Yes, but the effects are quite subtle. There is stiffening of controls with speed and aileron trim moving the stick. With full trim the stick is displaced around 1cm from center.
I’m looking for some details on the DIY kits. I just finished my own gimbal / electronics that I use with XPlane, Condor 2, and MSFS. It runs mainly on I2C on a RPi Pico. In the DIY motor kit, how do the buttons / normal electronics integrate in with the system?
Hey m8 not a kit owner but the basic idea is that you choose what motor size you'd like, with the 57BLF03 being the motor kit in the Rhino peaks @9Nm torque with the Rhino's gear ratio & power pack, the kit also includes the VPforce usb pcb (thingy) to connect the motor to the PC but power pack is byo, usually a laptop power pack. Walmis carefully chose the motors & also did some black magic in the software/firmware? for anti-cogging etc. There are some options for chassis & gimbals I believe one or two guys on the discord here are creating chassis kits for sale to work with the 57BLF03 motor kits. The wait time on a motor kit is usually a couple days at most from what I've seen. Also Walmis & likely any other ppl that have the VPforce kit are usually more than happy to help with any trouble during the build & testing process.
Thanks, I've got the 57BLF04 on order as I plan to build from scratch again and have the machine shop to make this a fun project. I'm mainly confused about how to integrate the existing joystick controller board with the VPforce USB device. It seems like it would make things more difficult if the FFB signals had to go to a different device than the joystick that actually gives the values for those axis. For example: If my X axis is from an I2C sensor (as it actually is) and that I2C sensor's position is converted into a USB HID Joystick by an RPi Pico, then how do I integrate the two USB devices in games like Condor/Xplane/MSFS?
ok from my understanding you can use a shift register it will talk to the VPforce usb controller. Walmis made a passthrough adapter for VKB grips to still go to their vkb blackbox, maybe one of those options could work for your situation?
VPforce also has a loopback app, so any joystick can be "looped-back" to the Rhino base, games etc. will see them as one device, I use this with my vkb kg12 grip in IL2
@kingjamez_rf I have a motor kit on the way. The motors have integrated sensors so you won’t need your current X&Y axis sensors. Your flightsim will read the axes positions from the VP Force board that powers and controls the motors.
Have you checked Trak Racer? They sell the complete rig, but also all parts as Spare Parts too. I understood more about 8020 profiles after checking them. Download the TR80 lite model manual for example and you will see all the parts used to assemble it to have an idea for a DYI or you recognize you can get the TR80 lite "barebone" without extras since it is a base for a flight sim, just need to add the FLIGHT SIM CONTROL MOUNTS WITH 2 SIDE SUPPORTS FOR ALL ALUMINUM COCKPITS TR80-2SMEX-FS-EU for side hotas or/and a couple of profiles for center mount. Even if you go with a different brand you can add the Spare Parts from Track Racer you want. I found it a very customizable brand. They have warehouses in Netherlands and US. The TR80 lite barebone should cost around 420 euros + the flight sim arms 145 euros + shipping and tax (not so cheap unfortunatelly and depends on your country). One advantage is that it is also a sim racing rig.
The grip communicates with the VPforce main board through SPI. It’s the same way TM and Virpil communicate. If you have a debolestis shift register for the buttons it should be plug and play (just wire the adapter correctly). If you don’t have a shift register internally, walmis can supply one with your kit for $10 extra and then you just need to put that board inside the grip or somewhere between the grip and the mainboard and wire the buttons to it. If you have axis on your custom grip like a thumb stick you can pair the shift register with an arduino nano to handle the SPI conversion and pass that through the shift register. I’ve got the code worked out for that but I just haven’t shared it yet since I am in the middle of building my gimbal right now so haven’t been able to test it fully.
I chose VPForce partly because I could make my custom grips in a way that I could also get commercial grips like the virpil or TM in the future and use both. You can have up to 4 axis on your custom grip (thumb stick, brake lever, etc) if you go the arduino/shift register route or only buttons with just the shift register.
Thanks @t_oll and @theamazingreat ! That clears up a lot for me. Really appreciate it. It sounds like I can easily adapt my grips into the system. Super helpful. Looking forward to getting the kit in and starting the build of the gimbal.
I know, My space has grown more than it should over the last decade. Two stations for flying, one VR and one F-18 pit with TrackIR. I have seen many contraptions posted with so many parts nestled here and there, must take a half to full hour to reconfigure between the two hobbies.
In my imagination, the first idea that came to mind was a racing wheel attached to an arm or some sort of support that you can push and pull and lock in place, so you can have the wheel in the right position when in use and the unlock and push forwards when not
I've seen a video with that, guy was more trying to make a yoke/ffb yoke. Got a linier pot & some desk draw sliders & bolted the whole thing to some ply base
VP is better priced and better developed for DCS. I approached Brunner years ago with a large group purchase and they were unwilling to develop their software for DCS. How deep is the preorder here now 300+. Pretty short sighted on their part.
Could easily keep the part that connects to the base going just forward and backward with a gate limiter, and then the only hard part would be adding resistance (possibly even ffb?) to the yoke that turns like a wheel, and ofc have button fuctionality
Considering the ideal length (200mm+) and the actual heft something like that may produce, stronger motors may be required, so could be something for a next gen bigger version of Rhino