DIY Joystick Gimbal

Impressive!
I could tell from the size of the sensors, that it was quite compact.
Good job!

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What kind of centering mechanism are you going for, if any?

Thx @Troll ! Hopefuly in the near future I will be able to attach your ’ Styrspak ’ to that gimbal :slight_smile:

Right there :slight_smile:
For this first prototype, and as I have the colective already in working state, I would like to use dampers just to simulate the hydraulic boosted helicopter controls.

If in the end I will be happy with it then I am planing, for the second prototype, to use cam system for the centering. Maybe to buy VPC replacement cams and use them.
But this will require slightly other design of the bottom parts of course.

Btw here is the design I used as inspiration : BAUR’s design

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Fit test… some cuting here and there ( plastic gimbal holders removal ) …but overall great fit I would say :slight_smile:

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Initial test of the gimbal went well. It was pleasure to fly DCS Mi8 with it.

New gimbal is placed litle bit lower in the base so it has restricted travel comparing to the plastic gimbal.

Sticking with it for now ( i.e. using ingame saturation ) as I am still not decided about the length of the stick.

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Will you be sharing plans or a parts list? This looks like it would fit inside my cougar base, who’s cheese-metal gimbal failed 5 years ago. But I’ll never sell it :slightly_smiling_face:

At least could you share links to the bearings & hall sensors?

I would like to share the plans… but there are none :slight_smile: All the plans and design is atm only in my head. I am realy bad at planing / designing these things. My approach is usaly based on availability of the components.

Anyway this is an early prototype. Once I will start with the second proto I will put down some plans and part list as there are parts I would like to replace.

Dampers arrived, testing :slight_smile:

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Nice!

What dampers are those. Details and where to order?

Perhaps angle them slightly upwards?

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I angled them upwards only slightly as I had to find a sweet spot there - travel of the damper perfectly covers travel of the stick. Little too much up and damper will be unable to fully extend, little too much down and damper will not fully compress limiting the travel of the stick in both cases.

Test results : DCS & XP helos are good. DCS & XP fixed wings are doable but realy strange feeling with this kind of controls :slight_smile:
As I mentioned in the other thread, for the stick these two dampers are too stiff imo. But it will work for now.

But you know @troll, all these experiments only discloses that I have to continue to the final solution : Baur’s dual-cam design ( used in VPC WarBRD ).

As I see it dual-cams could serve perfectly for both helos and fixed wings - cams with no-center will provide enough precision around the center for fine handling of the helos and the springs centering force will provide the needed feeling for the fixed wings.

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That’s a really clever design.

Huh, wanted to order the replacement WarBRD CosmoSim Cams from VPC.

Set of Cams - 24 EUR
Shipping - 15 EUR

Now what ? Should I just bite the bullet and buy them or should I DIY them !? …decisions…

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Just the cams?
If you are doing dual scissor cams, I´d say DIY. Have a look at the pics in my BRD-N review, for inspiration…

Yes, just the dual scissors cams.
Exact drawing will be handy :wink:

VPC did some adjustments to their shipping methods… now it is 18EUR instead of 15 :thinking: :lying_face:

So if anyone, within EU, has set of spare WarBRD cams laying around I will be interested :slight_smile:

Hello,
First of all, compliments to you. This Joystickbase looks dope.
I am planning to start this similar project also can you help out first with my Shoppinglist, advice, tips, pls ?

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Hey @Clyber, welcome to the forums!

I will first offer some tips or observations if you will.

-I have no 3D drawings nor paper drawings. I keep all my DIY concepts in my head.
-This gimbal was meant to be used as helicopter cyclic - no centering mechanism. So not realy suitable for fixed wings.
-I am not actively using it atm. Few months ago I bought used Saitek X55. And it works so well that I abandoned the concept of dedicated stick for fixed wings and dedicated cyclic for helos. X55, with its interchangeable springs, works well for both.

I will try to find it and put together some BOM for you if you are still interested :slight_smile:

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Hey thank you for your quick response.

Ofcourse iam still interested in every info i can get my hand on to take off.

I want to make this base for a KA50 cyclic. Centring the cyclic wouldnt be a bad thing for helicopter sim even if it wouldnt be a one on one comparison in reality, this way i can use one base for diffrent sims.

Maybe i might be able to customize and upgrade as i prefer.
So yeah sent me whatever you have…
Thx in advance.

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Hello,
Hope you had a great Christmas.
About the dimensions…mentioned on the mainboard.
Are those dimensions enough for the joystick travel ?
40mmx 40mm seem so small…
I am concerned that the hallswitch will not have enough space to pick up all the movement needed for the calibration tool or thr game.

Regards

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I think those hall sensors are tangentially mounted relative the axis they are measuring, ergo they sense the rotation of the field, accuracy is probably more related to the strength and mounting distance of the magnet then anything else!

I hope this makes sense?

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