Thanks! Overall I’m pretty pleased with how it’s working out. A few features are missing. No twist throttle, for example. However, the helicopters I’m interested in don’t have that plus there’s a scroll wheel on the stick that will work fine in a pinch.
Future plans are to order some more JST connectors and make longer wire leads, then I’ll mount the joystick base on a hinge where it can swing under the chair when not in use (it kinda gets in the way for non-sim chair use, plus it looks janky right now).
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I reworked the collective over the last couple weeks. The hall sensor that was originally part of the handbrake controller I started with limited the lever rotation to only about 10°. I replaced the hall sensor with a potentiometer and gears and was able to achieve about 40° of effective rotation for the collective. Very happy with the rebuild!
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Oh very nice!
The A2A Comanche update has distracted me but in the new year I’m planning on re-packaging my collective mod into something a little less clunky.
Seeing how you used the gears for the potentiometer has given me some ideas - my hall sensor swap is an improvement over the original one but it’s still not exactly how I’d like it.
Cheers!
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Fabrication for the anti torque pedals project has begun!
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Taking advantage of my buddy’s offer to utilize his home machine shop. He is boring 1.125” holes for the bearing mounts for the pedal arm shafts.
The final profie of the bearing mounts. This project has been in the planning & design phase for at least 6 months - very excited to actually be fabricating parts finally!
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Nice to see an old Bridgeport being put to work 
My buddy is a retired Boeing machinist. Aviation is in his blood. When he retired he was supervising the Seattle facility building Boeing’s wind tunnel test models.
Nice to see an old Machinist being put to work, haha 
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The anti torque pedals are coming along. I am going to add a hydraulic damper to it in the future but for now the friction can be increased or decreased by adjusting the nut on the end of the shaft.
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The majority of the mechanical portion of the build is complete! Very happy with how it has turned out so far.
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Wow! Looks really impressive! Need to check out Amazon!
Just to so you know, it’s not a kit or anything like that. It’s purely my own design. I sourced some of the materials (bearings, linkage clevises, shafts, shaft collars, etc.) from Amazon. The raw steel was purchased from a local industrial supplier I also use for a non-flight simulation related side-gig I do. The model was developed in AutoCad to specifically use the materials and parts I could readily and inexpensively source. I am a structural engineer as my day job which gives me access to AutoCad. Cost wise, it was not much cheaper to build than any of the high end rudder pedals sets out there but it has been a really fun project.
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And they work! One of the ball joints in the linkage has some slop so I will have replace that one but otherwise they feel really good. Very happy with the project!
Adding a couple more comments: the bar between the chair bolts on to the chair with wing nuts for quick setup and has 9 notches for spacing between the seat and pedals. That way taller friends or my taller son can adjust it to their liking.
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Great job on this project! I’m following your progress with great interest, even though I don’t have the skills to do the same thing (welding, etc.).
One question: does your office chair move a little when you operate the foot pedal? I had that problem and solved it by buying casters with brakes for my office chair…
No, the chair is fixed to the pedals with the crossbar that the cyclic is mounted on. I used gate hinges trimmed down to fit and bolted to the underside of the chair using the existing chair seat to base connection points. The crossbar bolts to the hinges under the chair seat. The pedal end of the crossbar is forked with notched side plates that drop over a peg through the pedal frame upright. It is notched at 9 intervals for adjustability.
