Flight Sim Rudder Pedals

thingiverse

After my Saitek Pedals failed repeatedly due to quality issues and high costs of premium pedals, I decided to design my own set of rudder pedals. If you want to build your own Flight Sim Pedals, be sure to read through the provided BOM and Instructions.pdf before starting your project. The entire system is built with basic components: 2020 extrusions, 608ZZ ballbearings, M4, M5, and M8 screws. The only non-standard parts are the torsion springs for the toebrakes, but you can easily create your own springs if you have a vise and pliers. The re-centering mechanism is comprised of RC-Car Shockabsorbers pushing a ballbearing on a linear slider against a cam-surface. You can adjust the behavior of the pedals by using stronger springs, changing the spring preload, using thicker oil for the shockabsorbers or trying a different style of cam. There are 3 Hall-Effect sensors, one for the yaw-axis and one for each toebrake-axis, which are connected to an ATmega32u4 based Arduino Pro Micro. After calibration, all calibration values are stored directly to the EEPROM. The Fusion360 files are included, feel free to modify the parts for your needs: Pedals final v12.f3d is the whole assembly, Pedal Slider v1.f3d is the slider as a separate file for easier tweaking, and Pedals old version.f3d is my first attempt. My initial design featured a re-centering mechanism similar to the MFG Crosswind Pedals. A spring-loaded lever pushed a bearing against the cam surface. However, this system had several drawbacks: the bearing moved on a circular path resulting in asymmetric behavior; the printed lever was too weak and flexible; and without shockabsorbers, the pedals were too springy. The version with the linear slider works much better, but maybe someone will find use for my old design.