This post is to set a baseline for what's going on before the move to here.
However, I recently discovered DCS forum has this 200MB upload limits per account, apparently. That's not good. Because I have tons of pictures... and each is easily 1MB or bigger. I have hit the limit now. Whether that limit has always been there or it's a new one... doesn't matter. The fact is that I am exceeding that limit, and I can't post more pictures there anymore.
I have created this blogger space long time ago... but never really used it. It was one of the options when I considered posting the progress of my controller building.... I chose to post on DCS forum then... and that now looks like a big mistake. So, I am correcting that mistake.
To set what has been going on.... for those who haven't been following my thread on DCS forum. Here are some of the pictures posted on DCS forum before. I won't explain what they are. Other than...
Basically there are three long running projects and others going on... (10+ years long). The goal is to produce at home a control stick, a throttle, and a rudder pedal. The obvious big question is why in the hell?
1. When I started the first rudder pedal project, everybody, I mean commercial companies, were all using 8bit MCUs with 10bit ADCs... these run in the range of 4MHz. Some of them even have only 4KB of RAM, i.e. 4096 bytes of RAM. I proposed to use ARM32 running in the range of 80MHz. I want modern MCUs... not some MCU only suitable for your microwave.
2. Low refresh rate. The controller's refresh rate must be better than human reaction time, that is, 200ms average, and 100ms trained athletes. In engineering terms, you have to do at least 2x to capture it by Shannon's sampling theorem... and rule of thumb... an order of magnitude better than it... that translates to about 10ms, i.e. 100Hz, minimum. Very few controllers on the market meet that criteria.
3. Resolutions... 10 bit... although good enough for some games... and even in many situation in DCS/MSFS2020... for certain tasks... it's just not enough... for instance, Aerial refueling with an F16... or trying to hover an AH64D. See, my article titled On Resolution for more details.
4. I want force generation... note, not force feedback... force feedback is a patent mine field that I don't want to tread. All I want is to be able to generate force electronically, to have a electronically programmable spring if you want.
Some vendors offer some of the above... but never all 4... particularly #4.
Also.... these 3 main projects spawn their own subprojects. For instance, there is a need for a Hall Effect MiniStick to replace the force sending mini stick on throttle quadrants. So, I have a Hall Effect MiniStick subproject going on... Then there is the optical sensor subproject to replace regular bouncy buttons/HAT. Then, there is the subproject of F16-like controller base with force generation, which would fit inside an F16 stick base. These are just some of the more prominent subprojects...
Then, of course, to tie them all together, there needs to be a controller firmware to read and control all of these (still has to start writing it).
Of course, there is always those experiments on how to build them.... the designs are always meant to be made in the garage, preferably with simple tools you have or purchase of some specialized tools like an 5.2mm drill bit so you don't have to buy reamers, and a 3D printer.
One of my design principles is that if I can't make it in my garage... the design is no good. I mean, I have an 1,000 lbs CNC milling machine (another CNC routers), 2 filament 3D printers, and 4 resin printers, a TIG welder, a plasma cutter, etc. etc. If I can't make it with all these... most of you can't make it. Yes. The target audience is the majority of you... although I am the only yard stick.
That means... the designs are often tweaked and prototypes are made... for instance, bronze cast F16 rudder pedals, and bronze cast F16 TQS, 3D printed TQS, 3D printed mold for forged carbon fiber epoxy of F16-like control stick body, PLA printed stick, Nylon12 Carbon Fiber controler stick, CO2 laser cut parts for the optical sensor, vacuum bagging technique for epoxy fiber glass pedals... and..... many of those failed.... and the design tweaked accordingly...
So, here are just some pictures of the F16-like control stick with optical sensor design, and the F16-like controller base designs, in SolidWorks, and various prototypes, including some failed ones... after all, even the failures are valuable lessons for you to not go there, or provide me with better techniques for the methods I tried.
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