Some of my heli sim stuff

This is a Cayuse stick that I’m working on. Printed in ABS. I’ll have the pockets milled out for the guts when I find time.

Next is my first-pass for a Huey setup. The upper and lower consoles have been consolidated. Found that with VR I really only needed the lighting panel controls the most, but it still works well.

The collective is a rough prototype. Hoping to have it working on a more condensed setup.
HueyPeriphs_sm

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Nice switch panel! I’ve been thinking about making something like that, but don’t know what to use for a circuit board. How did you make it?
I had found some info on using a game controller and just soldering your switches, though it makes them momentary on/off from what I understood and wouldn’t work for dials and such.

Switchpanel is actually very simple and you can get away finishing the whole project without soldering if you want.

Sheetmetal is just aluminum flashing from Home Depot (hardware store). You can use screws instead of rivets. Aircraft Spruce sells aircraft hardware cheap.

I used this board found on amazon:

No soldering required.
A switch just needs a wire to an IO port and a wire to any of the grounds. Hooking them up backwards makes no difference.
Potentiometers (like for cabin lighting) use three wires. Info is available for hooking those up, but the important thing is to make sure the middle pin is hooked up to an analog input.
edit* Both sims I fly (IL-2 & DCS) automatically support switches being held down.

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Wow, that is super simple. Thanks Zeb

During the shutdown, I’ve had some extra time to work on a dual control heli sim pit (so I can teach my boys to fly!). The fuselage is adapted from a Cessna aerobat from the salvage yard.

I’m also building a collective head for the upcoming release of the OH58d and making my own hat switches (instead of shelling $80 a pop for Ottos).


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Found a Bell 206 collective mast, throttle, and idle stop assembly on Ebay, soldered all my connections, and completed the throttle hardware setup. Overall 37 switch functions + throttle on just the collective head.