Lesson DIY Force Feedback Flight Yoke

I wanted to share my experience in building Jay's FFB flight yoke adapted from Microsoft's Force Feedback Joystick.
It works really well and the build is not that hard to do.
Jay has a website with all the info you need to build it.
He has 2 videos on you tube and a 3rd animated presentation that you can actually take measurements from .
My hope here is to maybe enhance his instructions and help with any questions.
You do need the correct Microsoft FFB2 Joystick to start out with.
There are several versions being sold on Ebay but only the latest version is useable.
The one you need must have a USB cable and a 110vac -220vac power cord.
It is also the most expensive of the 3 versions. Typically $100 USD.
You will need a 3d printer to make a dozen or so parts.
And close to $100 in belts,bearings,rods and screws.
You end up with a $1200-$1800 device.'
Link to the download page.
https://vrflightsim.wixsite.com/mysite/finished-stuff

Link to Jays excellent build page.
http://vrflightsim.forumotion.com/t24-ffb-yoke-v1-instructions

animated video

Another video of the FFB Yoke
At 7 minutes into the video he shows all the 3d printed parts you need to make.
My low cost printer did just fine making the parts. The STL files are well made.

My build with using 20mm extruded aluminum and 6mm clear plexiglass.
A simple resistor modification doubles the power of the motors.
The yoke has about 160mm of travel.

The yoke switches can be activated by moving the CH Yoke's usb board right into the yoke. It fits no problem. It is best to release the pins on the plastic connector to ease snaking the wires through the outer box/ rear gear assembly and through the 25mm tube. You will now have 2 usb cables to hook up but that is the easy part....

Thank you for the additional info on Jay's FFB yoke project!
Can you share the resistor mod you spoke of to make the motors stronger?

Thanks,
Bo

Sure.. There are 8 one ohm resistors that are used for sensing the motor current.
These are smt chip resistors.
There are 2 of the one ohm resistors in parallel on the circuit board for each of the 4 motor driver IC chips.
The mod is to add 8 more 1 ohm resistors in parallel to the existing 8 one ohm chip resistors.
example.. there are currently 2 one ohm resistors in parallel for each motor driver chip which equals .5 ohms... if you parallel an additional 1 ohm on to each of those 8 chip resistors you will get .25 ohms effective current sense resistors per motor driver chip.
This effectively doubles the motor output torque.
It does still stay within the specs of the driver chips...

I have modded about 5 of these boards and used sever different sized resistors.
But in the end they always equaled out to about .25 ohms..

Excellent!
Thank you very much! I plan to make this project in the near future and will utilize this mod as well.
Thanks again!

I just finished this build (yours is much prettier than mine), wondering what you did with the IR board? Do the sensors need to be covered up?
After I have everything connected, (x-force plugin for xplane11), the forces are doing the opposite of expected behavior: instead of centering, it "springs" to full deflection in any direction (full down elevator and full left aileron, for example). I'm trying to figure out what I have wired backwards. Any suggestions?

The IR board can be removed in total..
Take the white and grey wire going to the board and cut them..
That will keep the motors running whenever power is applied.
If you wich to turn the motors off with a switch , connect them together preferrable with a 1000 ohm resistor (exact value is not critical).

Method 2 Turn on motor power..
Just block the sensors from shining on each other (black tape).
As far as incorrect yoke movement .. If wired wrong it will do crazy things.
As there are 10 connections in total it would be easy to get things mixed up..

I have included a utility program for the FFB stick.
It is pretty clunky but once you get the hang of it it is usefull.

Cool. I did the black tape, so that's probably not it. I'll check all my connections.

The ir sensor board just turns power to the motors on or off...
Incorrect yoke movement is the pot or motor miswiring.

Interesting project , thanks for posting. I ended up here because I'm searching for a FFB flight stick. I'm looking at the Brunner, but curious what else is out there . I'm not opposed to diy, I've got solid fab skills and the proper tools, but there's very little info on these things.

There are a few YouTube videos out on the Brunner. The Microsoft FFB project is getting a bit dated. With the Thanos driver board making a FFB stick that would wrench the yoke right out of your hands is a possibility .
A lot depends on how deep you want to get into the sim world. And of course DeeP also relates to one's pockets..lol
good luck

Mechanically for me the sky is the limit, I can build anything. The board/motor/software driver end I know nothing about. Anyone wanna collaborate on this?

I looked over the Brunner design, all internal shots are half assed but I get the idea, just trying to figure out how they translate the longitudinal force into what looks like a lateral direction on the motor pulley. I also don't know what my options are for DD motors small enough to jam into the thing.

Hi there,

I just love this joystick. I bought another Microsoft Force Feedback 2 joystick to begin this project and have begun to source parts.
Out of curiosity, what kind of software options are available?
I already have both X-Force and XP Force for X-Plane 11. What is the best option in your opinion?

I'm also wondering if anyone has heard anything about software/plugins that would allow this to work in the new Microsoft Flight Sim.

Any other tips that come to mind would be most welcome!

I am pretty sure I am using XPforce..
I am not aware of any other utilities that have been written.
You will probably have to have some patience until the plug-ins get written... But I am sure it will not take too long...
Good luck with your FFB Yoke project. I know quite a few have been built..

I'm impatient to see the projet finished.

Out of curiosity, what did you end up buying exactly to solve your issue with the 25mm OD tube and the triangle Pressed Steel 3 Bolt Bearing & Housing?

The shipping from the UK is killer on these items, and I'd rather source them from North America or China if possible.
Thanks in advance

I purchased this SBPFT205-16 1" Pressed Steel Triangle 3-Bolt Flange .. www.ebay.com/itm/New-SBPFT205-16-1-Pressed-Steel-Triangle-3-Bolt-Flange/301906512708?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
If I remember correctly the problem was that the 25mm tube was slightly out of round causing binding. The 1" bearing above did have enough clearance..