I made a VR cockpit from PVC pipe
2,214I built a cool joystick gimbal that uses the common skate bearing and PVC pipe, and no other hardware. Even the fasteners are 3D printed dowels.
I also made some rudder pedals and an airbrake+trim.
The device doesn't need a mount because it clips onto your pipe chair. I used an Arduino Micro with the MMJoy2 firmware for the brains. A Hall effect sensor, or optionally a digital magnetoresistive sensor, TLE5010, is used to sense the joystick motion. It's amazingly precise, with 0.2 mm resolution at the stick head.
The pedals and levers use good old potentiometers.
The stick head is modeled after a modern sailplane stick with a handful of buttons.
I use it for gliding in VR in Condor 2 and hopefully, soon Microsoft Flight Simulator.
I think the heart of the design, the gimbal, is a pretty good design, so I plan to adapt it for more general flight stick and perhaps helicopter controls.
It’s also super cheap to build, at about 60 dollars in parts and materials, and very minimal bill of outside hardware:
Arduino Micro $6
608 “skate” bearings (12 pcs) $10
~3 m of 18mm OD PVC pipe $6
switches, pots $10
some wire $10
plastic under 500g $10
Hall effect sensors $3 / magnetoresistive sensors $12
(+ rubber bands, zip ties or pipe ties, shoestring, magnets, PCB board...)
Glider plane for Microsoft Flight Simulator: AS 33 Me by MADoloSimulations https://flightsim.to/file/15090/as-33-me
Olukelo joystick gimbal https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2496028
Joystick with aluminimum extrusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgqflcHBTwc
My old joystick with Hall effect sensors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na3NeZJYK3g
This pipe chair cockpit is hosted here: https://github.com/akakikuumeri/pipechair-cockpit