Joystick mods

[julian265]

Originally Posted by jimbop

Thanks - I've just been thinking about using a U-joint or similar for building a stick and now I know I'm not crazy... A car U-joint seems a bit excessive though? What about a tie rod end or something?

Is that yours in the link?

Yes, that's my stick.

There's no such thing as excessive when it comes to human input devices!
Also my stick uses the weight (inertia) to give it a more realistic feel.

People have also used motorbike u-joints, which are smaller but can still retain the hollow cross-piece / spider. You might also check out steering u-joints, although they won't have the axis holes, but the metal might be soft enough to drill and tap, unlike u-joint's cross-piece.

IIRC all the completely custom built gimbals are larger than these u-joints, but of course they are made to perfectly suit the base, grip and sensors.

A tie rod end's movement isn't separated nicely into two axes (also it can rotate in the Z axis), so you'd find it harder to measure the X and Y rotation with sensors, whereas a u-joint has done it already. However, there are three axis sensors that can deal witht this method.