Tag: yoke

Yoke assembly, part 3

April 25, 2011

With it being a long weekend for Easter here in the UK (happy Easter all my viewers, BTW!), I thought I would get some serious work done and catch up on the last couple of months where I’ve done next to nothing. Hmm. Not so much, as it turns out. But I did get a few hours work done today, mostly cleaning the build area ready for another junk and offcut collection, and for the next phase of skinning the shell.

One thing I did do today was work on the yoke system. If you’ll recall, my existing system used a pair of sliders to which are attached pillow block bearings to allow the yoke shaft to rotate freely, with the sliders being mounted on drawer runners to allow for back and forth movement. This system works well enough but after due consideration I decided that side-mounting the runners, and the general construction of the sliders using waste wood, was not good enough, and so I set about replacing them.
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Yoke fitting begins

January 15, 2011

Not a full post, this, but just a note to say that I reached a major milestone today when I was able to test-fit the yoke assembly (or, at least, the left-hand side of it) into the frame. The rod-carrier – which is mounted on drawer rails to allow it to slide back and forth – is now mounted to the frame in the correct place, and with that done I was able to push the yoke rod itself – complete with handle – into place and verify that the pillow block bearings are correctly placed and that the yoke rotates smoothly. The in-out movement is not quite so smooth, but I think a quick oil of the bearings will help that.

Much remains to be done. While all the in-handle electronics are done, all buttons tested and working, and the innards of both CH yokes put into a nice box ready to be mounted on the frame, I still have to mount and configure the potentiometers for both axes, and then work out how to fix lengths of bungee cord to provide resistance to movement and automatic centering of the controls.

A full post on the yoke build – with exciting pictures – will be forthcoming soon, when the right-hand side is done and mounted and I can test the double-yoke movement.

But hey; it’s progress. Right?

Building a yoke, part 1

November 22, 2010

(This is the first post in what will become a series on the building of the dual-yoke system for the cockpit project. You’ll find an image gallery at the end, as an experiment instead of threading the images throughout the post.)

It’s been a while since there was an update here. I haven’t been doing much on the project of late, as real life has intruded – as it tends to do. However, over the last few weeks I have been planning for and acquiring the parts to open a second front on the project, to give me an opportunity to work on something other than just the shell. Among the many items that I need to fabricate for the sim is the yoke assembly. I decided to get started on this as my second string of activity, and I’ve been building the yoke – slowly – for the last few weeks. Read More

Stretching the yoke a bit too far

January 17, 2010
CH Products yoke

The classic CH Yoke

(This post is from my older, pre-2009 unfinished sim project. For an article about the yoke build for my new project, which supercedes this one in all respects, go here.)

Depending on exactly what kind of sim you’re going for, you’re going to need one or another sort of main control stick or yoke. If you’re doing a fighter aircraft or a dedicated airbus sim, you’ll be using a centre- or side-stick. The latter of these can be replicated easily enough with any number of after-market joysticks designed for sim nuts, and depending on how far you’re willing to go it’s not that hard to convert one of these to look like the real thing. If you’re going for a light aircraft or non-Airbus airliners, you’ll be using a control yoke. Again, depending on exactly your requirements, these can be easier or harder to do – replicating a bolted-to-the-floor Boeing-style yoke system is a large ask compared to the simpler systems you’ll find on light aircraft.

One of the yokes most frequently used by sim buffs is from CH Products. The classic version gives you a yoke with a nice feel, good motion in two axes, and three levers on the top to use for throttle / prop / feather operations. The yoke is designed to clip to a desktop firmly and is used by many sim fans who will never go to the lengths of building a cockpit environment, but who nonetheless want a bit more realism than a keyboard-and-joystick combo will supply. Read More

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to both of my readers

December 31, 2009

Hi there. Yes, you – my elusive reader. Or are you perhaps the other one? I can never tell.

In the spirit of the soon-to-be-over festive season, I wish you both a belated happy Christmas, and a fantastic New Year to come.

I’m gearing up to start work on the project again at the weekend, so look forward to tales of extending the column on a CH yoke, rewiring the upper pots to serve as trim controls, and other soldering-iron-related fun. I’m also going to do a bit of mains wiring and maybe – I’m not promising anything here – a bit of woodwork on the console.

I know you’re looking forward to it as much as I am. No, really.

See you in 2010.