a pit somewhat for his Black Shark.

 

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[TomOnSteam]

$30 for a replaceable grip...... I guess that means I'll be buying all of them... and also....

 

[fixen]

Looks good.

[Sokol1_br]

Warthog slew replacement is out for now. Can't connect it to the throttle pcb so you would need to route the wires out and make an enclosure for an arduino etc... It would be simpler to make a whole new throttle unit.

 

Since this replacement slew will require his own controller (Arduino) how about a panel to fit in front of Warthog throttle LAST panel, with the same dimensions of this, with trim controls imitating F-16 trim, using the same controller, think will be useful for WWII players.

 

Similar to what the guy did there - but with look matching Warthog one.

 

http://simhq.com/forum/files/usergals/2015/08/full-28577-106947-20150807_135337.jpg

[98abaile]

I really want to see what ideas hegykc has for the collective throttle mechanism.

[aaron886]

That thing looks amazing. Great progress!

[Mtnbiker1998]

I don't fly helis enough to justify buying a whole collective unit, but what if there was some kind of system that attached to the Warthog throttle base and allowing it to be placed on the ground and act as a collective? I remember seeing a post on here awhile ago showing the throttle grips popped out to be replaced with F-18 grips. I'd imagine the same could be done with a long pipe and your new collective enclosure could be attached along with any future ones for Gazelle, Hip, Black Shark.

 

Does this sound possible?

 

 

Also, i've been looking for some Hotas dust covers more fashionable than a sock or plastic bag. I dunno if textiles are your area of expertise, but I'd love to see what you can come up with Hegykc.

[Phantom88]

Very interested in Huey grip

[Thisdale]

Suggestion:

 

Update OP with current information on your work? I've been trying to catch up through 60 pages of threads and its rather difficult to figure out what's out, what's out, and what's coming?

[Shadow_1stVFW]

Suggestion:

 

Update OP with current information on your work? I've been trying to catch up through 60 pages of threads and its rather difficult to figure out what's out, what's out, and what's coming?

Very good idea, I support this

 

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[hegykc]

Only small details today:

 

toggle switch connector bar, and toggle safety guards found on modern jets too.

 

 

 

Led push-to-check lamp found in WWII props and Korean era jets:

 

And again, this is not about making one bar, guard or lamp. Anyone can make a 3d model and have it 3d printed on Shapeways for 25$. This is about designing it in such way, and developing the tools to manufacture each of these for 0.05$. And these are done. The goal is to not have a small part more expensive than a 1$ to make and takes no longer than a minute to manufacture (including paint and engraving), and not a panel more expensive than 5$ to make and takes no longer than 5 minutes to manufacture (including paint and engraving). Goal achieved. The same will be done for more modern instruments with digit displays, digit counters and 3d artificial horizons.

 

This one is going under the knife sometimes this week. B-17 front panel with mechanical instruments. A test bed for FSX/Prepar3d platform. B-17 because it has curved shapes on the panel boxes, it has single pointer, dual pointer and triple pointer instruments. Push buttons, 2-way and 3-way toggles both latching and momentary, safety guards, connector bars and safety bars. Potentiates and rotary selectors, led mounts and led lamps etc.. Basically it has everything you can imagine in a WWII cockpit. This way I can develop most mechanical stuff in one pit, and just use the components on the rest of them. Also after I'm done, I can send it to FSX/Prepar3d crowd so they can work on interfacing it while I prototype DCS WWII fighters.

Edited August 24, 2016 by hegykc

[Postal2]

OMG !!!! wow !!!

[Myst]

Looks awesome - people are going to go nuts over these.

Also, sorry but I have to ask...Any F/A-18 panels? ;)

[wasserfall]

Don't tell me those instruments really work??

[cichlidfan]

Looks nice, and would be great if we had a B-17 to fly but...

[Weasel]

Looks awesome - people are going to go nuts over these.

Also, sorry but I have to ask...Any F/A-18 panels? ;)

 

+ 1

[tintifaxl]

Don't tell me those instruments really work??

 

Not yet, they are only renders. :D