Open Source - Control Loading system (OS-CL)

For a long time I was asking my self, why none of the big controller manufacturers don't want to make descent force feedback joystick or control yoke?   Well the answer to this is not straight forward but for what understand so far, microsoft plays huge part in it.  Somehow, the idea of gaming controller providing force or haptic feedback, is theirs licensed intellectual property.   Sadly, this was subject to many lawsuits between MS and other big companies, creating very hostile environment for any king of development.    
There's definitely great deal of demand for quality FFB devices within flight sim community but we really have just handful of options. 
Apart from MSFFB2 hack, done by Simprojects.nl, we can build one with BFF's driver cards and BLDC motors, or buy the finished product from Brunner-innovation, Iris Dynamics or Flight illusion.
Unfortunately four out of the five options above will set you back somewhere between 1,000 and 2,200 US Dollars. 
As much as I would like to, I don't see this price range as "affordable", therefore I decided to step in and make a change!

OS-CL is essentially an idea of comprehensive force feedback platform, including necessary tools, code, software and diagrams, allowing average hobbyist to build high quality controller for as little as few hundred bucks. 
​Considering how challenging this task really is, I will need help from our community, without a doubt.
​I would like to invite everybody interested in this project to join this forum and make that change.





​There is also similar ongoing (OSFFB) project  here  where I'am contributing and seeking help with OS-CL too.


Jay

Hi Jay.

This is a fantastic idea. I would love to help and be involved. I fly Helicopter Sims and this concept is overdue for the Heli Sim community.

Let me know if or how I could help.

Kind regards

Duncan

Hi Jay,

I'm looking forward to help you and the community.

Let's go!!

Best regards,
Carlos

Hey guys

Thanks for your interest in the project.
To honest with you, this is not an easy task and apparently, there are not many people who understand the programming side of the challenge.
In other words, we need coders/programmers to take care of the binary

Sadly, the similar project over at DCS forum has come to stall and there is not much happening at the moment. I was kind of hoping,  we could start building OS-CL on top of this research.
Now it seems that starting from scratch would actually go much quicker.

Well, if you guys think you possess the skills to bring this to life, please don't hesitate and get in touch.

Regards
Jay

Hi Jay!

Congrats on the project. I wish I could build one of those you've designed, but the fact of the matter is that it's difficult for me to do it because it's almost impossible to get hold of a Sidewinder and, most importantly, I don't own a 3D printer. So, I'm more inclined to follow this other route. I own an Arduino and lately I've been toying with this idea. I went ahead and bought a 6V 210RPM DC motor with an encoder and an L298N just to get a grip of the basics. I'm an utter n00b with electronics. Half of the time I don't know what I'm doing. However, I was able to achieve a very basic "centering" motion. Meaning, the motor returns to it's initial position after being displaced (by hand), acting much like a spring of sorts. My question to you and to others that may be down this avenue is: What DC motor would you recommend for stronger forces? I'd like to have an idea of exactly what kind of motor I'd be needing to have decent amounts of torque. A link would be nice ! Granted I won't be upgrading to new motors before I have a working mini version.

Regards.

conpilot wrote:Hi Jay!

Congrats on the project. I wish I could build one of those you've designed, but the fact of the matter is that it's difficult for me to do it because it's almost impossible to get hold of a Sidewinder and, most importantly, I don't own a 3D printer. So, I'm more inclined to follow this other route. I own an Arduino and lately I've been toying with this idea. I went ahead and bought a 6V 210RPM DC motor with an encoder and an L298N just to get a grip of the basics. I'm an utter n00b with electronics. Half of the time I don't know what I'm doing. However, I was able to achieve a very basic "centering" motion. Meaning, the motor returns to it's initial position after being displaced (by hand), acting much like a spring of sorts. My question to you and to others that may be down this avenue is: What DC motor would you recommend for stronger forces? I'd like to have an idea of exactly what kind of motor I'd be needing to have decent amounts of torque. A link would be nice ! Granted I won't be upgrading to new motors before I have a working mini version.

Regards.

Welcome to the pack Conpilot..
I can't give you a specific link for suitable DC motor as it all depends on the application and its power transmission.
Have a look at this example:
https://vrflightsim.wixsite.com/mysite/in-progress?lightbox=dataItem-j9wtpnou

You need to know what force you want to max. at the end of your stick!
The example above was designed to provide 5kg force at 500mm stick lenght, employing 12V/150W DC motor (I need to check those numbers)

Do you think, you are able to get into FFB interfacing?

Best Regards
Jay

Unfortunately I'm still taking baby steps with this thing. Considering I don't have a lot of free time, it'll take a considerable amount of time until I'm up to speed with this whole FFB interfacing. Could you enlighten me regarding what kind of interface you propose? What's the end goal? Developing a FFB device that would be recognized by the operating system as such, which would take full advantage of existing FFB software like FS-Force/X-Force? Or developing a separate piece of software that would be fed information from whatever simulator and calculate itself the amount of force necessary and such?

Regards.

PS: Could you please tell me the exact specs of the motors used in the Sidewinder?

conpilot wrote:Could you enlighten me regarding what kind of interface you propose? What's the end goal? Developing a FFB device that would be recognized by the operating system as such, which would take full advantage of existing FFB software like FS-Force/X-Force? Or developing a separate piece of software that would be fed information from whatever simulator and calculate itself the amount of force necessary and such?
Could you please tell me the exact specs of the motors used in the Sidewinder?

Hi
Ideally, we would have Arduino or another development platform, programmed to be recognized as a "generic FFB device". This way we could take full advantage of the existing software as well as native support in other sims.
I realize, this is very challenging task but I do believe that we (as a community) can do it!

Regarding Sidewinder motors, I did have exact model no. somewhere but I can't find it right now. Will try to look it up online.

Jay

Hey,

I really hope this project takes off and that I could find a way to help.

I love your other projects!

Thanks

I'm sure you have seen this site during your extensive search for open source control load interface options, but just in case you haven't.....http://bffsimulation.com/CL_Controller.php