Hozitgoin wondering if anyone has solution for collective sticks. Can’t find too many. Just a heads up, ordered a nice rig from max flight stick about a year and a half ago for about 3-4 grand that I never got. Called a few times and every time he said I would receive in 2 weeks. But never came, now he won’t answer my calls. Just so nobody else gets taken for a ride.
I can’t vouch for any of these places - but it’s a starting point for research… I’m running a f/w setup, but have been thinking about building a helo rig for a long time.
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Hello,
We ask that people use Community Support for specific questions about functionality and hardware. This has been moved to Community Support > Hardware and Peripherals.
Sorry to hear that but thanks for the heads up.
I actually made a collective using the throttle assembly:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01HZ2APKU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and one of these:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XNMJ1NW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and ended up with this:-
Obviously it doesnt have a rotating throttle but I didn’t need that and this works well enough for what I fly, a governed heli. The three buttons are assignable for whatever functions I think I need. It works well enough that I have never felt the need to spend nearly 500 bucks on a manufactured control although they look very nice. I do have really good TPR pedals though which I did buy.
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Nicely done…congrats.
I am still trying to figure out what to do. I fly the Airbus H-145.
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I have this Virpil collective:
and this grip:
They work very well for me, I’ve been quite happy with them.
You could also use any VKB joystick as “collective” since all of them, including the Gladiator EVO, have adjustable dry clutches that allow you (among other things) to overcome the centering force of the springs.
I’d definitely make it known who took your money and didn’t provide your product. That’s way too much money to just be losing. Did it fall victim to porch thievery possibly?
Thanks for all the options, yeah as far as max flight stick. Out of China so not much recourse unfortunately
Same here.
Virpil offers very well made products. I own the throttle, the constellation Alpha stick and the collective + grip. All products are solid and feel like the real thing. Highly recommendable!
What I meant is that all the VKB joysticks have ability be set to work so that the stick doesn’t centre and simply stays in the position you put it at*. Virpil joysticks don’t have that feature AFAIK (though their collective presumably does). Why that is most relevant is I suppose because you could mount Gladiator horizontally and treat it as a collective, the cheapest on the market (though with light throw).
*As demonstrated in video you can find there: What are ‘Clutch Dampers’ available in the VKB Gunfighter? – VKBcontrollers.com
I’ve been using the Virpil collective since it came out. Good value for money. The Sharka 50 grip is not very useful for my Bell 47G, and I wish they’d come up with a simpler grip (like a Bell 206, for instance). The collective, of course, has adjustable friction. The chair mount system is robust and versatile.
I’m using the mongoost T50 CM2 base with a 200 mm extension for the cyclic. With the right cams and correct spring setting, you don’t have to fight the spring while flying. But it lacks a friction setting, so, if you take your hand off the stick, it won’t stay where it is, but it will fall backward. The desk mount system is great.
The War brd rudder pedals make decent anti torque pedals. I’ve removed the springs and added a friction system. They are not like most real helicopter pedals, but they give you plenty of control.
I don’t think I’ll change anything any time soon in my control set. However, I’m aware that for a bit more money (nor much more), you can buy this : https://www.pro-flight-trainer.com/ It might be a good idea if you fly only helicopters, and if you don’t need to use your desk for anything else than flight simulation.
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Thanks man
I made my own collective and throttle controller. 3D printed the parts to resemble one from a Bell JetRanger and used Arduino Micro and Joystick library for the buttons, switches and axes. It took me quite a while to get it working right. I wish I could say I saved a lot of money building it myself, but maybe on the second one. I spent a lot on parts for it partly because of mistakes/do overs and partly because of having to buy some components in quantity. But it was a fun learning experience. The only problem now is mounting it to my new chair. I was going to use a plain office chair but it proved uncomfortable for long sessions so I got a more padded one with arm rests and have to figure out the mounting all over again.
Just bought a Blackshark Collective and base from Winwings. Shipping was astonishingly rapid from China. From order to receipt of goods was less than a week! I have the collective rigged up to a motorbike steering damper(£30.00 ish from eBay). It now has a beautiful hydraulic feel and is super smooth. Very good without the mod, but now it’s amazing . Happy to post pics if anyone is interested.
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Please do post pics. And no need to delete your post, I wasn’t offended!
I just stumbled on this post. I made the whole Motion VR Cockpit including all the DIY controls. I made a left HOTAS throttle that converts to a heli collective by moving a metal pin from position limiting the arc to upper throttle more to lower collective mode. The actual potentiometer inside is programmed to send 2 axes simultaneously, so one is calibrated to throttle, the other - to collective.
Hardware is Arduino Micro (same a Leonardo, i.e. it can emulate a USB joystick) and I’ve written a program that does the axes I need to work. I designed adn 3D printed the handle so it can act both as a throttle lever and collective lever. The control doesn’t have a twist handle, which is possible to design and 3D-print but too complicated and can’t be used as a universal throttle/collective. But I do have a potentiometer knob just under my thumb on the right, with its own axis, so I can fully operate it with my thumb very conveniently, if I need a manual RPM control (which I haven’t yet). I also have 2 buttons there, and a 2-pos switch I can engage on the left side. So it makes a fairly convincinc collective. The cost is negligeable: pots are under $3.5 for 10 on Ali Express, Arduino Leonardo/Micro clone is under $8. The rest is 3D printed.
I also made a pendular yoke (with hall sensors instead of pots) that converts to a large-throw joystick (clumsy looking but has a really great feel), and an 8-axis throttle quadrant in the same way. Encoder box and switch boxes are done with Arduino Mega and MobiFlight software.
You can see the collective operation in my video at 49:32 mark, this link should go there directly:
If you wanted a pure collective modeled after a specific heli, you could 3D-print that, some models are even there for free on Thingiverse. Twist handles are also possible. I just wanted a more universal setup as a rarely fly helis. But I didn’t want to miss that either, if I was already doing a convertible setup I wanted it to cover everything: yoke + throttles, joystick + HOTAS throttle, left-handed joystick + throttles, cyclic + collective.
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I have been flying dcs huey for several years, firstly with a warthog throttle inverted axis(pulling increases power), then I bought a cheap Chinese usb handbrake and modify it.
Then added a motorbike damper for better feeling.
Next part is adding a head with pushbuttons and hats using simple electronics.
I’m tempted to configure for msfs, never flow helicipters yet
Found this on YouTube DIY collective stick with throttle easy and superb.
‘HOME MADE COLLECTIVE’
By Tom Bankers
making it this week.
Ran across this elegant DIY design by Tom Bankers. Will attempt to build one. Home made Collective - YouTube