Cockpit building

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (metalnwood @ Oct 18 2013,10:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess you are following some plans or general guide you have found?

I would have done it slightly differently. Did the plastic (acetal?) support come with the yoke?

You could have gotten away with one of the pillow blocks if you are using the plastic bushing/support at the front. I would have also thought about spacing the two pillow blocks farther apart and not using the plastic support at all. I am assuming that the shaft is reasonably strong?

The plastic block I had already so had it burred down to act purely as a support for the shaft and works well because it has a smooth and strong surface to offer good sliding and roll motion.

The yoke shaft is complete (as extracted from the aircraft) so I decided to keep it because it provides me with the possible deflection distance (as it is an actually yoke tube) problem is that it measures 1 1/4" but and so does the bearing but the bearing is literally point something of a mm too small for the shaft. I had to grind the end of the shaft to fit both the pillow housings. This also allows more room for forward/aft movement; with the housing located forward more it would subtract from the total distance for the pitch. Anyway, I decided to put both on as I got them really cheap and I want to have some weight in the unit (yes could have used a piece of stainless steel but didn't because I got two for one).

Actuallly, with the two pillow blocks it basically puts the C of G only slightly out so the plastic block will provide just a guide for the shaft here.

The shaft is strong enough, surprisingly strong for it's composition (I think it's aluminium as it's really light). Although it isn't exactly how I initially planned I am happy with how it has turned out so far as it still meets my requirements even if it is overkill, but I like overkill because it will leave me room to possibly upgrade to a force feedback yoke using DC motors which is also why I designed the bottom plate with the size it is.

I see your logic, Jase, and I would have done this but had to deviate as noted above.

P.S I don't know how hard it is to do but to finish off the yoke unit I'd like to have some sort of casing to put the yoke internals into and so I'm wondering if you would have the means to possibly help out with this. I suppose the other thing I may struggle with is the design of how I'll have the potentiometer for pitch; maybe rack and pinion? It might need a bit more thought. If you're handy one weekend and I'm still stuck would be good to bounce some ideas off ya.

Cheers,

K.

[metalnwood]

Heh, I see your issue!

What, no lathe on hand to turn it in to a 5 minute job! It's actually smaller than I was imagining. I was guessing around 2" diameter, it's hard to tell from the pictures, it looks larger than it is.

Anyway, most ways will work out fine and I see no real issue with yours. As you know I think about things when there are no obstacles to what I can do in my workshop.

The offer is there to yell out if you need something done thats a bit too tricky with the tools you have available. No problem there.

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (metalnwood @ Oct 18 2013,10:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, I see your issue!

What, no lathe on hand to turn it in to a 5 minute job! It's actually smaller than I was imagining. I was guessing around 2" diameter, it's hard to tell from the pictures, it looks larger than it is.

Anyway, most ways will work out fine and I see no real issue with yours. As you know I think about things when there are no obstacles to what I can do in my workshop.

The offer is there to yell out if you need something done thats a bit too tricky with the tools you have available. No problem there.

Thanks Jase. I'll let you know once I have the rails, i'll probably need to pick your brain at some point. I don't want to be a burden to ya, it is nice to have someone though to get minor bits and pieces done (with me not having the critical tools for the job).

Cheers!

[Ian Warren]

Crikey , looks a little over engineered there Kelvin , obviously design for ruff handling pilot or the neighbours kids !

[towerguy]

For a cheap and easy rack and pinion set to connect to a gear and potentiometer all you need is a 'Dremel or similar', an old Floppy drive or CDROM or DVD, and some time and patience.

Pull the drive apart and you will find rack and pinion teeth and in some cases proper metal rod mounted guides. Just cut out the parts you need with the tool and Hey Presto there are the ready made parts for your sim.

Another method is to take the drive belt and the gears from an old printer. Arrange them in a long loop fore and aft alongside the control shaft and attach to the fore aft moving blocks. At the bottom of the loop put in a gear attached to a Pot. Job done!

lots of ways of skinning cats. Google is the flightsim builders best friend. There is a good forum over at Simviation for home builders as well. I'm not sure where you're based but if you're ever in Auckland you are more than welcome to come over, shoot the sh1t over a couple of beers and talk simming.
Cheers.

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (towerguy @ Oct 19 2013,8:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For a cheap and easy rack and pinion set to connect to a gear and potentiometer all you need is a 'Dremel or similar', an old Floppy drive or CDROM or DVD, and some time and patience.

Pull the drive apart and you will find rack and pinion teeth and in some cases proper metal rod mounted guides. Just cut out the parts you need with the tool and Hey Presto there are the ready made parts for your sim.

Another method is to take the drive belt and the gears from an old printer. Arrange them in a long loop fore and aft alongside the control shaft and attach to the fore aft moving blocks. At the bottom of the loop put in a gear attached to a Pot. Job done!

lots of ways of skinning cats. Google is the flightsim builders best friend. There is a good forum over at Simviation for home builders as well. I'm not sure where you're based but if you're ever in Auckland you are more than welcome to come over, shoot the sh1t over a couple of beers and talk simming.
Cheers.

Thanks for the kind offer! I live out in West Auckland. I'll let ya know. I don't have a dremel tool actually so if ya have one I would certainly appreciate your time to chop and chizel out what I need assuming what comes out of a floppy drive/cdrom is suitable. I suppose its all about length; it will have to accommodate the total travel distance of the yoke.

Cheers,

K.

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Oct 19 2013,7:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crikey , looks a little over engineered there Kelvin , obviously design for ruff handling pilot or the neighbours kids !

Yep, l like overkill! But as I said this will leave room for attaching dc motors for force feedback down the track. I have had cheap yokes before and it just didn't work for me.

I also want to know if a ship needs a makeshift anchor they could call on me

[Ian Warren]

Yeah , noticed the upgrade plans and is a damn good idea regard upgrades later, sorta like a good pressure cooker or fry pan off old .. 50 years time it will still be working !

[metalnwood]

I can cut you out a rack and pinion that will work for this on the laser.

Normally a rack and pinion is made to take some load, in this case if it is just a moving rack used to turn the pinion for an encoder it can be made out of any material as you dont have to worry about wear.

That gives you a good opportunity to get a custom rack/pinion that fully utilises the entire range of your encoder if you go for either a 270 deg pot or a 10 turn pot.

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (metalnwood @ Oct 19 2013,11:40 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can cut you out a rack and pinion that will work for this on the laser.

Normally a rack and pinion is made to take some load, in this case if it is just a moving rack used to turn the pinion for an encoder it can be made out of any material as you dont have to worry about wear.

That gives you a good opportunity to get a custom rack/pinion that fully utilises the entire range of your encoder if you go for either a 270 deg pot or a 10 turn pot.

Just sent you an email.

[Kelvinr]

...just checking the travel on the yoke and looks like i'll need about 400mm for the rail which will be enough as it looks like the one on eBay is 600mm long. The rack and pinion would probably need the same travelling distance and I will be using the 10 turn pots.

[Kelvinr]

Potentiometer connected and aileron tested, working! Definitely feels like I'm in the Grumman again.

[Ian Warren]

May look a little messy , but looking GREAT ! .. and the test flight

[Kelvinr]

3rd and final potentiometer has arrived today. So, I have one for my throttle quadrant, one for my gear module, and one for my yoke. I'm in thought at the moment about what to do for the pedals side of things so considering whether to just just get the Saitek pedals and be done with that as I don't want this little project turning out to be a wallet killer, which is the whole reason I decided to try to complete this project (thanks to Metalnwood for providing some old bits and pieces that were initially heading for the scrap heap).

Besides, I have all the main components that I have always thought were too expensive to buy pre fabricated and/or too flimsy on the functionality leaving the poor old aircraft grounded because of tail strikes or other damage caused by poor flight control hardware manufacturing.

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I have modified my throttle quadrant and gone and mounted two micro switches on the throttle levers for the reversers. Works great I must say.

Once I get all the things together I will post perhaps a short clip and images of the completed project with everything in place and working.

Cheers,

K.

[Kelvinr]

Yoke surgery......working on the support rails and block bearings that have just arrived from China. So so cheap. Here I was quoted about $560. Got them on eBay for $96 including shipping.

[Ian Warren]

Obviously access to a engineering workshop by the looks

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Oct 29 2013,7:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Obviously access to a engineering workshop by the looks

I helped a friend out with his business PC he returned the favor by offering up his workshop to use.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (Kelvinr @ Oct 29 2013,7:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I helped a friend out with his business PC he returned the favor by offering up his workshop to use.

Smooth Operator ... now i guess we may see a newbie flight simmer shortly then

[towerguy]

what were the lengths of the rails after all?
and do you have a link to where you got them, I may be interested in going the same route as they look just the job.

cheers

[Kelvinr]

QUOTE (towerguy @ Oct 30 2013,4:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what were the lengths of the rails after all?
and do you have a link to where you got them, I may be interested in going the same route as they look just the job.

cheers

These were 600mm rails and 12mm block bearings. A Chinese guy on eBay sells them. I'll find the link and post here otherwise his eBay username is "econvenience"

these are perfect for the job.