Stackable universal throttle quadrant

Summary

You like to fly prop planes and want proper engine controls? Or maybe you drive a big jet and always dreamed of a proper reverse? Want to fly a B-52 or the Stratocruiser? Need even more axes? Consider building this stackable quadrant, that will likely provide you with all the axes you want.

Simchair MKIII universal throttle quadrant

 

The whole thing consists of only 4 different parts, that can be stacked together to your heart’s content.  I also plan to add trimmer wheels support at some point to make it even better. The cool thing about this design is, that each axis boundaries can be set in software, and a secondary axis (its boundaries are also defined in software!) can be assigned to each knob. That basically means an analog reverse!

Components

2 x M8 threaded rod piece
M8 nuts
X x 10KOhm LINEAR potentiometer (1 pot per axis)
1 x Arduino Pro Mini (for large number of axes use a separate Leonardo!)
1 x Simchair MKIII I2C controller

Software notice

Due to a customizable nature of this design, the default firmware is configured for a single engine prop plane, with secondary axis added to each knob. You can easily change the code to use 6 main axes instead. If you need more (or much more) axes and are in doubt about how to implement them, please feel free to contact me, I will help you with adjusting the software with pleasure. If you need something like a B-52 quadrant with analog reverse, it may be a good idea to use a separate Arduino Leonardo for it (16 axes is a lot!). If in doubt, contact me for an advice!

Special functions

  • secondary axes support, 2 axes per pot! (analog reverse)
  • adjustable axis boundaries
  • infinitely stackable

Download

STL’s and sources
Firmware