Subject:
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Power Functions remote control Thumbstick, with instructions
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:53:12 GMT
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This is my design for a thumbstick (joystick) for the Power Functions remote
control handset. I forgot about this until prompted, so here it is. It’s a
two-axis joystick that lets you move the stick up/down/left/right and operate
the two IR RC outputs of the selected channel. The up/down movement operates
the right (blue) channel #2, while left/right movement operates the left (red)
channel #1.
| | I’ve seen some of these before, most noticeably this one by Mark Bellis, but I was put off a bit by the density of parts and the difficulty in obtaining the ball-joint elements required.
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The first thing I looked at was moving the actual stick off the control points
so that the switch doesn’t take the full force of your input movements -
particularly the sideways forces. Fortunately the pin-holes in the side of the
controller align with the pivot point of the switch, making this very easy.
This is what the parallel frame on the right-hand side does. It moves the
forward/back pivot point of the joystick right to the front of the handset,
where there’s more room. This also lets me add a long lever onto the other
control. The next step was to de-couple the left/right movement from the
forward/back movement.
The real trick though is in completely avoiding the need for a ball joint. I do
this by putting the pin on the end of the left-hand lever exactly in line with
the axis by which the joystick rocks forward/backward. So, the only motion
transmitted to this lever is the left/right movement. Obviously it moves
slightly out of alignment when operated, but there’s easily enough flex in the
system to compensate for this small movement (in fact, the parallel frame twists
slightly in just the right direction). Having this all aligned looks so simple,
but trust me, it was the hardest part of the design to work out!
Finally, I wanted to simplify the parts list even further. This design uses
just one of each of its main parts taken from the two recent technic accessory
sets:
Obviously the design can be optimised if you have more 1x3 thin liftarms, or you
can substitute more cams, L-shapes or triangles if you’re short. The real aim
was to make it easy to build from a modest collection of scraps.
| | I’ve shown the right-handed version above. Obviously a mirror-image can be made for holding more comfortably in the left hand. And here’s the now ubiquitous shot of 3 linked together for controlling an excavator (click for gallery).
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Jason R
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