Rudder Pedals, Throttle and Y-cable

by
Marko Bewersdorff

Rudder Pedals
Throttle Control
Joystick Y-cable
The Y-cable is for connecting two joystics if you have only one gameport and no "light" version of a computer.

Or you can get the plain text version

Rudder pedals:

Material:

one sliding potentiometer, 10 k ohm linear (not logarith.) the longer the sliding path the better (my pot. is about 3"1/4
one plug size and shape like joystick plug (15 pins)
4 to 8 feet of wire with two conductors (phone wire is fine)
two hinges, approx. 3" (sturdy ones)
two L-shaped brackets, 3" long sides
handful short drywall screws
two 1"1/2 to 2" long drywall screws
two 1/4" diameter, 1" long machine screws (bolts) with no thread at the top 1/4" because the twine has to slide over it.
strong twine 1' to 2' long (like for plumb lines)
out of plywood 1/2" to 3/4" thick the following:
1. one: 7" x 5" center board
2. two: 12" x 4" pedals
3. one: 16" x 16" bottom board (14" x 14" works too)

Tools:

soldering iron
(electric)drill with 3/16" drill bit

Assembly:

Start with board 1. Drill two holes as shown in drawing 1 Center of holes about 1/2" from the boards edge. Screw the bolts into the holes so that about 1/8" of space remains between head and board to lead the twine. Attach (screw with drywall screws) sliding potentiometer between the bolts so that the twine can be lead over the bolts to the slider of the pot.


                        1) center board top       
     |<-------------------------- 5" --------------------------->|      
                      
___   ___________________________________________________________
 ^   |                           __                              |
 |   |    bolt                  |  |                      bolt   |
 |   |     /-\__________________|__|______________________/-\    |
 |   |    /\_/    ______________|__|___________________   \_/\   |
     |   /       |                                     |      \  |	
 7"  |  /        |        pot 10 k ohm                 |       \ |  
 |   | /twine    |_____________________________________|        \|
                     C             C               C
              C : are the contacts

With the drywall screws attach the L bracket to the same side as the pot. But on the other end of the center board. Now screw the center board to the bottom board, with the brackets and the pot towards the edge (see drawing 2). The two long screws can go through the bottom board from underneath into the center board.

			2) top view onto bottom board
     
      _________________________________________________________
     |                     |BB|       |BB|                     |
     |  _________________  |BB|       |BB|  _________________  |
     | |                 | |BB|       |BB| |                 | |
     | |                 | |BB|XXXXXXX|BB| |                 | |
     | |                 | ,-------------, |                 | |
     | |                 | |_____________| |                 | |
     | |  pedal          |   center board  |   pedal         | |
     | |                 |                 |                 | |
     | |                 |                 |                 | |
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | |                 |                 |                 | |
     | |                 |                 |                 | |
     |  -----------------                   -----------------  |
     |   OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO                     OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  |
     |_________________________________________________________|

        XXXXXXXXXXXXXX    is the sliding potentiometer

	OOOOOOOOOOOOOO    are the hinges
    
                    BB    are the two L - brackets

Now come the pedals: attach one hinge to each of the pedals.

     _________________     ___________________________
    | pedal                                           |
    |____________________    _________________________|
     O----------                                   |
      \                                            ^
       \hinge                               drywall screw
        \

The shown screw comes later.

Screw the hinged pedals to the bottom board: see drawing 2.
For one: in the tilted up position the pedals should still be extending 1/2" beyond the center board.
And second: the pedals should have only 1/16" space toward the center board.

Put one drywall screw from underneath into the pedal to attach the twine, (some where towards the toe end).

The twine: take the twine and make a simple knot around the slider of the potentiometer. Lead the twine over the bolts and knot it to the screw. (each pedal should then hang some where halfway).

Give the side of the centerboard two drywall screws to stop the pedal's downward motion so it stops just before reaching the end of the sliding pot's endpoint,( so the slider does not get damaged) and one screw to keep the pedals from going up over the center board.

The soldering: The pot has three connectors (sometimes more) one is the center contact and is connected to the slider inside, solder one wire on this one.
The second wire gets soldered to any one of the side contacts. (flip a coin)

The plug: open it up and look at the contacts from the soldering side:

      __________________________________
      \  8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1 /
       \  15  14  13  12  11  10   9  /
        ------------------------------

The ones needed are 8 and 3. Solder the wires on which way 'round does not matter (if the pedals function the wrong way 'round just connect the one wire from the side contact of the pot to the other side of the pot)

Throttle control:

Take one more 10k ohm linear sliding pot. and solder it to 8 and 6, I built an aluminum bracket for the pot that I clamp to my desk with a little vice.

Joystick Y cable (for two independent joysticks)

FIRST: the tenth I have to pay to the weird law system:
I am not responsible for this typos in this text! (but I checked it twice ) (I am not responsible for what I do in general, would be easily deduced from this).

The plug: open it up and look at the contacts from the soldering side:

      __________________________________
      \  8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1 /
       \  15  14  13  12  11  10   9  /
        ------------------------------

The pin layout for the game port is as follows: (source: see footnote)

Stick One :: 2 - 1st button; 3 - x potentiometer; 6 - y potentiometer; 7 - 2nd button
Stick Two :: 10 - 1st button; 11 - x potentiometer; 13 - y potentiometer; 14 - 2nd button
shared :: 1,8,9,15 - +5 Volt; 4,5,12 - Ground (0 Volt)

To wire the Y cable:
Each joystick uses the pins as described for stick ONE and the pins for +5V and ground. So one plug male DB 15, and two plugs female DB 15 and wire is all you need.

Starting with the male and female for number ONE:
connect with wires:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,12,15 on the male to the same contacts on the female.

For the number TWO connect a second wire to the contacts on the male for pins:
1,4,5,8,9,12,15 and connect these wires to the same pin number on number TWO female plug.
Connect wires to the males pins:
10,11,13,14 BUT! these get connected to the female plug TWO pins:
2 ,3 ,6 ,7 Just like they are lined up here in the text:

10,11,13,14 
2 ,3 ,6 ,7

Good book: (the source for the pin assignment)
English:
The indispensable PC Hardware book,
Hans-Peter Messmer,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company

The original German version is called:
PC Hardware Buch.

That's it! Confused? Questions? Suggestion?
write to:

bewersd@ix.netcom.com

Marko Bewersdorff

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