Wiring pedals to BU0836X

[Basje]

Dear fellow cockpit builders,

I own an old Thrustmaster steering wheel. Since Thrustmaster doesn't make any driver for Windows 7, I disassembled the pedals and would like to wire those to my BU0836 card as an axis. I've already been experimenting with potmeters and leds, and I've almost smoked my batteries. That's why before I wire those pedals to my Bodnar card, I'd like some advice from more experienced builders.

Both pedals have their own potmeter. This is the current wiring:

Potmeter 1
3 2 1
| | | |
blue _____|____| | |______ orange
| |
green ____|_ ____|_______ red
| | | |
1 2 3
Potmeter 2

So:
I have two cables (blue and red) coming from both wipers. I have one cable (orange) coming from terminal 1 on potmeter 1. I have one cable (green) coming from terminal 1 on potmeter 2. Terminals 1 and 3 are connected on both potmeters.

To make it work, this is what i thought:
I connect both the blue and the red wires (both wipers) to the axis of my BU0836X card (like RX). The green wire goes on the positive and the orange wire goes on the ground.

Does that look okay? Or am I going to burn my card or my potmeters?

Thanks!

Basje

[Basje]

Hi there again!

I see my scheme is all messy after posting. I hope things get clear with the explanation.

Basje

[Ronson2k9]

You would just need one pot for the axis not both for your rudder pedals. To make them quite accurate you would need 3 pots. 1 for the axis and one for each toe brake. When on the ground the brakes are king. Nearly all taxi movements are done with them. When in the air of course the brakes don't do anything. I don't quite know what sending 2 different signals to your rudder control would do but I'm thinking at the very least they will cancel each other out. That is for the rudder can have only one signal (left pedal or right pedal but not both) from a land vehicle control perspective.

Your best bet is to get a multimeter and test out the voltages coming from the connections. I wouldn't connect anything to the computer without it first going through a multimeter testing.

Next would be to take a look at some of the DIY rudder control articles (http://flightsim.com/main/howto/rudder3.htm) on Flightsim.com (http://flightsim.com/main/m-howto.htm). Your connection to the card/computer is really the easiest part of the process.

Depending on what type of aircraft you fly the most there are articles on flightsim.com to suit pretty well any type of aircraft (accept helo I think - no wheels so no toe brakes on them). You can go with one of those or mash up something from a combination of them as I'm doing.

Best of luck
Ron

[Basje]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for replying. Some additionnal information maybe: the pedals come from a steering wheel. So actually I have one pedal for the throttle and one for the brake (in a car). For an aircraft, it worked some time ago before I migrated to Windows 7, when I had XP and a driver to make the whole hardware work automatically. Back then, both pedals worked for the one and only rudder. Obviously, there are no toe brakes, but I don't mind. FS considered both pedals as one axis. Now, I try to obtain the same, but since now, without the drivers, I need to configure everyting manually, I was just wondering how to do it. I do think it must be possible, since it worked some time ago in XP with the drivers. When no pedal is pushed in, the rudder is centered. When I push the left pedal, the rudder goes to the left. When I push the right pedal, the rudder goes to the right. I hope this makes things more clear.

Basje.