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DIY Saitek Yoke to Force Feedback Yoke ?

Discussion in 'DIY peripherals' started by gagagu, Sep 28, 2017.

  1. gagagu

    gagagu New Member

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    Hi Community,
    my old Saitek Yoke (an Throttle Quadrant) seems to be faulty (board brocken). For repair i've disassembled an old Cyborg Joystick and connect the potis and button cables to the potis and Buttons of the Saitek Yoke. But my Cybork Joystick have not much enough axis lines and button inputs to get all Saitek Yoke (Throttle) lines working again. As an replacement i now want to use an Arduino Leonardo and the (Arduino Joystick Library) to get all axis, throttles and buttons working again.
    By thinking about it, i got a question in my mind if it's possible to mod the saitek yoke to an Force Feedback Yoke?
    On my first (not in deep) thoughts i've only connect two Motors (stepper or dc) in any way (gear or belt) to the yoke axis and the rest should "only" be software. I know it soulds easier then it is at the end, thats why i'm posting here.

    What do you think about it? Could it be possible? May be how?

    Greetings

    (sorry, english is not my favorite language)
  2. jpdesvals

    jpdesvals New Member Gold Contributor

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    Hello ,

    This is possible , i will try to resume it :

    What you need : -an arduino pro micro(very important ) witch is recognized as a usb keyboard and then inject in its mcu a .hex file ( a code made by a guys named metalgearMonk on DCS forum )via a sofware called x loader .or arduino(but i don t know how to ).
    -a controler like the l298(H bridge ) wich recieve pwm instruction from the arduino to the 2 dc motors or one stepper motor
    -2 potentiometer (from your saiteck yoke )
    -a power supply ( 12V if you have 12 v motor )
    -wiring all this on the arduino (the guy made a resume where to plug what according to his code .)

    What this code make if i did well understand is to make windows think you have basic force feedback device connected ( not all the effect are working for the moment but all the principal used by our favorit sims .

    The big advantage of this method is all the instruction are already in windows .

    If that works that will be a litle revolution as every-one will be able to build his own FFB yoke ore joystick( the gimball for a joystick is not as easy as for yoke .

    For the moment i ordered everything exept a mistake cause i took an arduino pro mini ..and waiting for the arduino pro MICRO.. unfortunatly not recognised cause of the fdti breakout usb that is use only to load program .

    Link for the topic here very interesting with every thing (.HEX file , mapping etc )
    https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=172964

    Arduino forcefeedback work for racing wheel , can t wait to build a strong FFB yoke or a more powerfull FFBjoystick than my venerable microsoft force feedback2 ...and way cheaper than the 1000 or 2000 FFB yoke on the market .

    hope that help !

    JPdesvals
  3. gagagu

    gagagu New Member

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    Hi, thx for your reply. I will take a lok into the links.
    I'm thinking about if it's possible to use an RC Servo for Force Feedback. They are small and (depend on type) powerful.

    Two Servos, connected to a Arduino board controlled by simtools. The main problem ist how to install the servos into the saitek yoke. I will make some tests with some servos abnd think a little about it.
  4. ericdozi

    ericdozi New Member

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    Hi, good idea! What model of motor you will use? Thanks
  5. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    SimTools is not suited to FFB, mod an old Microsoft Sidewinder 2 joystick instead.
  6. Historiker

    Historiker Dramamine Adict Gold Contributor

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  7. T R Para

    T R Para i make stuff up

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    • Informative Informative x 1
  8. ericdozi

    ericdozi New Member

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    I use this, but the feed back doesn g work very well on MSFS20, the
    i use this with msfs20 but the xpforce app doesn t work very well for me, so I abandoned the project

    Attached Files: