Suncom SFS and Talon restoration and mods

Mine Flightstick Pro was gameport.

 

F22 is difficult to find and is usually expensive on eBay.

 

I found this:

 

 

It is Quickshot Skymaster QS-206. I bought it for 1 on eBay, it looks bigger on pictures but it is small. Gimbal is almost identical as in CH sticks, only 1/2 the size. But there was no that feeling in diagonals. Then I started to disassemble it and removed rubber boot and that feeling was back again. I think it is because rubber boot counteracts springs in gimbal. I am going to experiment more on this.

I agree, when I took the boot off of the f16 & the f22, I found the same thing, so maybe put a rubber boot on your flightstick base? Maybe a CV boot from a car cut down would be good as they are very flexible..

Adding a "pinkie" lever switch and the higher palm rest in CH Combatstick.

The lever is done in 2 pieces of ~2mm aluminum glued and pinned together and some epoxy putty. The ~1mm piano wire press the micro switch, adding some spring effect.

The up angle in lever is need due the big movement angle of CH sticks, to avoid hit the base.

The epoxy putty inside the lower part of grip, plus some modification in the pole allow rotate the grip to set a 10-15 degrees off set for left.

Need painting (the boring part...).

Similar in CH Fighterstick, painted.

In this the "pinkie" button is off set for left, but this is too laborious to do, dont worth.

I have send my SFS grips to GVL224 for total conversion. I can't wait for it to arrive...

Very nice.

The new box (1st picture) is acrylic?

Very nice.

 

The new box (1st picture) is acrylic?

Yes it is acrylic.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=145129&page=2

Cool, I just ask for top cover match the sides length and width.

I worked a little on new paddle lever for my FLCS grip. I made 3D model in Sketchup and exported it in OBJ file. I made account on Shapeways site and decided to try it. They have free shipping weekends from time to time, I used just that. I had no previous experience with 3D printing, this was just to see how it works and to see print quality. Price was around 5 Euros, for stainless steel print it was around 30. I'll probably try steel next time.

This is my model:

I didn't have any measures, I had a few photos of a warthosg grip. So I just eyeballed it.

Warthog paddle:

An this is the result:

Print quality is OK, I expected it to be worse. Material is ABS strong and flexible plastic. Texture isn't smooth, it feels like very fine sandpaper, it probably could be polished. On some photos it appears dark grey but it is black, I used flashlight when I took these photos.

I also made a mistake, I maybe left too little room for pinkie finger, If had moved lever 5mm up front it would have been better, maybe next time.

That is it, I am happy with it, all proces from my order to delivery took about 8 days. I am not advertising Shapeways, maybe there is other companies taht are doing better job.

In future I'll try metal prints as well.

Your looks good.

I have one this pinkie lever - molded after a real F-16 (not Warthog) adapted for Tm F16/F22 (use the same red parts as mold), take some measures (SketchUp - dont know how draw curved surfaces...), if help:

upload gif

In fact what matter is only the lever, since the axis part need be like the one in Tm F16/F22 to be "PnP".

I experimented a little, my friend has modded Cougar, with gimbals and hall sensors and Warthog.

Both grips work on my base, they are just ridiculously heavy.

Warthog grip

My grip also works on Thrustmaster bases, but I would have to rearrange switches on shift register for it to work properly.

On Cougar base:

On Warthog base:

For me Warthog base is terrible, spring is so heavy. It would be very difficult to be precise with it.

I worked a little on new paddle lever for my FLCS grip. I made 3D model in Sketchup and exported it in OBJ file. I made account on Shapeways site and decided to try it. They have free shipping weekends from time to time, I used just that. I had no previous experience with 3D printing, this was just to see how it works and to see print quality. Price was around 5 Euros, for stainless steel print it was around 30. I'll probably try steel next time.

 

This is my model:

 

 

I didn't have any measures, I had a few photos of a warthosg grip. So I just eyeballed it.

 

Warthog paddle:

 

 

An this is the result:

 

 

 

Print quality is OK, I expected it to be worse. Material is ABS strong and flexible plastic. Texture isn't smooth, it feels like very fine sandpaper, it probably could be polished. On some photos it appears dark grey but it is black, I used flashlight when I took these photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made a mistake, I maybe left too little room for pinkie finger, If had moved lever 5mm up front it would have been better, maybe next time.

 

 

That is it, I am happy with it, all proces from my order to delivery took about 8 days. I am not advertising Shapeways, maybe there is other companies taht are doing better job.

 

In future I'll try metal prints as well.

would you mind sharing the stl? Would quite like to print one of these off! Great job!

would you mind sharing the stl? Would quite like to print one of these off! Great job!

I have put paddle lever on my Shapeways store. I made a new version, lever is now 5mm further away from pinkie switch. This time I didn't use black plastic but white polished plastic. I'll paint it with Revell model color. Polished plastic looks much nicer and is smoother. Sorry for bad image quality.

I made also countermeasures switch and and display management switch. I found this two photos and eyeballed the details. I made CM switch a little taller, now it easier to move that switch arround. DMS is now oriented right way but I made it too wide. Ergonomics is probably trial and error science.

CM switch is also in store DM switch will be reworked and added in next few days.

I will add only 1,00 US$ on top of Shapeways' price on all my models. I don't plan to make a living out of this, just a few bucks to finance my hobby. All models will be printable in black, white polished plastic and stainless steel. I'll add more models in future, maybe even a CAM gimbal that I plan to make.

I have received reworked throttle from GVL224 and it is amazing build. Quality is much better than anything I've ever seen. More on it in future.

I started to polish throttle grips.

Polished vs unpolished:

Polished doesn't have any benefits but I like when things looks nice.

I saw that people have problems with this part on Warthog/Cougar

So I made model:

And also one with 13 degrees angle:

and one for Suncom's grip

Last two are made with ticker base, that is for Gardena screw.

Shafts can be made in plastic and stainless steel. Plastic is around 12 dollars and metal around 60. I'll test to see if plastic is strong enough for warthog base. Maybe it will work and that can be cheaper alternative for people who broke warthog's shaft.

Happy new year everbody!

I've got new 3D printed parts. Some you can see on this page

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=144993&page=5

I changed DMS knob, I made it smaller. Now it works fine, before it was too big and I accidentally moved it when I had moved target management switch.

I ordered this on eBay:

 

 

It is TT Electronics/BI Technologies hall Sensor. Model is 6120, and its code is 6127V1A60L.5. V1 means that output voltage will be from 4% to 96% of VCC. A60 means that it covers that in 60 degrees. I couldn't find V0 or one with D-shaft. But shaft is same diameter as CH pot, 1/4 of inch. Also dimension of sensor is similar to CH pot.

Use one in Cougar TQS (+TUSBA Adapter), assembled in CougarPilot kit style: aluminum L profile as support, Du-Bro R/C Steering Arm Lever, R/C Helicopter ball-join linkage.

Work good, and has relative low cost ~20/25$ for sensor and parts. :thumbup:

Good work Sokol. That is a great sensor, works great. I don't know why its not more used.

Extrême !!!! i didn't found and see before !!!!

i have a Suncom mod on warthog !!!

thank's !!

Can you post photos please?

OK, this will be a longer post.

I finally, more or less, finished my SFS throttle. It was huge modification. I saw a few post from GVL224 an his throttle mechanics. Like HERE and HERE.

So I contacted him and asked 100 questions, GVL224 was patient and answered to all of them, I had rough idea what to do and he said what can be done or what cannot be done. When we arranged everything I sent him grips from SFS throttle and he designed everything. Not many people would do it. When it was finished I payed and a few days latter throttle mechanics and new box arrived and it is great. Build quality is awesome, it is built from steel. I think mechanics will last for a lifetime.

Thank you GVL224!!! I recommend this to everybody.

That was I think in November. Then I took a quite a lot of time with planning, buying switches on eBay, designing new PCB and in the end I discovered 3D printing and that changed everything. That gave me a lot of flexibility.

First I bought this Switch on eBay:

That is Otto P8 switch. Something similar is used on real grips and throttles. It is fantastic, you cannot press this one by mistake. It takes a lot more force to actuate it. When you shake it nothing moves. I used it as a left multi function switch.

Then I didn't like those momentary toggles. They were so cheap, levers were moving even if not actuated. Even worse than those crappy switches on TM Warthog throttle. So I found this:

That is Honeywell 11TW1-7 toggle switch. As you can see they are expensive. I bought 10 for 8 Euros on ebay, I was lucky. This is perfect toggle switch, even better than OTTO, in my opinion.

Honeywells have better tactile feel. They are waterproof and dust proof, all things that I don't need, but because of that they have rubber coat inside that gives some resistance while moving and great click. Also levers are completely stationary when you have fingers on them, no wobbling. Only problem was that levers were to long and a conical. I knew I'd have difficulties mounting knobs on them. First I thought of this:

As you can see this is almost impossible without destroying a switch. I just couldn't hold lever in place while cutting threads.

Then I simply cut them and decided to 3D print knobs.

Knobs:

Red one should be gray, but I just wanted to see how red prints look like.

I used grub screws, M3 x3. And it worked, screws hold all knobs in place.

I didn't cut CMD Dispenser Switch but used same method for fixing the knob.

Then I was thinking about slew control and I decided to use PS3 thumb stick, it has hall sensors, so I made this assembly:

All together:

Right Multi-Function Switch, 4 way. I used old switch from old FLCS. I also made enclosure for it for easier mounting and knob also.

Assembled:

All fit together nicely.

And last one Antenna Elevation Control. I saw this photo and a drawing of F15 throttle and saw that it uses knob similar or same as one on TQS.

On the right is one I had from old TQS, throttle. On the left is 3D print. Potentiometer couldn't fit so I used Apem encoder.

And last thing before assembly was a new PCB for Leonardo pro micro. Idesiged PCB in Eagle cad, and PCB was cnc routed.

This way there is much less mess with wires. And it is very easy to disassemble everything if necessary.

I'll split this post into two, it is too long.

And photo session in the end.

Looks fantastic great job!!!

I forgot to mention, box that GVL224 made is acrylic I think. It assembles like lego and is connected to the mechanics with 12 screws. Everything is very solid. I also got 2 sensors, magnets were installed on the mechanics.

Also big thanks to Mega_Mozg_13 fro simHQ forums for his great work on MMJoy2.

In future I plan to work on Joysticks. I have plans to make my own gimbal, with ball bearings, and hall sensors. I'll look for more switches for my grips. In the meantime I was again very lucky and found two of these:

Otto U2-016 dual stage trigger. Its 150$ switch. I got 2 for 30. Again lucky. Tactile feel is completely different from cougar/warthog/flcs. There is resistance all the way, first click it is very easy to press, second stage needs a lot more force, and very loud click. Again it cannot be pressed by accident. I'll probably post a video on it. Actuator looks almost the same like one on cougar/flcs. This is probably same switch that is used on real sticks.

Nice work debolestis, always keeping your quality finishing :thumbup:

Hi Debolestis thanks for sharing your mod. Did you test the realsimulator usb mod for Suncom SFS before try your own mod?

Hi Debolestis thanks for sharing your mod. Did you test the realsimulator usb mod for Suncom SFS before try your own mod?

No.

My 0,02$

RS FUSBA is a nice option for ones not adept of DIY, but with little value for these.

Consider:

Maintain the SFS original circuit boards with his now ancient components.

Maintain the use of potentiometers - the drawback of potentiomter in joystick

is the need of "joystick potentiometer" (limited electrical travel), almost impossible

to buy for replace, as potentiometers wear.

For programming a F-16 stick need a keyboard connected in DIN port!!!

IMO - Is something which appeared on the market ~10 years belated. ;)

The old components does not matter, if this have a acceptable response after the realsimulator mod, then is ok.

Realsimulator sale spare potentiometer with the FUSBA kit.

After the mod you don't need any keyboard emulation through extra PS2 cable. The FUSBA mod is connected by USB giving to Suncom Joystick a new life