DIY Arduino Helicopter Collective Joystick Control -- Episode 440

I love to fly in simulators, especially helicopters. But, there is just not an affordable collective control that I have found, so I decided to make one for myself! I am going to build a joystick using an Arduino Micro, with a bunch of buttons for assignable controls and a high quality encoder for the collective axis.

Supplemental Content:

Also you can watch the live Twitch recording about this build: element14 Presents Live Twitch Stream: DIY Arduino Helicopter Collective Joystick Control

Bill of Material:

Product Name	Manufacturer	Quantity	Buy Kit
BOURNS Absolute Rotary Encoder, 120 rpm, 128 PPR, EAW Series	BOURNS	1	Buy Now
ARDUINO Development Board, Arduino Micro, ATmega32U4 MCU, 20 3.3V I/O, 12 Analogue Inputs, ISCP Header	ARDUINO	1	Buy Now
ITW SWITCHES Pushbutton Switch, Industrial, 59 Series, 13.6 mm, SPST-NO-DB, Momentary, Square	ITW SWITCHES	1	Buy Now
ITW SWITCHES Pushbutton Switch, Industrial, 59 Series, 13.6 mm, SPST-NO-DB, Momentary, Square	ITW SWITCHES	1	Buy Now
ITW SWITCHES Pushbutton Switch, Industrial, 59 Series, 13.6 mm, SPST-NO-DB, Momentary, Round	ITW SWITCHES	1	Buy Now
ITW SWITCHES Pushbutton Switch, Industrial, 59 Series, 13.6 mm, SPST-NO-DB, Momentary, Round	ITW SWITCHES	1	Buy Now
C & K COMPONENTS SWITCH, SPDT, 5A, 120VAC	C & K COMPONENTS	3	Buy Now
BOURNS Incremental Rotary Encoder, Pro Audio, Continuous. 24 Detents, 24 Pulses, Quadrature Output	BOURNS	1	Buy Now

Additional Parts:

Product Name
5 Way Momentary Square SMD Tactitle Switch
M3x5x2 Square Nuts
8mm Bore Diameter ball mounted pillow blocks
T6 Seamless Aluminum Round Straight Tubing 16 Gauge 1-3/8" OD

Attachments:

HelicopterCollective_Resources.zip

DIY Arduino Helicopter Collective Joystick Control

element14 presents | About Kaleb | Project Videos

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kraythorne over 5 years ago

This looks like a great project, but where is everyone getting the CAD files from? The Fusion 360 link above seems to be view only?
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gsjward over 5 years ago in reply to kraythorne

https://www.element14.com/community/servlet/JiveServlet/download/94799-6-304639/HelicopterCollective_Resources.zip
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gsjward over 5 years ago in reply to kraythorne

https://www.element14.com/community/servlet/JiveServlet/download/94799-6-304639/HelicopterCollective_Resources.zip
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kraythorne over 5 years ago in reply to gsjward

Hi Garreth

Great thank you!

Do you know if the fusion files are available anywhere?

Regards

Steve
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benaim over 5 years ago in reply to kraythorne

When you see in 3D https://www.element14.com/community/external-link.jspa?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmyhub.autodesk360.com%2Fue2909875%2Fg%2Fshares%…

You can download files
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KalebTheMaker over 5 years ago in reply to kraythorne

Hi Steve,

Did you get all the files you needed?

-Kaleb
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kraythorne over 5 years ago in reply to KalebTheMaker

I can see the design in the fusion 360 page, but cannot work out how to download the fusion files - can you advise which buttons to use to download the files (See my screenshot). Thanks for coming back to me
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KalebTheMaker over 5 years ago in reply to kraythorne

That is very odd, when I load that page in chrome (and in incognito, not logged in) it shows a button just above the spatial block on the upper right hand side that says "download" from there you can download many formats of the files.

I have added the .fbx file to github for download. Link to github is above.

Let me know if that helps,
-Kaleb Clark
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gtg938v over 5 years ago in reply to KalebTheMaker

Kaleb,

For some reason when I try to open the fbx file from github in fusion it gives me a failure. It's as if the file is corrupted? Or maybe it's the wrong version?

Thank you for the help, I really love your project, and thank you for making it publically available.

Rich
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aosatx04 over 5 years ago in reply to gtg938v

Richard,

I had no problems with fbx file. I'm currently using the following version of Fusion360;

2.09.9930
Active Plan: Fusion 360, Subscription
macOS 10.16.0
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KalebTheMaker over 4 years ago in reply to gtg938v

Hi there,

I just downloaded the FBX from github, imported it and opened it. I do not think its corrupted. I am running the latest release of F360 currently. What is the failure that your fusion 360 reports?
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fat_lurch over 4 years ago in reply to KalebTheMaker

HI Kaleb,

I've tried Edge, Firefox and Chrome and I'm not seeing the download option you describe.

Is there any chance the item is not set as Downloadable, as per this Autodesk article?

Thanks in advance!

Solved: A360 Viewer - View only, no option to download - Autodesk Community - A360 Drive
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KalebTheMaker over 4 years ago in reply to fat_lurch

Maybe the licensing changes changed the way that works. Sorry for the inconvinance.

The .fbx file is on github which you should be able to download and import into Fusion360.

I also just uploaded all of the STL files to github. They should be the most current, but if they are not, then the .fbx file is for sure the most current.

Let me know if that works,
-Kaleb Clark
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