I may be going slightly mad.......

[Diziet Sma]

Well, that extra 10° translates into finer control.. so that's what I'd be trying for, personally..

[spud42]

yep go the 5:1 ratio... 60deg travel on the stick sounds about right.. like the travel on a remote controller for a model aeroplane .



i remember way back having a pair of joysticks like these Tandy ones.... not in a premade joystick as a part... had about 60 deg up down left and right..... wonder how flying would be with that??

just watched a Space 1999 episode where Paul had to fly one of the eagles back to moonbase alpha. He had this type of joystck... found a picture..

[Bangbangduck]

Hi Chaps

60deg it is then. My main concern was the 'moment arm'. But I should know this is pretty close cos I have had a go at flying a private light aircraft.

What I have at the moment is a gimbal 'made' in 6mm ply that is 114mm long, 68mm tall, and 58mm wide. The 'stick' is about 7" long which at the grip point of the hand gives a 2" deflection on all axis. The longer the stick the greater the deflection of the stick. So in theory this could be mounted off centre at a suitable height for the stick length as is. Or Go for a center column floor mounted with a longer stick to suit.

Springs will be the main item to track down to create the self centering of the stick.

Space 1999 Love it. I had night terrors as a youngster after the Dragons Domain episode. They knew how to scare kids back then! Once I have the stick built and tested I'll see if I get lucky and manage to pilot an eagle into my back garden.....and the neighbors

Pic



BBD

[spud42]

i have seen stick centering for this type of stick use only 1 spring connected directly to the bottom of the stick .

just had another thought, you could use rare earth magnetsto pull the stick back to center . as the travel of the bottom of the stick wont be a large distance.
if its 2"travel at a stick length of 7", then at 1 inch it should be only 2/7" just over 7 mm . if a post underneath the bottom of the joystick was used then the magnets should center the stick but not give a whole lot of resistance when flying. i have read of many people removing the centering springs in logitech joysticks to give less fatigue on long flights...

just a thought..

[Bangbangduck]

Hail my space faring brother!

Springs! Yes the original design I have based this on had a single spring betwwen the stick bottom end and the floor of the case. Interesting that people have been removing springs. This would actually reflect the reality of the control stick in that they are not self centering, when under manual control.

Having briefly had a go in the real thing it is all down to feel and sight to keep striaght and level. The magnet could be good. Those rare earths are pretty bloody strong. Other than that a 'detent' could be created using sprung ball door latches. If I do end up with springs it will be a single spring per axis. One end fixed to the carcass at a point inline with the main gear outer edge. The spring will then be looped over the gear and back to be fixed the gears diameter away from the other end of the spring. Where the spings midpoint on the gear circumference is it would be pinned to the gear. That is the theory but I like your idea. The proof will be in the flying!

Progress - I have parts! I have, it turned out, 30 6mm square tactile switches with 4.5mm shafts. I had forgotten I had these. Or at least the box off single LED torches they were part of. So I stripped these down today. Metals and plastics have gone to the recycling bin. I then had to desolder the LEDs from the switch then bend the four legs back into the 'normal' position. They had been bent 180deg from the norm to suit the molding they were in.

I have also dug out my original xbox controller and stripped it down to the PCB. The triggers, with pot, and the gimbals have been removed to clear the soldering points for the external pots.... I hope it's not a collectable

So I will now have a good look at what key layout is best to facilitate ease of use during high stress situations IE. Getting my arse shot off





BBD

[mossfoot]

are you left handed? I just noticed the Hyperspace and Injectors buttons seem to be where the thumb would be on the left hand rather than right?

[ClymAngus]

This would work very nicely on a chair armrest. Hell, part of a chair.

[Diziet Sma]

The magnet could be good. Those rare earths are pretty bloody strong.

A good source for these is an old deceased hard-drive.. gut it (you'll need some small Torx-drivers) and you will find a pair of them used to move the read-write heads. Good luck getting them off the metal brackets without a vice, though! (they're not attached, simply held there by magnetic force.. but boy do they hold on tight!)

[Bangbangduck]

Hi Chaps

are you left handed? I just noticed the Hyperspace and Injectors buttons seem to be where the thumb would be on the left hand rather than right?

Oh yes I am indeed left handed. I have now added the 'Jump Drive' button as well.

This would work very nicely on a chair armrest. Hell, part of a chair.

I hope the wife doesn't realise

A good source for these is an old deceased hard-drive.. gut it (you'll need some small Torx-drivers) and you will find a pair of them used to move the read-write heads. Good luck getting them off the metal brackets without a vice, though! (they're not attached, simply held there by magnetic force.. but boy do they hold on tight!)

Ah haaaaaaaa! So that's why I've held onto 3 dead hard drives...... Bugger I don't have any torx bits.. Ah my trusty 'gentle persuader' AKA Big Hammer!

Right then heres the matrix for the buttons on the pad. Obviously the buttons in reality are groupe ad per the colour on the pad so the image here will help with the real world wiring. Being cheap, I said I was on a budget, I have some telephone cable and network cables to chop up into hook up wire.

To put the matrix in perspective - There are 23 buttons they need 2 wires each so thats 46 wires. With the matrix you only need, in this case, 16 wires. A pretty big saving!



BBD

[spud42]

ph wire and network wire are excellent hookup wire.....

hows your soldering skills? gonna get a bit of practice now... lol

[Bangbangduck]

Hi there

Their pretty hot 250 joints (solder) an hour is my best. Though I have slowed down a bit these days. I have boxes of components and odds n sods to get creative with.

Just realised the M button is not on the pad it's on the stick also having looked at the key codes I managed to get rid of the need to use SHIFT with any of the pad buttons so this also saved on buttons. Thus the pad looks like this......

• 0 - Special D - Dump Cargo x - Rotate Cargo
  B - Use equip' ; - Prime Equip' ' - Use quip'

• \ - Prev compass point # - Next compass point (Advanced compass)
  F - Reset Radar Zoom Z - Zoom Radar - - Previous Target = - Next Target
  R - Toggle ID ` - Comms L - Request Dock C - Auto Pilot

• E - ECM U - Unarm Missile Y - Next Missile
  O - Weapons Toggle K - Target Incoming Missile T - Target Missile

Hopefully arranged in an order conducive to ease of use.


BBD

[Diziet Sma]

A good source for these is an old deceased hard-drive.. gut it (you'll need some small Torx-drivers) and you will find a pair of them used to move the read-write heads. Good luck getting them off the metal brackets without a vice, though! (they're not attached, simply held there by magnetic force.. but boy do they hold on tight!)

Ah haaaaaaaa! So that's why I've held onto 3 dead hard drives...... Bugger I don't have any torx bits.. Ah my trusty 'gentle persuader' AKA Big Hammer!

You'll need them to dismantle the internals as well.. I picked up a set of 6 Torx screwdrivers (T5, T6, T7, T8, T9 and T10, which are the ones you'll need) for only a few dollars.. in terms of frustration saved, they're worth their weight in gold..

[ClymAngus]

Don't forget the platters! They make most excellent coasters!

[spud42]

Hi there

Their pretty hot 250 joints (solder) an hour is my best. Though I have slowed down a bit these days.
BBD

join the club... been quite a while since i was on a production soldering run... would have been 1987.....god im getting old!!

[spud42]

just had a thought while reading the forums... any room for a screenshot key? and how much will you be retailing these for??