Flight Simulator Trim Wheel

thingiverse

Here's a elevator trim controller for your flight simulator. I use it with FS2020 but it should also work with other flight simulators, as it is recognized in Windows (10 or 11) as a joystick type device. I wanted a robust trim wheel that fits on the Saitek throttle quadrant and also a system that preserves the axis of the encoder. The axis of the wheel and the encoder are connected by gears (ratio 1/1). This trim wheel requires an arduino micro pro or an arduino leonardo (or another compatible brand like the one I used) only compatibility with the Joystick library . I provide the code for a trim wheel configured as 2 buttons, + and -, (as on the saitek yoke) and not as a potentiometer with a MAX/Min range: this makes it easy to be compatible with the autopilot (at least for FS2020). I also provide the Fusion 360 file to adapt this trim to your needs. - EDIT 15/03/2022 : Improved arduino sketch, trimwheel_5.ino. The mount for the arduino pro micro can be downloaded here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4828970. The 2 parts wheel (provided here) comes from : https://github.com/robdobsn/TrimWheel. To mount the Trim wheel on the Saitek throttle quadrant, I was inspired by the 2 plates here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4676615. Parts needed : - 1 Arduino like micro pro : https://www.amazon.fr/KeeYees-ATmega32U4-D%C3%A9veloppement-Leonardo-Bootloader/dp/B07FQJW2KN/ref=sr_1_3 - 1 Rotary Encoder : https://www.amazon.fr/Encodeurs-Rotatifs-Vegena-Capuchon-Raspberry/dp/B08YJZRPP2/ - 1 micro USB cable : https://www.amazon.fr/C%C3%A2bleMicro-SUNGUY-donn%C3%A9es-torsad%C3%A9-vitesse/dp/B073TSSJGB/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=SUNGUY&qid=1647122387&sr=8-9 - 1 608 bearing (skate bearing) for the wheel : https://www.amazon.fr/TRIXES-Roulements-billes-8x-Skateboard/dp/B00WXDAUQG?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1 - 1 M4x40 screw & 1 M4 nut for the wheel - 8 M4x10 screws to screw the case to the plates and to the Saitek throttle quadrant - 2 M3x30 screw for bearing cover - 4 M3x4 screws to screw rotary encoder and screw the cover - 6 M3 Nuts to go with the M3x10 screws How to assemble : - Print all STLs ; - Print arduino mount ; - Glue two parts of the wheel ; - Screw wheel with M4x40, add spacer out, engage in base, add bearing, add spacer in and nut ; - Screw bearing cover ; - Screw rotary encoder ; - Glues Arduino Pro Micro Mount (see pictures) ; - Wire arduino and rotary - rotary encoder CLK pin to arduino 2 pin ; - rotary encoder DATA pin to arduino 3 pin ; - rotary encoder + pin to arduino VCC pin ; - rotary encoder GND pin to arduino GND pin ; - plug USB cable and fix it (micro USB connector of arduino is very fragile) ; - Screw upper gear on M4x40 screw ; - Inser lower gear on encoder axis ; - Screw cover ; - Screw base and back plate ; - Screw your trim wheel to the Saitek throttle quadrant ; - Plug the USB cable to your PC - Use Arduino IDE to load trimwheel_3.ino in arduino micro pro ; - your PC dectects the trim wheel (names arduino leonardo or something like that) ; - you can test it after lauching joy.cpl. You must see two buttons ; - in FS2020 you can now configure the two buttons as trim nose up and trim nose down. Note : For all my flight sim peripherals, i'm using SPAD.neXt as driver and configuration interface.