Single desktop yoke

Probably the most important addition for any sim enthusiast is the move from a joystick to a flight yoke. Some builders make them out of wood, plastic, or metal or plastic tubing. Others just go out and buy one. Precision Flight Controls sell some very nice ones in many styles, but again, at a price. After much testing and trialling I ended up giving in and buying the basic yoke body from Simkits. It just wasn't possible with my tools and experience to manufacture an adequately realistic yoke. They sell a Cessna replica, which just happened to be the same as the yoke in the C172R that I was flying at the time. They can be adapted and installed into their product or your own build. I did elect to build my own mechanism, base on their factory produced version (thanks guys). Here is a picture giving all the details courtesy of Simkits.

This is the completed unit mounted in a gutted laserdisc player. The box dimensions are important if you want to get adequate forward and aft elevator movement. This box is 400mm deep so provides enough room for 150mm movement each way (total of 300mm from full elevator down to full up). The metal shaft is 19mm stainless steel tubing and all cabling from the yoke mounted controls run down the middle.

The yoke itself has a two-way centre-off rocker switch at the left thumb for electronic trim. An 8-way hat switch at the right thumb for view movement. And a momentary push button on both left and right handles for other uses (currently brakes and spot view). These will become, coms PTT on the left and auto-pilot disengage on the right. Other switches are also mounted on the front of the box for Flaps & Gear.

Here you can see the shaft in its centred level flight position. The grey mounts are 19mm electrical conduit threaded flanges.

 

 

 

The yokes innards exposed as I add another 4 buttons. Notice the aluminium plate in the centre to strengthen what is a very flimsy plastic handle! Ah well, you get what you pay for.

 

 

 

The inner workings exposed. This is a side view. A carriage in the middle carries the aileron pot and rides on two timber dowels. The elevator pot (100K) mounted at the bottom of screen is moved via the metal arm attached to the carriage.

 

 

Here is a front view showing the yoke in full elevator down position. A long slot in the elevator arm attached to the carriage allows it to slide during movement.

 

 

 

And here it is in full elevator up. Two springs either side provide some degree of tension and return force for both elevator and aileron movement.

 

 

 

Not very clear but this is the cabling from the yoke controls and axis pots. The circuit board at the top is a hacked Saitek Cyborg Joystick. This provides Yoke and Rudder electronics and works a treat! One thing to note when hacking an old analogue joystick. None of the switches will work correctly until all axis pots are installed (or a load resistor is installed). I spent many hours trying to get the HAT switch to work thinking I had damaged the circuit, until I installed all pots and voila! So even if you aren't going to use some axis, install the pot anyway.

 

This is the inner workings of the carriage mechanism. The yoke shaft rotates freely in the carriage through a couple of curtain bracket mounts. The springs are attached to a couple of towel rail end brackets with a timber block to restrict lateral movement to the amount required (and to stop the aileron pot from winding beyond its intended travel), and the aileron pot (100K) is activated by a couple of gears to give the desired amount of turn.