Hello Samri,
I'm fine mate, heaps of work and usually getting home knackered so doesn't help a lot our common hobby.
I do plan to find the time anyway, the objects mod and the skins are still the only 2 requirements? Is any plug in for TS mandatory?
As for the clap I had forgotten there was room behind the pilot, lol.. I really need multicrew

(A/229) Trip wrote:@Commanche or any RL Huey pilot:  Can you tell me roughly how much travel the throttle twist grip has?  I suspect that with my throttle not being connected to anything the travel is likely much more than it should be.  

For me to go through the whole travel I have to release the grip and reset my hand twice.  

Thanks!

Trip

Sorry for delay. I was out at Hangar this afternoon and I measured the throttle travel. I made a pencil mark at the twelve o'clock (top) position of the grip. I rolled the throttle checking for rolling past idle stop and full travel.  This is what I came up with.
Rolling past idle stop is about 1" of travel. Full travel equals twisting the throttle all the way to the seven o'clock position. Note the throttle does not even complete a full turn but only a little over half a turn. Hope this helps.

That helps immensely Commanchero, thanks!

Looking bitchen Trip! did you end up using that Instrument Panel DX file i shot ya? let me know what other dimensions you need and I'll send them your way. I sent you pictures and measurements of the center console a couple days ago to the email address you gave me a while back.

Thanks @KoRn !  Those pics helped a lot with getting the pedestal frame built.  

Speaking of which, here is tonight's update!  The pedestal/instrument panel frame is in!  It's really starting to come together. Now to make the Pedestal panels.  

Hey Trip,

Looks awesome, very jealous

If you ever take apart the main collective box I would be forever in your debt if you took pictures of how the idle stop release mechanism works. Always looking to improve my DIY collective project and the throttle/idle setup has been an afterthought until now

Cheers
Frenchy

Hi Frenchy,

I encountered bad news myself on this topic, for me at least.  The idle stop mechanism is apparently not located in the collective but further down the line.  All there is in the collective head is a normal momentary button, with the wires leaving the collective along with all the others.

It is apparently a solenoid, though I don't know for sure where it's located.  

I'm going to see if I can install a solenoid at the throttle bellcrank at the base of the collective and make it work.  I haven't looked that close at the bellcrank yet.

Might as well give an update too: I got the right half of the overhead console panel made up, and the left is halfway done. Decided to do these before the Pedestal panels so I can finish the framework and then move on to details. Also have the Warthog adapter tube for my microhelis.de cyclic base in the works.

Update for May 19th:  

Minimum work required to start flying:  

• Cyclic warthog tube not done
  
• Collective not functional
  
• New Motion Sim electronics need to be wired up
  

I'm working on building the Warthog grip compatible tube for my microhelis.de Cyclic, hopefully I'll have that together in the next couple days.

I've got the right half of the overhead console panel made, but haven't installed the switches etc. yet.  I also just finished prototyping out the mount for the overhead console.  I placed it very close to the proper height above my head (within an inch) which is great but I am definitely worried about clearance to the ceiling of the room.  

I'm really wishing I had sunken the motion sim into the raised floor now, at the time I had no intention of doing full cockpits like this because I thought it was going to be important to keep it light.  I can still go back and sink it into the floor but that's going to take probably at least a couple weeks by itself as well as requiring materials etc. I can't currently afford so for now I'm going to keep it where it is and reduce motion travel if need be.  

No pics right now, hopefully I'll have some with the next update which should be Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks Trip

That is bad news but now makes more sense. I was struggling to think how it worked mechanically when it wasnt in line with the throttle.
Will have to come up with something.

Cheers

(A/229) Trip wrote:Hi Frenchy,

I encountered bad news myself on this topic, for me at least.  The idle stop mechanism is apparently not located in the collective but further down the line.  All there is in the collective head is a normal momentary button, with the wires leaving the collective along with all the others.

It is apparently a solenoid, though I don't know for sure where it's located.  

I'm going to see if I can install a solenoid at the throttle bellcrank at the base of the collective and make it work.  I haven't looked that close at the bellcrank yet.

Might as well give an update too:  I got the right half of the overhead console panel made up, and the left is halfway done.  Decided to do these before the Pedestal panels so I can finish the framework and then move on to details.  Also have the Warthog adapter tube for my microhelis.de cyclic base in the works.  

I'll post a close up picture of the bellcrank when I take the collective back out to work on it, hopefully this week. Won't do you any good really, but might make for good research/discussion.

Then again, I imagine that someone can find the actual drawings showing the idle stop solenoid mechanism.

(A/229) Trip wrote:I'll post a close up picture of the bellcrank when I take the collective back out to work on it, hopefully this week.  Won't do you any good really, but might make for good research/discussion.

Then again, I imagine that someone can find the actual drawings showing the idle stop solenoid mechanism.

pictures are always handy.

If there is likely to be a diagram its probably here http://www.huey.co.uk/huey_servicebook.php

Thanks for the that link!  Here is the idle stop solenoid install: http://www.huey.co.uk/images/servicebook/Flight%20Idle%20Stop%20and%20Release%206-25.jpg
Apparently it is located in the engine housing.

Thought you might like that link

The system makes much more sense to me now

Update May 21st:

Minimum work required to start flying:

- Cyclic: Now functional!

- New Motion Sim electronics: Almost ready for testing

- Collective: Need to perform PC conversion to RL unit



Made more progress than expected over the weekend, I'm getting close to a flight test, despite my panels still being incomplete and non-functional.

Saturday morning I got the new Motion Sim electronics (2017 version of Thanos AMC1280USB and 6DOF Ext.) wired up, though I have another half hour or so of work to do before I test it. Then Sunday night/Monday morning I mostly finished my quadruple torque MS FFB2 build with extension and Warthog grip! I did this to gain force trim, even though most Huey pilots in Vietnam didn't like to use it I was still bothered by it not being functional so I decided to switch to my FFB2 rig from the microhelis.de cyclic. I lost accuracy and gained a little dead zone, but now have Force Trim so I can turn it on for pre-flight, shutdown, and if I need to let go of the stick. I also anticipate I'm more likely to use it when I fly the Ka-50. No idea if I'll use it much with the Hip.

Next up is the last bit of prep for motion testing with the upgrades, and checking clearance to the ceiling to see if I can get away with the nearly correct height on the overhead Huey console. After that I'll need to convert my RL Huey collective for PC use, then I can hopefully start flying again and finally join you guys for some DCS!

Great stuff Trip! This reminds me of the song One Piece at a Time by Johnny Cash

LOL, I knew the song but never saw the car! That's brilliant.

Update May 23rd:

Minimum work required to start flying:



-Cyclic: Now functional: Want to add counterweight
-New Motion Sim electronics: Installed and tested, but have a problem to figure out
-Collective: Need to perform PC conversion to RL collective

Last night I accomplished two things. As usual something I thought would take only a short while took all night!

I finished the last few details on wiring the new motion electronics, but testing didn't go smoothly at all. There were a few things I had forgotten about and took me a while to figure out, and I had also reversed the signal and +5v wires on my sensor wiring and had to rewire all those again.

I finally got it up and running but two of the actuators (numbers 4 and 5) are not working properly. There is a possible cause I'm hoping for because it's an easy fix and fairly likely. I'll keep you all updated.



I also got the Force Feedback control tested, I had to do some tinkering but it's working pretty well. I did decide my heavy Warthog grip and offset extension will require a counterweight. That will be fairly easy to implement but still will of course take a couple hours.

Hey guys, quick update. I got one of the two malfunctioning actuators fixed. The last one is really giving me a hard time and I'm worried it might be a hardware defect requiring replacement of the board which means more time spent waiting for parts in the mail. =(

I'm absolutely DYING to get flying with you guys!

Mate!....I'm dying to see your rig up and running.

Thanks Samri!

Small but important progress, I'm 99% sure I've tracked down the problem with the final actuator! It has to do with my terrible soldering abilities again LOL.

I think that I'm going to change gears and get back to the cockpit build tonight for a few hours.

Trip

Minimum work required to start flying:  



- FFB Cyclic: Ready to fly!  Added springs today.
- New Motion Sim electronics: Installed and working but have to redo one bit of wiring after parts arrive
- Collective:  Need to convert RL collective for PC use

Today I took down my Super Sidewinder FFB and added four springs (instead of a counterweight) to give it better feel and help the force feedback mechanism deal with the heavy Warthog grip on an offset extension.  I'm very happy with the feel now.  

I added the "floor" panels around my center console that make it bolt down securely on my modular floor grid.  

Lastly, I tested the overhead clearance since the motion sim is once again capable of motion!  In so doing I punched a hole in the ceiling!  Good thing the ceiling of the Sim Room isn't finished yet.  Regardless of that incident my conclusion is that there is less clearance issue overhead than down below and with the settings I intend to run it should be fine.  I am going to tweak the overhead console just a little to help avoid collisions.  Ultimately I want to lower the motion sim about six inches to eliminate these clearance issues, but this will be a several week project in itself so that's going to wait probably until next winter.  

Unfortunately I'm probably not going to get any more sim work done until Tuesday.  I'm now on wife time, and have to go to the in-laws for a couple days through Monday.  

Trip


Adding image from tonight:  Please note that much of the white you see will be painted black, and the rest will be painted the same gray as the actuator covers:


And the "Super Sidewinder Quadforce Feedback" (~4x the torque of a stock FFB2 via increased current and twice the motors)

That's all fine and good trip, and imma let you finish, but I think a gun rack and cupholder would be really great additions to make that cockpit stand out from the crowd!

In all seriousness, I'm pretty amazed at your dedication and what you've accomplished.

Absolutely impressive!

Thanks guys!

@Huckleberry Throughout all my pit building projects cup holders have been the thing people have suggested the most! Now that I have the motion sim built however, it would have to be a gimbaedl cup holder! You are the first to suggest a gun rack though LOL.

Update: May 31st

Minimum work required to start flying:

- New Motion Sim electronics: Have to redo one bit of wiring after parts arrive
- Collective: Need to convert RL collective for PC use- NOW IN PROGRESS

Tonight I started working on the collective. As always progress was slower than I had hoped, but at least I got a little bit done.

I got the wiring sorted, once my wires with the connectors come in all I have to do is a few minutes of soldering and plug them in (those are also the same parts I'm waiting for so I can fix my motion sim electronics wiring). This process took a significant amount of time because I had to identify the wires and the wiring in the collective head is more confusing than you would expect. There was one common ground, and then at least four of the switches had their own dedicated ground. What really mixed me up was the search light on/off/stowed switch. When the switch is in the stowed position it basically shorts the "down" side of the HAT switch which makes sense but took me a bit to figure that out. Even after I figured that out it was a bit confusing to figure out how exactly it was wired. In the end I had a slight problem in that there was no wire going down through the harness for me to use as a dedicated line for the "stowed" position, so I had to combine one of the dedicated grounds up in the head with the common ground and then use the dedicated ground wire from that circuit as my wire for the "stowed" position.

I also got the potentiometer for the collective axis attached, but still have to make the bracket for it. The throttle axis potentiometer I haven't got figured out yet, but I have an idea or two. I also have some ideas on how I might work around the annoyingly incomplete "idle stop" functionality in DCS. I sure wish BST did that differently.

That's all for tonight!

Trip