Throttle Control Prototype

Today I got my lazy backside away from the computer and made something REAL with REAL materials and REAL tools.

I also cut my finger doing it. :(

But here is the result of my ham-fisted work!  Behold: a throttle control!



I've been thinking about making my own HOTAS setup for literally years - ever since I managed to make a USB steering wheel out of cardboard and prayers.

The thing is, I have a Saitek X52 already, but the joystick is just too sticky and jumpy to properly control the UH-1 in DCS World.  So I want to make one which has a wider range of movement and higher sensitivity (thus making it much more precise).  Hopefully my dumb ass might then stand some chance at controlling that damn chopper.

Over the years, I've thought up various infeasible ways of magnifying the movement of the joystick, making the potentiometer move through a larger angle.  I even tried to fabricate my own cogs using wooden discs and timing belts (which would probably have worked if I could actually cut an even curve).

Then, a few days ago, I thought of using offset levers: the joystick rotates around one axis, and the potentiometer rotates around a different one.  If the potentiometer lever is shorter than the joystick one, the potentiometer will move through a larger angle than the joystick.

You might be able to see in the gif that the potentiometer turns through 180 degrees, but the actual throttle lever only moves through ~120 degrees.  Thus, in theory, the sensor should have greater precision.

This also gives the weird side-effect that the potentiometer will rotate more when the joystick is near the middle compared to at the extremes.  Not sure how that sensitivity curve will feel when playing, but there's only one way to find out.  And if it's a problem, I could always make the software cancel it out.



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