Aviator flight stick mod
 

Here are a few pictures of the mod I did to my aviator to relocate the "Zoom in" and "Target cam (Arcade) Trim (Sim)" buttons to a reachable area.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...20090731205230

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...0731205308.jpg

The Button at the top is the LSB button (Zoom), the one below it to the left is the RB (Target cam/Trim). This ws fairly easy to accomplish and took about 30 minutes once I figured out the correct wires. My good camera is broken and I had to use my phone for the pics so I'll try to explain in detal.

Here is what you will need.

2 push buttons (available at RadioShack $2.99 ea.)
Electrical tape
extra wire (speaker wire works well)
wire stripper
drill with appopriate sized bit (for new button location holes)
soldering iron

(Continued)

Find where you want your buttons & drill appropriate sized holes (there are no electrics on the left side behind the throttle, see pics. on last post) Remove all of the screws from the bottom/base of the controller and remove bottom. install your new buttons.

On the front of the controller you will see the board that holds the buttons on the left (facing you with mic input) you will see a dark purple wire by the buttons (this is the zoom). Cut the purple wire at the button board (not the main board) this will need to be redirected to a post on one of the new buttons, you will probably need to use extra wire to reach.

on the right (not mic side) you will see an orange wire cut this at the button board and redirect to a post on the other new button.

to the right of the hat switch on button board there is a line of 7 wires soldered into the board, the one closest to the center (light grey) is your ground. cut this wire in the middle strip it and twist it back together leaving it exposed. run wire from the second post on each new button to the exposed wire and twist them into it, cover with electrical tape. This wire must stay conected to the main board from the button board, we are only splicing it to the new buttons. You can splice the orange & purple in this way if you still want to use the front ones (I saw no need).

Now solder the wire connections on your new buttons. reasemble & enjoy your new reachable zoom & trim/target cam buttons!

I will post pictures of the wires tommorow when I have a better camera or at least daylight.

Rev:mrgreen:

After a bit of play this mod works great! all the buttons you really need within reach on a controller you can hold in your lap :mrgreen:

Good work. I might well try this, at £30 these sticks are cheap enough for me to void the warranty.

you did that? Amazing!

I may want to try this if you recomend it and post some good photos (no pressure)

ok here are some pictures of the wiring.

controller with base plate off.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...0801084412.jpg

orange wire location on board
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...1249137454.jpg

purple wire location on board
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...1249137547.jpg

wires connected to buttons (red wire is from buttons)
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...1249139012.jpg

finished product
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_wL3f1bGat8Q/Sn...1249140170.jpg

I'm going to add another small button to relocate the map function later this weekend. I'll add info on wiring that later.

Hope this helps,
Rev:mrgreen:

Well played Rev!

thats soo cool!

hey, is it possible to move the POV to the base?
say I got an old XBOX controller, would you be able to use one of its thumsticks and use that as a 'look around' on the aviator?

Nice job Rev!

How hard do you think it would be to take a better PC stick and change out the board with an Aviator board? That way you could have a better stick and throttle combo with Xbox compatability. I was thinking of tackling that if the game is as good as it seems.

I would think the only real challenge would be figuring out any power issues.

I'm sure some mods will turn up soon or later...I'll be all over them when they do