Cockpit build electronics thread

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Maltloaf
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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Maltloaf » Tue Dec 23, 2014 11:26 am

Boss,

My desk is now covered in old invoices and bits of electronics and I have the following to report:

Slide potentiometers. These need to be linear taper (not log etc). The very cheap ones are carbon and are not meant to be run up and down continuously, so look at the cycle before failure, the higher the better. I run my joy stick on a pair of these and it gets a lot of waggling.

Farnell.com

168-8415 45mm travel
168-8410 60mm (these are quite wide, 15mm but the others I used are no longer in stock)

Digikey.co.uk

PNF100SB-ND 100mm travel.

Rotary potentiometers

RS online

4849102 single turn (about 270 degrees)
460-1922 These are five turn pots, ie from stop to stop is 5 whole turns. I use these for trims as a one turn pot is too coarse. They are not cheap but I am glad I bought them as even with this gearing trim can be tender.

Buttons

I use RS 321-278 and 133-6473 for simple push buttons.
As for Toggle switches I buy off ebay, I think they are used for model railways and are small but fine. To be honest switches are easy, just use any push to make or momentary switch. Maplins do a rocker N39KR and a big panic button RK82D.

Hope this is useful

Malt
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Dickie
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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Dickie » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:07 pm

Nice thanks. I need to find some lightbreakers too. I haven't touched my project in ages, need to get back into it.

Random
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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Random » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:00 pm

Idea... How about magnetic/hall effect proximity switches?

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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Dickie » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:32 am

Anything that gets the job done, I don't know if there's a price difference.

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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Random » Fri Jan 09, 2015 10:42 am

I had a quick look on ebay... prox sensors are around £5 or so. .

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Maltloaf
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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Maltloaf » Sat Jan 10, 2015 11:27 am

Osprey,

What are you trying to make happen? Hall effect switches can be on/off or proportional but can be effected by any ferrous metal in the area if you need them to be very accurate. Potentiometers are more than accurate enough for most things, my throttle/mix/pitch and brakes all work off slide pots as does my joystick (although I use cheap ones for the former and better ones for the joy stick and both trim wheels (these are 5 turn pots otherwise it is difficult to fine trim). Optical encoders (light breakers) can be very very accurate depending on how much you pay (I use them for measuring the position of Browning machineguns at work, no really, 0.5" not 303 obviously) but the small ones you find in cheap joysticks are not more actuate than a potentiometer and more difficult to mount and set up.

Which controls are you trying to replicate?

Malt
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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Dickie » Sun Jan 11, 2015 3:00 pm

Throttle, mix (lean/rich) and pitch. I've looked in detail at the Hurricane set and will copy that (roughly) using aluminium pieces which I have already cut. Perhaps I should put the hardware together first and then post a photo before I put a slide pot on it.

The flight stick will be pimped so the motors work hard to account for the great stick length, and I need to get around to fixing a couple of gun buttons to the spade grip. Also, I need to put an analogue brake lever to the spade grip too.

I intend to use light breakers for the 'H' selector, I've talked with Random about it. Finally I need to create a bank of switches and knobs with pots for futureproofing (eg aileron trim, bomb arming)

In other news i'm going to be working hard on recruiting a lad from work to help, he's an embedded engineering apprentice (low level code and soldering) so understands this shit, so hopefully I can get him for a few weekends.

One thing at a time.

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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Bubi » Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:30 pm

For oil, water, pitch or throttle or gear or flaps (whatever I don't want on the main TM controllers), I use this inexpensive Saitek usb throttle quadrant. You could use it as is, or use its guts for your project.

Image

Sometimes I go all out and design a controller from scratch like my F16 ICP, or mod one for force sensors, and some times repurpose existing gear.
"Train as you fight, fight as you train"

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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Random » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:28 pm

Bubi wrote:For oil, water, pitch or throttle or gear or flaps (whatever I don't want on the main TM controllers), I use this inexpensive Saitek usb throttle quadrant. You could use it as is, or use its guts for your project.

Image

Sometimes I go all out and design a controller from scratch like my F16 ICP, or mod one for force sensors, and some times repurpose existing gear.
These devices are a lottery... some people's work fine others the pots go mental after 2 weeks....

My one only the "Ry" axis is at all smooth now and last week that one was jittering like mad. The other two jitter by about 50% total travel!

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Re: Cockpit build electronics thread

Post by Vranac » Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:18 pm

You can open it and clean the pots Random. I'm not sure abut the quadrant, but Saitek is using ok pots.
Image

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