MY DIY Rudder Pedals

I have created rudder pedals and want to share with community.

My name is Qamar Abbas and I am from Pakistan. By profession I am a software engineer, but I have some love for electronics.

I am using Saitek x52-Pro for die hard flight sim hobby. In DCS I fly more or less choppers. I was curious how choppers will feel with actual rudder pedals. I googled different pedals but due to limited stock and cost of the different pedals is beyond my reach. when you add shipping cost for Pakistan the price goes insane. OK enough talking

Updated mechanical

Parts Material

I R&D on different DIY rudder pedals and decided to start with simple design and made a rough design in blender get all the dimensions of different parts and made all the parts from wood. With my initial design I used bearings only on the main legs after some usage I added bearings in foot base hinges.

1. Main Legs
   
2. Pulley rotating potentiometer
   
3. 2 main leg support springs which is normal centering mechanism not perfect but it works
   
4. Brake pots
   
5. 2 foot pedal springs
   
6. Main leg stopping wood block
   
7. Arduino
   

Electronics

Well for me electronics is a bit easier than mechanical part. I used Arduino UNO and uploaded Big Joystick firmware to convert Arduino to HID joystick. The firmware support 8 axis and 40 buttons. Below are parts I used in different phases.

Version 1 (used about week or two)

Above picture depicts first version

• 1 Arduino UNO R3
  
• 3 50k 270 degree rotating potentiometer with very low quality as I didn't find any good pots here on local shop
  

Revision 1 (Used about a month)

I found good quality 10k linear sliding potentiometer. I used it for the rudder axis.

1. 10K Sliding Potentiometer.
   
2. Hand is attached to pot and Main leg
   
3. Hall sensor that is used for revision 2. This solution was not good because the response was not linear rather tapper.
   
4. 10 x 10mm Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets
   

Revision 2

I was not happy with the brakes precision. One of the reason was I used 270 degree pots and the foot axis can't be rotated to 270 degrees. Due to this majority of the resolution of the brake axis is wasted which makes the axis very noisy and jerky. I didn't find limited rotating capable pot on local shops. To overcome this issue I R&D on hall sensors.

I ordered 5 pieces lot of A1324LUA-T from Aliexpress. Why I chose these hall sensors? because one of the Person used in his DIY rudder pedals, according to him these are very sensitive linear sensors but those were previous version and company stop producing those and replaced with A1324LUA-T. I also added ball bearing on feet base leg

• 5 A1324LUA-T hall sensors from here
  
• 20pcs N50 Strong Small Block Cube 10mm x 10mm x 10mm Rare Earth Neodymium Magnet from here
  
• 8 bearings used for foot base hinges
  

1. Hall sensor with Rare Earth Neodymium Magnets. In the center you will see to wood blocks that I used to protect from accidently touching feets.
   
2. ADS 1115 chip
   
3. The center block is no more used. I will remove it in future
   
4. Bearings that I used for feet hinges
   
5. Bolts are used to control the main leg travel length. Same thing I done for feet but not shown in picture.
   

It makes things a lot different. It is no more jerky

Revision 3 (Above image has the R3 changes)

At that time I have grip on various things like Arduino and different chips and sensors. One of the limitation of the Arduino is it has 10bit ADC (Analog to digital converters). 10bit gives you 1023 resolution which is not bad but I want more precision. Well I contacted my friend Google and found some ADC 16 bit (Analog to digital converters). I came across a really nice chip ADS 1115 It has 4 channels means you can use 4 axis. I also make changes in mechanical parts. I put a wood block with two bolts to control main leg travel.

Round 3 ;)

1) 1 16 Bit I2C ADS1115 Module ADC 4 channel with Pro Gain Amplifier for Arduino http://www.aliexpress.com/item/J34-Free-Shipping-16-Bit-I2C-ADS1115-Module-ADC-4-channel-with-Pro-Gain-Amplifier-for/32564528015.html

2) Wood block added to control main leg travel.

Well after round 3 the things are going very nicely. I get 15bit resolution on single ended using ADS1115. If you want 16 bit then you need differential mode of ADS1115 chip and you will be limited to two axis. I used 15bit as it give me 32768 resolution which is more than enough and which is more than MFG crosswind.

My Experience

When I used rudder pedals for the first time the experience was odd, one of the reason I was used to twisted rudders, 2nd I for the first time know the fact that when you push left rudder the heli/aircraft will turn to left while I was expecting it to turn right. I thought that it will be like motorcycle but it is opposite in air vehicles. Anyhow with the time it becomes more fun and I was getting used to it. It is pleasure to fly with actual rudder pedals more immersive.

With the revision 3 the precision is really good and hall sensor are perfect no noise no lag very precise.

One of the things I learned building my own pedals is it gives you confidence for future projects. I am now able to develop home cockpit and I can easily develop a simple joystick or wheel. I don't have tools to create precise parts but enough to start a small project.

Time and Cost

Well DIY rudders are cheap in terms of cost but it will eat a lot of your Weekends. If you get decent rudder pedals for 100-150usd on your local shops then DIY rudder pedals are not worth the time it takes to build. The whole thing cost less than 70usd with hall sensor and 15 bit resolutions.

• Arduino UNO R3 $8
  from local shop You can get it for 2.5usd on Aliexpress but it takes time to ship)
  
• 5 pieces lot hall sensors $6.5
  
• 20 pieces lot 10mm X 10mm magnets for $14
  
• ADS 1115 $2.90
  
• Wood, bearings, Bolts, spring etc $20
  

And finally efforts and time $200

My future plans

I am planning to paint it and your suggestion is most welcome.

If I get enough motivation I will spend time on mechanical. I will try to replace wood with Aluminum or something similar.

Limitations

The response time is 30 to 45ms, which you can blame Arduino as It is at max 16Mhz speed.

There is 1 ms delay to read a single axis.

Feel free if you want to create one of those and need my help :thumbup:.

Some development Images. I will post a video later

Thank You

Excuse my english skills :(

Update #1

1. I have added screws for pedals to limit the turn angle
   
2. Added two wood blocks to stop rudder axis, Which makes pedals to be used in driving games. I tried in American truck simulator
   

Reserved

Dang...that's quite a DIY project!! Well done.

Wow that looks awesome, great job man! :thumbup:

well done! :thumbup:

it reminds me of "IT MIGHT GET LOUD"

"And who says you need to buy a guitar??"

Thank you guys. I have uploaded a short video.

All ingenious - is simple.

But it seems to me, when is fully pressed the brake pedal, you will not be able to fully turn the rudder. Detail marked with a red touches to the part marked black.

All ingenious - is simple.

But it seems to me, when is fully pressed the brake pedal, you will not be able to fully turn the rudder. Detail marked with a red touches to the part marked black.

I understand what you mean but you can turn the rudders fully when brakes are held down without any issue. The reason of the long hinge was to do some experiments for maximum turn angle and you can see different holes due to this. Anyhow I don't need that much angle now after using hall sensors. Extra turn angle was also not comfortable for feet so I added a screw to limit the angle of brakes. I will post some new images later

Good job mate... appreciate your effort and ingenuity... keep it up...

Good wishes from India ...

Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk

Nice work!

Are you considering creating pedals that are helicopter like design, since you fly choppers mostly?

Helicopter pedals are designed to use the balls of your feet, instead of placing the whole foot onto the pedal. Like the ones from Huey. More like this so you won't need to move your legs to push the whole pedal, but instead just rotate your foot, more like a car accelerator pedal.

Thank you guys for kind words.

All ingenious - is simple.

But it seems to me, when is fully pressed the brake pedal, you will not be able to fully turn the rudder. Detail marked with a red touches to the part marked black.

[ATTACH]137658[/ATTACH]

I have added screws for pedals to limit the turn angle

Added two wood blocks to stop rudder axis, Which makes pedals to be used in driving games. I tried in American truck simulator

Nice work!

 

Are you considering creating pedals that are helicopter like design, since you fly choppers mostly?

 

Helicopter pedals are designed to use the balls of your feet, instead of placing the whole foot onto the pedal. Like the ones from Huey. More like this so you won't need to move your legs to push the whole pedal, but instead just rotate your foot, more like a car accelerator pedal.

It is my experimenting project. For that I wanted to be generic pedals. I will spend more time on it to make them more comfortable. If I have enough time. In next project I will not use wood and yes I would consider chopper only pedals Which are more comfortable.

Very cool !

Hey Sniperwolf, thumbs up for this thread and a detailed writeup - I am just now designing my own DIY set of rudder pedals and have been using your list as a template of what to order - I now have a bunch of products coming my way from the far corners of the world.

I am a bit hesitant when it comes to putting it all together, any chance you would know any good places to start out with the whole Arduino business and where to get good firmware?

My shopping list:

Allegro A1302KUA-T A1302 Ratiometric Linear Hall Effect Sensors

ATmega328P CH340G UNO R3 Board Mini USB Board for Compatible-Arduino +USB Cable

16 Bit I2C ADS1115 Module ADC 4 channel with Pro Gain Amplifier for Arduino RPi

I also ordered a CJMCU-90393 MLX90393 Digital 3D Hall Sensor since it seems to be superior to the traditional hall sensor in pretty much every way - but I have not got a clue if I can even use it.

Thanks for the help so far!

Well I have attached a zip file. It contains every thing firmware, a demo joystick and my joystick arduino code file. Good thing is you are using same ADC so my joystick.ino have code that is using 15 bit ADC.

There are two firmware, one will convert your arduino to as plug and play joystick and other is the default firmware for Arduino UNO. You have to upload the My_Joytick -> my joystick.ino sketch and then load the Arduino-Big-Joystick.hex firmware that's it.

To upload sketch you need arduino development kit

To upload firmware you need FLIP software.

I hope this will help you

Arduino Joystick.zip

Wow cool, thanks a bunch! Have some rep :D

I hope to take it one step further and use said MLX90363 3d hall sensor as my primary sensor - but we'll see. Will probably use regular halls for the toe brakes though.

Here is my project design so far btw https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=192832

Price tag is probably a bit higher thank your's because of the added expense of steering damper and gas shocks, but I still think I will come out below 100€ which is the price of a new set of plastic ones.

I have update some mechanical parts of my DIY rudder pedals.

Are there bearings at the interface between the support block and the 2 main bars? (I have included an image in the attachments; the areas I am referring to are indicated by the blue arrows)

Are you using a washer there? Does it adequately eliminate most friction?

In the image no there are no bearings. This was my first version. I was just quickly testing things. Look at the below video

In the video yes there are bearings, that are engraved into wood. Same bearing is used beneath of wood for each leg.