VTX
New member
Hello All!
Like many, I've found that simulators are infinitely more entertaining when you have an actual flight stick or controller to connect to your computer. Being a college student, cheap was the name of the game for me so my initial flight stick was rather bare bones. (seen below) To yaw, you actually twist the grip in your hand which was a little unimmersive for me. While flight pedals can be found for cheap, I wanted to take the challenge of designing and building my own using the parts from the original flight stick.
I began by taking the stick apart which wasn't terribly difficult and eventually yielded me a small potentiometer that I based the whole design around.
And here it is!
The Potentiometer is located in the center here where a long board bearing holds the whole thing together while the nob on the potentiometer goes through the center to attach to the rotating arm.
What makes this arm actually rotate is a pair of push rods that go from the end of the rod to the pedals themselves. The link between the arm and the push rod is done with another bearing so they can freely rotate as they move forward and backward.
There is a small adapter to go from the rod to the pedals so that they can rotate on both axis'.
And from here its just a matter of attaching the pedal to a hinge that is then attached to the base, which will end up being a plank of wood roughly 30 inches by 20 inches.
This is the project thus far, or at least the plan. I have already printed out one of the arms at about 50% infill and it feels really sturdy! I'm just using some steel screws and lock nuts for all the joints and everything seems to be going well. I wanted to post this because I'd love to hear what people think about my plan and any modifications they would suggest. I should also say that I am a beginner with Autodesk Inventor so part of my reason for doing this project was to practice modeling things, so that's my excuse for the less than stellar 3D model.
That's all for this post, I'll have more as I continue building and printing the whole thing!
Tell me what yah think!
Like many, I've found that simulators are infinitely more entertaining when you have an actual flight stick or controller to connect to your computer. Being a college student, cheap was the name of the game for me so my initial flight stick was rather bare bones. (seen below) To yaw, you actually twist the grip in your hand which was a little unimmersive for me. While flight pedals can be found for cheap, I wanted to take the challenge of designing and building my own using the parts from the original flight stick.
I began by taking the stick apart which wasn't terribly difficult and eventually yielded me a small potentiometer that I based the whole design around.
And here it is!
The Potentiometer is located in the center here where a long board bearing holds the whole thing together while the nob on the potentiometer goes through the center to attach to the rotating arm.
What makes this arm actually rotate is a pair of push rods that go from the end of the rod to the pedals themselves. The link between the arm and the push rod is done with another bearing so they can freely rotate as they move forward and backward.
There is a small adapter to go from the rod to the pedals so that they can rotate on both axis'.
And from here its just a matter of attaching the pedal to a hinge that is then attached to the base, which will end up being a plank of wood roughly 30 inches by 20 inches.
This is the project thus far, or at least the plan. I have already printed out one of the arms at about 50% infill and it feels really sturdy! I'm just using some steel screws and lock nuts for all the joints and everything seems to be going well. I wanted to post this because I'd love to hear what people think about my plan and any modifications they would suggest. I should also say that I am a beginner with Autodesk Inventor so part of my reason for doing this project was to practice modeling things, so that's my excuse for the less than stellar 3D model.
That's all for this post, I'll have more as I continue building and printing the whole thing!
Tell me what yah think!
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