Updates on a few different things…
First up, here’s what the new SFS interconnect cable looks like:
The end of the cable on the right is bolted to the cockpit floor and the other end winds its way along the pitch axis bearing and up the centerline of the roll axis section. It attaches to the bottom of the SFS box in order to bring the signals from the SFS box & grip to the control interface hardware that’s going to be installed in the left side equipment bay that’s under the cockpit. The clear plastic tube was part of the original SFS interconnect cable. I was able to salvage it for the new cable.
Above is a shot of the SFS end of the cable right before I closed up the outer sleeve.
I’ve been working on getting the inboard throttle grip rebuilt. Having friends in interesting places helped out quite a bit with this part of the project. The F-15C inboard grip contains a “slew” control, which is essentially a tiny little force sensitive joystick. It’s used as the Target Designation Cursor controller. You can see it in the photo below, the “L” shaped object.
The slew control requires an input amplifier because the signal it puts out is very, very tiny. This is where my smart buddies come in. They make an interface board that is specifically designed to turn these slew controllers into joystick axes. The board supports the slew control as the main x/y axis and has a few other goodies on it that make for a complete joystick interface. Below is a pic of that board.
[31Aug15 Update!]
A few people have emailed me asking about more information on the slew control -specifically the pinout. Here you go!
Pin 1 – 5VDC
Pin 2 – X Axis
Pin 3 – Y Axis
Pin 4 – GND
I should also note that one the folks that emailed me was able to successfully get the slew control working by using the analog inputs on an Arduino!
