I am happy to announce that as of today, I have the necessary approvals needed to make and sell copies of the control stick of the Viggen, called ‘Styrspak FPL 37 Viggen’. ‘Styrspak’ is swedish for flight stick, or control stick, meaning litterally “steering lever”. FPL is the swedish military abbreviation for “Flygplan” or aircraft, and 37 is the unit number for the Viggen.
The Viggen stick is a beautiful piece of swedish industrial design and engineering. A friend of mine, who used to fly the Viggen, says it’s the most ergonomical flight stick he has ever used. I think it’s just beautiful, but I may be biased
The stick grip copies will be compatible with existing joystick bases.
I have access to an original Viggen stick, that will be the base for the copies. The original is made of metal, as will the copies. I have yet to decide between aluminium or zink.
The electronics will not be 100% copies, but rather off the shelf buttons and switches, but the tactile area of the buttons will be metal as well. I will make an effort to copy the great feel of the trigger. Squeezing the trigger feels like shooting a revolver. It’s just magnificent.
Another feature that I would like to copy is the “Knife”. The Viggen stick had a electrical motor that activated a lever that vibrated against the hand, giving feedback of an impending stall. The electrical motor will probably be sold as an add on.
First step of the process is to strip down the original stick and find out how it works. The metal body of the stick will be used to cast plastic copies that then will be “cleaned” up to repair scuff marks and other damage. The plastic copies will then be used to cast the new metal body.
I did contemplate to just make a 3D CAD model of the stick, and mill it from aluminum. But since the original is cast, and that you can actually tell from the somewhat rough surface of the stick, I thought casting copies would be the best way to stay true to the original design.
I doubt this ‘Styrspak FPL 37 Viggen’ will sell in great numbers, or that it will make me rich. In fact I’ll be happy if I just break even and cover my costs. It’s not about the money. This is a labour of love!
And before you ask, I don’t have a unit price yet, nor am I in a position to take orders. I will have to finish the prototype first.
I am excited about this project as you are @Troll.
I have some kind of obsession for the joystcks and flightsticks but my DIY atempts are nowhere near yours
Regarding your pics. This is how ‘real’ joysticks should be built - two wires per button and all wires go to the base.
With built quality like that it will be DIY heaven to modify them. iirc TM T.Flight Stick is build like that.
Anyhow I am realy curious how does the inards of real 4-way hat switch looks like. If you could make some pics of that part that would be cool.
That’s a good point. I will be needing some shift registers to make the grip compatible with existing joystick bases. I haven’t decided on how I will solve this. There is space available inside the grip, but another solution is to make a round base, that contains the shift registers and the adapter for the joystick base. I could also make these bases with or without a motor for the vibrating knife.
That way the customer can make a choice between different adapters, depending on which joystick they want to use it with, with or without motor or no base at all, for collectors.
If I can disassemble it without damaging it, I will post pics. I already have an idea of how I will make the hat switch.
It has a surprisingly long throw!
Fun fact: The 4-way switch assembly is kept in place by friction. Just a small rubber wedge between it and the stick body.
So, while you are at it, have you considered also producing your Viggen radar controller? It would make a nice set (your target audience already will have a throttle quadrant).
Thoughts on an F4 stick ? Looking forward to following the development process.
