Home-built Rudder Pedals With Toebrakes For FS2000/FS2002
By Rob Barendregt
If you are you interested in making your own accurate and robust
rudder pedals with Toebrakes, please read on.
All you need is a free (analogue) gameport on your PC, some $25 worth of materials (if you buy everything new) and 8 hours of spare time. And, of course, be a little handy with tools.
Features:
- Coupled, sliding rudder pedals (self-centering) with simulated force feedback.
- Differential (Left/Right), proportional Toebrakes.
- A switch for e.g. setting the Parking Brakes.
If you don't have a free gameport: at the end of the article I'll describe how to construct these pedals with digital (on/off) Toebrakes so that they can be added as Rudder to your existing Yoke/Joystick on the gameport.
Introduction
Flying with rudder pedals instead using the auto-coordination feature, really enhances your flightsim experiance, especially during taxiing, flying with wind or when flying helicopters.
The operation of these rudder pedals and toebrakes is based on the electrical principle of an analog joystick: a joystick axis is just a variable resistor (called Potentiometer, or 'Pot').
In my Flightsim setup I use a CH Flightsim Yoke LE on USB and these rudder pedals on the analog gameport (driving controller axis 1,2, and 4). For helicopters or military aircraft I prefer a joystick (Logitech ForceFeedback) instead of the yoke.
Braking system of FS2000 vs. FS2002
Both FS2000 and FS2002 internally support proportional braking; however, only FS2002 supports using this feature via an external Axis controller (FS2000 only supports Buttons/Keys).
However, with the use of Peter Dowson's FSUIPC freeware addon module you can use these proportional Toebrakes with FS2000 as well. See chapter Installation.
FSUIPC can be downloaded from Peter's website at: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html
TIP: Did you know you can use FSUIPC to precisely calibrate your Yoke/Joystick ? This is especially usefull if you have a problem with applying Reverse Thrust in FS2002 or if you have problems with calibrating these rudder pedals/toebrakes.
What Is Needed?
Of course you can make the pedals with your own dimensions, but here is how I built mine.
Note: sorry for you non-metric guys, but I'm Dutch so I'll use metric sizes :-).
Most parts can be scrap material (like I used), but you can buy them in any hardware & electronics shop.
The main components you need, and how they are used:
- Plate material. You can use either planed deal or plywood. 18mm thick will do fine.
- The Baseplate. 40*36 cm.
- Two Rudderplates. 12*36 cm each.
- Two Toebrakepedals. 18*12 cm each. For proper feeling, the pedal plates should be rounded on one side (fig. 2B)
- Two deal poles, which hold the Pot's for the toebrakes. 3,5*6,5*20 cm each
- A Controlarm, which connects the Rudderplates. The Controlarm construction causes the left Rudderplate being pushed forward if you slide the right Rudderplate backwards v.v.
Use solid wood, like Meranti. Size: 40*4*1,2 cm
- 4 Sliders (fig. 7B). This type (with ball-bearings) are preferred to the ones using wheels, since the inner slider can move both ways and they are very low. Size: 35*3*1 cm
- 2 Hinges (fig. 7A), 8 - 10 cm wide.
- 8mm steel bolts (fig. 7K), for fixing the Controlarm on Bottomplate and Rudderplates. 2 of length 4 cm, 1 of length 7 cm.
- 6 8mm self-clamping nuts (fig. 7E).
- 3 Potentiometers (fig. 7H), value 47 KiloOhm LINEAR (not logaritmic), preferably with an iron shaft. Since you have to calibrate the controller axis, any value between 25 and 100 Kohm will do.
- Two knobs for the Toebrake Pot's, preferably with a fixed dialplate (prevents the elastic band and string from slipping off). If you can't find them, use normal knobs and glue them onto iron rings. Diameter of the knobs should be 3,5 - 4 cm; this determines the swing of the Toebrake pedals. Replace the fixing scews with longer bolts, because these will hold the band and string. (fig. 6)
- 2 elastic bands (fig. 7C), which forces the Toebrakes pedals upwards. Try differents sizes & strenghts to get the best feeling for pedal force.
- 2 pieces of strong string (fig. 7F). These connect the Toebrake pedals to the Pot knobs
- 2 pieces of thick elastic (0,6 cm). See fig. 7G. These provide for self-centering, and the force feedback on the Rudder movement. I bought this in a shop that sells sailing boat stuff. Again, experiment with thickness and length for the best feeling.
- Two toothed wheels (fig. 7J). These wheels transmit the rotating movement of the Controlarm to the Rudder Pot. Transmission rate: 1:2,5. I used plastic wheels from 'toy' construction material of my son, called K'NEX (available here in Europe).
- Two small plates of aluminium (7*3*0,3 cm), which fixes the Toebrake Pot's onto the poles.
- A footswitch ('make' contact, 'open' in restposition). Use any kind, and figure out how to mount them. I used an old footswitch from my synthesiser :-).
- 2 50 cm pieces of shielded audio-stereo cable. This connect a Toebrake Pot with the computer cable. See connection diagram.
- 2 meter of shielded computer cable (at least 6 wires) and a 15-pin gameport connector.
Assembly Instructions
It's not a full instruction, but I'll give some tips about the important parts. The pictures should speak for themselves.
- Drill a hole in the Toebrake poles, to fit the Pot. See fig. 4A.
- Solder the stereo cable to the Toebrake Pots (fig. 4A/B and 8).
- Mount the Pot's onto the aluminium plates, and screw these onto the poles.
- Fix the knobs onto the Pot's:
- Centre the Pot shaft in middle position.
- Important. Without rotating the shaft, fix the Knob onto the Pot shaft, with the fixing bolt pointing straight upwards.
- Insert screw (fig. 6B) into the Pole. This prevent the Pot. shaft from being rotated fully anti-clockwise.
- Fix the elastic band between the Knob bolt (fig. 6A/D) and a small nail at the bottom of the Pole (fig. 3D).
- Screw the poles onto the Rudderplates.
- Drill a 9,5 mm hole into the Rudderplate, and mount the self-clamping nuts (one from the top, one from the bottom). Position of the hole: about 12 cm from the top of the Rudderplate.
- Screw a small beam (2*2*12 cm) on the end of each Rudderplate (fig. 2C), for better grip.
- Fix the Rudderplates onto the Bottomplate with the sliders. (fig. 5A)
Make sure the sliders are mounted exactly in parallel, or they will cause friction when slided.
- Make the Controlarm. Note the slots at the end (see fig. 3C). The slots should be appr. 4 cm long, 8mm wide, and 2,5 cm from the end of the Control arm. Bolts 3A should slide in them easily. This will allow the Rudder pedals to travel appr. 10 cm forward and backwards from the center position. The Controlarm rotates around bolt 3B, which is fixed in the bottom plate (see fig. 5F) with 2 self-clamping nuts and a normal 8mm nut. This is a very solid construction, needed to handle the forces on the Controlarm. And there's no pressure on the Pot shaft.
- Screw the large toothed wheel onto the bottom of the Controlarm.
Some arithmatic: given the dimensions of the Controlarm slots, the Controlarm will rotate +/- 40 degrees around the center bolt, causing the Rudder Pot to rotate 2,5 * 2 * 40 = 200 degrees.
The total rotation of a Pot is 270 degrees, but since the beginning/end of it's resistance material is usually non-linear, I advise not to use the full 270 degrees swing.
- Mount the Controlarm on the Baseplate and Rudderplates. (fig 3A/B)
- Fix the Rudder Pot (fig. 5D) onto a small aluminium plate (fig. 5B); fix the small toothed wheel onto the Rudder Pot shaft with a small screw (fig. 5C), and screw the aluminium plate onto the bottom plate. The large wheel should drive the small toothed wheel without friction.
Important: With the Rudderplates and controlarm centered (fig. 3), the Rudder Pot shaft should also be in center position.
- Screw the Toebrake pedals onto the the Rudderplates with the hinges (fig. 2A and fig. 3).
- Fix the rope string between the Toebrake pedals and Pot bolts, anti-clockwise.
Note about the length of the string: when the Toebrake is fully pressed (the pedal rests on the bolt that holds the Controlarm to the Rudderplate), the Knob on the Toebrake Pot should rotate appr. 180 degrees (so knob bolt horizontal again) from the rest position. See fig. 3E, 6C.
- With the eye-screws (fig. 7M), fix the elastic cord to Bottomplate and Rudderplates (fig. 1B)
To get a proper centering and avoid wear of the elastic, the length of the elastic cords should be such that both are only a tiny bit stretched (2 cm) when the Rudders are centered.
Now, try the mechanics of the pedals: see if they slide smoothly, and if the Toebrakes can be pressed fully even with full Rudder. If not, adjust.
Electrical wiring
See fig. 8 for a schematic diagram.
Lead wires from the Toebrake Pots, Rudder Pot and Footswitch to the top of the Baseplate (fig 4C), and solder them to a shielded cable according to the diagram. Solder a 15-pins gameport connector to the other end of the cable. Connect the shield of all cables (thick light-grey line), and solder it also to the 15-pin connector and Pot housing. This will reduce 'jitter' on the controller axis resulting from electrical interference.
Note for Pot connections: always use the center contact and one of the outer contacts. Which outer contact is not relevant, since you can always use the 'reverse axis' feature when assigning the controller axis to FS2002 control functions.
Installation Of The Pedals As A Windows Game Controller
I can only make the description for Windows98, but it should
be possible to get it working under other Windows versions as well.
- Connect the cable to the PC gameport.
- Click Start - Settings - Control Panel - Game Controllers.
- Add a new Controller: Click Add, and select '2-axis 2-button joystick', with the option 'rudder/pedals' checked.
- Back in the Controller list the '2-axis 2-button joystick' should have status OK now.
- Click tab 'Advanced' and organise the Controllers such, that new joystick has ID 1, and your other flight controller (in my case the Logitech joystick or Yoke) has controller ID 2. This is important, since for some (to me) unknown reason, FS200x gives an erratic rudder behavior if this analog rudder has another ID than 1.
- Click the General tab, and click Settings - Calibrate to calibrate the rudder.
- Simulate the 'circle' motion of the X/Y axis by pressing the Toebrakes alternately. Click the Footswitch (button-1) to confirm.
- Calibrate the Rudder by sliding them all the way forward and backward several times.
- Click Properties, and observe in the Test tab if the axis are properly calibrated.
Installation Of The Rudder Pedals And Toebrakes In FS2000/FS2002
For FS2002: go into the Options - Controls - Assignments window.
- Select the '2 axis ....' under 'joystick type', and remove any default assignment (if applicable).
- Assign the X (1), Y(2) and Rz(4) axis to resp. LeftBrake, RightBrake and Rudder axis.
- Click tab Events/Buttons for '2 axis ...' joystick, and assign Button-1 to the SetParkingBrake function.
- Select Options - Controls - Sensitivities, and select the '2 axis ...' controller.
- Set the Sensitivity slider for Left/Right brake axis to MAX, and Null zone to MIN.
- Set the Sensitivity slider for Rudder halfway, and Null zone a bit larger than MIN.
Select your favorite Flight, using an aircraft with a visible
rudder movement. Go into the Flights - Realism Settings window and deselect the Auto Rudder
checkbox. Check in Spotplane view that the rudder is centered when the pedals are centered. If not, adjust the Null zone in Sensitivities, or re-adjust the fixation of the Rudder Pot.
When Toebrake pedals are not pressed, no BRAKES message should appear. If it does, or if the Rudder movement goes in wrong direction, select "reverse axis" for the appropriate axis, under Options - Controls - Assignments.
Note: with the Toebrakes assigned to controller axis, the standard (on/off) Brakes keys will not work anymore (same as F1/F4 if you use a Throttle axis).
Check if the braking and rudder action is to your liking; if not, try experimenting with the Sensitivities and Null zone of the axis.
For FS2000, install the Rudder Axis as described above. To install the Toebrakes, please follow the instructions in Peter's manual of FSUIPC.
Using the Rudder pedals with a Yoke/Joystick on the gameport
If you want to use these pedals when your gameport controller is already used by a Joystick/Yoke, you cannot use the Toebrake Axis.
However, the Rudder can be used, and you can replace the Toebrake Pots by push-switches ('make' contacts).
In this case, make the following modification:
- Skip the Pot construction at the top of the poles, but keep the Toebrake pedals.
- Instead, mount the elastic band (fig. 7C) between the Pedal (fig. 3E) and a nail on the top of the pole; so the pedal is 'hanging' on the elastic band.
- Mount a non-click miniature switch ('make' contact, 'open' when not pressed) onto the Rudderplate underneath the Toebrake pedal. So if you fully press the pedal, the switch contact is activated.
- Like Switch-1 in fig. 8, connect one contact of the switches to pin-4 of the connector, and the other contacts to pin-7 resp. pin-10.
- Connect the cable to the gameport via a 'Y' connector; add the pedals in the Windows Gamecontroller setup by checking the option 'rudder/pedals' of your Joystick/Yoke.
- In FS200x, select the Options - Controls - Assignments window.
In Events/Buttons, assign button-1 to SetParkingBrake, button-2 to ApplyLeftBrakes (key F11) and button-3 (key F12) to ApplyRightBrakes.
Note: Obviously, in this setup, you lose the current function of buttons 1,2 and 3 on your Joystick/Yoke, since these new switches on are now in parallel with the buttons on your Joystick/Yoke.
A Bonus Idea ??
As I stated earlier, I use a CH Flightsim Yoke LE USB, to which I made several enhancements.
- Trim potmeters for Ailerons and Elevator.
Instead of using the actual Trim instruments, you can also trim the control surfaces of an aircraft by fine-tuning the main controls. And that's what I did.
Although my Yoke is USB, internally the Yoke still uses Pot's. So, for both Ailerons and Elevator axis, I connected a Pot (27 K linear) in series with the existing Yoke Pot's giving enough trim capability.
- Since my USB yoke only has a throttle axis, and the gameport connector described above still has one free Axis (Axis-3) and 3 free buttons (Button 2,3,4) (see pin configuration in fig. 8), I've build this Pot and three switches into the yoke, with a seperate cable connected into the 15-pins connector of the Rudder pedals.
I use this additional axis for Mixture Control, and the three additional buttons for resp. AutoPilot, Autothrottle and Reverse Thrust activation.
WARNING: Obviously, when modifying the yoke you will lose warranty. So be carefull if you do !
A Final Word
I know these rudder pedals / toebrakes may not look very professional. But make no mistake: when properly constructed, they work as accurate and are as solid as commercially available pedals. Moreover, the 'feel' of the pedals can easily adapted to your own preferences. It took me some 8 hours to construct and install them (and making it was half the fun).
They require little maintenance (maybe some new elastic every year), and last-but-not-least: they cost a fraction a the price of commercial pedals: US $25, or less if you use existing parts like the wooden plates, and sliders from a cupboard drawer.
In comparison: the CH Pro Pedals cost about US $170 here in Holland.
Needless to say, I do not accept any responsibility if it
shoudn't work or if my description messes up something in your PC
or FS200x configuration. I am using these pedals for two month's now, and I still wouldn't know how to improve them :-).
But, if you have any comments, questions, suggestions or need
support, feel free to send me an email (please: no
large attachments!).
Happy flying .....
Rob Barendregt, The Netherlands
E-mail: rc.barendregt@planet.nl
Revised: 4 jan. 2002