DIY Joystick Gimbal

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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Thx for your response Snark. I got that… but i am trying to determine the exact correct dimension of the base for the right travel of the the stick… as you can see and as he claimed, he needed to drop the total base lower in the housing to limit the stick travel, than trying to compensate with dampers on top. I think probably because there was too much travel on the x and y axes which isnt only physically uncomfortable when gaming, but also the over-travel would be useless because the sensors and the calibration software can pickup only a certain limited distance from the Joystick travel i think.
So i think you can eliminate these issues from the root on by making the base compact, thighter, and no bigger than needed for the stick to travel.
Before starting woth the build using these dimensions i want to determine the allowed Joystick travel, first i need to know how much travel the Windows axis calibration tool allows than i can start with the dimensions of the base. Iam still waiting on my hall switches to test this, but i hope in the meanwhile you guys can come up with idea’s or maybe you did test, measured, and compaired already let me know what you think or what you have.
Btw… iam still waiting on you Nevo. (what is BOM) ?

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If you plug those TLE5010 sensors to an arduino or teensy board, you can use MMJoy2 to make a USB controller of your own. With this you can utilize the whole 360° of the sensor. Well, minus a few degrees where it can be confused by the polarity change of the magnet.
But if you’re thinking of using existing hardware and software from a scrapped joystick, there may be other limitations.

Bill Of Material.
A list of the materials used.

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Ahhhh… snap !! … i couldnt and wouldnt ravel that one by my self… bill of Materials…thx :face_with_hand_over_mouth:.
Thx for your quick response.
You used quite some terms there, i need to let it soak and marinade for a moment.
But thx for the info i will look in to these parts and get back to you. Is it okey if we exchange email ?

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If you received an answer can you share pls ?
I also wonder what type of dampers these are. They dont work as those regular telescope hydraulic springs.
They offer some friction in both ways.

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No, I didn’t… Perhaps @NEVO missed it?
Just start a thread here at Mudspike and I, and others, will help you out building that stick of yours. That way more people can help and others can learn.

I am back. Busy holidays :slight_smile:

Sure I missed it @troll, sry. So here they are HPI shocks. I guess they are standard, with long throw.
https://www.hpiracing.com/en/part/102365

And lets have a look on the BOM @Clyber.

Lets start with the profiles :

  • aluminium square tube 40mm x 40mm x 2mm
  • aluminium L-shape profile 40mm x 10mm x 2mm
  • steel rectangle profile 50mm x 17mm x 1.5mm

Fasteners :

  • general assembly - M5 screws, nuts, split/spring washers ( M4 could work too )
  • axis assembly - M8 threaded rod, nuts, split/spring washers

Bearings :

And regarding the travel of the gimbal. I used this gimbal with Defender Cobra M5 joystick MaRS sensors. I housed this gimbal inside Cobra M5 base what limited the travel a bit more. And on top of that I had to limit the travel even bit more in the DCS game settings to get where I wanted it to be in regards to control the DCS helos.
So it depends.

Feel free to ask about other details.

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Happy new year to you Nevo and all members.
Yes lets take a look at the long awaited Bom… :slightly_smiling_face:
Thank you for putting it out. Did you used the hall sensors for the Cobra or did you bought those and where ?
Because of the over-travel i want to make the base with smaller dimensions. Can you give me a estimation of the dimension you have now , maybe you could meassure the space left for travel within the base ?

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So iam almost done with my DIY Collective and Joystick. I Have bought the TLE5010 sensor but i have no idea how to hook it up to my USB Controller and need some help because the analog potmeter had just three wires, but this sensor has six wires. How do i hook these wires up to my USB Controller what color cable goes to which controller therminal pin ?

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Nice work!

What kind of USB controller do you use? Not all can use a TLE sensor.

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hey @Clyber depending on what USB controller you are using…
if you use an inexpensive pro micro (arduino micro clone [ATMega32U4] ) with MMjoy you could follow this little guide:
https://avimator.net/229wiki/index.php/TLE5010

it includes a description of the pinouts:

& more on using MMjoy here:
http://avimator.net/229wiki/index.php/Shift_Register

MMjoy will take a lot of the pain out of configuring the controller for you.

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FreeJoy is another firmware option with support for TLE501x and other sensors, like AS5600, MLX90333, for STM32F103C876 boards.

Since the good MMJoy2 firmware is basically a “abandoware” (MegaMOZG now work for VirPil) Freejoy is being actively developed with Russian DIY community support.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/12818-freejoy-opensource-for-STM32/

Google translator is your friendly. :slight_smile:

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