Question Arduino/similar based FFB yoke?

Has anyone out there made a FFB yoke that isn't based off of an old Microsoft FFB joystick? I've read through several DIY threads, but they all seem to start with the control board guts of a joystick and go from there. What strikes me as a bit odd is that there are so many DIY FFB steering wheel options based on DIY USB controllers and other control boards that it seemed odd the same wasn't true for flight yokes. I guess the main issue is that you need to control two separate axes with FFB?

As I know, the electronics involved in force feedback systems are crucial for interpreting input signals from the flight simulation software and generating appropriate forces through the motors or actuators. Custom control electronics or programmable microcontrollers may be required to manage force feedback effects accurately.

Or, creating a yoke that seamlessly interfaces with flight simulation software requires compatibility with common simulation platforms and the ability to interpret and respond to various in-game conditions.

@spacebar clicker, I know that you have experience in this field. Do you have any suggestion here?

That's some of my confusion. I know these exist for DIY steering wheels already. There was a thread here about the MMosFFB wheel that uses an STM32 Discovery board with some custom software to handle all of the FFB logic and it even supports extra buttons and pedals, but I think the main limitation with that is that it only has 1 FFB channel. Do flight sims use significantly different FFB messages than racing games? I had the wild idea to potentially just get two of these boards and have one run each axis independently, but I'm not sure if that would talk to something like MSFS 2020 well or not.

So it looks like there might be something out there to some degree already. Just stumbled on a YouTube video that used the Open FFBoard to build a FFB joystick. I think this is similar (or maybe it's just the same thing) as the steering wheel versions I've seen before, but with some more output options.

https://www.tindie.com/products/gigawipf/open-ffboard-stm32f407-usb-interface-only/

Generally speaking it sounds like this is a pretty generic FFB device as far as a computer is concerned at least, so it would be up to the user to figure out how to map things and set up the rest, but looks like there might be something out there at least. Seems like a pretty neat setup and not bad for price at $40.

I have made a system to build your own force feedback yokes (and rudder pedals) in xplane, p3d, and msfs.
you can see here how it works in youtube writing "ffair a2a comanche". I can not put links here yet.

The problem I saw with open ffb is that you depend on how force feedback is implemented in the simulators.
And msfs is not supported, p3d is poorly programmed.... So you end up depending on software like xpforce, which is not very configurable.

So I made my own central box, which contains all the configuration software to simulate any type of aircraft. With multiple forces, types, intensities, effects, autopilot following, etc..

You can use your own motors, motor drivers and encoders (it is compatible with a lot of them) and build the system as you like.

The control unit talks to msfs through a fsuipc lua script that is easily manipulated to link it with the variables of any aircraft.
For example, advanced aircraft like A2A use a different RPM variable than the standard msfs variable, and there is no "xpforce" that can be compatible with all aircraft.
With my system, you edit the lua script and tell it which engine RPM variable you want to use, and it sends the correct data to the control unit, which can simulate the effects correctly.

Arturo Moreno.

I think I may have seen that video. Was it based on DC MY1016 style motors by any chance? My second question would be what exactly is the control unit based on? If it's the system I'm thinking of it looked promising for what I was after, but didn't have much information about how it was actually done or how to mimic the design (like a link to the code or components used to build the control system part).

That is correct. I used MY1016 / MY1025 dc motors.
The central box is based in a teensy 4.1 using my own code.
I don't use the FF windows api.
I send the data to the teensy (torque, air speed, trims, autopilot modes, on ground, surface type, rpm, stall state etc etc etc). The teensy computes all the data, and read encoders to know the yoke position, and taking account all the config setup done in the teensy with built-in menu, drive the motors.

I will put some docs here in next pots when I can use external links.

this is the video



Here is another one working with xplane:



This is the central box:


I am building central box with a remote gauge (same dimension real aircraft gauges so you can put a gauge in the panel to setup the system:




you can see wiring manual here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x9gZsUDggGmZ0Zr5zCQv19v83EzOYOEE?usp=sharing

There is the setup guide there too, but it is only in spanish yet. You can translate with some translator to give you an idea.

Thanks.
Arturo.

the central box...

And wiring diagram options..

Neat! That second video with the dual yokes is the one I saw before. I'll have to take a look at that. DC based motors are certainly easier to come by and have more options for scaling I think. Is your code for the Teensy available somewhere or is that in the instructions?