Peripherals The Joystick Thread

Definitely do mate! Love to see what you've made

I bought a Wheelstand Pro (v.2). I enquired on the official wheelstand pro site, and they wanted £101 delivered.

I then hit ebay up and picked one up for £90 including a Logitech force feedback wheel and pedals, which on their own seem to go for between £50-£75. Will chuck them straight back up there, even if I make £40 on them I'll be happy with that. Now I just need to buy the Small Warthog mount from Wheelstand direct.

 

Nicely done, bit of a bargain!

I spent the weekend packing my HOTAS(es) and flying gear in to boxes

 

Will post some pics up later but this is strictly amateur hour, not the craftsmanship I see in case mods
Bargain on the wheelstand.

I looked at this on ebay as it's pretty close to what I intend to speak to a fabricator about. http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=271817151677&alt=web

My own attempt is more bulky due to being made out of wood. (And costing <£30 plus bits lying around)

 

Bit of background:
Been playing with the hotas on my desk and it is both too high, and too close to the screen. I find myself leaning forward all the time and putting my wrists into all sorts of odd angles while flying.
I have a keyboard drawer in the desk, but it is not deep enough for the hotas and I don't think it would hold up well with the downward pressure that using the hotas would apply. So another solution is needed.
I want the hotas to be in the same physical location as the in game avatar. google search image:

Popped down to B&Q and picked up a sheet of MDF, a 2400x140x18 plank, a pack of 4x 50mm 90degree zinc brackets and some velcro strips. Seems more comfortable to me if the throttle is raised slightly over the stick so chopped up a chipboard panel from an old kitchen unit to the size of the throttle base. Plenty of that panel so made 2 at the same time in case I turn out to be wrong.

Cut the MDF and the planks and fixed together with the zinc brackets. Set up at a width that is comfortable for my legs, and allows positioning the controls immediately in front of the arms of my chair.


The 'legs' were not rigid enough so I used the rest of the plank to add braces to the bottom, and fixed the pads. The left for Throttle, and the right one is immediately to the right of where the flightstick will me. allows it to be used as a mousepad, and offers some additional bracing on one side for the stick. Gap in the middle for keyboard/coffee/snacks/whatever.


and placed in situ:


Got a tine of spray primer and a tin of black satin spraypaint so it will not remain looking like this. Once painted up, I'll use velcro strips to secure the hotas down. for now, BluTack is my friend.

The desk wraps round 90 degrees where I have another monitor hooked up to the laptop, but there is no keyboard drawer there. When not in use this stand can just be moved under the desk to the side. Can use as a keyboard drawer there to gain deskspace back as well.

It's not overly pretty but I'm no craftsman and it works for me. Still going to talk to a fabricator about something made of steel that is less bulky (at least see what it would cost) but for now I can fly through the black in comfort.

 

Looks good so far, it's definitely a good simple and cheap solution for the HOTAS.
Are you planning no screwing the bases of the X55 into the frame or are you going to leave them loose?


My little laptop surface should be coming from Ikea later this week, so when that arrives I'll start looking at the fittings it uses on the height adjustable frame and see what parts I can customise it with.

 

Velcro is first option but if unsuccessful I might try to find some shelf pegs

 

simple set up and low budget good choice for me.,.,hehehhe

 

Another option would be a double-sided rubber mat, that would give a bit of resistance against the plastic base to prevent sliding.

 

Got a link? Think I know what you mean

 

Nice work mate!

I think Velcro is a good shout. Would also be easy to fix in some bolts and really secure it if you did want to do that!

 

I was thinking something like this that you normally use under a rug/carpet to stop them slipping on a wood/laminate floor:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/slip-safety-under-rubber-underlay/dp/B004K3G5B6

Or the type you use in a car to stop things slipping off the Dash:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3809...1=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0

 

Finally got a replacement sorted for my heavily repaired saitek cyborg, . Bought Speeds Thrustmaster T1600M. Getting posted tomorrow.

Looking forward to it. Thinking of maybe using the saitek bottom half for throttle (along with having a few more buttons), got to see if it works without the stick screwed on.

 

Gotcha. I think I'll go with the Velcro for now but something rubbery might be handy for the middle. Would love to get a mousemat exactly the right size for the mouse platform but not sure how they react to being cut...?

 

It'll depend on the material and what you're cutting the mat with.

The soft SteelSeries ones are generally okay with being cut with a hobby knife, I've butchered a few of those in the past for creating a bit of vibration noise reduction under things like games consoles and kitchen appliances.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SteelSeries-QcK-Gaming-Mouse-Black/dp/B000UEZ36W

 

Cool, I have 2 of those already and love them!

 

Picked up the Wheel Stand Pro last night and posted off the Steering Wheel on the way home (went for £65 on ebay!). Also ordered the Warthog Small Plate from WSP themselves - that was an extra £20 including postage, so cost £45 all in which I feel I can live with (the lad I bought it from has another he's selling too by the way, in case anyone can collect from South London).

Seems like a solid bit of kit. Nicely adjustable too, and doesn’t require me to get the tools out and make my own. Will give it a full review as soon as the mount lands (likely early next week). I’ll be pretty much set then from what I can see – Nostromo, Mouse, Warthog, Bass shaker in the chair. Brilliant! Now I just need Star Citizen (and an Oculus Rift!)

 

Discovery scanner

/nuff said

 

Just got around to putting together the Ikea laptop table for my joystick this morning, not a bad quick fix for £14:


There's a bit of room behind the sticks as half the surface is under my desk at the moment, this is the full surface:


There's not quite enough room for a 60% or TLK keyboard between the stick and throttle on that, so I'm thinking of getting some wood and crafting a custom top for it.
In the meantime, I'm looking at the idea of the Razer Tartarus to buy at the beginning of May to go between the gear for hotkey commands.

 

Yeah, I have a Razer Orbweaver that'll be my go-to device for FPS etc. rather than a full size keyboard I think.

 

Yep, Nostromo here too.

For SC, the reality is, if you want to use a joystick you are still going to need to be able to access keyboard and mouse for FPS.