Trip Rodriguez full motion Huey Cockpit

Wow Trip, what a lot of work! I know how this goes. Making large scale amendments out of necessity for relatively small gains. Looking good though!

I spent half of yesterday puzzling over the internal switch works of my new vintage Russian cyclic grip. This afternoon I have just worked out the wiring of the 2 stage trigger ICS/Radio switch. 5 hours of continuous thought and circuit diagrams. I could probably have simply replaced the guts with new components, but that would be to give up the rather lovely original components. Electronics not my forte, but getting stronger!

Hope to fly with you soon.

Mole

Update June 27:

Completed Actuator Cover mods

Installed actuator position sensor assemblies

Installed cockpit frame to platform

To do before I can fly:

Wire up new motion electronics

Adjust position sensors

Modify seat, consoles, stick, and collective to sit 3" higher (proper height)

Finish collective final wiring (mostly just need to extend some of the wires)

Additional work to complete:

Build floor panels for around the sim

Full cue motion tuning

Complete UH-1 panels and wiring

Mole thanks for the encouragement and following along. You are absolutely right, it was a tough call to delay things further by making this change but it was well worth it.

Update June 28th:

Installed Actuator position sensors

Installed new electronics

Completed Actuator Covers and installed

Adjusted Actuator "home" position

Tested basic motion

There are (as always it seems) a couple hiccups.

On board test of motion is perfect. BFF Software test mode I'm getting some strange behavior from Actuator 5 but this could be a bug in the software's testing mode. I don't expect this is going to be anything problematic but haven't tested actual flight yet.

I may have mentioned that when I built my new deck for mounting the actuators I somehow accidentally mounted each pair about 1" closer to the center than before. I still have no idea how that happened. Well though the new position is perfect for the motion sim geometry, it has created some clearance issues to my actuator covers. I should really take it all back apart and move the actuators outboard 1 to 1.5 inches but I don't wanna!

The clearance to the ceiling however is perfect with the 3" lift!

Unfortunately I'm out of town tomorrow and very busy in general this week so it might be a few days before I get to do anything more. =(

Update June 30th:

All good news today for once!

The last couple little problems with the motion turned out to be coding errors in the firmware, which we have now solved (one possible pending bug remains)!

The issues with interference between the actuator covers and the platform have been resolved 100% to my satisfaction without tearing the sim completely apart! I did lose a little bit of heave travel, but not very much and I'm very pleased with the range of motion and have eliminated all interference problems 100% for the first time since going to a much larger moving platform!

So the motion sim is finally ready!

To be ready to finally start flying again I must:

- Complete mods to seat, joystick, collective, console, and overhead console to raise them all 3". This should "only take a day or so"™.

- Finalize wiring on the collective assembly. This too should be pretty quick.

After that to finish the UH-1 simulator:

- Build floor panels around the new lowered base so I don't fall in!

- Complete building all UH-1 panels and wiring (this will take a few weeks)

- Paint and finish all components for appearance

- Modify microhelis.de cyclic to add force trim and swap it in place of the modded dual FFB2.

You are one lucky fellah!

Update June 30th:

 

All good news today for once!

 

The last couple little problems with the motion turned out to be coding errors in the firmware, which we have now solved (one possible pending bug remains)!

 

The issues with interference between the actuator covers and the platform have been resolved 100% to my satisfaction without tearing the sim completely apart! I did lose a little bit of heave travel, but not very much and I'm very pleased with the range of motion and have eliminated all interference problems 100% for the first time since going to a much larger moving platform!

 

So the motion sim is finally ready!

 

To be ready to finally start flying again I must:

 

- Complete mods to seat, joystick, collective, console, and overhead console to raise them all 3". This should "only take a day or so"™.

 

- Finalize wiring on the collective assembly. This too should be pretty quick.

 

 

After that to finish the UH-1 simulator:

 

- Build floor panels around the new lowered base so I don't fall in!

- Complete building all UH-1 panels and wiring (this will take a few weeks)

- Paint and finish all components for appearance

- Modify microhelis.de cyclic to add force trim and swap it in place of the modded dual FFB2.

Hi Trip,

You must be like a crazy scientist in his basement with a beautiful and caring wife upstairs. Your wife must have the patience of a saint! I trust you devote nearly as much time to your beloved woman as to your beloved sim-rig....

Keep up the good work, and I hope eventually one day we will actually fly together. By then who knows what wonderful extra modules DCS/BST/PC will have produced and offered! I hope you won't be tempted to tear down the UH-1 pit in favour of a Hind!

Talk soon, posts pending photos,

Molevitch

Update July 1st:

Collective 3" lift progressed to 80% complete

Main console lift complete

Seat lift complete

I have to say I was surprised how much better it felt to sit in with the pedals/floor 3" lower relative to everything else. It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it.

I expect to start flying a bit this week, though there is a LOT of other stuff I need to do not to mention in-laws coming to town for the holiday so I'm not sure how much time I'll have. First thing I need to do when I get in the air is motion tuning, usually a six or eight hour session to get that done.

The only things preventing me from flying right now are:

Collective needs to be completed and installed

Dual MS FFB2 needs to be raised ~ 3 inches along with everything else, but I need to get in the pit in VR to determine the exact lift height.

I'm finally getting there!

Photos missing :) and videos too ...

Molevitch didn t let me more to say but i m jealous because i miss the time i was mounting wiring and testing ;) i realy hope you and yours the best.

Update July 8th:

Collective 3" lift completed (still need to do final mounting details)

Cyclic Mounted

Magnetic Brake assembly designed and 90% built (see pics)

Final parts for Mag Brake ordered (magnetic door lock and relay)

I'm painfully close to beginning test flights and motion tuning! Probably under 30 minutes of work to do.

Still lots to do, but not until after I'm back in the air for the first time in three months!

Here are the pics:

First my Mag Brake design! I wanted to add a Mag Brake to my excellent microhelis.de cyclic base, without damaging or modifying the gimbal if possible. In the end I settled on a design that is completely separate from the base. This sits on top of the deck and applies forces to the stick itself.

Though not elegant, I think this is going to be very effective and was very inexpensive. It is, however, bulky!

The design consists of two pairs of drawer slides. Because I'm short on cash, I actually made all four slides out of one large slide that was used previously in a pit I built years ago! The bottom pair of drawers slides allow a frame to slide left and right on ball bearings. That frame in turn has the second pair of slides mounted on it, to allow another frame to slide forward and back, as well as left and right due to the bottom layer.

The top frame has two pair of slides and springs in a pincer arrangement, one for x a-xis and one for y-axis layered one above the other. There is a centering spacer mounted between the two slides in each pair.

If this doesn't make sense now, all will become clear once I get the magnetic lock and install it. At that time I'll record a video demonstration (assuming it works!).

The only possible problem I am worried about is that the contact patch between the electro-magnet and the plate on the moving assembly could possibly be insufficient when set to a particularly far-off-center postion. I'm pretty sure it will work fine.

Next up, a picture of my cockpit starting to come together. Note the real Huey Cyclic (detailed pics and video clips of the mechanicals are on my phone still, I'll post them in the next few days) and the microhelis.de cyclic with my own home built extension for my Warthog grip and mag-brake assembly.

Currently my MFG Crosswind rudder pedals are still in place, but hopefully in a month or two I'll have some microhelis.de anti-torque pedals in there. =D

Lastly a picture of the motion sim, showing the giant holes in the floor that I need to build panels for.

That's all for now. I'll post updates next week as I get test flights and tuning done. I'll also be reporting the results of my Rift vs. Vive tests.

Trip

Hey Trip,

A very interesting and impressive solution! I look forward to hearing the results of testing, and seeing the video.

Mole

Impressive trip, best of luck ...

Thanks guys!

Got a video clip to share today, no actual flying just a range of motion demo:

Magnificent work Trip !!!

Thanks Kadda!

Hello Trip, how the things are going?

Thanks Kadda. I've been super busy so no progress on the Huey cockpit but I am back to flying finally!

Hopefully I'll start making some progress again in the coming weeks.

Trip

hey trip, is it goin on?

Thanks Kadda. I've been super busy so no progress on the Huey cockpit but I am back to flying finally!

 

Hopefully I'll start making some progress again in the coming weeks.

 

Trip

:thumbup:

Sadly the Huey cockpit is on hold for now.

My wife and I managed to buy a (mobile) home in October and I've got my hands full with necessary repairs and renovations so I can't get away with many hours of cockpit building currently. This week I have to start the kitchen renovation, there just isn't nearly enough counter and cabinet space for a full time residence.

For now what I've done is put the Huey cockpit in mothballs and returned the sim to it's original generic design. This way I can use it when I have a little time for fun and relaxation.

Sounds like you have your hands full Trip.. IMPRESSIVE Work Man... If you get the opportunity though could you tell us (Well, Me) a little about your original DIY Collective? Im in the process of working out how to build one now, and im looking for as many different ways of doing things as possible so I have some options. Thanks for your time, and this thread.

Excellent build! What plugin are you using for the motion? I've got a 3dof and the plugin from xsimulator is terrible. No yaw and that horrible bump when rolling or pitching past 180 degrees. Is there anything else out there that works better?

Trip how much area is required for it to be used think if you were to build a minimum size room/box and use it in would you need. Also a generic cost for the motion platform not the cockpit/

Excellent build! What plugin are you using for the motion? I've got a 3dof and the plugin from xsimulator is terrible. No yaw and that horrible bump when rolling or pitching past 180 degrees. Is there anything else out there that works better?

i heard the same thing... :( :( :(

i heard the same thing... :( :( :(

It's a real shame because it seems like nobody really uses motion with dcs. No matter how good your motion rig is, it's only as good as the software plugin that runs it, and the dcs plugin is next to useless.

Trip question iirc you have went to vr also considering this how much would you recreate for use in vr I don’t see the need for the read outs in vr but if the switches relate in bro then being able to manipulate them would be great as long as they sync to their vr settings I would use rotary encoders for the knobs since they. Are universal positioning ie doesnt matter of current position if you turn clockwise it increases the setting turning cc decreases the setting and you can get push switching also