Huey Pit Build

[Mt5_Roie]

Started working on my third pit which will be used for Huey and FC3. I tested my first panel today:

 

 

Here's some pictures as well:

 

Early stages

 

Covered and printed panels

 

Left panel

 

Right panel

 

I have all the switches and buttons in both panels. But only got to wire up the right panel for now. I need to order another USB controller for the left panel.

[Phantom_499]

That is COOL! You will have to share more about your Huey sim pit when you get it completed!

 

 

Phantom_499

[Mt5_Roie]

More panels wired:

 

 

I'm waiting for a GP-WIZ USB controller to come in so I can do the rest of the panels. Also ordered a SSD hard drive, 24" monitor, and X52 Pro system for it.

 

I have an idea how to create a collective as well, but need to test some stuff with that when my spare joystick comes in

[Mt5_Roie]

I started working on the collective. Need to get some parts this week to link them up...

 

I tightened it enough so it can stay put:

 

 

 

Here's the joystick I'm going to hook it up with.

[TimeKilla]

Subbed you on YouTube looks great the collective looks a bit short but guessing you're adding something on to it. :thumbup:

[Mt5_Roie]

Yeah I had a metal bar I tested by it didn't work the full range. I"ve been looking at different collectives online and I think I can do it with a wooden dowel and some aquirium tubing. Will try to go to walmart tonight and get the tubing. I"ll post pictures when it's ready.

 

Hopefully the SSD hard drive arrives this week so I can get the machine up and running. Been testing my the panels on my test machine for now.

[Mt5_Roie]

Ask and ye shall receive. Although right now I've only done the right panel and some of the left panel. Waiting for another GP-Wiz40 to finish the left panel.

 

Keep in mind that these are what I consider phase one panels. That means they work, but aren't soldered connections yet. Once phase one is all done (all panels wired up), I test them like hell. Make sure everything works. That's phase 2. Phase 3 is soldering all the connections and testing again. Being in phase one I still might make some big changes to them, but that only comes after testing.

 

Here's the right panel which uses a GP-Wiz40. I tend to favor 16 gauge wiring, but thats really an overkill:

 

Here's the GP-Wiz40 unit close:

 

This is the left panel which has the light section done and the front small panel connected. It uses a Leo Bondar BU0836 unit I had from a long time ago:

 

The unit is really small. If you just have momentary switches you can do up to 32 on it, but I choose to use it with 12 switches which can stay on or off all the time:

 

Here's the back of the small from panel:

[Mt5_Roie]

I did a "Mygver" job on the collective tonight to see if my theory would work. Tried wooden dowel with rubber bands and a lot of tape. It works, but going to get something better this weekeind.

 

Used my laptop to test since I haven't set up the computer for the pit yet (waiting on the SSD).

 

[Mt5_Roie]

So I've been working on some panels overlays to use on this pit. My idea is that the pit will be Huey at the base. But with the overlays you can use it for the A-10C and the P-51.

 

Original Huey Panels:

 

 

 

A-10C Panels:

 

 

 

 

I need to spend a little more time in the P-51 before I can design the panel overlay for it.

[Mt5_Roie]

So yesterday was a mini holiday for me. SSD hard drive arrived, X52 Pro arrived, and USB controller arrived. So I spent last night putting Windows 7 on the SSD hard drive. The drive was an odd fit in the computer so I built a brace for it so it'll work. I got the OS installed, DCS World installed, the Huey, Tars, Teamspeak, and FRAPs.

 

Tomorrow I'm working from home so I'm going to wire up the rest of the left panel. I also stopped by Home Depot today to get the stuff to fix the collective. Also picked up some green spray can to do a test on painting.

 

Will have pictures up sometime tomorrow after things are done, maybe even a video.

[Mt5_Roie]

So kind of good and bad day today as far as the pit goes. I spent the morning wiring up the radio panels and testing them on the test machine. They worked fine. I then tried to modify the collective to be a little more useful. You can see both things in the video.

 

 

While the collective looked good in practice, in the sim it lacked a bit. First the joystick I was using wouldn't do full range of up and down, even after calibration. So I ended up re-doing it to use left and right. While the connection to the collective was good, the action wasn't as smooth as I like it. Not only that, the angle of the collective was quite high and hard to hold. So I made some modifications again and tested it. While it works, there seems to be little dead spots during the action of the collective that make it hard to use in the sim properly. So for now, I'm going to have to abandon the collective side of it. I think I'm going to start looking at how to mount a poteniometer to it or maybe a hall effect sensor.

 

Also, the box I got for the front of the collective made it too heavy for the tension of the bolt to support it by itself, so had to scrap that part for now as well.

 

I did finally get the new monitor our and get everything up and running. I found that I need a USB hub in order to get everything plugged in. I did a quick flight trying to get used to the X-52 Pro and was able to get some good hovering done. I need a lot more practice with the new controls to feel confident with them.

 

I did test the right panel again and everything is still working fine. I'm hoping this weekend to do a mass testing of all the systems so I can start soldering things in place next week so they don't keep falling.

 

I was hoping to do a paint test as well, but seems like we got a lot of rain here in PA today.

 

Here's some pictures:

 

Daughter helping me build the box:

 

The pit as she looks now. Still need to test all switches/buttons...solder...test again...and paint

[cichlidfan]

Looking good! :thumbup:

 

I was hoping to do a paint test as well, but seems like we got a lot of rain here in PA today.

 

As for the rain, I am pushing it up that way as fast as I can. I am trying to do some work outside too!! :D

[TimeKilla]

Looking really good buddy, I was really hoping the collective would just work for you looked like something I might try out so hope you manage to get something sorted out with that.

 

It's cool to see you have a little helper there to. :thumbup:

[Mt5_Roie]

The collective bummed me out as well. I've seen people using throttle connected in a similar manner to do it. So we'll see if I can find a throttle somewhere to try it out.

 

Installing all the modules now on there and hoping to do some testing this weekend.

[Avilator]

Have you tried adding some weight to the side of the collective opposite the hinge to balance it out and make the bolt work?

[Mt5_Roie]

Well I found a solution I hope to test this weekend. I found an old throttle from an x65 that the flight stick went bad on. I attached it and so far it seems to work a lot nicer. Because it has some tension on it the box can stay on.

 

So I think the lesson learned here is joysticks aren't designed to stay in a non-centered way for long periods of time.

 

Will lost video when I get a chance.

[Mt5_Roie]

[agrasyuk]

Roiegat, while it is all nice I think you can do better. I understand you not going for aesthetics , but for starters perhaps cut down on using sticky tape and such?

[BIGNEWY]

Every version of my pit has been built with what I had lying around at the time, over the years I have started to use real aircraft parts.

 

Pit building is a passion and it never goes away, it just reinvents itself when your needs change :)

 

Keep up the good work, its looking great

[Mt5_Roie]

Roiegat, while it is all nice I think you can do better. I understand you not going for aesthetics , but for starters perhaps cut down on using sticky tape and such?

 

The sticky tape collective was removed today in favor of a tubing/joystick model which didn't work well. Latest version is a throttle version which uses tubing and a dowel to connect it to the collective - and no sticky tape.

 

I usually favor function over aesthetics. Once I've tested it and it works the way I want - then I'll worry about making it pretty. This pit is still in the very early stages of prototyping and things change on it all the time. So sometimes sticky tape is used to see if something works better.

 

All part of the fun that is building a pit.

[Mt5_Roie]

Couples notes on this video:

 

-I moved the radio panel a little away so you can see the collective better.

-I've only had the X52 for a couple days, and trying to get used it vs my X65 that I use in my A-10C pit. TRying to figure how to tighten the control a bit so right now she's a bit loose.

-I haven't wired the buttons on the collective yet. Once all functional tests are done I'll do that.

-wanted to see if a dual picture in picture could be done in Imovie....so enjoy.

 

 

 

I think I'm leaning towards painting the bottom part of the collective green and the grip part black with plasidip to give it a rubber feel. Anyone else use plasidip on thier pit?

 

I did manage to spray pain a spare panel I had and it looks like I really dig the hunter green color. Seems to go well with the sim. So next weekend I'll try to paint most of it.

[Gecko6]

I like your cockpit. Simple, functional, and works great. Keep posting your progress!

[Mt5_Roie]

I finished up some of the overlays for the pit and also got some color on it.

 

[Mt5_Roie]

Sorry for the lack of updates. It's in the testing phase where everything is configured and tested.

 

TrackIR - installed and working great.

Huey: The huey is all programmed in and is a blast to fly with this pit!

A-10C: This has been taking most of my time the last week trying to find a good X52 configuration. I think I finally found one and today I was actually able to mid-air refuel for the first time in the pit.

 

Will work on getting P-51 and FC3 programmed next week.

[bilbosmeggins]

Great work. The Huey looks a delight to fly with your setup.