Homemade Collective

I'm currently in the process of building my own collective to use with DCS, and I've decided to make a

Outstanding job brother! Definitely keep us posted on the progress :)

+100 , please continue the vids, it would also be great to know what parts, and your methods of building the collective are. Great work mate !

Great collective and great video quality.

I really want to know though, how did you get the twist throttle to work? I can't wrap my head around the mechanics of it. Did you use a hall effect sensor?

Outstanding job brother! Definitely keep us posted on the progress

+100 , please continue the vids, it would also be great to know what parts, and your methods of building the collective are. Great work mate !

12-08-2016 12:54 AM

Thanks! Once I've made some progress I'll make a video that'll go into more detail about the construction of the collective.

Great collective and great video quality.

 

I really want to know though, how did you get the twist throttle to work? I can't wrap my head around the mechanics of it. Did you use a hall effect sensor?

At the moment the twist throttle isn't working yet as I'm waiting for a potentiometer to arrive.

The pot meter will sit in the main (inner) tube which will have a rougly 120 degrees slot in it. The throttle (outer) tube will have a bolt that will go through the slot in the inner tube, through a hole in the potentiometer axis. hopefully these photos will make it more obvious.

Here's another image showing the inside of the base, which holds the dampener and counterweights (sorry about the quality)

What does the twist do? As you increase the collective the tail steps out so you increase the throttle to balance it??

In the Huey, the throttle is generally only used at startup. The only reason to use manual throttle control during flight is if the governor, the system that automatically keeps RPM within a certain range, is defective.

In simpler helicopters, like the Robinson R22 for example, the throttle is adjusted to compensate for RPM differences that occur as the pitch of the rotor blades is changed by operating the collective, as the engine workload increases or decreases.

The tail is balanced using the anti-torque pedals. During forward flight the aerodynamic surfaces on the tail should assist with that task above a certain airspeed.

Thanks! Once I've made some progress I'll make a video that'll go into more detail about the construction of the collective.

 

 

 

At the moment the twist throttle isn't working yet as I'm waiting for a potentiometer to arrive.

The pot meter will sit in the main (inner) tube which will have a rougly 120 degrees slot in it. The throttle (outer) tube will have a bolt that will go through the slot in the inner tube, through a hole in the potentiometer axis.

OHHHHHHH brilliant brilliant way to do it. Though I can see it reducing the strength of the tube a little. But that's not a big deal low stress application.

Also I like the counterweight and damper, that's how I got my springless stick to work. Do you have a link to where to get one of those dampers? Those are hard to find.

OHHHHHHH brilliant brilliant way to do it. Though I can see it reducing the strength of the tube a little. But that's not a big deal low stress application.

 

Also I like the counterweight and damper, that's how I got my springless stick to work. Do you have a link to where to get one of those dampers? Those are hard to find.

Thanks, I got this dampener via aliexpress, if you search for linear damper you'll find a bunch with a high variability in price (and quality I'd imagine). I only paid 20 euro's for the one I'm using but I'm not entirely happy with it, as it has some pretty big stiction issues near the end (collective down).

Search for "steering damper for motorcyle" on Aliexpress or eBay.

Interesting, what kind of toggle switches have you used? Electronics? I would to design/build a collective

Interesting, what kind of toggle switches have you used? Electronics? I would to design/build a collective

I'm using switches similar to an actual huey collective, so who on single throw, three double throw, one of which is momentary (governor). I'm using a arduino nano clone running MMjoy2.

Here's a link with some solidworks/stl files that might be useful.

Since making the video I've added a hat switch, fixed the throttle axis and switched to a higher resolution potmeter on the main axis. I'll make a video in the next few weeks.

Nice stuff. I got a similar setup. I found that I needed to drill the ends on the damper quite a bit to get rid of any stickiness. Had to drain the oil and use some MOLYKOTE 44 medium grease instead. Now they are buttersmooth

Also fixed the throttle axis, only thing left is to fix the stiction and to paint the whole thing, I'd also like to get top-plate for the collective head with text printed.