Throttle & mixture housing for Flight Sim, cessna etc

thingiverse

Hi all I've been playing around with the idea of creating a throttle housing for my flight simming. I printed some nice throttle and mixture knobs (thank you AlbEagle) and wanted to somehow get them integrated into something that was printable and useful for persons more than just myself. Please take a view at AlbEagle's build forum, http://flyingforfun.weebly.com/cessna-172-cockpit.html I cannot seem to link his design to a remix here but here are the links. Throttle knob https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2806962 Throttle guide https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2805734 Mixture guide https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2806186 This print prints well and works. I perhaps over-engineered it, with housings that seat the sliding potentiometeres etc but i guess if gonna design something, make it last. Extra's you will need are Pots - can be ordered here: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/potentiometers/7377792/ and other places of course! V.1 Joystick interface: I chose a Leo Bodnar board, plug and play, dead easy. You can add more buttons to it and anything else you may wish to tweak such as flaps/landing gear etc: http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=94&products_id=204 6mm rod, available from hardware stores. I'm in UK and B&Q and Homebase sell for couple of quid. Build; - Remember...Check wiring works before gluing anything! 1. Print 1 case, 1 lid/side, 2 x pot holder, 2 x rod to pot holder 2. Wire up and pop the potentiometers into their housings. There are rails on the base of the housing STL that allow alignment of all rod holes and to ensure the pot holder is straight and there is no vertical movement of the rod. Move the throttle pot holder so it touches the back wall of the case and the bumpers on the floor rail. Glue plastic parts 3. Pop the Rod holder onto the potentiometer fin, it should slide right down and slide along the pot holder. I printed both holders at .3mm 20% infill, support 'everywhere' (so as to get a clean 6mm hole). 4. Thread your throttle and/or mixture knob and nut onto your rod, measure and cut to length to allow full movement. (These 128mm pots are close to real travel) 5. Slide rod through case - through hole at front of pot holder, and into the rod to pot holder hole. If you're happy with the movement, tightness etc then glue rod to the pot holder. 6. Glue usb interface inside or outside of your case, I opted for outside. Screw 'housing lid and side' to side walls, or just one and hinge the other wall. Plug and play. FSW, FSX and X-Plane automatically see the usb interface and allow calibration of the pot. I hope you like, any suggestions welcomed. I have not created fixing holes, as people will have many different wants re fixing it. Please consider tipping, if you like, it keeps me in PLA and allows me to convince the wife that it's a good investment! Many thanks and blue skies V. 2 Okay, so I believed that the throttle and mixture guides (the printed bolts glued to casing) along with the potentiometer housing rod hole would be sufficient to alleviate vertical movement making the rod holder come away from the sliding potentiometer fin. It does not. So, I've added a 'pot lid', a simple roofing to glue on top of the pot housing. I've added a screenshot to aid my description. This stops vertical movement.