I made a VR cockpit from PVC pipe

I built a cool joystick gimbal that uses the common skate bearing and PVC pipe, and no other hardware. Even the fasteners are 3D printed dowels.
I also made some rudder pedals and an airbrake+trim.
The device doesn't need a mount because it clips onto your pipe chair. I used an Arduino Micro with the MMJoy2 firmware for the brains. A Hall effect sensor, or optionally a digital magnetoresistive sensor, TLE5010, is used to sense the joystick motion. It's amazingly precise, with 0.2 mm resolution at the stick head.
The pedals and levers use good old potentiometers.
The stick head is modeled after a modern sailplane stick with a handful of buttons.
I use it for gliding in VR in Condor 2 and hopefully, soon Microsoft Flight Simulator.
I think the heart of the design, the gimbal, is a pretty good design, so I plan to adapt it for more general flight stick and perhaps helicopter controls.
It’s also super cheap to build, at about 60 dollars in parts and materials, and very minimal bill of outside hardware:
Arduino Micro $6
608 “skate” bearings (12 pcs) $10
~3 m of 18mm OD PVC pipe $6
switches, pots $10
some wire $10
plastic under 500g $10
Hall effect sensors $3 / magnetoresistive sensors $12
(+ rubber bands, zip ties or pipe ties, shoestring, magnets, PCB board...)
Glider plane for Microsoft Flight Simulator: AS 33 Me by MADoloSimulations flightsim.to/f...
Olukelo joystick gimbal www.thingivers...
Joystick with aluminimum extrusion • DIY Flight Simulator J...
My old joystick with Hall effect sensors • Home-made Hall effect ...
This pipe chair cockpit is hosted here: github.com/aka...

[@questofknowledge8788]

It’s amazing how far your designs have come now. Can’t wait to see how this gets modified as you work on it.

[@jambud6563]

You are funny, thanks for the smiles while I also could appreciate your design & flight knowledge. I appreciate the geography knowledge! Also love your excitement of making things accessibly free.

[@HavokTheorem]

Just finished printing and assembling everything below the grip. Admirable design. Had to figure out that some parts needed duplicates, and snapped a couple parts trying to hammer everything together - but I'm glad it wasn't too easy :)

[@MotoRideswJohn]

Your enthusiasm is hypnotic. love it

[@erock.steady]

lol at basically the same time this was posted, i was revisiting another of your ingenious projects, posted to hackaday, your wacomOLED device. i was, as i am, grateful to have made your acquaintance.

[@atomixfang]

Awesome upload, it is always interesting to see the stuff you upload!

[@kipter]

This would probably work pretty well for helicopter sims aswell. The spoiler handle is in the perfect spot for a collective

[@TimHighamFlightSim]

Excellent - I've been experimenting with hall-effect sensors on some of my flightsim designs - it certainly seems to be the best way to go...

[@joshinspace3903]

Amazing. Thank you for sharing this. I just bought a quest 3 and am excited to try it with gliding. This will be fantastic to build!

[@CodeRed001]

This is good stuff. I'm a big flight sim fan and didn't know you could gain altitude in a glider, I thought it was just trying to glide to the ground as slow as possible but the fact you can gain altitude makes it way more interesting. Now I want to mess around with my glider modules more.

[@maciejasz78]

Awesome, but that magnetoresistive sensor at 10:50 could get a bit more explanation. In particular the magnet and magnetization direction. It's clear for the hall sensor and it's a mystery for the magnetoresitive sensor.

[@Theobirdynam]

I'm in the same situation, how is the magnet in front of the sensor ?

[@mozarellachan5854]

You can get the same resolution with the hall effect sensor by using ADC 1y bit resolution. And it is cheaper than buying that in video digital magneto resistive.

[@HeartbreakOne1337]

As always, great video Akaki 👍

[@jamesvogel8398]

For people in the USA 1/2 EMT conduit from the big box stores is about 18.1 mm in OD and fits these models in case you want to make your own

[@IsaacNgui]

You made me spit my drink out with that "also in a building" bit, reminds me why I'm subscribed

[@FTSsjc]

That's the coolest DIY project I've ever seen. Congrats, man

[@BloodSteyn]

And the Mad Genius is at it again. Love your stuff, busy printing a HOTASS for my XBox Controller as I type this. :D

[@AkakiKuumeri]

I hope you have fun with it

[@BloodSteyn]

@@AkakiKuumeri Definitely will. Bought your Flexure model from Etsy... it's taking a while to print, so I swapped to the Basic HOTAS for XBox 360 as I'm leaving on holiday soon and need something compact to take with. But I will finish the Flexure model when I get back. Please, do keep up the amazing work and I will keep on supporting you. Fair Trade :)

[@raywatters5745]

Why didn't you go into production ? I would have lined up to buy one.

[@AlexDiesTrying]

My favorite source of bearings: thrown-away inline skaters ( : I like your approach to centering the stick. Although I might just copy the mechanism of this 30 years old Graupner RC that I got for 10 bucks a while ago.

[@Warface-zh5sh]

Awesome video as always! I built one of your joysticks and it works flawlessly. Looking forward to build this one some day.

[@AkakiKuumeri]

That’s great to hear!

[@abdullahkrmzyuz5827]

Awesome project man! Keep up the good work! I was making your arduino flight stick and you uploaded this! Well we have another project then!

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Great! I think this larger gimbal design is a better design, but the old one has been going strong for a year with little problems too.

[@abdullahkrmzyuz5827]

@@AkakiKuumeri Ooh interestingg. I have been using my RC Remote for microsoft flight sim that is making me lazy to make another controller lol. And yes the larger gimbal looks more precise

[@redportleft]

Looking forward to a helicopter version. Many thanks.

[@gabbergeron4847]

its the same thing for the cylic

[@piconano]

Brilliant job. I too live in a small place and will mod the Step file to suit my office chair. I can't sit in those folding type chairs for more than half hour before my butt starts hurting. All I need now is the size of the magnet and part number for the linear TO92 sensor. I can't afford the TLE5010/5011 board at $50 each includes the cost of shipping !

[@pietroseven8228]

Fantastic work, really appreciated!

[@soniczek]

Taking off with a glider part made my day, thank you good sir!

[@desertblbuesman]

Good sound effects of glider flight

[@knowyourjoe8826]

Well done! Thanks for sharing!

[@Sidnoi-w5r]

Nice. I'll wait for helicopter cyclic and collective.

[@BretChilcott]

Nice work! Keep up the creativity!

[@MrSpinkser]

Really great job! Impressive. I will definitely steal on idea or another for a DIY project! 😊

[@Fromega001]

Hum, very nice, i'l hope you make a copter assembly soon too.

[@Jason_N7]

Yeah, please do so. Please go into production.

[@MakisAviation]

Super awesome job!👌

[@vladyslavkalinichenko]

Inspiring video, that horn made me laugh! thank you for introducing soaring. I use xplane 12 on mac os for now, arduino seems to work ok with it too.

[@kingjamez80]

Very impressive design work.

[@iitzfizz]

So creative, You're very talented!

[@JavierChiappa]

Man this is awesome, thanks for doing all this work

[@peterboy209]

Outstanding 👍

[@savage_x89]

Im glad you provided the proper procedure for launching your glider. 😂 Excellent build!

[@fatchickencatcher]

I always enjoy your stuff. Well done.

[@Lince7722]

Really nice thing! Thanks for sharing.

[@RFBaseTv]

Thats crazyy good job mate

[@mozarellachan5854]

The digital magnetoresistive sensor is having 16 bit resolution. You can do the same with the hall effect sensor by adding ADC 16 bit resolution. Just like ADS1115 module. Also It is way cheaper than buying magneto resistive.

[@ozkanyildiz9223]

Nice work!

[@katsuya2742]

Wah a great work

[@sunsunitch]

Шикарный дизайн! Отличная работа!

[@s14slide]

Cool design. I don't think your butt is going to like you after sitting in that chair for hours trying to complete a soaring task.

[@Eduardog1975]

AMAZING!!!! good job

[@garrisonguides719]

BADASS!

[@omatad]

You are a freaking genious 🙂 Could you concider to make an airbus sidestic and throttle…😁

[@melcrose]

OMG. I never thought I'd see my favorite youtuber making stuff for my favorite sim. FYI - once you get into 15/18+m you'll need to have a hand on the flaps constantly. Your trim should be on the right side anyway, that will leave a place to make flaps / air brakes on the left side. :) :) :)

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Flaps are used that often? And isn't it tricky to trim if you have to take your hand off the stick to change the trim?

[@davidgoodwin16]

very resourceful.

[@dempa3]

I don't know anymore if I'm here mainly for the impressive projects, or for the jokes. Great ideas! I'd be curious to know if you've tried flying a quadcopter with two of your joysticks, instead of a "regular" radio with "regular" gimbals, and how it compares.

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Thanks! I have tried fpv drones with two joysticks in the simulator. I don't think it's particularly great; I prefer the regular sticks. But for camera drones, I do think it would be a good idea to have longer sticks for smoother motions.

[@dempa3]

@@AkakiKuumeri Many thanks for the reply! I suppose for an agile thing like a quadcopter it makes sense to use the small sticks on the regular RC radios. :)

[@tac-cobserver3788]

Great flight Akaki 😉🤙 anyway, would you like to make a tutorial for aircombat sim HOT-ASs maybe like a simple f-16 SSC and TCS ?

[@vidosiki9062]

10:16 мне показалось вы неправильно поставили магнит относительно датчика. Повернуть на 90 градусов и убрать два центральных магнита а два наружних направить разыми полюсами к датчику. Тогда он будет отрабатывать полный интервал на вашем устройстве. Отрегулировать угол можно расстоянием между магнитами. У тле 5010 угол 360 и он работает на 1/8 интервала при ходе джойстика в 45%. Спасибо за видео! Очень полезно и интересно!

[@theMerzavets]

Great, bro! Liked and subscribed.

[@slawosze]

Amazing!

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

Wondering how hard this would be to convert as inputs for a TX16S radio, for flying RC planes and gliders, the use of the pipe chair would make this a lot easier to carry to model fields then many other setups.

[@mingyaowu7720]

Awesome 👍

[@trueblack6760]

I was surprised about the tech of this advanced simulator even the graphic is not that great. Did you said the location of the clouds has the upward wind? wow Also your solutions for the controller buld are amazing... especially I love the way how you used the shoe string! Lol! 日本語でもやってくれたら、みんなビビると思いますｗｗ

[@jimbossimrigs7961]

Hey! Thanks for sharing this is exactly what I have been looking for. I fly IRL a EV97 Eurostar, simple Rotax 912 and I was looking for a stick, throttle, trim very portable/foldaway joystick unit which I could take away when traveling with work. I also have the same/similar chair! Ikea. Im keeping an eye on the Repo (watching) for updates and I will be starting the print on my Ender3. Thanks again from England. (ill be editing to put the trim and flaps on the right side).

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Great if you find it useful! I hope you can find metric pipe. If not, you might have to modify the files a bit.

[@jimbossimrigs7961]

@@AkakiKuumeri Yeah im in the UK so metric is good. One thing that would be good for the repo is a really simple basic wiring diagram, noticed you had a resistor on the left pedal pot? Also I could only find the TLE5010 on AliExpress but thats ok. Looking foward to printing this!

[@AkakiKuumeri]

You’re right, I’ll try and add some more instructions. Everything else is pretty straightforward (just follow mmjoy2 tutorials), but I’m using a special trick with the pedals where I have wired two pots to oppose each other, so even if you push down on both at the same time and manage to bend them somewhat, the values cancel out. The resistor is a part of that. AliExpress is where I got the TLE5010s as well

[@alonsoquijano9555]

hopefully soon we see your helicopter simulator design for DCS ;)

[@mikko.kasanen]

Haha hyvä idea! :)

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Kiitti vaan

[@qattack7126]

Wow, love your design. I use Tom Stanton’s design with Condor. But I will build your design, because its even a more Glider experience! When is the release of the plans!

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Thanks! I’m glad you like it. The 3D files are uploaded in one big Step file already, if you want to try it. I’ll try to make it a bit easier to understand and add instructions some time later

[@qattack7126]

Akaki, I really have a hard time, splitting up the step file. You printed already, is there any chance you upload the STL files? Would make my life a lot easier 😇

[@asifakhan41942]

Hi, Awesome build. Could you provide more information on building the PCB for TLE5010 and how it was connected to the Arduino

[@AkakiKuumeri]

I bought the sensor with that pcb on aliexpress. The giant Mmjoy2 thread has the instructions.

[@AkakiKuumeri]

@@asifakhan41942 that’s the one. It’s very Old Internet but I believe that giant forum thread is the main source of info on that software. I was able to figure out everything I needed to know based on the first few posts.

[@asifakhan41942]

@@AkakiKuumeri thanks a bunch 🙏👍

[@Nulamir-ot6nf]

Hi, very aweesome project. Please tell me that software (CAD) is used to edit STEP files?

[@kev4ev]

it is always a good thing to launch a missile after opening a new tab!

[@esmokebaby]

Sweet now a collective also how well is it compared to the big brands like puma or virple

[@helicopterovirtual-msfs6254]

Achei fantástico parabéns

[@frankstein1776]

dude, I want your version. I can only find the link to the one with al the screws and bull

[@oliverf944]

Please explain more about tel5010. Does it compare to a as5600 magnetic angle position sensor?

[@buynsell365]

This is exactly what I have been looking for. Can you sell this setup to me?

[@Koto-Sama]

i would like to use this with a rc plane or a drone

[@removebeforeflight7365]

Would it be possible to boost the hall effect output with an op amp to get better resolution in your limited angle range?

[@hadesdogs4366]

So out of curiosity but is this an actual kit I can buy or print?

[@oalithgow]

Hey man, Thanks a lot for sharing your awesome work! Im having trouble finding the magnetoresistive sensors you used.. Where can we find them?

[@Marova]

you are amazing

[@AsantePE]

Do you take interns ?

[@incrediblefactsaboutanimal5419]

Hello.You can design a joystick for a combat jet

[@incrediblefactsaboutanimal5419]

Hello.You can design a joystick for a combat jet simulator

[@harrythebait9793]

"record video... Open new Tab.... Launch missiles...."

[@josephlarsen]

where are the dowels? I'm looking at the step file and don't see them

[@esmokebaby]

I wonder if I can use buttons and the board off my tflight hotas x

[@OM-ike]

Are you pilot yourself?

[@Theobirdynam]

Hello, i'm fighting with the TLE5010 and arduino, would you like to make a video on the subject or give us a link ?

[@esmokebaby]

So what sensors are better to use altho iam sure a square magnet and better place ment could help

[@FlySweden]

Hello! Did you adapt the joystick library code when you changed to the magnetoresistive sensor ?

[@ravenchannel2039]

Hi, has the project been published? can I print the pieces?

[@peterseres3690]

Hi Akaki! How did you wired the Magnetoresistive Sensor to the Arduino Pro Micro?

[@Theobirdynam]

If you have the answer i’m searching too.

[@oliverf944]

How do you compensate for hall sensor signal being limited at 1-4v vs vcc at 5v

[@BioTrekker1]

Is there instructions to build the trim and airbrake control anywhere? I can't find it on GitHub.

[@AkakiKuumeri]

No, but if you open the STEP file up you can see how it goes together. The shape is specific to my chair so you will have to modify the chair clips to match yours.

[@Dmitry_IMHO]

You forgot to start the engine at 14:24 😅

[@dungthuanthien]

hi Akaki, may you plan to make a tiny rudder version for the controller (xbox, PS5) controlled by fingers ?, like other HOTAS or yoke controller you already done before ?

[@AkakiKuumeri]

I don’t have such plans at the moment

[@simonbouch4891]

Hi, very nice approach! I tried to get the step file from the GitHub but the browser translated the file in text file and did not downloaded... Any suggestion? Thanks!

[@josephlarsen]

how has this held up? Have you made any improvements? Figured I'd check before I started building one :)

[@AkakiKuumeri]

I had no issues using it weekly for about a year. Since then I built a new one but using a second-hand Microsoft Sidewinder FFB as the gimbal, and added grease dampers for the rudder pedals.

[@josephlarsen]

@@AkakiKuumeri oh cool, I'm trying to find a way to make something just like this with some ffb. Doesn't need to be a lot, but enough to give a better feeling for what the plane is feeling

[@yurycz8933]

👍

[@brunotaciano1218]

Hi. I couldn't find the file to print. Would you help me?

[@AkakiKuumeri]

It’s in STEP format. Open it up in your favorite CAD software and export the pieces you need!

[@sudhanshusingh438]

Price of it

[@kenschamuhn4864]

do you have stl files available for the gimbal?

[@nob0dy27_]

hoch many degrees of movement does the gimbal have in each direction?

[@zacharyosawaye7167]

Hi can you please share the stl file for the control stick

[@esmokebaby]

I wonder how durable it is

[@AkakiKuumeri]

Still in one piece after 10 months of weekly use.

[@esmokebaby]

@@AkakiKuumeri sweet gonna make my own design using the same gimbal