Success!

Finally got the control column set up so it will stay in any position - no more yoke flopping around. It ain't pretty but it works. I figured the problem was that the lever points were too close to the fulcrum. To gain more leverage I needed to turn the strut supports at 90 degrees to the way I had them. Affixing to a round column was going to be a challenge so I cut down a couple of bits of plastic I had in the shop, temporarily screwed them together and drilled my mounting holes through both in one go (this ensured that they were equal on both sides). I then mounted the whole assembly and tested with just the 150n struts attached. It was almost enough to keep the column steady although I noted some slop. Once the other 100n struts were added, the thing is rock solid in any position.

At some point I may replace the plastic pieces with aluminum plates of the same size. For now though they will suffice. I know that the top struts are now proud of the frame but once the decking board goes down on top and I fashion a dome to slide down the column, you won't be able to see it.

Next for the yoke, I'll be putting in more substantial travel limiters (the little wooden blocks you see weren't up to the job), hooking up the potentiometers, will wire it all up and cross my fingers.

At Gianluca's suggestion, I purchased the excellent Boeing 737 Technical Guide from Lulu publishing. Interesting concept - you order the book and Lulu prints it for you. What wasn't so interesting is that their binding guy goofed:

All well until page 172, then it jumps to page 354 and counts down to page 171... whoops! So if you're reading this Bernd, assuming Lulu doesn't want this copy back and they send me a new one, this one's for you!

What else? Well, looks like I'll be heading back to Europe 3 more times between now and Thanksgiving (2 for work, 1 for pleasure) so the current slow progress will continue. Sorry.

Middle of August eh?

Ok, in my last post I said I would have an update by mid August. It's the end of the month - it just snuck up on me. So where are we? Well the drywall is in and the tile guy is there today working on the bathroom. The landscaping crew is in full swing and the carpenter is putting some doors and trim in. I've been painting. None of this is related to the sim of course...

No progress to report. I did try the 150n struts in the yoke and found that it still wasn't offering up enough resistance to stop the whole column from flapping around. Back to the drawing board there - will try changing the fulcrum point to see if that does the trick. I'm taking some time off work next week and we're heading out of town - will take the yoke assembly with me to experiment. Or maybe I'll set it up on the passenger side of the car and will amaze people with my right hand seat driving skills, while the wife crouches down in the left hand slot, working the pedals.

September is the month I should see my throttle quadrant from Revolution Simproducts. Waiting to hear back from them in terms of a delivery date.

My mind though has been pre-occupied with the external visuals. I'm thinking of going for a set up very similar to the one Ivar Hestnes built. You really should check out the link, it looks awesome! Best I can tell from the information gleaned here, I'll need to upgrade the main computer I'm using. Thinking of building my own, rather than buying a pre-built. This should be interesting...

All for now.

Treading water while waiting for new pedals...

Since I'm planning on attending the geek fest in Lelystad later this year, I decided to take Revolution Simproducts up on their offer for a pedal kit (sorry, none left). While doing my usual poke around of what other people are up to, I noticed these excellent video guides from Ian on how to put the pedals together. Now the good news for my friend Bernd in Germany is that I have a spare set of CH products pedals for him, and possible a yoke too, if I ever get my home brew one finished.

Speaking of which, I ordered up some heftier gas springs for the yoke. The 100 Newton ones in there now aren't strong enough to keep the top heavy yoke from flopping forward or back. Let's see if the 150 ones work, if not I'll double them up with the ones already installed.

The wiring on the house remodel I'm working on is all but done, meaning I can spend time on the sim again in the very near future. Next weekend we're out of town (finally a break) so expect another update mid August.

Ok, made my mind up...

...I ordered the motorized throttle today from Revolution Simproducts. Oh boy. Next 10 to 12 weeks will seem like forever.

Still here (sort of)

Sorry folks, not much action to report. Got back from a trip to Europe a week or so back and today I'm getting on the plane back there... This and the house remodel (I can hear the contractor banging away as I write this) has resulted in very little time for the sim.

What I did do though was more work on the yoke (mind you, that Ace yoke is starting to look tempting....). Managed to break one of the CH products potentiometers in the process, since I wasn't paying attention to the strain I was putting on the thing while coupling it up to the yoke handle. Snapped the PCB in two in the process. Happily, CH products sells and ships parts. I ordered 2 more (hey I might break it again!) and they arrived today. On my return from Europe I'll take another crack at it.

On my last trip I contacted Revolution Simproducts to see if I could stop by to see the motorized throttle (I had Euros burning a hole in my pocket...). Eren got right back to me and said it wouldn't be a problem. Sadly, even though I was in France, he was too far away for me to get there and still catch my flight home. Maybe next time. I need to make my mind up - keep going with my home made yoke and buy the throttle, or buy the yoke now and the throttle later?

Also while away, Gianluca got in touch. It was really pleasant to get some direct feedback on the blog, my progress and also to note the similarities in our builds.

All for now - my real plane beckons.

A quick word

Dear Anoraks,

I picked up a comment from Mike this weekend, apparently he is building a captain only rig too. Problem was, I couldn't figure out his email address to reply to. Which got me thinking, how can you reach out to me? I checked out Gmail to find that some wag has already stolen my FlyWJP handle, so here's the address you can use going forward (it's also in my updated profile): wjpairmail@gmail.com

What else? Slow to no progress on the sim due to other commitments. Trying to focus on the yoke rebuild, will post an update when I've figured out the mechanism for controlling roll and pitch.

Also picked up a new follower from New Zealand, Ruscool. Not only can they repair your Mitsubishi refrigerated container controllers (eh?), they also knock out parts for flight simulators. Those rotary encoder knobs look cool and I'm sure a set has my name on them...

Much better, less grumpy

After a spot of RTFM with the Flight Illusion manual, I learned that the chrono, attitude indicator and altimeter come with a preset device ID. The others are generic gauges and have the same ID until you change it (but of course! How did I miss that?). Since the flap, yaw and airspeed indicators are generic, you need to hook them up one at a time and let the config program find them. From there you can reset the device ID to ensure that they are all unique.

Bottom line, all of the gauges now function. And they do so flawlessly. Without any further set up or calibration, first tests are showing very promising. And here's how it all looks:

..with the exception of the engine screen which I don't have hooked up to a computer at the moment. What a delight to see at a glance the current flap settings and to see the indicator move at the speed of flap extension! Outstanding! Ah it's the little things that bring such joy to Anoroks such as your truly.

Alrighty then, must press on with the yoke and platform, this weekend's work has added fresh vigor.