Bu0386 And Yoke Refurb+Upgrade

[Cold_Gambler]

As noted in FT's "buttons buttons buttons" thread, I was inspired to buy a Leo Bodnar BU0386 unit.

My original motivation was primarily to add three axes for trim by adding the BU0386 with three pots (and a bunch of buttons) to my CH ProThrottle.

However, I had yesterday off from work and went with my family to a thrift store near our house. there was a yoke sitting there for $7.99...

I've been wanting a yoke for a long time (fo MS FSX and for bomber/P-38 driving), but have always balked at the price tag for both the CH or the Saitek unit.

So when I saw the yoke I took a good look at it and decided, since the BU0386 is already on the way, that it might be worth a try refurbishing it with the BU0386.

It's an old game port device and has 4 axes: right-left, in-out, "rudder" (though who the heck would find it intuitive to control yaw with a rotatory knob on the side of the casing is beyond me) and "throttle"; and two buttons.

It's had a fair bit of use, and the previous owner made two repairs to it: the first is a wire connection he remade and the second is a "bracing" of the "right-left" pot (and pot adjustment mechanism).

I've had a chance to open it up and it still looks like a pretty good candidate for refurbishing:

-The internal components are built of solid material, and the design is logical. I can see why it only got "chucked" recently.

-There's space to add at least 8-10 buttons on the yoke handle without compromising the structural integrity of the unit.

-There's space to add pots and/or buttons in the top of the casing, though I may simply create a button bay which I'll then affix to the top of the unit.

-I may be able to leave the existing pots in place, if they are still OK and simply connect them to the BU0386. The main pot that is a concern is the "slide" pot as, in my experience, those tend to wear out faster than the rotary pots.

Because it's a gameport device I was not able to test it to see if the pots are ok (even with a gameport-USB connector)... If they are WooHoo!, I won't have to take it all apart.

There is one problem that I don't think I'll be able to resolve because it's an inherent design issue.

The central shaft is square and sits within a larger round shaft with a square hole. The square central shaft is a little smaller (naturally) than the square hole it sits in because the central shaft needs to be able to slide in and out to activate the "in-out" slide pot. The gap between the central shaft and the square hole means that there's a mechanical deadzone when pivoting the yoke from one side to the other until the central shaft touches and turns the larger round shaft to record motion on the "left-right" axis.

It seems to me that the "solution" is obvious in theory but much less obvious in implementation. The gap needs to closed by about 0.5 mm, either by making the hole a little smaller (preferably) or by making the shaft a little bigger (but this would have to be done on its whole length, evenly). The gap can't be closed so much as to restrict smoothness of motion, but it has to be closed more than a litte or else a deadzone will remain.

I will post pictures of the unit and its internals soon (especially to illustrate the above noted problem). Any thoughts and opinions with respect to this particular project or with respect to the BU0386 are very welcome.

Also if anyone can identify the manufacturer of the yoke or the model name I would appreciate it. The only identifying feature is a W on the front and a Quality Control # on the bottom.

Cheers,

Angus

P.S. forgot to mention that the suction cups will have to be replaced with a more suitable solution (likely a braket of some sort with oversized wingnuts to clamp it to the desk). Given the stiffness of the springs used for the "in-out" axis, I'm surprised they ever worked satisfactorily for the previous owner.

[DD_Brando]

Hi Angus

I look forward to seeing your pictures, especially with regard to the clearance issue. It would be good to know what type of plastic it is made of.

[Cold_Gambler]

Hi Angus

I look forward to seeing your pictures, especially with regard to the clearance issue. It would be good to know what type of plastic it is made of.

Hi Brando,

here are the pictures:

The outside, looks a little "toy-like" but has a solid feel to it. It's a much darker grey than it appears in these first pictures.

The center (where the W is) is largely empty and has space to accomodate pots or switches.

There is also sufficient space in the handles under the index and ring fingers to place a button. If the buttons on the top for the thumb still work I'll leave them as is and simply reroute the wiring, otherwise I may consider installing a hat switch on one side.

The inside, general view. Plenty of clearance on the top to add some switches or rotary pots, will just have to have well secured wire routing around the back if I do.

Right hand side, innards. This is the pot for the Left-Right rotation axis. The prior owner's repair is apparent... I think we'd get along well since we have similar repair philosophies . The pot adjustment mechanism is clearly visible- because it is analog it requires manual adjustment; once it's been refitted with the Bodnar unit the calibration will be done with software of course and I won't need the knob for that purpose though it could possibly be used as a mechanical trim (freeing up a "virtual" axis).

The main shaft. Two rings in yellow plastic at the front are connected by a spring which provides tension and centering, plastic stops on the main shaft (hidden in this picture by the yellow rings) limit R-L rotation by about 30 degs to either side. Similarly, the two springs to the right ofthe pic assure tension and centering in the "in-out" axis. The white gear fixed in the middle of the shaft connects to the white gear attached to the pot on the right hand casing, for the "Left-R" axis.

As you can see, the design is fairly simple and the components are made of decently solid material. I don't know what type of plastic it is but it's quite tough. While the white plastic for the gears is hard I think it might be scratched with a screw-driver, the yellow, grey and black parts otoh are very hard and I haven't scratched it .

Two pictures of the "minigap". The gap is visible first on the "top" and in the second on the "side". It's very small, about half a millimetre, but because it's so close to the pivot centre it translates into about 4 degrees of "slop" in the center which is annoying.

My thoughts at the moment with respect to the minigap is to insert some sort of shim to close it up. My first attempt may simply be to try some duct tape, the "real" duct tape with the alu backing, as this will not provide too much friction and be easy to do. I'm not sure the duct tape could stand up in the longer term though...

I hope you have found this interesting. I'm still in the planning phases, so any ideas are more than welcome.

I think I'm going to pick up some slider pots and explore the idea of a "cessna" style throttle, mixture, prop pitch pushrod control panel which could be affixed on top/ on the side for FSX fun.

Here's hoping my BU0836 comes in the mail tomorrow. The best part is that since it only cost $8, I'm not going to get upset it the minigap problem can't be solved and is a deal breaker; I'll still be able to use the BU0836 and all the switches and pots for a button bay.

Angus

[FoolTrottel]

I do recognize that, in that I've seen it before.

Can't remember where, or what brand/make/model it is.

Looks like a nice challenge!

[DD_Brando]

The mini gap looks to be the result of relatively rough handling and poor design at the point where the square shaft enters the cylindrical one. The square opening takes the 'knock' when the female shaft gets to the limit of yaw, right and left, and the whitish marks around the square opening tell the tale (viz. the final picture)

In my experience, attempting to take this up by enlarging the square shaft will not work beyond one or two flights - if at all. Note that the distortion of the aperture is not square in nature. The hammering has created tiny arcs at the contact points. Also, the duct tape is by nature softer than the original material. This will cause it to dent, which will cause ridges to form around the dents, and hopefully you can see where that will end.

There is hope. The square aperture does not appear to extend right through the cylindrical piece. (Perhaps you could confirm this?) I suspect that the cylinder is a hollow, injection moulded piece; and that the square aperture is either moulded in or cut out afterwards. I would expect to find another square aperture at the other end of the cylinder nearest the yoke (?) and you may expect to find similar wear there.

OK. So, because you have basically two circular plates, pierced with square holes, at each end of a hollow cylinder, there is a possible solution. The main problem is what material to use, but let me explain the fix first. Basically you need to add an extra plate to each end, pierced with the correctly-sized aperture in the right place, sized to clear any obstructions. The main obstruction I can see is the pitch stop, visible on the right-hand side of the square shaft in the fore ground of the final picture. The thickness of the new plate needs to be sawn off the pitch stop unless this can be overcome by software adjustment. Again I would expect to see a similar situation at the other end of the cylinder.

Attaching the patching plates would probably best be done mechanically as you may not find a suitable adhesive for this type of plastic. Two-part Araldite might do it but may not be able to hack the lateral stress that the yoke operation creates. Better would be to use small self-tapping screws into previously made pilot holes.

It's not as complex as it sounds but just a bit time consuming. Care is needed in positioning the patch over the original aperture to get a workable result.

[Cold_Gambler]

The mini gap looks to be the result of relatively rough handling and poor design at the point where the square shaft enters the cylindrical one. The square opening takes the 'knock' when the female shaft gets to the limit of yaw, right and left, and the whitish marks around the square opening tell the tale (viz. the final picture)

In my experience, attempting to take this up by enlarging the square shaft will not work beyond one or two flights - if at all. Note that the distortion of the aperture is not square in nature. The hammering has created tiny arcs at the contact points. Also, the duct tape is by nature softer than the original material. This will cause it to dent, which will cause ridges to form around the dents, and hopefully you can see where that will end.

There is hope. The square aperture does not appear to extend right through the cylindrical piece. (Perhaps you could confirm this?) I suspect that the cylinder is a hollow, injection moulded piece; and that the square aperture is either moulded in or cut out afterwards. I would expect to find another square aperture at the other end of the cylinder nearest the yoke (?) and you may expect to find similar wear there.

OK. So, because you have basically two circular plates, pierced with square holes, at each end of a hollow cylinder, there is a possible solution. The main problem is what material to use, but let me explain the fix first. Basically you need to add an extra plate to each end, pierced with the correctly-sized aperture in the right place, sized to clear any obstructions. The main obstruction I can see is the pitch stop, visible on the right-hand side of the square shaft in the fore ground of the final picture. The thickness of the new plate needs to be sawn off the pitch stop unless this can be overcome by software adjustment. Again I would expect to see a similar situation at the other end of the cylinder.

Attaching the patching plates would probably best be done mechanically as you may not find a suitable adhesive for this type of plastic. Two-part Araldite might do it but may not be able to hack the lateral stress that the yoke operation creates. Better would be to use small self-tapping screws into previously made pilot holes.

It's not as complex as it sounds but just a bit time consuming. Care is needed in positioning the patch over the original aperture to get a workable result.

Hi Brandon,

thanks very much for the input! I'm not sure if there is a second "ring" up front. I suspect that there isn't (though I haven't taken the shaft mechanism apart), I believe that the main shaft (starts off round and is retained at the front by the round sleeve at the front (which itself is held in position by the casing). You are correct that the aperture does not extend down the length of the shaft; it is merely 1.5 mm in length (i.e. the thickness of the plastic comprising the shaft).

Your suggestion of creating an additional "plate" with a square hole that more closely brackets the square shaft end is a good one. And I think I will implement it. Thanks. I would likely attach it to the existing plate with screws/bolts as you suggest. Fortunately, as you can see, there's an overhang of the ring over the plate so I've got a bit of leeway to play with before travel is restricted. It may also be possible to place the additional plate on the inside of the shaft if travel is an issue.

My next step will be to take apart the shaft to make sure there isn't some other solution, but given that the problem is the minigap caused by wear on the square hole I think adding a new shaft hole plate will be the solution.

Thanks again,

Angus

[Cold_Gambler]

Looking at the pictures, another possible solution has occurred to me: given that there is a "notch" in the square apperture, another option would be to attach a "rail" length wise to the square shaft end. The difficulty, however, would be to attach the rail to the shaft end.

I think Brandon's solution is probably the easier of the two solutions to implement....

[Shadrach]

Would you need a plate with a square hole? What about just fixing two small pieces of square sectioned packing (metal or hard plastic/nylon) to the face of the round housing with self tappers so that they are a good sliding fit against two sides of the square shaft, ie they push the shaft against the opposite faces of the housing thus taking up the play. Don't know if you understand what I mean, will try to do a diagram.

[Shadrach]

Ah, there you go:

[Shadrach]

And if you used plastic or a soft metal like aluminium you could file a larger piece into a half moon shape to give a larger area to drill and screw through making fixing easier.

[DD_Brando]

I'm going to stick with the round plate/ square hole suggestion simply because that will take up the wear that is occurring on all four sides of the aperture, and allow the self tappers a bit more meat to bite into. I don't think that locating screws close to the edge of the hole is a good idea based on my own experiences with plastic modding. I own a southpaw version of the CH Fighterstick, thanks to Mark , which I further modded with parts from a second Fighterstick. I learned a fair bit about using screws on that job.

I certainly agree with nylon as a good material for the patch and on reflection I think it would pay to use both Araldite and small self tapping screws to fix it on. Make sure that the diameter of the pilot holes in the original piece is a tad smaller than the screws so that you get a good cut-in for the thread, and don't over-tighten the screws or you might bugger the whole thing!

cheeers

[Cold_Gambler]

Hi Shadrach,

I think that's a great point. An L shape with half-moons would probably work best as I won't have to worry about tolerances re: the size of the square hole. Just position the L for a snug fit and fix it.

Incidentally, my suspicions that there aren't 2 rings were correct: the square end is attached to the round shaft which slips inside the round main shaft. This means that the "slop" is worse at the full out position (elevator up) and non existent when full in.

Had the main shaft been molded solid through the "square" portion of the shaft the slop would not have developed as the stress would have been distributed throughout the whole shaft rather than at the stress point of the square hole.

So one other possibilit would be to look for a tight tolerance square tube, but I fear that is something of a pipe dream (haha).

Gents, your input has been really helpful, thanks! Now to search for a suitable material from which to make the L.

[Shadrach]

If there is more slop at the full out position then it sounds like the square shaft is worn unevenly in which case simply packing the face or fitting a round plate with a square hole will not work as taking the slop out one end will make it too tight the other. The solution to that would have to be your idea of fitting some square section tubing over the square section shaft. That would probaly be easier that it sounds as I am sure some could be found on ebay or your local metal merchant. I have one near me that stocks all sorts of sizes and sections in mild steel and aluminium and is happy to cut a small length. You just need to find some that will fit through the hole with as little play as possible and then use Ross's or my idea to take out the slack. The only bit that might be a bit tricky is to file the plastic shaft down so it is a nice tight fit inside the metal tube. If you take too much off you could always use fiberglass resin between shaft and tube to rescue it. I take Ross's point about drilling too close to the edge which is why I suggested a half moon shape.

[Cold_Gambler]

If there is more slop at the full out position then it sounds like the square shaft is worn unevenly in which case simply packing the face or fitting a round plate with a square hole will not work as taking the slop out one end will make it too tight the other. The solution to that would have to be your idea of fitting some square section tubing over the square section shaft. That would probaly be easier that it sounds as I am sure some could be found on ebay or your local metal merchant. I have one near me that stocks all sorts of sizes and sections in mild steel and aluminium and is happy to cut a small length. You just need to find some that will fit through the hole with as little play as possible and then use Ross's or my idea to take out the slack. The only bit that might be a bit tricky is to file the plastic shaft down so it is a nice tight fit inside the metal tube. If you take too much off you could always use fiberglass resin between shaft and tube to rescue it. I take Ross's point about drilling too close to the edge which is why I suggested a half moon shape.

Hi Shadrach,

I don't think the slop at the full out position is due to uneven wear on the square shaft. Rather, the lack of slop in the full in position is due to the fact that in that position the "front end" of the shaft is entirely within the round retaining portion of the main shaft and therefore has a lot of stability.

Interesting that you think there's a good chance of finding a square tube within a tight tolerance of the square shaft. Ultimately, that's likely to be the best long-term solution and certainly worth exploring.

If a square tube with a tight tolerance with respect to the square shaft can be found, then it may not be necessary to close off the minigap, so long as the space between the tube and the shaft is smaller than the "minigap". If a tight tolerance could be found, then I could carefully sand two sides of the square shaft until I have just enough of a gap. and then lubricate the two with some graphite powder or other lubricant (would graphite powder affect the pots)?

In other news, the BU0836 still has not arrived. I hope it's not stuck in some warehouse for payment of duties... I can still move forward on looking for a suitable tube and material for the end bracket in the meantime.

C_G

[Shadrach]

If the shaft is worn evenly then the packing ideas would probably work ok, but I was thinking that a halfway house between a tube and fitting packing pieces to the face would be to fix a length of angle aluminium to two faces of the shaft. If you subtract the amount of play on each face used from the thickness of the aluminium then that is how much you would need to remove from two faces of the shaft. I suppose you could then take the shaft to a machine shop and have them mill it off but that would probably be quite expensive and rather defeat the object of the project. If you have a plunge woodworking router and some knowledge of making jigs and things I would have thought it would be easy enough to do a good job yourself. And if you used two lengths of angle aluminium you would, in effect, have a square tube any size you wanted. If you used self tappers and the heads stick up then you could utilize the existing slot in the round piece. You would need to cut another slot opposit for the other screws if using two lengths. Plus you would need to take material from all four faces or twice as much from two. It is quite an interesting project - good luck whatever you decide to do with it.

Thinking about it - one way of removing material from the faces of the shaft would be to clamp two metal straight edges each side of the shaft so the amount to be removed stands proud and then shave off the plastic using a sharp blade, something like a spoke shave would probably work well. The tricky bit would be setting up the straight edges so they were perfectly true and accurate.

[DD_Brando]

If there is more slop at the full out position then it sounds like the square shaft is worn unevenly in which case simply packing the face or fitting a round plate with a square hole will not work as taking the slop out one end will make it too tight the other. The solution to that would have to be your idea of fitting some square section tubing over the square section shaft. That would probaly be easier that it sounds as I am sure some could be found on ebay or your local metal merchant. I have one near me that stocks all sorts of sizes and sections in mild steel and aluminium and is happy to cut a small length. You just need to find some that will fit through the hole with as little play as possible and then use Ross's or my idea to take out the slack. The only bit that might be a bit tricky is to file the plastic shaft down so it is a nice tight fit inside the metal tube. If you take too much off you could always use fiberglass resin between shaft and tube to rescue it. I take Ross's point about drilling too close to the edge which is why I suggested a half moon shape.

Hi Shadrach,

I don't think the slop at the full out position is due to uneven wear on the square shaft. Rather, the lack of slop in the full in position is due to the fact that in that position the "front end" of the shaft is entirely within the round retaining portion of the main shaft and therefore has a lot of stability.

Interesting that you think there's a good chance of finding a square tube within a tight tolerance of the square shaft. Ultimately, that's likely to be the best long-term solution and certainly worth exploring.

If a square tube with a tight tolerance with respect to the square shaft can be found, then it may not be necessary to close off the minigap, so long as the space between the tube and the shaft is smaller than the "minigap". If a tight tolerance could be found, then I could carefully sand two sides of the square shaft until I have just enough of a gap. and then lubricate the two with some graphite powder or other lubricant (would graphite powder affect the pots)?

In other news, the BU0836 still has not arrived. I hope it's not stuck in some warehouse for payment of duties... I can still move forward on looking for a suitable tube and material for the end bracket in the meantime.

C_G

I would avoid graphite powder. It can conduct electricity and that's not good if it gets into pots or onto PCB. A contained area like the inside of the yoke aggravates the issue. A good silicon-based grease, used sparingly, will do the trick.

A word or two about mixing materials: you need to be careful! Look for the root of the problem first before adding extra weight and/ or denser materials into the mix. Remember that adding a metal skin to the shaft will increase weight and possibly increase the damage to the square opening which is at the heart of it all. This is the spot that requires strengthening and I would focus my attentions there. This is the part that has failed, mainly because it has distorted under pressure; it ain't strong enough for purpose. It's like a wheel bearing which has run dry.... replacing the wheel and the axle won't help.... the bearing needs changing.

The big problem seems to be that the thickness of plastic that the square hole is formed in is too thin for purpose. If that area could be beefed up then most of the problem would go away. Ideally, two washers of the largest possible diameter, with the correctly-sized square hole in them, fixed to either side of the original would do the job. I would use a Dremel to roughcut the holes, and finish off with a warding file to get it spot on. Alignment isn't too difficult if the two outer leaves are drilled while clamped together. One leaf (washer) can then be aligned on the original part as a template and the mounting holes drilled through: the other leaf will automatically align. Two small BA bolts, with Nyloc nuts if available, will pull the three leaves together into a really rigid whole. (Pardon the pun - I didn't get it until I re-read the piece )

B

[Cold_Gambler]

Yes, bolts would be a better idea than screws. Too small a hole and I might crack the plastic, too large and the screw doesn't have anything to "bite" into...

I hope to find some suitable materials this weekend if I can get to a hardware store. I'm hoping to find some small nylon brackets of some sort.

I'll keep you posted

[Cold_Gambler]

Quick update.

The BU0836 has finally arrived. Yay!!

I've also collected a large selection of buttons and determined general placement. (pics to come)

The first thing I'm going to do is attach the existing 4 pots and buttons to the BU0836 to determine if they're still function properly. If they don't it will be a simple matter of replacing them with new ones.

I have not yet found a suitable plastic L bracket to correct the slop issue. I've found metal L brackets, but as the metal would likely strip the square central shaft causing even greater problems down the road I'm not going to use that,. I also have not found a suitable metal/plastic square tube, so I'm not going to go that route.

At this point I think my best option is going to be to fabricate my own L bracket from plastic available at a local hobby shop. I've also considered using the plastic from an old CD.

At this point in time, my plan is:

1- to upgrade the existing pots and buttons of the yoke,

2- to add a whole slew of new momentary switches to the yoke (for a total of 15 or so) .

3- to create a generic cessna-style mini-panel with the four remaining BU0386 axes remaining: Throttle + Mixture + Prop pitch on slider pots actuated by simple push-rods + 1 rotary pot (not sure of function yet), The mini-panel will also have the remaining 15-17 buttons for miscellaneous functions. Ideally the mini-panel will be relatively low profile and attach to the top of the yoke without going above the top of the yoke handles when they are in the neutral position. I would have preferred to have the Throttle/Mixt/ prop pitch pushrods off to the right of the yoke (outside of the movement arc of the yoke handle), but this would make the unit as a whole too large for my taste.

I have minimal experience with electronics. The last time I touched a soldering iron was 5 years ago when I made an "active IR" source for my TrackIR1 unit.

None of the above is particularly complicated, but I do have some quick questions for you guys:

a- Given the number of momentary buttons I'm adding to the yoke, I'm going to use the thinnest wire I can find because the wires have to go throuth the yoke shaft. I assume that this is OK given that there's very little current, is this a safe assumption?

b- I've never used diodes in a circuit before. I'll need to since I'm using more than 12 buttons... where should I place them? Given the space restrictions, I can't place them in the handles, but there should be space within the yoke casing. I'd like to keep the wiring as tidy as possible.

Cheers,

Angus

[FoolTrottel]

As for the BUO836A which I have, I think I may have done something wrong, because I've used 36 buttons... but not one single diode.

(Diode? What's that for?)

Am I risikin' some USB ports now?

Oh dear. Oh well, them buttons do work ... !

I'm also using some very thin wires, the ones that are frequently used in Joysticks, the one you cán use a soldering iron on, but with great care...

[Cold_Gambler]

As for the BUO836A which I have, I think I may have done something wrong, because I've used 36 buttons... but not one single diode.

(Diode? What's that for?)

Hi FT,

I mis-read Bodnar's site. So long as momentary switches are used, there's no need to use diodes so you're fine ... and so am I since I'm only using momentary switches too. One less thing to go wrong, hurray!.

[Cold_Gambler]

FT,

I've found looking at your wiring to be really helpful.

I notice that your axes only use a relatively small arc. How many turns do your pots have (the ones I have are, iirc, 3/4 of a turn, but your controls only seem to offer ~ 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn (45 degrees and and a bit more) has this impacted on precision or is this easily compensated for during software calibration?

Thanks,

C_G

[Cold_Gambler]

Here's a picture of all the parts and the layout:

It's hard to make out the comments I made, so I'm re-writing them here.

The green circle are buttons of Column 1 Row 1-5. The popsicle sticks (or something like) will eventually look like the "paddle" triggers on many bombers (Beaufighter, etc.). The button has a nice solid "click" sound and sensation to it.

The square ones will be on the top and bottom, and the two red and blue round ones will be on the facing... for no other reason than because it's much easier to cut square holes out of the edge of the yoke, and easier to drill round holes out of the flat facing.

The blue and orange circles are symmetrical. As you can see, I've already drilled it out for the large red buttons and the for the smaller black ones. The large red ones are going to be the trickiest to install because of how they extend inside the hollow top button triggers. For this reason I'd simply like to replace them but my son has "convinced" me it would not be as cool without those two buttons ... We'll see. It works as it is, but I'm not so convinced it will once I've wired/soldered them up - I may have to be an "uncool dad" for the sake of getting them to work. The hole between the red and black buttons is where a screw holding the yoke handle goes.

The two little switches are going to be put next to each other, but facing opposite directions, so that a forward motion will trigger one, a backward motion the other, with the possibility of triggering both... That's the theory anyway.

Other than that, on the right is the BU0836 unit. I don't fancy soldering in tight spaces (and those little prong thingies count for me) so I wanted some way to have an attachement with wires that I could solder to with space to spare.

I first tried an old HDD IDE cable which fit but would need some cutting down (only need 6 of the 38 pins), but when I tried tracing the IDE cable with a battery and toy flashlight bulb,only pin 1 (the blue) and Pin 2 seemed to correspond further along. Pin 3 and it's opposite pin 4 didn't. Scrapped that plan and found these shielded cables from my old "I'll save this, you never know when I might need it" box... They're 8 pins leading to 6 pins (the 6 pin end didn't fit... I think they came from motherboards past), the 8 pin ends are a good fit (just had to excato knife some plastic). I stripped them and I just soldered on the extra wire to them tonight. I shortened the 2 extra wires (they were for the shielding) but will leave at least two (i.e. 7 pins) as they could be used for the 5v in future. In any case the extra 2 useless pins don't take much space.

On the left is the 50-wire telephone cable.... all different colours which is going to be very useful as with 16 different wires it is likely to get very confusing once I get started

Tomorrow I hope to be able to cut the holes for all the remaining buttons, buy a glue gun to fix the buttons in position, and maybe start wiring.... can't solder when the kids (almost 6 and 3) are around.

Still haven't found a plastic L bracket for the yoke, it's looking more and more like I'm going to have to fabricate one...

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this little update. It feels like real progress to me, even though it looks like a complete mess.

Quick question:

The pots in place have three prongs. Currently they've only got two wires attached... can I leave them that way? It seems I should have three wires (Ground, input, and 5 v+). The middle one is input, and I assume that the other presently attached is 5v+, is Ground necessary?

Cheers,

C_G

[Cold_Gambler]

Little progress report.

I spent my spare time yesterday hacking holes for the buttons on the centre part and on the sides of the yoke handles (happier with the former than the latter... it was difficult making clean cuts in the handle sides, and I was getting tired, and my blade was getting duller). All that remains is to spend 5 minutes with the drill to punch one large and two small holes in the centre facing. I'm pretty happy with the button placement. There was space for a second button on the bottom so I added that.

I also added the extra lengths of wire to the plugs for the 6 Row pins and 6 Column pins, and cut and stripped the ends off a bunch of same coloured wire so that when the time comes for soldering I can do it in a fairly quick and orderly manner (essential as I can't leave the soldering iron around for curious fingers to touch).

Overall good progress, though everything is still a mess.... in fact more of a mess now that I have a medusa of three-foot long tangling wires dangling from the BU0386.

Next steps are buying a glue gun at noon, drilling the holes for the centre buttons tonight and positioning and hot-gluing the buttons that require it. Time permitting I'll solder up the wires too.

Angus

[Shadrach]

As Brando said, you only need diodes if you are likely to have several switches permanently on. Say if you used a double pole switch where both up and down were on for your undercarriage so you could look at the switch and know where your gear was. Or maybe for stuff like lights etc. If you have more than a few switched on then I think you get ghost buttons appearing or something. But if all your switches are momentary then no need for diodes.

After doing all my soldering I discovered the best wire to use for this sort of thing where little or no movement is going to happen is stuff with a single core rather than wire with strands. Oh well.

[Cold_Gambler]

Some progress and more pictures:

Ready for wiring

Reverse

top view

Detail of handle side switches

I botched up the left handle side switches. Don't know exactly what I did wrong but I couldn't get the shell to close up tightly with the second switch in. Since I added an additional switch to the bottom, I gave in to frustration.

The gas company people are here drilling another hole into the side of our house, so I'm at home today and have to resist the temptation not to start soldering while the kids are gone... Must work.... Must WORK!!!!